Of course, the village leader didn’t come to see if Han Fei had bullied the villagers. He had frequently heard about Han Fei from Wang Jie and Old Jiang and was sure that he wouldn’t throw his weight around, but this guy was too flamboyant. You are only 12 years old! Why do you act as if you are the village leader? Do you have to take a hundred people with you when you go out?
The village leader called Han Fei to the side. “Did you really kill Li Jue?”
“By a fluke.”
The village leader was silent for a moment. “Go to my house when you’ve got time. I think it necessary to retest your spiritual heritage. There may be something wrong with the previous test.”
Han Fei rolled his eyes. Is it alright? I can’t upgrade my spiritual heritage now, so perhaps there won’t be any problem to retest it?
Han Fei pretended to be glad. “Really? Great! Grandpa Leader, I also think the spiritual heritage test had something wrong happen. When I was tested and injected spiritual energy into that stone, it suddenly broke…”
The village leader was surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”
Han Fei scratched his head. “I didn’t know it wasn’t normal! I thought I just needed to put my hand on it.”
The village leader was curious. “Come with me. Let me test you again.”
“Wait a minute, Grandpa Leader, it’s not that urgent. You see, I’m training my staff now. The Tigers have just disintegrated and The Fish Dragons have just emerged. There are a lot of things for me to deal with.”
“Ha!”
The head of the village leader’s face turned black. What do you mean there are a lot of things for you to deal with? You’re just a gang leader. Are you so busy? Do you think you’re the village leader?
The village leader calmly said, “Then come to my house as soon as possible. I will wait for you at home.”
“OK, I will.”
…
After seeing off the village leader, Han Fei led the more than one hundred members to inspect the stores in the east fair. He picked the largest store in the fair that was as large as nearly 500 square metres.
“A-Gang, we’ll rent this store.”
Li Gang questioned, “Ah? Young Master, the rent for this store is quite a lot. It will charge this number a month.”
Han Fei looked at the one finger Li Gang raised, asking, “One hundred mid-quality pearls?”
“… Ten.”
Han Fei was helpless. “Don’t make a fuss! I thought it charged one hundred! Just rent it…”
Li Gang nodded, thinking to himself, Young Master, do you know how hard it is to make money?! But then he remembered that he could earn 10 mid-quality pearls a day from the barbecue stall, so a hundred pearls didn’t really seem like a lot.
Han Fei instructed, “Get me a piece of paper.”
Soon, Han Fei quickly drew a floor plan on the paper and handed it to Li Gang. “I’ll give you three days to sort out this store… By the way, let Li Qing take care of the barbecue stall.”
Li Gang’s face suddenly changed and he whined, “Young Master, no! Did I do anything wrong? Young Master, the barbecue stall is my life!”
Smack…
Han Fei gently slapped his head. “Your life is here! Do you know that this hot pot restaurant will be ten times more profitable than the barbecue stall?”
“Ah? That’s impossible!”
Li Gang rubbed his hands. Ten times more! How much money is that?! That’s simply unimaginable!
Someone immediately shouted, “I’ll do it if you don’t. Young Master, pick me.”
Li Gang quickly turned around and sullenly scolded, “Go away! I am a founding member of the Fish Dragons. Who the heck are you?”
Han Fei turned to Li Gan, “Li Gan, you will have to keep an eye on the Card Room and hot pot restaurants in case anyone makes trouble. You and A-Gang can get 5% of the profits.”
“Okay! I… I promise… I’ll… I’ll…”
Han Fei cupped his head in his hands. “Okay, okay! Stop talking. I know you’ll complete the task.”
…
In the evening.
…
Han Fei came with barbecue and liquor, only to see Old Jiang wandering around the vinegar vat.
“Grandpa, I’m back.”
Without looking back at him, Old Jiang just grunted. “This vinegar smells better and better now. Make me drunk shrimp tonight. I’d like to drink some liquor.”
Han Fei agreed. “No problem! Where is Sister Qin?”
“She hasn’t come back yet!”
Han Fei blinked. “Grandpa, let me make you a ‘hard dish’ tonight!”
The old man turned his head. “A hard dish? How hard is it? My teeth are not so good. I want a softer one.”
Han Fei: “…”
In the evening, when Jiang Qin came back from work, she smelled an exotic fragrance, which was very appetizing. She knew Han Fei was back.
When Jiang Qin came in, she found that five dishes were already on the table, and there was one more dish in the pot. Old Jiang was sneakily putting drunk shrimps into his mouth like a thief.
Jiang Qin was helpless. “Grandpa, have you washed your hands?”
“My hands are clean. Look…”
Old Jiang grabbed a ball of water from the void and washed his hands with it. Seeing this scene, Han Fei was really envious. This trick is amazing! I must work out a way to make Old Jiang teach me it.
Old Jiang looked around. “Brat, is your ‘hard dish’ ready?”
Jiang Qin hadn’t heard of such a thing before. “Hard dish?”
Old Jiang was suspicious. “I don’t know. He said it was hard.”
Han Fei came carrying something. “Here you are.”
Han Fei first brought a brazier shelf over and then put the pot on it. “Who is going to lift the lid?”
Old Jiang directly lifted the lid without delay.
When the lid was lifted, Old Jiang was fascinated. This must taste terrific! The smell alone was so attractive! It smelled different from barbecue but no worse than the barbecue at all.
Jiang Qin swallowed. “Is this a fish?”
Han Fei said with a smile, “Accurately, it is a big Yellow Croaker hot pot.”
“Hot Pot?”
Old Jiang pointed to the brazier shelf. “Just put a pot on the brazier?”
“Yes! That’s right! It was served together with a fire and a pot.”
Old Jiang asked, “This dish is not hard! Can you introduce it?”
“Cough, OK. In this hot pot, I added 7 kinds of spiritual fruit seasonings, 12 kinds of spiritual fruit ingredients, and stewed it for half an hour.”
Han Fei introduced other dishes by the way, “These are side dishes. There are hot and sour potato shreds.”
Old man retorted, “This is a yellow ball…”
“Potato sounds much better than Yellow Ball. Let me finish.”
Old Jiang closed his mouth.
“This is Dragon-Beard Cucumber.”
Old man mocked him, “This is Long Green Melon.”
Han Fei was helpless. “I know, but cucumber sounds nicer! Can you stop interrupting me?”
Jiang Qin rubbed her face. Can’t you just let me taste the dishes?
Han Fei continued, “This is drunk shrimp. You have eaten it. This is Sweet and Sour Sweet Peppers and Peanuts. It’s a dish that goes with wine… This dish is even more amazing, Fried Shrimp Balls! Peel fresh shrimp, remove their guts, cover them with a layer of mashed beans, and then pan-fry them in oil. It’s golden-looking, crispy, juicy, and fragrant… OK, we can eat them now.”
The mouths of Old Jiang and Jiang Qin were almost watering as they listened to Han Fei’s introduction. Oh, the dishes sound really delicious! We want to taste them now!
The three of them immediately picked their chopsticks and poked them at the big Yellow Croaker in the hot pot. The eyes of Old Jiang and Jiang Qin lit up as they took the first bite.
Old Jiang said with a mouthful, “It has the fragrance of Evergreen Mushroom and the smoothness of Sweet Grass. Huh? As well as the sweetness of Seven-Leaf Flower, yummy, yummy…”
Jiang Qin put a Fried Shrimp Ball into her mouth. The crispy, juicy ball burst in her mouth, which made her want to fly.
This night, Old Jiang drank half the jar of liquor and almost ate all the dishes.
With plenty of food and drink, Han Fei whispered to Old Jiang, “Grandpa.”
“Huh? What?”
“You have been in the Heavenly Water Village for so long. Have you ever thought of making a little contribution to the villagers?”
“What can I contribute? They have hands and feet. No one stops them from fishing!”
“I don’t mean that. Fishing is only for making a living, but with delicious food, we can have more pursuit, more enjoyment, more leisure, and more fun… The ordinary fishermen work from dawn to night and do fishing day after day, which is really boring! Don’t you think so?”
“Sounds reasonable, but what’s it to do with me?”
Han Fei smiled slyly. “Grandpa, the spiritual fruits in our plantation are too much to eat and most of them end up rotting in the soil. What a waste… So why don’t you contribute them to the villagers? Then they’ll be aware that you have a heart of gold!”
Jiang Qin felt unable to hear it anymore. God knows where Han Fei learned these bamboozling words. She could guess the result. It seemed that the plantation was going to change hands quickly!
Jiang Qin shook her head. Why did you let this guy in? Look, it has only been a few days and your plantation has become his!