Courtyard House: Rebirth of a Shopkeeper in 1937

Father remained composed, responding calmly and deftly deflecting the question: "Chief, you must be joking. You know perfectly well what my family is made of. We don't even own half an acre of land. How could we possibly afford a grand banquet for the entire village and township? At most, we can offer our neighbors some coarse grains and sweet potatoes as a token of our appreciation. Besides, this is a public event that brings honor to our township. If I were to host a private banquet and it turned out to be shabby and simple, it wouldn't just be a disgrace to the Song family, but to the entire township. According to custom, such a public celebration shouldn't be decided by my family. It should be led and coordinated by you, Chief. My Song family can simply contribute one dish to make up the difference, and that will be enough."

After pondering for a moment, the village headman felt that his father's words made perfect sense, and nodded in agreement: "Yes, Dawei, what you said makes sense. Then I will gather the village heads together to discuss the overall arrangements and decide on the banquet rules."

He stood up, dusted off his clothes, and, in a tone befitting his official post, instructed, "I've delivered all the official business I needed to. Whether you can maintain your standing and save face in front of the township head depends entirely on whether you can complete this batch of rice transplanters on time and to a high standard. Do your job well, I'm leaving now."

After saying this, the village head turned and left. Seeing that his goal had not been achieved, Li Buyun also left dejectedly.

Watching the two figures walk away, Xingbao secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, this Zhao village head was greedy for power and money, clumsy with words, and inept at maneuvering and scheming; moreover, Li Buyun hadn't conspired with the village head beforehand or rehearsed their story privately, making their cooperation riddled with flaws. Otherwise, with this trap in place, the Song family would have had a hard time escaping unscathed, having to spend money on the banquet and unable to avoid this high-risk task.

Once the two left, the corridor returned to complete silence. Only the soft rustling of a palm-leaf fan, the fragrance of osmanthus, and Xiao Weibao's shallow breathing, along with the intermittent chirping of cicadas, filled the courtyard. Everyone sat in silence, burdened by heavy thoughts, no one uttering a word.

After sitting quietly for a long time, Grandpa broke the silence first. Looking at Dad's worried face, he spoke slowly and heavily, "Dawei, this task of delivering ten rice transplanters to a distinguished person is not going to be easy. If there is even the slightest mistake, the whole family will be implicated."

Father lowered his eyelids, his brows furrowed with deep self-reproach, his voice low and filled with regret and helplessness: "Father-in-law, ultimately, this is my fault for not considering things carefully and for being short-sighted. At first, I only understood the basic idea that the county wanted to allocate these rice transplanters to Xiangxiang in exchange for political gains. Seeing the potential profit, I rashly accepted this official assignment. In the end, we are just ordinary country folk who don't understand the intricate rules of officialdom and have too narrow a vision. I never anticipated that these machines would ultimately be important items presented as tribute to high-ranking figures."

He paused, his expression growing increasingly solemn, and slowly revealed his profound and insightful view: "Now I finally understand that this is an unavoidable crisis and an undeserved disaster for our Song family; but for Township Chief Gan and his group of local officials at the grassroots level, it is a great springboard for them to climb the ladder and get promoted."

He sighed heavily and continued, "Now that the official order has been issued in black and white, we have no room to shirk our responsibilities. We can only grit our teeth and do our best to complete the task. We absolutely cannot afford to make any mistakes, otherwise my whole family, including the village head, will be implicated and held accountable."

Grandpa stroked his beard, his expression serious as he pressed on, "So, do you have a plan in mind now? How do you intend to arrange the production and verification of these machines?"

Father shook his head, his brow furrowed with worry, his voice filled with bewilderment and helplessness: "Father-in-law, to be honest, my mind is in complete turmoil right now, I have no clue what to do. We are just country folk who farm and do manual labor, how would we know about the rules and regulations for items presented as tribute to high-ranking officials? None of the craftsmen or gentry in the surrounding villages have ever dealt with these kinds of official tribute items. What's more, there are Li Buyun and his gang watching us in the shadows, waiting to find fault with us and sabotage us. We have to make good machines and also guard against these villains' schemes, I really don't know where to begin preparing."

These words plunged the corridor into dead silence once more. Everyone frowned, at a loss, and the oppressive atmosphere grew even heavier.

While the elders remained silent and troubled, Xingbao, who had been quietly listening by the bedside, timidly raised his head and whispered to break the silence: "Dad, actually... we don't need to think so complicatedly. We can just follow the process we used to make the prototype. It just adds four more steps: fine polishing, inspection of each unit, neat packaging, and safe transportation. If we do these steps well, there won't be any major mistakes. It's just that this work is meticulous, so we can't be fast. Fortunately, the township head only said to do it as soon as possible and didn't set a deadline, so we still have plenty of time."

Instantly, all the elders in the room turned their gazes to Xingbao. The adults were at a loss, waiting for a child to make a decision. Their eyes were solemn as they waited quietly for him to continue.

Stared at by everyone in the room, Xingbao straightened up slightly and calmly broke down the plan: "Sanding is the simplest. Just follow the previous standards and smooth out all the edges, corners, and burrs. Everyone can do that. The key is inspection. This kind of delicate work requires someone with a delicate touch and a keen eye. Mother, Sister Shanshan, Guixiang, and I are the most suitable. My older brother has a fairly delicate touch, so he can also help with the inspection. It's just that we have to repeatedly touch the sharp edges of the wood, and our hands will inevitably get pricked by splinters."

"Then comes the packaging and shipping. Rice transplanters are large and easily bumped and scratched during transport. We disassembled the machine into several large parts that were easy to assemble in advance, wrapped the corners of the parts tightly with thick coarse cloth, packed them neatly into large solid wood boxes, filled the gaps with dry straw and pressed it firmly to prevent damage to the paint and mortise and tenon structure of the machine during the transportation."

"The most important part is the transportation. Our own family members must be involved in the entire process of transporting the equipment. We also need to select a group of honest villagers who are on good terms with our family and whom we can absolutely trust to help us with the errands. We need to keep a close eye on the materials and equipment throughout the process and prevent outsiders from coming into contact with them. There are many people watching us from the shadows to see if we make any mistakes. We absolutely cannot allow anyone to tamper with these machines in secret. As long as we successfully deliver them to the township and pass the official inspection, we will have successfully completed our mission."

After hearing this well-reasoned plan, everyone relaxed and felt a sense of relief. Grandpa pondered for a moment, then frowned slightly and raised a concern: "The method sounds sound and thorough, but wrapping it in coarse cloth and making a custom-made wooden box seems too wasteful of materials. Isn't it a bit extravagant? Things are precious in the countryside. Why not omit the coarse cloth and just use a wooden box filled with straw for protection?"