Chapter 194: One Hundred Taels? You Don't Even Care

Mu Nan Zhao said, "Don't worry, I didn't get these results by spying on you."

He looked elsewhere, with a completely indifferent expression, and said,

"Your grandfather has repeatedly harbored ill intentions. Someone's most beloved son was sent into exile by you, and then you just quietly did nothing—isn't that abnormal?"

"I just had Master Liu casually keep an eye on his family's movements."

After speaking, his expression suddenly felt a bit guilty, and he glanced sideways at Hu Xixi.

Gu Xixi narrowed her eyes, "So you already knew what Grandfather Gu was up to in private, also knew that Grandfather Gu and Second Uncle Gu were conspiring, and that today they would gather a bunch of people to cause trouble in the village?"

Mu Nan Zhao's gaze drifted, "... Hmm."

Gu Xixi smiled, "You knew ahead of time but didn't tell me; surely you didn't forget, you deliberately kept a surprise for me, right?"

Mu Nan Zhao turned his eyes and saw Gu Xixi's expression.

At this moment, the sweeter her smile, the colder he felt down his spine.

"Not exactly..."

Gu Xixi's smile widened, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, "Then why?"

Mu Nan Zhao turned his head to the side, refusing to meet Gu Xixi's gaze, "..."

He hadn't said it when they first met yesterday, because she actually argued with him over An Qinghe, and then seeing her get close to An Qinghe, he didn't want to say a word out of spite.

Can this reason be said?!

Afterwards, he was delayed by other matters and didn't get a chance to say it.

By the time he remembered this morning to say it, Gu Xixi had already left, and then everyone knew what had happened.

Thus, Gu Xixi stared at Mu Nan Zhao, while Mu Nan Zhao stared elsewhere.

The two remained silent in a stalemate for a moment.

Mu Nan Zhao couldn't hold back first, saying, "I originally wanted to remind you this morning, but you had already left."

Gu Xixi frowned, "Just that?"

Mu Nan Zhao turned his head to look at her, "Anyway, I'm telling the truth; believe it or not, it's up to you."

Gu Xixi thought, "The truth is the truth, but it's definitely not the whole truth."

However, she had already laid out the matter of the contract, and couldn't be bothered to dig deeper.

"I just want to formally thank you; today, thanks to your help, An Qinghe managed to retrieve the contract in time, otherwise I would have suffered some loss on my end."

"The disturbance today definitely wouldn't have been resolved so quickly and smoothly."

"Thank you." Gu Xixi clasped her hands in a salute, lifted her gaze to Mu Nan Zhao.

"You helped me a great deal; as a return, I should give you a gift—I just don't know what you'd like."

Although Mu Nan Zhao knew Gu Xixi's temperament dislikes owing others,

but he just doesn't like seeing her insist on being strictly business and drawing clear boundaries with him.

Thus, with a blank expression, he said, "Then how about silver? One hundred or two hundred taels would do."

Gu Xixi furrowed her brows, thought for a moment, and said, "My money is basically all invested in the wheat fields and the pinpo fruit trees; I don't have much cash on hand right now."

"Like this," she lifted her eyes to him, "I'll write you an IOU,"

"Once you finish your big affair, my summer wheat harvest will surely have been sold; by then I'll convert it into banknotes in advance, and you can send someone to pick them up."

Mu Nan Zhao wasn't really after money, so he deliberately named a large sum, but unexpectedly Gu Xixi took him seriously.

He clenched his teeth, half-smiling, "Boss Gu really is rich."

Gu Xixi sighed, habitually crying poor, "Where do I even count as having money now?"

"I won't be able to truly relax until all the pinpo fruit trees bear fruit successfully."

"So..." she gave an embarrassed smile, "I can only give you one hundred taels of silver."

Mu Nan Zhao was practically exploding with anger at the "one hundred taels of silver."

In Gu Xixi's eyes, his help was just for money?!

Is he the kind of person who cares about a mere one hundred taels of silver?

Is he lacking this bit of money!

Mu Nan Zhao said with a dark face, "Forget it, keep it for yourself to spend!"

Having said that, he turned and stormed off.

Gu Xixi still called out from behind, "Hey, you wouldn't be complaining it's too little, would you?"

"But when you return to the capital... your hometown, there will surely be places to spend money; having extra silver on hand will never be a loss!"

Mu Nan Zhao quickly walked into the west room and slammed the door shut.

If he had been any slower, he feared losing control of his emotions and losing face.

After all, he's always been the one making others break down, yet no one has ever made his emotions swing so violently!

Gu Xixi shook her head and walked toward the main hall.

Thinking, he's truly someone raised in privilege from childhood, not even looking at a huge sum of one hundred taels of silver.

However, her mood is still quite good.

Grandfather Gu and Second Uncle Gu are reaping what they sowed, and have also lost the clan's support.

Both families have modest estates, especially Grandfather Gu's family.

They certainly wouldn't want to carry out a "fish dead, net broken" style revenge.

Thus, from now on, these two families can only shrink their necks and get by in the village.

They dare not say it's permanent, but at least in the short term, even if they try to cause trouble, they won't be able to stir up any major waves.

Gu Xixi has many things she wants to do, and she doesn't want to waste time guarding against petty people.

Moreover, today she has established ties with the local Gu clan relatives.

Having a backer makes moving around and doing things more convenient, but that's secondary.

What's more important are connections, information, and land.

Gu Xixi plans to expand her planting in the future to realize her dream of an agricultural empire; people and land are both essential.

More and more people are wholeheartedly following her; on a small scale it's shared prosperity, on a large scale it can form local agricultural industrialization.

In the future, she will further develop specialty agriculture.

……

Gu Xixi is immersed in her fantasies about the future.

She was smiling at the corner of her mouth when her peripheral vision caught something outside the gate.

But when she walked to the spot directly facing the door to look, she only saw a figure fleeing in a panic.

"Old bachelor?"

Gu Xixi frowned doubtfully, recalling that Gu Youfu and others had caused a disturbance today; she seemed to have seen Old Bachelor also in the crowd watching the excitement.

At that time, Old Bachelor did not jump out to support Gu Youfu.

What is he doing here now?

It was late at night, and Gu Xixi was still tinkering with insecticide.

In early summer, the mountain village is quite cool except when the sun beats down at noon.

But the number of bugs has clearly increased.

Gu Xixi had to prepare more insecticide, all made from natural extracts, which naturally can't match chemical agents; to be effective, she could only increase purity and concentration, which really took effort.

A mosquito buzzed past.

Gu Xixi was about to look up and search when she saw Little Flower leap from the edge of the table, its front paw hitting the windowsill.

When Little Flower turned around, sat down, and began licking its fur, Gu Xixi saw a dead mosquito stuck on the windowsill.

Fortunately, the mosquito's belly had no blood.

Gu Xixi smiled, stroking the cat's head, "Little Flower is really impressive."

However, she should still make some mosquito repellent tomorrow as a side task.

He Jinglan leaned against the bed, head tilted, the street‑market reader she held slipped from her hand, and she was already asleep.

Gu Xixi thoughtfully tightened the mosquito net, then opened the door and stepped out on tiptoe.

Possibly from the mental and physical exertion of work, she felt hungry.

The kitchen was dark; Gu Xixi lifted the door curtain and collided head‑on with someone who was about to come out.