Chapter 27: Town Center and Banking Services at Your Doorstep

Yujia Village.

In an alley at the west end of the village.

The old branch secretary, having lost everything after experiencing a "Tiger-Head" Mercedes-Benz ride, tremblingly packed his personal belongings and was promptly kicked out of his home.

"The world is going to the dogs!"
"Public morality is declining, people aren't what they used to be!"

Inside the courtyard.

Yu Yang sat firmly in the main hall of his new home, his older brother and second brother standing on either side.

[You have captured this location and obtained a Village Center.]

The next moment, a translucent interface appeared in his field of vision.

On the left was a 3D bird's-eye view, and on the right were various icons.

The bird's-eye view displayed the entirety of Yujia Village, including wheat fields, dirt roads, and wasteland. Every house, household, and plot of land was partitioned by hexagonal lines, making the whole village look like it was covered by a fishing net.

Within these nets:

Some were entirely blue, such as the wasteland, experimental fields, the small villa, the village head's house, his own courtyard, Yu Laoliu's house, and the old branch secretary's house...

Others were entirely red, such as the motorized wells, the small shop, farmhouses that had not yet been renovated with heated brick beds, the farmland near the highway belonging to Yujia Village, and the kiln pits in the northeast corner of the village...

There were also some that were half-blue and half-red, such as the farmhouses that had undergone renovations and the courtyard rented out for housing vegetable vendors...

The overall effect was strikingly similar to the state-by-state vote tallies during a North American presidential election.

Blue 51%, Red 49%.

At this very moment, an icon of an antique red-wood tiled house had appeared over the old branch secretary's home in the 3D bird's-eye view.

[Village Center, Level 1.]
[You have unlocked: Dwellings, Courtyard Walls, Courtyard Gates, Watchtowers, and Mills.]

Following the prompt, five more icons appeared on the right side of the page, in addition to the Farmer and Farmland icons.

Dwellings: Requires your own building materials; increases population cap.
Courtyard Walls: Requires your own building materials; provides defense against enemy attacks.
Courtyard Gates: Requires your own building materials; provides defense against enemy attacks.
Watchtowers: Requires your own building materials; increases surveillance range.
Mills: Can produce food.

"No wonder it's called a Village Center."
"But isn't this too crude?"
"There isn't even a barracks or a blacksmith shop..."

Yu Yang stared at the translucent interface, pondered for a moment, and silently recited the requirements for upgrading the Village Center.

The next moment, the perspective of the 3D bird's-eye view rose, displaying the entire Shili Camp area. Yujia Village appeared blue, while the surrounding areas remained red.

Immediately, a red symbol of crossed swords appeared over the Township Government Compound.

Simultaneously, a large crowd of lackeys waving flags and shouting appeared on both sides of his field of vision.

"Charge!"
"Kill!"
"Loot!"

[Capture this location to upgrade the Village Center to Level 2.]
[Level 2 Village Center will unlock: Barracks, Shipyard, Blacksmith.]

Yu Yang understood.
Yujia Village → Township Government Compound → ...
Maybe next time it will dare to send him to Pingdong County.
Then Tai City, Dongshan Province...

"Isn't living a good life better?"

Yu Yang had no intention of provoking the township secretary, let alone the county head. As for anything above that... he didn't even dare to think about it. Otherwise, the old secretary was a living example.

Dismissing these thoughts, Yu Yang looked at the new building options.

"Construct Dwelling."
[Please arrange the number of farmers.]
"Ten."
[Please select the construction area.]

Following the prompts, Yu Yang dragged the mini-map and selected a location inside one of the plastic greenhouses on the northern wasteland.

The next moment, ten strong men from the parking lot construction site transported various building materials, entered the plastic greenhouse one after another, and began swinging hammers.

Pile foundations, frames, brick walls, roofing.
The entire process was like watching bean sprouts grow—visible to the naked eye.

Checking the time, it had started at four in the afternoon, and it was not yet midnight.

[You have constructed a building; population cap +1.]
Farmers: 156/156 (67 are currently on their way).

Yu Yang ignored the prompt and looked at the dwelling.

It was an antique-style large tiled house. Although it used self-supplied red bricks, the exterior walls were coated with cement mortar, making them look like blue bricks.

Furthermore, the layout was not the type where you enter the main hall and see the bed immediately. Instead, it featured two large main rooms, an auxiliary room on each side, and a large master bedroom, a secondary bedroom, and a kitchen in the back.

It was spacious and bright, with a total area of 120 square meters. If it had a bathroom, it would be comparable to a commercial apartment in the city.

Undoubtedly, the dwellings were far more suitable for living than the small bungalows. He could completely pause the construction on the outskirts of the parking lot and replace all architectural plans with this.

The problem was, he could use the plastic greenhouse to cover the growth speed of bean sprouts, but how could he cover these houses? Should he use a plastic greenhouse for them too?

Once construction was finished, he would pull back the plastic sheet and look at the stunned onlookers: "Planted soybeans, harvested houses—surprised? Unexpected?"

"If I do that, I'm afraid the whole township will go crazy."

Yu Yang set the dwellings aside for now and turned his attention to the courtyard walls.

This unit allowed for adjustments to length and height. Although there was a numerical limit, he could still use it to enclose the parking lot. If he added courtyard gates, watchtowers, and the 3D bird's-eye view, they would perfectly complement each other and prevent any thieves from sneaking in.

As for the last unit, the mill...
It was already the industrial age; who would still use this thing to grind flour?

After familiarizing himself with the new functions, Yu Yang went downstairs to the parking lot construction site. He first asked the foreman for the construction drawings he had drafted, canceled the original plan, then laid out the courtyard walls by referencing the 3D bird's-eye view of Yujia Village, and finally copied the layout.

Compared to racking his brains in the other timeline and relying on massive calculations to reach a result, this was far too easy.

He then arranged for people to purchase plastic mesh so that by tomorrow, all the foundation pits for the houses could be covered.

Since the bean sprouts required strong men to tend to them to accelerate growth, then buildings like dwellings, courtyard walls, and gates would naturally require strong men to work on them to achieve acceleration.

In this way, laying foundations today, building the base tomorrow, laying bricks the day after, putting up the beams the day after that, roofing on the fifth day, and plastering the walls on the sixth day would seem perfectly normal.

...

The next day.

The old branch secretary seemed to have fallen in love with the AMG Tiger-Head Mercedes-Benz. Before dawn, he had already moved a small stool to the courtyard, his eyes never leaving the car body.

Yu Yang felt he might have gone a bit too far yesterday, so after sharing a piece of meat-stuffed pancake with him, he added a bowl of lamb soup.

The old branch secretary took a sip from the bowl, got grease all over his mustache, smacked his lips, and commented, "Although it has plenty of meat, it's not from Han Gai; it's not authentic."

"Hey, I'm feeding you for free, and you're still being picky? Give it back." Yu Yang snatched the pancake back and walked toward the courtyard gate while eating.

Just then, the voice of Liu Danian, the president of the county branch bank, came from outside the courtyard.

"Is Village Head Yu at home?"
"Oh, I'm here!"
"Comrade Little Yu? Why are you here? I'm looking for your village head."
"What do you want with me?"
"..."

A moment later.

In the living room on the first floor of the small villa.

Yu Yang held the village head's brand-new thermos, sipped the village head's Tieguanyin tea, sat in the village head's grand master chair, toyed with the village head's exercise balls, and peered at the village head's business partner.

"President Liu, what brings you here?"

...

Liu Danian had not originally been in a hurry to sell the brick kiln because the bank also had investment businesses.

For example, the County Agricultural Bank could arrange for someone to take over the kiln and then use it to apply for a mortgage loan from the Construction Bank, allowing them to secure a sum of funds. Then, the Agricultural Bank could lend out these funds at a high interest rate, which would not occupy their annual loan quota and would also allow them to profit from the interest rate spread.

Therefore, even with the new year approaching and the bank's year-end settlement nearing, neither the city branch nor the county branch had been in any rush.

Never had he expected that after a snowstorm, everything would change.

Yesterday, the person in charge of the brick kiln, arranged by the County Agricultural Bank, brought the mortgage loan audit team from the Construction Bank to the kiln for an asset appraisal.

A tunnel kiln with a daily output of 60,000 red bricks had an annual turnover of at least 2 million, with a profit margin of 20%, netting 400,000. If they used it for a mortgage loan, even if the kiln collapsed, they could still get 500,000.

Who would have thought that the County Construction Bank, wanting to see if the brick kiln that had been cold for years was actually repaired, spent money to hire the veteran master who had helped Old Yu build the kiln in the first place?

The masters were full of confidence at first, confirming that the kiln was fine and that as long as the kiln tunnels were patched, they could be fired up.

But as they were leaving, one of the masters had an urgent need and ran to the kiln tunnel to take a leak. That was when the trouble started.

"Next year, if there's a heavy rain, the water will seep in from the surface, which could lead to the foundation sinking, the base collapsing, and the kiln body cracking..."

Liu Danian felt that the old master's words were still echoing in his ears.

"Comrade Little Yu, with the year-end approaching, the bank is in a tough spot. When we asked you for the brick kiln before, it was just to satisfy those above. Now that things are settled, I intend to return the kiln to you. After all, this kiln is worth over a million; it would be a huge loss for your family to use it to offset a 200,000 bank loan."

"Leader, there's an old saying in Shili Camp: 'A loss is a blessing.' For the sake of the bank's development, the local development, and the country's development, I must take this loss."

"..."

"So, you should keep the kiln. Consider it a small contribution from our Yu family to Pingdong County."

"Comrade Little Yu..."

"Leader, please don't praise me; I'll get arrogant."

"??!"

*Who the hell wants to praise you?!*

Liu Danian couldn't help but light a cigarette, but his hands were shaking so much with anger that he couldn't even light it.

As for why he was so furious...

It all started half a month ago. That night, Village Head Yu had brought a carton of soft-pack Huaxia cigarettes to his house and said that as long as the bank obtained the brick kiln, the other party would buy it for 250,000. 200,000 would help the bank fill the loan gap, and the remaining 50,000 would be split among the bank staff.

It was a godsend; how could he disagree? Especially when he heard the next day that Village Head Yu had actually been hung up and beaten by Yu Yang, making him lose a lot of face. It was clear that the village head was holding a grudge, which is why he had come over in the middle of the night.

Under his, Liu Danian's, guidance, the county branch had successfully modified the loan contract with Yu Yang and obtained the brick kiln. But by the next day, the village head, who had sworn to buy the kiln for 250,000, had vanished. Then, the Construction Bank's audit revealed the fatal flaws in the kiln...

This forced Liu Danian to suspect that Yu Yang and the village head had teamed up to stage a bitter-meat play to trick him into a dead end. Most importantly, the matter had already reached the city branch, causing much gossip behind his back and turning him into a laughingstock.

Could he not be angry?