novelraw Chapter 246: I Am the Village Chief, and the Village Chief Is Me
Chapter 246: I Am the Village Chief, and the Village Chief Is Me
Hearing Li Wei's words, the two aunties were so delighted they nearly leaped off the ground — beaming faces, animated gestures, no words could fully capture it.
Still not enough composure, though. Someone like Nelson the old man — or even Santiago and Xavier — would have immediately caught the subtext.
But not the aunties. Especially these two, who brought Li Wei meals every day and cooked him special dishes. If they didn't genuinely believe this would raise his affection toward them, would they have kept it up?
Even if it was Nelson pulling the strings behind the scenes as a test — that was still reasonable. Raise the affection meter, and tasks get issued.
That aligned perfectly with Li Wei's own goals.
"Respected lord, we can dry the excess vegetables or slice and cut them into strips — like dried green beans, dried zucchini, dried eggplant — then sun-dry them. In winter, those make excellent dishes."
Auntie Ellen offered the suggestion carefully, following Li Wei's lead exactly, terrified of saying a single wrong word.
"Yes, you've reminded me. Ladies, I'd like you and your companions to take charge of this starting now. For every ten kilograms of dried vegetables you produce, I'll issue you some personal rewards — something that might give you a little more motivation beyond just food and shelter. A reason to enjoy life, to let life bloom. Ah, what's the phrase for it —"
Li Wei nodded with warm approval, his tone taking on that unmistakable quality of a scripted NPC.
"Private property? Or individual economy?" The other auntie, Mina, was clearly sharp — she'd instantly picked out two exact phrases from Li Wei's description. Impressive."Yes. I haven't decided on the specific rewards yet, but you can start trying. Don't worry about failing."
Li Wei's voice was gentle. Aside from looking young, he was practically indistinguishable from the old village chief in a starter village.
"Respected lord — can we start right now?"
Auntie Mina was half-skeptical. The Freemen had had plenty of discussions and conspiracy theories about this kind of thing. They were aunties, yes — but they talked politics too.
"Of course. Though — we'll probably need a dedicated storage room, and someone professional, qualified, and morally upright to manage it. Someone to keep records and watch over the supplies. Who could help me with that?"
Li Wei fell into apparent contemplation.
"Javier could do it! He was a warehouse manager at Base S-398!"
Auntie Ellen blurted it out instantly — but perhaps Li Wei hadn't heard, because he was still gazing into the distance, lost in thought, and then walked away without a word.
Did he need a reason?
No.
Because he was the lord.
The two aunties exchanged a glance, then grabbed their vegetable baskets and sprinted away — one of them losing a shoe in the process.
Li Wei then walked a circuit around the town. But in reality, he was eavesdropping on a private conversation happening on the second floor. He didn't have supernatural hearing — he just had a fat, dim-witted crow named Adai.
Inside the Scavenger Camp building, Adai moved like a mouse that had gotten into a warehouse. Sneaking, peering, slipping through any gap, appearing and vanishing at will — that was its specialty. No secret could hide from it, whether among Freemen or players.
The perfect eavesdropping assistant.
Not just audio, either — it could capture micro-expressions at range. Genuinely impressive.
Li Wei had never actually wanted to play mind games with these poor Freemen. Truly.
He was a good person. He had principles and a solid reputation — practically as noble as a Paladin of the Dawn. He didn't mind sharing a portion of the benefits — not lavish, but certainly meaningful. Couldn't they all just work together happily and build this territory?
But as the saying went: the pitiable often have their own faults.
Until one day he'd accidentally overheard certain conversations. After that, there was nothing to be done.
As they say — harsh land breeds cunning people. The apocalypse bred even more cunning ones, because the saints and the naive had all been weeded out long ago.
When Li Wei returned to the camp building, he found Zhao Xuanxuan walking out with a chubby-cheeked girl of about thirteen. She seemed quite fond of the girl. Wasn't her name Isabel or something?
Seeing Li Wei, Zhao Xuanxuan asked naturally, "Li Wei, you weren't hurt just now, were you? We all got knocked out by that mental shock thing — we have no idea what happened after."
"I'm fine. Shouldn't you rest a bit longer?"
"I'm already okay. Isabel wants a sharp little knife, but unfortunately her order won't be ready until next month."
"Good."
Li Wei nodded again, stepped around Zhao Xuanxuan, and didn't even glance at Isabel. That little girl was not as simple as she looked. Zhao Xuanxuan — keep your guard up. Don't let someone sell you and have you counting the money for them.
Inside the walls, many Freemen at work greeted him. Loyal pillars of the community, all of them.
Li Wei smiled and nodded as always, heading straight up to the third floor. The third floor was the female players' quarters and storage area, and also Liang Yuzhi's operations room.
Though no detailed rules had been set from the start, the Freemen had respected the basic boundaries — they didn't wander around freely unless they had a clear work assignment, like installing iron bars or wooden boards on windows.
As for the storage room, Li Wei had always kept a rusty lock on the door — the kind that stopped honest people but not determined ones. In practice, it was forbidden territory. Anyone who dared enter would get a system warning, and nobody was stupid enough to try.
Over this period, no Freeman had ever applied to access it. The underground base had provided a large quantity of food on the first day back — fifty percent of the non-perishables had gone straight into the third-floor storage on day one. The space was quite large.
The other half remained on the second floor, where it was drawn from for daily meals — along with Li Wei's vegetable garden.
Interestingly, the Freemen had zero interest in clearing land for vegetable gardens or farmland outside. They all knew the radiation storm would come to educate them eventually.
They also had no interest in helping Li Wei weed. They didn't do pointless work.
But picking fresh cucumbers, bok choy, and tomatoes from the vegetable garden? Absolutely. About thirty percent of the produce was one-star quality.
Delicious.
The third floor was quiet at the moment. From the fourth-floor kitchen, the aroma of pan-fried salted fish drifted down.
Liang Yuzhi was currently doubling as warehouse supervisor, so she could enter the storage room freely.
"Little Wei, you're back? Come rest — I'm almost done here."
Just outside the storage room was Liang Yuzhi's operations room. She was inside preparing one-star Blood Resistance Potions — quick, efficient movements, dividing them into small plastic bags with zip-lock seals.
Just add water and drink. Simple, convenient, effective.
Li Wei walked over and stood outside the operations room watching Liang Yuzhi work at speed. Over two hundred small bags were already lined up beside her. It looked like she'd made these back in the first month and was only now packaging them.
Skilled people were always in demand, wherever they went.
Shortly after, Liang Yuzhi counted out three hundred bags, packed them up, and under Li Wei's watchful gaze, placed them in a waterproof box inside the storage room.
"Little Wei, is something the matter? Are you sure you weren't hurt?"
Liang Yuzhi asked with apparent concern.
"I'm fine. I just wanted to remind you to be careful when you head to the underground base this afternoon. And tell Little Yue not to let her guard down over there either. That girl is so careless — I really worry about her."
Li Wei sighed, looking mildly concerned.
"Don't worry — Little Yue is very thorough!" Liang Yuzhi laughed. The two of them exchanged a few more sentences of small talk, all of it meaningless. Both could tell the other had something to say — but neither managed to initiate a conspiracy.
Li Wei not having a Conspiracy Card was one thing. But Liang Yuzhi couldn't bring herself to pull one out either?
This woman was impossibly stingy.
'This kid is impossibly stingy too. He won't even put out a One-Star Conspiracy Card this time. Pfft. Where's the sincerity? Just wait — if I have to speak first, I'll eat my own hat.'
Liang Yuzhi stormed off upstairs to help in the kitchen.
Li Wei, entirely at his leisure, stepped into the storage room and transferred all three hundred one-star Blood Resistance Potions into his Resource Card.
Three hundred portions — only three units. Excellent stuff.
Was this legal?
Pfft.
This wasn't the rookie mission world's Head of Household situation. This was a pioneering map. He was the former Dictator who had never been impeached, never removed from office — now the current Leader, and only then the Head of Household.
In the last world, he'd had Contribution docked just for sneaking a piece of jerky from the warehouse. The Head of Household lived like a dog. Now, even Adai stole half a salted fish every day — so what?
Of course, the camp's warehouse ledger still showed all three hundred Blood Resistance Potions as present — just noted as being in the Head of Household's possession.
After that, Li Wei went up to the rooftop and enjoyed the view for a while, until lunch was ready and Liang Yuzhi came to call him personally.
He had his own table on the fourth floor.
Family members could dine with him. Freemen ate outside in the open area — with a canopy overhead, which was perfectly fine.
After lunch, Liang Yuzhi said her goodbyes, loaded Xavier, Santiago, and the other three Freemen onto the electric bus, and sped off.
Those five had never formally met with Li Wei from start to finish — so technically, this didn't count as withholding their wages. It was just delayed.
Li Wei even took a nap after that, then leisurely came downstairs — and "happened" to run into Aunties Ellen and Mina, who had been waiting on the fourth floor all along.
Each of them was holding a basket of beautifully made, finely cut, excellent-quality dried green bean strips.
"Esteemed lord, as you requested, we have prepared some dried vegetables. You mentioned earlier that you would reward us —"
Hearing this, Li Wei stepped forward with visible delight, picked up the dried green bean strips, and nodded repeatedly.
"Yes, yes — this is exactly what I hoped for. You two are the most hardworking young ladies I've seen in this camp. Here, take this — this is your reward."
Li Wei delivered the line in full NPC mode, then produced two small packets of Blood Resistance Potions and handed them to the two auntie-ladies.
Can't identify them? Not my problem. Just drink them, and you'll figure out the effect soon enough.
Rejoice — this is your T-virus serum antibody.
As for why there was no system notification — what notification were they waiting for? This was just a hidden village quest.
Li Wei smiled cheerfully, took the baskets, and headed straight to the third-floor storage room, where he found an empty spot and dumped them in.
He even remembered to bring the baskets back out.
The two aunties tried to follow him in — but stopped obediently three meters from Liang Yuzhi's operations room.
System warning. Did they think he was joking?