Chapter 364: Couldn’t find a second person

While the capital was taking action, Liu Yusheng followed Kang Shiming and almost visited the entire Cangwu town.

The conditions of all the eight villages in ten miles were also completely branded into her heart.

Each village was affected differently.

There were light and heavy, and the most fortunate was probably the absence of casualties.

Even so, it left her profound feelings.

For nearly half a month, she witnessed the living conditions of the poverty-stricken commoners at the bottom every day.

Dilapidated houses, shabby clothes, faces laded with the vicissitudes of life, weathered eyes, plus the sorrow and suffering that flowed from each person.

She saw the inferiority lying deep within them through their eyes.

Sometimes when she was too busy, she had to eat in every village. The best meal she had ever had were a few pieces of white steamed buns.

And these were the efforts of the village chiefs’ families through gritted teeth, in order not to neglect their guests. 

These were completely nonexistent in Xinghua Village.

When they left from the last village, Kang Shiming invited her to get into the official carriage, saying that he had something to tell her.

“Miss Liu, you’ve worked hard this period of time. You’ve been tagging along with me to the east and west, and every time, you contributed the most. The villagers have thrived much from your favor.”

During this period, Liu Yusheng didn’t collect medical fees from the people. Even a lot of the money for medicine was kept on account.

In this period, her service was as good as free.

Although Kang Shiming’s side also forcefully levied herbs from various medical pharmacies, the effect was not much. Their curative effect was not as good as her internal fire herb into medicine, so they almost did not come in handy.

It was not that Liu Yusheng was concerned about the consultation fee, but some precedents couldn’t be set.

The benevolence of healers was ultimately subject to the restrictions of the secular world.

If her service was totally free, everyone would approach her whenever they were ill to buy medicine. By then, the pharmacies in Xiangshan County would essentially become useless, which was tantamount to cutting off someone’s way of living.

She was alone. No matter how capable she was, she couldn’t heal the world.

By then, her good deeds would turn into evil.

“What does Lord Kang want to tell me? Why don’t you just go straight to the point?” Liu Yusheng sighed.

The official world was unsuitable for her. She really didn’t like to go around in circles with people.

Kang Shiming froze for a moment and smiled: “I’m sorry. I’ve been in the official world for a long time, so I am always slick and sly in handling matters. Since Ms. Liu is so straightforward, I won’t beat around the bush. After visiting the eight villages in ten miles, Ms. Liu has seen the current situation of people’s lives nowadays. Do you have any thoughts?”

“Yes,” Liu Yusheng nodded, “Xinghua Village is an example of the eight villages in ten miles. In recent years, the people are still the same, poor, hard, and struggling at the bottom in the entire Cangwu Town or the entire Xiangshan County, except for Xinghua Village.”

“More than ten years ago, Xinghua Village was famous for being poor among the villages. I have gone through the file, and it is recorded that Xinghua villagers only lived at the mercy of the elements back then. Their crop production also declined year by year, despite working all year long. After paying the grain tax, the remaining food couldn’t even fill their stomachs. They had to rely on wild vegetables to feed the hungry and barely survived until the following year,” Kang Shiming showed a touched look after speaking, and his voice began to gradually accelerate.”

“Miss Liu brought about the changes in Xinghua Village. I heard that since childhood, you had a nickname in the village. You’re called the Blessed Child. You’re blessed, and as long as you’re around people, they’ll be blessed and . Since then, the grain production in Xinghua Village increased, and a small winery was opened. It was a small winery with only a hundred or so workers, which supported the entire village. Then its fame spread throughout Nanling.”

Liu Yusheng did not interrupt and quietly listened. In order to understand Xinghua Village, Kang Shiming went through the archives recorded by the court. He had long made up his mind how to convince her.

“Miss Liu’s ability is evident to everyone in Cangwu town. In the upper circles of Xiangshan County, Miss Liu is often mentioned. Many people want to do business with you, but they have no entry point, which makes everyone sigh.”

“I cooperate with the Qian family, and all business matters are taken care of by the Qian family. I don’t have to manage things at the winery, so I actually don’t have that so-called ability to speak of. I just provided a few wine recipes to the winery. It is the villagers’ own efforts that have brought the village to its present glory.”

What Liu Yusheng liked was not only the villagers’ serious commitment and hard work, but also their character.

The Xinghua villagers were united.

The winery was getting better and better, and there weren’t a few jealous people. Many people had coveted the recipes. When they couldn’t obtain the recipes, they wanted to poach the villagers to their winery to work for them, thereby learning the villagers’ craft.

In the end, all returned in defeat.

To put it in a modern ideology, instead of saying that Xinghua Village was a village, it would be better to say that they were an indestructible team with an extremely cohesive centripetal force.

 Kang Shiming naturally knew those small tricks that the winery had encountered over the years, as well as Liu Yusheng’s concerns.

To put it bluntly, Liu Yusheng was afraid of trouble.

Most importantly, she wasn’t ambitious.

She only safeguarded one corner and did what she wanted to do.

She was open to helping the world, but also had an inexplicable indifference.

She only did her best for the people she cared about.                  

“Miss Liu,” Kang Shiming sighed softly, “I really want to convince you, but obviously, you are not someone who will be easily swayed. I hope you won’t blame me for calculating you. I am the parental official of Xiangshan County. Since I am the parental official, I need to do practical things for the people under my rule. And you, you are the only one who can lead the people out of the hard times and lead them to wealth without exploiting them.”

He could not find anyone other than Liu Yusheng in the whole Nanling Kingdom who would not exploit the people.

All businessmen were shrewd, and were purely for the word profit. They would only amass the benefits to themselves and wouldn’t share their own benefits to the people who work for them.

Business was not charity.

Only Liu Yusheng was the combination of the two, complementing each other.

Therefore, she won the hearts of everyone in Xinghua village. That small village was impregnable in the eyes of outsiders.

“Lord Kang, what I want to do, even if you do not interfere or convince me, I will also do it,” Liu Yusheng replied with a smile.

These words again made Kang Shiming froze, and then he rejoiced, “Miss Liu? You mean…”

“When my partner arrives, I will discuss with him how to set up winery branches in the surrounding villages and recruit neighboring villagers to work. As to which step can be achieved by then and how far it can go, it depends on the people themselves. I dare not assert.”

“Okay, okay! As long as Miss Liu is willing, even if other villages do not reach the level of Xinghua Village, at least they will no longer have to worry about their lives all day long. Miss Liu’s move won’t only help the people, but also solve the big problem hanging over my heart!”

Kang Shiming laughed heartily. He almost thought he was going to return without success.

Although this young girl was only 16 years old, she definitely wasn’t a figure that people could manipulate. If she was unwilling to do something, no matter how much he racked his brains or persuaded her, she would at most return a smile.