Chapter 37
Chen Nianchu
In Changping County…
At this moment, it was already midnight, which was equivalent to about seven o’clock in the evening in his previous life.
Unlike the brightly lit streets in the immortal city of Guang’an Prefecture, although there was no curfew in Changping County, at night, only a few wealthy families had their lights on.
Chen Liangyu’s family was one of them.
As a luxurious carriage slowly approached a wealthy family residence, it stopped in front of it.
Chen Daoxuan got off the carriage under everyone’s gaze.
“Chen residence.”
Chen Daoxuan raised his head and looked at the two large characters on the weathered plaque. He nodded and praised, “Good calligraphy.”
Hearing Chen Daoxuan’s praise, Chen Liangyu’s face immediately revealed a proud expression. “This is the signboard that our Chen clan’s ancestor personally wrote and gifted to my family’s ancestor.”
“Oh?”
Upon hearing that it was the Chen clan’s ancestor, Chen Dengyuan, who personally wrote the words, Chen Daoxuan could not help but take a few more glances at the plaque.
“Creak!”
Just as he was admiring the plaque, the Chen residence’s main doors suddenly opened.
A group of people filed out of the residence and rushed out together.
Taking a closer look, they were led by a woman who was close to forty years old. Beside her were the Chen family’s servants; there were both maids and male servants among them.
Chen Daoxuan did not say anything when he saw this. No one knew what he was thinking.
However, in everyone’s eyes, the young clan leader was an immortal. It was natural for an immortal to be indifferent and aloof. If, one day, immortals were to easily get along with mortals, it would cause all the mortals to feel terrified.
The middle-aged woman in the lead bowed slightly and nodded, “I am Madam Chen. Greetings, young clan leader.”
As for the maids and male servants behind her, they all knelt on the ground and buried their heads deep into the ground, not daring to raise their heads.
Seeing this scene, Chen Daoxuan’s face was a little unhappy.
Chen Liangyu was very shrewd and immediately knew that Chen Daoxuan must have misunderstood the situation. He immediately took a step forward and explained softly, “Young clan leader, these maids and male servants are not from our Chen clan, but rather slaves that the old patriarch purchased from Guang’an Prefecture.”
Hearing this, Chen Daoxuan could not help but think of those slaves wearing ankle cuffs and carrying grain on their backs at Guang’an Prefecture’s port.
“Are you saying that they are all slaves from the Cloud Nation?”
“That’s right.” Chen Liangyu nodded.
As if he had thought of something, Chen Daoxuan asked, “Are there many such slaves on our Shuanghu Island?”
“There are many.”
Chen Liangyu thought for a moment, “Our Chen residence purchased 46 maids and 37 male servants, adding up to nearly a hundred of these slaves. As far as I know, our Chen clan still has three or four of such households.”
Hearing this, Chen Daoxuan nodded in understanding, “No wonder our Chen clan has so many fertile fields. There are only 177 households of farmers, and all of the fields have been cultivated by them, right?”
Seeing Chen Daoxuan point at the servants kneeling on the ground, Chen Liangyu smiled embarrassedly.
In his heart, this was not a big deal.
In fact, to the current Chen clan, this was not a big deal either.
In fact, many members of the Chen clan were not very willing to farm the land because the clan would provide members of the Chen clan with a minimum living wage.
In other words, as long as you were a member of the Chen clan, even if you did not work, the clan would not let you starve to death on the streets.
This undoubtedly gave rise to laziness among a small portion of the members of the Chen clan.
These shortcomings were all things that Chen Daoxuan was eager to reform.
However, due to the fact that the survey of the clan’s population, farmland, and land mass had not been completed, in addition to the fact that Chen Daoxuan had been busy with the matter of the spiritual artifact factory for the past month, he simply had no time to deal with these trivial matters.
However, just because he was busy did not mean that he did not care.
As a transmigrator, Chen Daoxuan knew in his heart how important a relatively fair distribution system was to an organization.
Land annexation, whether in the ancient era of Earth or in the cultivation world here, was a huge cancer.
However, unlike Earth, there were cultivators in the cultivation world, and these cultivators relied on a large group of mortals. Therefore, once conflicts between mortals could not be reconciled, the cultivators would act as the adjudicator, forcefully crushing the inherent greedy nature of certain groups of mortals, allowing those at the bottom of the pecking order to catch a breather.
However, Chen Daoxuan did not plan to do such a thing.
Since the Chen clan was currently too weak, and he was about to take large strides in developing the clan, before that, he would definitely cut off all the potential issues and problems that might hinder the clan in advance.
In other words, he would do away with the entire idea of unfair distribution in the first place.
“Come, let’s go in.”
“Young clan leader, please enter first!”
Hearing that, Chen Liangyu immediately made a gesture of invitation.
The group of people hurriedly made a path for Chen Daoxuan to walk through.
When Chen Daoxuan walked past, a young man jogged forward and called out to the middle-aged woman with a face full of joy, “Mother!”
When the middle-aged woman saw her son, her face was full of joy and heartache. She quickly took out a thin handkerchief and wiped the sweat off Chen Yunsheng’s forehead. She said with concern, “Look at how tired you are. You are covered in stinky sweat.”
“What’s going on?”
Chen Yunsheng said indifferently, “Eh, why don’t I see second sister and third brother around?”
“They are in the backyard with your second mother and third mother. There are important guests in the house today, so it’s not convenient for them to appear,” the middle-aged woman said without batting an eyelid.
Chen Yunsheng had the temperament of a young man. He was not as scheming as his biological mother.
He casually asked and did not take the resulting response to heart.
Seeing that Chen Yunsheng still wanted to talk nonsense, the middle-aged woman pushed him forward and gave him a look. She said, “Hurry up and help your father entertain the young clan leader.”
“Oh!”
Chen Yunsheng finally reacted. He scratched his head and said with a smile, “Mother, then I will help father entertain the young clan leader. I will pay my respects to you later.”
“Hurry up and go.”
After saying that, Chen Yunsheng quickly walked forward and followed behind Chen Liangyu and Chen Daoxuan like a follower.
…
During the banquet.
With Chen Liangyu and his son, Chen Yunsheng, accompanying him, the guest hall was filled with laughter and joy.
Unknowingly, Chen Daoxuan could not help but find Chen Liangyu and his son more and more pleasing to the eye.
After everyone drank for about an hour, Chen Daoxuan looked at the sky and said, “Why don’t we call it a day? We still have to continue to be busy ourselves with the factory production tomorrow. A hangover is not good for work.”
Upon hearing this, Chen Liangyu’s face was filled with regret, but he still smiled and echoed Chen Daoxuan’s words, “What the young clan leader said is…”
“Clang!”
“You b*tch! You gave birth to a b*tch, and you still dare to bully my daughter? I’ll beat you to death, you b*tch!”
“I didn’t bully her. She stole my little wooden figure first, and even scolded me.”
“B*tch! You still dare to talk back! You b*tch, do you still care about the b*tch you gave birth to?”
“…”
Other than Chen Yunsheng’s birth mother and Chen Daoxuan, who was a cultivator, the rest of the people present were martial artists.
Although the argument that came from the backyard was inaudible to Chen Yunsheng’s birth mother’s ears, to Chen Liangyu, Chen Daoxuan, and the others, it was no different to hearing the argument right in front of them.
Chen Daoxuan silently took a sip of his wine and did not say anything.
Seeing this, Chen Liangyu’s expression was abnormally awkward, and his heart was burning with anger.
This evil woman, she is ignorant of the bigger picture! Just see how I’ll deal with you later!
Chen Liangyu cursed fiercely in his heart.
He originally thought that it was just a brief argument in the backyard, but he did not expect the insults to become louder and louder, so much so that even Chen Yunsheng’s biological mother, who had not been aware of it all along, heard it.
“Young clan leader, this… our family is unfortunate. Please excuse us.”
Chen Liangyu’s face was full of embarrassment as he said those words.
Chen Daoxuan smiled slightly and did not reply.
After a while, his heart was stirred and he said, “Let’s go and take a look.”
As he spoke, he stood up from the dining table.
He had just used his spiritual sense to scan the backyard out of curiosity and had discovered something rather interesting.