Opportunity

Those who performed well had their eyes light up immediately, while those who performed poorly were on the verge of tears.

Zhao Ruxi left after saying that, and returned to the front yard, repeating the same thing to Ma Sheng.

Then she noticed that the morale of both teams was completely different from before.

"This girl is amazing," Gao Weiqiang couldn't help but praise.

"Qingfeng, you go with Uncle Lu to buy meat." Zhao Ruxi walked out. "Uncle Gao, Dianjiang, come with me to the estate."

Gao Weiqiang and Dianjiang quickly followed her.

After leaving the house and walking a few steps towards the village, they saw Qian Duoduo standing on the edge of the field with a worried expression, staring blankly at the distant mountains.

Zhao Ruxi coughed twice.

Hearing the voice, Qian Duoduo turned around and saw Zhao Ruxi. She quickly bowed to her, saying, "Miss."

"What are you doing here?" Zhao Ruxi asked.

"Auntie, young lady..." Qian Duoduo didn't know if he had put his hands in the field earlier and they were covered in mud. In his nervousness, he wiped his face with his hand, leaving a mud stain.

He seemed oblivious, muttering, "This old servant... this old servant is weeding here, hehe..."

Zhao Ruxi didn't expose him, and said, "I haven't seen the servants since I took over the estate. Now that I have some free time, why don't you call them all over?"

Qian Duoduo was stunned for a moment before nodding vigorously, "Alright, alright, this old servant will go right away." With that, she took off running.

"Let's go back." Zhao Ruxi returned to the front of the house, but instead of going in, she asked Gao Weiqiang to bring out a stool and sat down in front of the door.

A road paved with bluestone slabs, wide enough for a horse-drawn carriage to pass, stretched out in front of the gate. On both sides of the road were compacted open spaces with only a few scattered weeds growing on them. Judging from this, it must have been left by the former owner specifically for his servants.

Before long, a group of people arrived. Their clothes were no better than those of Granny Li that Zhao Ruxi had seen that day; they were patched upon patched. Most of them were sallow and thin, clearly suffering from long-term malnutrition.

Seeing this scene, Zhao Ruxi was in a bad mood.

Fearing that the servants might not handle the situation properly, Qian Duoduo called for help and then quickly ran back.

Seeing Zhao Ruxi's unpleasant expression, he glanced uneasily at the servants, but finding nothing amiss, he approached Zhao Ruxi and said with a forced smile, "Miss, a few children have gone up the mountain, the rest are here."

"How old are those children?" Zhao Ruxi asked.

"They were all five or six years old, too young to do anything, so they helped their families gather firewood and dig up wild vegetables on the mountain."

Zhao Ruxi nodded, noticing that the number of people in the crowd, ranging from the elderly to the young, was fairly even. She said, "Yesterday I bought a batch of people, as I think everyone knows, right? I need manpower, and it's unreasonable to only buy from outside and not give our own people a chance. Now, all of you aged thirteen to twenty, step forward. I'll see how many there are, and I plan to select some from among you to train with. If they do well, they can go out and help me with my business."

She then added, "Thirteen to twenty years old, regardless of gender or marital status, everyone should step forward."

The servants, perhaps unfamiliar with outsiders, were somewhat timid. Zhao Ruxi said that apart from two who hesitated to step forward, the others remained still. The two who had stepped forward, seeing that no one else moved, were quite frightened and quickly shrank back.

Qian Duoduo became extremely anxious upon seeing this.

He's been lingering around the house these past few days. Why? Isn't it all because of these children?

He glanced at her and realized that this new master was kind-hearted. That day, he had only given Granny Li three coins for three small bamboo baskets that weren't worth two coins each, which showed that he was compassionate.

If Zhao Ruxi hadn't bought any servants, or if he hadn't known she had, then it wouldn't have mattered. But seeing her buy a whole bunch of servants and have them walking around the house, Qian Duoduo's heart was tempted.

He hoped that Zhao Ruxi could give the children a way out, no matter how many opportunities there were, even just one, so that the servants could see hope and not be stuck here generation after generation, living a hard life from which they could not see the end, and their spirit would be worn away.

But now that the opportunity is right in front of him, these people are still dragging their feet, which is infuriating.

He yelled at the crowd, "What are you all standing there for? Didn't you hear what the girl said? Step forward now! Youyu, Yousheng, Dazhu, Shuanzi, Niudan, Lin Shun..."

He started calling out to people one by one.

Those who were called upon obeyed and stood up. Those who weren't called upon also stood up.

Dianjiang was much more quick-witted than Qingfeng. Without Zhao Ruxi needing to tell her, she quickly counted the number of people and said to Zhao Ruxi, "Miss, there are fifty-one in total."

Zhao Ruxi nodded and said to the fifty-one people, "Who among you is willing to go out and do business with me? Those who are willing, take one more step forward and line up in front of that small tree. Those who are not willing, stay where you are. I will only give you ten breaths."

Fearing these people might be illiterate, she said, "It's one, two, three, four..." She slowly counted the ten characters, then prompted, "If you don't step forward by ten, I'll assume you're unwilling. Don't come begging to me again; I won't make an exception."

She addressed Dianjiang, "Dianjiang, report the number."

Qian Duoduo's heart leaped into his throat. He was about to yell at the children when Zhao Ruxi stopped him, "Manager Qian, shut up and stand there quietly. It's their life. If they don't know how to fight for it, what's the use of your anxiety?"

Qian Duoduo had no choice but to swallow back the words he was about to say, his face turning bright red, but he was extremely anxious. On that chilly autumn morning, he broke out in a cold sweat.

Seeing this, Zhao Ruxi was quite satisfied with Qian Duoduo as the head of the estate.

The old man is truly remarkable; at least his character is impeccable.

Dianjiang dutifully counted down the numbers, at a moderate pace. "One, two, three..."

When they counted to four, a young man and a boy finally stood next to the small tree that was about half a person's height. Seeing that someone had taken the lead, and with their parents urging them on like they were being driven to their deaths, the others quickly lined up as well.

When Dianjiang to eight, there were still a dozen or so young men and women left. Most of them were dressed as young women and wives, and three of them were heavily pregnant. A pregnant woman standing at the very edge was anxiously urging her husband to come forward, but the man hesitated and finally stood at the end of the line when Dianjiang counted to ten.

A total of thirty-two people stepped forward.