The boss is going against the sky

Chapter 10 I'm ashamed to speak
"Old head of Qingshi Village, Zhou Huaji, pay my respects to Xiao Shen." In the east of Qingshi Village, an old man with half white hair and a face like orange peel bowed to Shen Qi.

Shen Qi was a little helpless when he heard the name "Xiao Shen's head". Maybe it was because the other party thought he was too young, or maybe he wanted to distinguish him from the previous head, Shen Shimang, but he called it out in public. Just blame the other party.

Nodding his head, Shen Qi said: "Village Chief Zhou doesn't need to be too polite, today I'm here to see the situation in the village with my uncle and uncle, and I'll trouble you to show me the way."

Shen Qi and the others actually came to collect offering money, but they couldn't ask for money when they came.To inspect the village, on the one hand, you can see what difficulties the villagers have that need to be solved by the Taoist side; on the other hand, you can roughly judge their income level based on the living standards of the villagers.

All of this is in accordance with the past habits that Chu Suran explained on the road, and there is no change, so Zhou Huaji immediately nodded and said: "I obey."

After finishing speaking, Zhou Huaji walked towards the village first, and Shen Qi, Chu Suoran, and Ye Hongmei followed behind at leisure.

Before the village was covered by trees, Shen Qi couldn't see clearly. When he walked into the village, he realized that Qingshi Village looked really poor.The houses are all thatched houses with trees and bluestones as the skeleton, covered with mud, and then covered with thatched roofs.

Houses with better conditions are built larger, and even a courtyard wall is added, and shells picked up from the sea are glued to the wall to prevent wind and rain.The poor condition is only a simple thatched house, and there are many dilapidated places, which seem to be difficult to live in even in rainy weather.You must know that although there are cliffs and mountains to cover it, it is a coastal area after all, and the wind and rain are still very violent.

In addition, the village said that there were 20 households, but Shen Qi only saw a dozen houses that could live in them along the way.Considering that under the Wumeng's forces, a man's marriage is the standard for establishing a separate household, it can be guessed that there must be several households that do not even have their own houses.

While Shen Qi asked Zhou Huaji about the conditions of each household in the village, he thought about it, and finally found that even with his knowledge before traveling, it would be very difficult to make Qingshi Village rich—the land is barren, and farming is unnecessary. up.In addition to poverty, the village has almost no characteristics.In the end, Shen Qi had to admit that he was not the kind of protagonist in historical travel novels who could come up with all kinds of whimsical ideas to transform the lives of the aborigines as soon as he appeared.

In the end, the few people stopped at the west end of the village.

Zhou Huaji's house is here. According to the usual practice, the next few people should go to Zhou Huaji's house to collect the offering money.

However, Shen Qi and the others did not immediately follow Zhou Huaji in, but looked at a nearby open space, where ten young and strong men were practicing sabers with a middle-aged man. Coincidentally, they also practiced saber skills The most popular among them, "Bazi Knife Jue".

"Didn't Village Chief Zhou say that all the young and strong in the village went to the town to sell fish? Are they?" Shen Qi immediately stopped Zhou Huaji and asked.

Zhou Huaji's orange-peel-like old face showed obvious apologies, and he leaned forward and said, "Even if Xiao Shen doesn't ask, I will talk about this later, so why don't you invite Xiao Shen to come in and have a cup of tea? "

After finishing speaking, Zhou Huaji couldn't help looking at Chu Suran.

Obviously, even though it was Shen Qi who communicated with him all the time after arriving in Qingshi Village, and Shen Qi still behaved well, Zhou Huaji still believed that Chu Suanran was the real master among the three.

Chu Suran took a sip of his wine, smiled casually and said, "Old Zhou, didn't I tell you when I first arrived, everything is up to the head."

Seeing that Chu suddenly supported Shen Qi with such a clear attitude, Zhou Huaji was slightly surprised, and then had to look at Shen Qi again.

Shen Qi didn't care about Zhou Huaji's contempt for him, so he smiled slightly and said, "Okay, then let's go into the room and talk."

Zhou Huaji's house is considered to be the largest in Qingshi Village. Not only does it have a large yard and six or seven houses, but even the bluestone used to build the skeleton of the house has many square stones that are specially excavated. Picked up bluestone blocks of different sizes.

After sitting down in the main room, a wheat-colored girl who looked about [-] or [-] years old, good-looking but with a heroic spirit served a bowl of rough tea for several people.

After serving tea, the girl wanted to go out but was stopped by Zhou Huaji.

Then Zhou Huaji pointed to the girl and said to Shen Qi: "This is the old granddaughter Zhou Lan. She is thirteen years old. Although she is a girl, her physique is not inferior to that of ordinary boys of the same age. It looks like a piece of martial arts training material. I want her Entering Xuanmen to learn martial arts, I wonder if Xiao Shen can be taken in by the head of the sect?"

Shen Qi was surprised, he didn't expect the old man to send himself a female disciple when he came up this week.

Will he accept it or not?
If accepted, this should be his first disciple...
Just when these thoughts flashed through Shen Qi's mind, Zhou Lan frowned and said to Zhou Huaji angrily, "Grandpa, didn't Dad tell you? If I want to learn martial arts, I will go to Bichi Villa , so you don’t go to Xuanmen!”

In an instant, apart from Chu Suran who was still sipping hot tea, Shen Qi and Ye Hongmei's expressions were ugly.

The Bichi Villa mentioned by Zhou Lan is the sect that took the territory of Gangxi Town from Xuanmen more than 20 years ago, and it is also the only two-star sect in Gangxi Town in the past 20 years, that is, the leader of Gangxi Town.

(Note: The leading sects at the four levels of prefecture, prefecture, county, and town are called the governor, prefecture, county, and town in turn. As for the village level, it is a basic livelihood unit and has no other name.)
Speaking of which, Xuanmen fell from the second-star sect due to its own lack of strength, and it took several years before Bichi Villa took over the leadership of the town. The two sects had no enmity.However, Zhou Lan said to his face that he would go to Bichi Villa to learn martial arts instead of going to Xuanmen, which still made Shen Qi and Ye Hongmei feel embarrassed-both of them were very thin-skinned, although it was true that Xuanmen was not as good as Bichi Villa, but as Chu suddenly heard people say it as if nothing had happened, and the two of them still couldn't do it.

When Shen Qi was embarrassed and embarrassed, and didn't know what to say, Zhou Huaji's old face darkened, and he scolded Zhou Lan: "Do you have a place to speak here? Get out!"

Zhou Lan's pretty face blushed. Although she couldn't see much abnormality because of her complexion, her weeping eyes were obvious, but she didn't cry, but turned her head and ran out.

Shen Qi came back to his senses, and said: "Mr. Zhou, in fact, learning martial arts is better to follow the child's wishes."

Zhou Huaji waved his hand and said: "What can a child understand? He only sees the prestige of Bichi Villa now, but he doesn't know how beautiful Xuanmen was decades ago. And having said that, with my granddaughter's aptitude and background, going to Bichi Villa Chi Shanzhuang estimates that he will only be a disciple of the outer court in his old age, and he will not learn any real skills. Although Xuanmen has declined now, the inheritance of martial arts is still there. As long as children are willing to endure hardships, they must learn more than other places."

Zhou Huaji's words were very insightful, and Shen Qi didn't know how to refuse, so he could only nod his head and said, "Well, as long as Zhou Lan is willing to come to the Taoist sect to learn from a teacher, I will accept her."

"In that case, the old man will thank Xiao Shen first." Zhou Huaji smiled, stood up and bowed to Shen Qi, bowing his fists, and saluted.

Then, Zhou Huaji sat down again, showing a hesitant expression.

Upon seeing this, Shen Qi said, "If Village Chief Zhou has anything else to say, please speak directly."

"Sigh." Zhou Huaji sighed, and said, "I'm too ashamed to speak, but I have to say it. Please... please also ask Xiao Shen to reduce the offerings that our Qingshi Village should pay this month by half."

Hearing these words, Shen Qi couldn't help but frowned slightly, and said: "Village Chief Zhou should know that the offerings made by Xuanmen to Qingshi Village are the least in the entire Gangxi Town."

Shen Qi didn't say anything superfluous, he believed that Zhou Huaji could understand that the offerings paid by Qingshi Village were not enough, and it was impossible for Taoism to lower it.

Zhou Huaji said: "I know what Xiao Shen said, but the villagers are really sad these days. Going out to sea for fishing is risky, and there are occasional harvests. After selling the fish for some money, I was robbed by bandits halfway. There is no money to pay offerings at all.”

"Bandit?!" Shen Qi frowned deeply, and asked in confusion, "Where did the bandit come from? Why didn't Village Chief Zhou send anyone to Xuanshan to report this matter?"

The Martial Dao Sect accepts worship from ordinary people in the territory, and naturally it is not for nothing. It also has many responsibilities and obligations, the most important of which is to protect the people from being robbed by those warriors who do not abide by the rules of the Martial League.The so-called bandits and robbers actually refer to those warriors who make a living or even make a fortune by plundering.

Ordinary people encounter thieves and robbers, and they will ask the martial arts sect to which their territory belongs to protect them, or recover their property losses.Zhou Huaji said that the fishermen in Qingshi Village were robbed by robbers, but Shen Qi hadn't heard any news before, so he was naturally puzzled.

Zhou Huaji said: "Don't be in a hurry, Xiao Shen, please listen to the old man's explanation. This group of bandits are not many, and their martial arts are not high, but they are very cunning. They sneak around on the roads around Baifengling, and they only snatch those who come to the town to buy and sell. The villagers who came back, not only my Qingshi Village, but other villages such as Hecha Village, Jishan Village, Chai Village, etc., have suffered greatly."

"Before, two sects, the True Sword Sect and the Iron Palm Gang, went to Baifengling to deal with these bandits, but unfortunately they all returned without success. The old man thought, since neither the True Sword Sect nor the Iron Palm Gang can solve this group of bandits. The thief will definitely be reported to Bichi Villa for handling; and the head master Shen was ill in bed before, and later passed away unfortunately, so the old man didn't bother the noble sect with this matter."

After listening to Zhou Huaji's explanation, Shen Qi felt even more depressed.

Although what Zhou Huaji said was reasonable, another piece of information was revealed in his words-the old village chief also had no confidence in Xuanmen, otherwise why would the Zhenjianmen and Tingtiezhang gang get the news to deal with the bandits, while Xuanmen But did not get any news?It's one thing that Xuanmen has a lot of things going on during this period, but the more important reason is that Zhou Huaji thinks that Xuanmen is incapable of solving this matter, so he didn't report it.

And when Shen Qi was thinking about how his new head should handle this matter, a new message came out from the system in his mind...
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(End of this chapter)