Chapter 17: Building a School

Early the next morning, Xiaojiu called a village meeting.

At the sound of the gong, the villagers began to gather in the open space in front of the village chief’s house.

Everyone was excited. Word had spread yesterday that the village chief planned to build a school, and now she was calling them together—this meeting had to be about that.

After waiting for a while and making sure everyone was present, Xiaojiu finally spoke:
“Starting today, we’ll begin building a school in the village. From now on, all the children—boys and girls alike—will go to school to study, and also practice martial arts.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a wave of excited chatter broke out among the villagers.

“All the kids in the village can go to school now! That means my Zhengyi doesn’t have to go all the way to town anymore,” Auntie Wang exclaimed joyfully.

Her family had been fretting endlessly over Zhengyi not attending school in town. Now, with the announcement that a school would be built in the village and all children could attend, she felt like she was dreaming.

“Exactly! The village chief said it herself—boy or girl, they all get to go to school! My Huzi can finally become an educated man!” Zhao Huzi’s mother chimed in, overjoyed.

“Not only that, they’ll be learning martial arts too! The town schools don’t even offer that!”

“That’s right! Our village kids will be both educated and skilled in martial arts!”

“But what about the teachers?” someone asked.

“The clan elders said it’ll be that old man and the masked man the village chief brought back a couple of days ago.”

“Really? Can they be as good as the scholars from town?”

“Even if they’re not top-notch, as long as they can teach the kids to read and write, that’s good enough.”

“Exactly. Don’t you trust the village chief? If she says it’ll work, then it’ll work.”

“That’s right, that’s right!”

“But why do the girls have to go to school too? Who’s going to do the housework?” a man muttered.

He barely got the words out before his wife yanked him by the ear and scolded,
“What, you want your daughter to end up like you, not knowing a single word your whole life? Can’t you do housework? You really think we need to save it all for the girl? I’m telling you—if you dare stop our daughter from going to school, I’ll tear the roof off your family’s house!”

The man quickly backpedaled.
“No, no, I was just speaking offhand—I wasn’t saying she shouldn’t go! Let go, people are watching! It’s embarrassing!”

“Hmph.” Auntie Huang let go of his ear, knowing full well that arguing in public would just draw a crowd.

Anyone else who had been thinking the same now kept their mouths shut, afraid they’d be the next target.

Seeing how excited everyone was about the school, Xiaojiu turned to the clan elder and said,
“Grandpa Clan Chief, I have over six hundred taels of silver. Let’s build a big school. We’ll need a martial arts training ground too.”

She thought for a moment, then decided to draw out the design from her memory and show it to him.

“Six hundred taels?! Where did the village chief get that kind of money?”

The elders nearly dropped their jaws—six hundred taels! That was more money than they’d ever seen in their entire lives.

“See those men tied up by the ancestral hall? They tried to rob me, but lost the fight, so I robbed them instead,” Xiaojiu explained matter-of-factly.

“Robbing the robbers? Won’t they come back for revenge?” one elder asked, concerned.

“They wouldn’t dare. If they come back, we’ll just rob them again. Who knows, maybe next time we’ll get a few thousand taels,” Elder Zhou joked.

But Xiaojiu took it seriously—this didn’t sound like a bad idea at all.

She quietly hoped more bandits would come. Getting rich wouldn’t be so hard after all.

Seeing Xiaojiu willing to give up all that silver to build a school, the clan elders quickly spoke up:
“There’s no way a school will cost that much. Two hundred taels at most! And besides, how can we let the village chief pay for everything herself?”

Xiaojiu didn’t want to keep going back and forth with refusals, so she said directly, “I’ll pay for building the school, but I have conditions. I want to be the principal, and everything in the school will be under my command. In the future, the children who study there will work for me after they graduate.”

The clan elders didn’t quite understand what a “principal” was, but they knew that the village chief had a kind heart. Even if she didn’t build the school, the villagers would still listen to her and help her.

Xiaojiu handed over 200 taels of silver to the clan elders and explained how she wanted the school to be built.

Thinking of the people tied up in the ancestral hall, she added, “Those few people tied up in the ancestral hall—later, arrange for them to help build the school. If they don’t cooperate, come to me. I’ll make them go flying again.”

Still feeling a little uneasy, Xiaojiu waved for A’dou and the others to go intimidate the prisoners again.

A’dou promised, “Chief, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it for sure.”

“Me too, I’ll make sure they behave.”

“Yeah, we’ll make sure they turn over a new leaf.”

Seeing how confident they were, Xiaojiu left it to them.

The clan elders were still discussing where to build the school. In the end, Xiaojiu made the decision to build it at the foot of the back mountain. The mountain would be perfect for physical training and martial arts practice. Plus, it was quiet and spacious—ideal for a school.

And just like that, construction of the school began amid everyone’s eager anticipation.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the three boys arrived at the ancestral hall and saw that the tied-up bandits had already woken up.

The scar-faced man breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was just a few boys and no little girl. He had no desire to experience that terrifying flying-through-the-air sensation from yesterday again.

It was too free. He didn’t like it.

Yesterday, he genuinely thought he was about to say goodbye to the land forever. It had been horrifying.

Zhao Hu was the first to speak. “Do you know why we tied you up here?”

The skinny man asked nervously, “Why?”

All he wanted now was to go home.

A’dou said, “I’ll tell you—our village chief is super powerful. She can blow your head up with one punch.”

Tieniu added, “When she gets mad, she likes to toss people around. If you don’t behave, she’ll throw you up into the sky every day.”

Zhao Hu chimed in, “Yeah, our village chief said if you don’t behave, she’ll make you wish you were dead.”

Scarface really wanted to say, “Like hell I’m scared.”

But that little girl was truly a monster. Sure, they looked fierce, but they were just small-time thugs from the town who collected protection money. They’d never encountered someone like her before.

Tieniu turned to A’dou and asked, “Why aren’t they saying anything? Are they thinking about how to get back at us?”

Zhao Hu immediately said, “Let’s go get the village chief. These guys aren’t cooperating—we need her to show them what she can do.”

The tied-up men thought to themselves, If you want us to behave, just tell us what to do instead of threatening us over and over—our hearts can’t take it!

They quickly shouted, “Little heroes, at least tell us what you want us to do! We never said we wouldn’t cooperate!”

Tieniu scratched his head. “Didn’t we just tell them to help build the school?”

The tied-up men immediately shook their heads. “No, you didn’t! Building the school? We’ll do it! Just… when will you let us go? We’ve got elderly and children waiting for us at home.”

Zhao Hu replied, “That depends on how you behave. If you work hard, the chief will let you go. If not… well, she’ll send you back up to the sky.”

The men all quickly promised, “We’ll do it, we’ll do it! We’ll work hard, really!”