All the women in Gaojia Village were practically buzzing with excitement.
Ever since Tianzun descended and blessed the village, the men had been running around like they were on some endless construction project. One day, they helped the blacksmiths. The next, they built the village gate. The day after that, they were busy constructing the temple.
Meanwhile, the women had been left with nothing to do.
Now, with an enormous mountain of cotton suddenly appearing out of nowhere, their excitement was practically impossible to contain.
"Finally! I can bring out the loom I've been keeping at home!"
"Sanwa's mother, you're the best tailor in the entire village. This is your chance to show everyone what you can do!"
"Exactly! If I can help Tianzun with this, perhaps I'll receive some divine blessings too!"
Their voices overlapped, turning the area around the half-house-sized pile of cotton into a noisy marketplace. The chatter was so overwhelming that even Li Daoxuan, who had been straining his ears from above, couldn't make out a single word.
Shan Shi'er finally lost his patience.
"EVERYONE, SHUT UP!"
The women fell silent.
For approximately two seconds.
Then, with a sound like an explosion, the entire crowd erupted into chatter again.
Shan Shi'er: "..."
Li Daoxuan: "Pfft! Hahahaha!"
Shan Shi'er took a deep breath and unleashed his ultimate weapon.
"ANYONE WHO SPEAKS AGAIN GETS NO COTTON!"
Silence descended instantly.
You could practically hear a pin dropping.
Li Daoxuan nearly fell out of his chair laughing.
"As expected, nothing controlled people quite as effectively as their own interests. Authority? Dignity? Those were all just decorations. Much like a company boss dealing with employees, the only things that truly worked were paying people or docking their salaries. Everything else was just noise."
Once the crowd had finally settled down, Shan Shi'er began explaining the assignment.
"Tianzun wants you to turn this cotton into cloth, then cooperate with the blacksmiths to make armor. I won't waste time explaining every little detail. Here's the important part: whoever works the hardest, produces the best cloth, and helps the blacksmiths finish their armor the fastest will receive extra cotton. Enough to make two complete sets of clothes for your own family!"
That did the trick.
The women immediately rolled up their sleeves, their eyes practically glowing with determination.
Shan Shi'er organized them into a queue. Each woman received a large bundle of cotton to take home, spin into thread, weave into cloth, and deliver back as quickly as possible.
Of course, he wasn't about to let them work unsupervised without a little encouragement.
Every time someone came to collect cotton, he would put on his fiercest expression and issue a stern warning.
"Remember, Tianzun is watching! Anyone who secretly keeps His cotton, anyone who clearly produces two chi of cloth but only turns in one, will be struck down by Heaven and Earth!"
Shan Shi'er knew village women well enough. A little petty greed here, a little clever bookkeeping there. Without a sufficiently terrifying threat, some of them would undoubtedly try to pocket a portion of the cotton.
And sure enough, several women had already been planning exactly that.
But after hearing Shan Shi'er's warning, they glanced nervously toward the heavens. Their consciences suddenly began working overtime.
The heavens are watching.
This isn't like working for some ordinary landlord. We're working for Tianzun! Better not try anything funny.
One woman collected her cotton and stepped aside. The next came forward.
Shan Shi'er was just about to hand her a bundle when something caught his attention.
He looked up.
Standing right in front of him was Gao Yiye.
Shan Shi'er: "!"
Gao Yiye's cheeks turned slightly red.
"I... I can weave too."
Shan Shi'er nearly spat out a laugh.
"Pfft! Miss Yiye, what exactly are you doing here? Joining the cotton-weaving competition? You're Tianzun's Saintess! Why are you doing something like this? It's beneath your dignity!"
Gao Yiye shook her head.
"Weaving cloth is also a way of sharing Tianzun's burdens. I want to contribute something to Him as well. I'll just maintain a dignified posture while weaving. That way, I won't damage Tianzun's prestige."
Shan Shi'er pressed a hand against his forehead.
Dizzy.
He was getting dizzy.
Li Daoxuan watched from above and laughed helplessly.
Shan Shi'er let out a long sigh. He felt like a swordsman who had drawn his weapon, only to discover that he had absolutely no idea what to do with it.
Gao Yiye tilted her head, looking puzzled.
"Master Shan, why did you suddenly recite a line of poetry?"
Shan Shi'er sighed again.
"Nothing. Just a little idle lamentation."
Li Daoxuan understood perfectly well what he was lamenting.
Originally, the enormous Gaojia Village had been his responsibility alone. Keeping track of everything was already exhausting enough. Now Shan Shi'er was practically taking over the burden on his behalf, and there wasn't a single person who could share the workload with him.
Even Gao Yiye, the Saintess herself, was doing whatever she pleased.
No wonder Shan Shi'er felt like a man who had drawn his sword and found himself completely helpless.
The biggest problem Gaojia Village faced was still the shortage of capable people.
Unfortunately, talent wasn't something one could simply summon by snapping one's fingers.
Take Water Margin, for example. Even the mighty Liangshan Marsh, with its enormous gathering of heroes, had only a handful of people who could read and write properly. Wu Yong himself was little more than a poor scholar, yet he was already considered the group's strategist.
That alone should tell you how scarce educated talent was in this era.
Li Daoxuan thought for a moment.
"Looks like I'll have to cultivate some talent myself."
Just then, Mrs. Shan approached with her daughter and a maid.
She had spent the past two days preparing for her upcoming return to the county town, where she intended to spread the Dao Xuan Tianzun faith. There were quite a few things she needed to arrange before leaving.
She hurried over to Shan Shi'er and lowered her voice.
"You useless old man, I'm going back to the county town in a couple of days. But our daughter can't come with me. It's nowhere near as safe there as it is in Gaojia Village."
Shan Shi'er nodded.
"Naturally."
Mrs. Shan continued, "You're busy handling all these important matters, and I'll be away in the county town. So who's going to teach our daughter to read and write? Who will teach her women's virtues and needlework?"
Shan Shi'er froze.
Right.
Once his wife left, who would take responsibility for their daughter's education?
Women's virtues and needlework could wait. But reading and writing absolutely could not be neglected. Otherwise, their daughter might grow up completely illiterate.
That would be a disaster.
Shan Shi'er crouched down, clutching his head with both hands.
For a man who had spent his entire life dealing with practical problems, this was apparently the one question capable of breaking him.
Li Daoxuan, meanwhile, had been listening to their conversation. It suddenly gave him an idea.
"Yiye, go and relay a few words to Shan Shi'er for me."
Gao Yiye immediately perked up.
She looked toward the heavens, where Tianzun's face had faintly appeared among the clouds, then bowed deeply before hurrying over to Shan Shi'er and Mrs. Shan.
Li Daoxuan began speaking.
"Shan Shi'er , when your wife returns to the county town in a couple of days, you'll escort her there, correct? And you'll be going to the county town yourself?"
Shan Shi'er immediately replied.
"Yes, Tianzun. I intend to return, but only briefly. One or two days at most. After that, I'll come back to Gaojia Village and continue handling your affairs."
Li Daoxuan nodded.
"I have a question. Is it possible to hire a teacher to come to Gaojia Village?"
Shan Shi'er stiffened.
After a long pause, he lowered his head somewhat shamefully.
"Reporting to Tianzun, scholars are rather proud people. Gaojia Village is over thirty li from the county seat, tucked deep in the mountains. Convincing a teacher to come here and instruct the villagers would be quite difficult."
"Proud?" Li Daoxuan asked. "How proud are we talking about? Try offering more money."
Shan Shi'er sighed.
"Scholars... well, you know how they are, Tianzun. They would rather starve than bow for five dou of rice. Even if we offer them a substantial amount of money, they might still refuse."
Li Daoxuan considered this for a moment.
"Five dou of rice certainly won't work."
He opened a drawer and rummaged through his belongings.
"Let's see how he reacts to this."
A moment later, he pulled out a pure silver 999 necklace.
It was a men's necklace, thick and ostentatious enough to make a gangster from an old Hong Kong movie look understated.
Back when Li Daoxuan was an edgy teenager, he had gone through a rather embarrassing delinquent phase. He bought a leather jacket, dyed his hair, and wore this ridiculous silver chain around his neck, convinced that he looked like the coolest guy in the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, he eventually grew out of that phase.
The silver chain, meanwhile, remained.
It had since become a permanent reminder of his youthful stupidity, a relic of the era when he apparently believed looking like a gangster was a legitimate life goal.
Li Daoxuan removed a small ring from the necklace, roughly one centimeter in diameter, and placed it in front of Shan Shi'er.
The moment it appeared, Shan Shi'er felt his eyes go blind.
A gigantic silver ring, taller than an adult man, stood before him. Its surface gleamed with such dazzling brilliance that it looked capable of blinding a dog from several paces away.
Shan Shi'er, Mrs. Shan, Gao Yiye, and everyone else who witnessed the spectacle stood there with their mouths hanging open.
The ring was so enormous that one could practically stuff a kiwi fruit through it.
They had seen Tianzun produce countless gigantic food items before. But this was different.
This was silver!
Not rice. Not pork. Not some heavenly vegetable.
Silver!
Li Daoxuan looked at Shan Shi'er and asked calmly.
"Now tell me again. Will that scholar bend or not?"
Shan Shi'er stared at the enormous silver ring, his mouth twitching.
After struggling for a moment, he finally stammered.
"He... he would use a stick to break his own waist."