On the 27th, Thursday, Xia Yu visited Yin Shulan for the second time.
To avoid the obligation of preparing lunch, Xia Yu logged into the game only after lunchtime.
Lunch at the Yin household was later than he had imagined, almost causing his plan to fail.
When he arrived, Yin Shulan was clearing the table.
Looking at the dishes, which were devoid of any oil or meat and consisted only of vegetable soup and stir-fried beans, Xia Yu asked Yin Shulan, “Is hunting strictly regulated here?”
This was a mountain village, nestled at the foot of a large mountain, and should not have lacked meat.
“We used to be able to hunt a bit secretly, but recently, a group of investigators came from somewhere outside, arrested a few people, and no one dares to do it anymore,” Yin Shulan replied.
Nowadays, pheasants and hares are protected wildlife. Wild animals, probably only rats, could be killed freely.
However, rats are not part of the regular human diet.
After tidying the table, Xia Yu said goodbye to Yin Ling and headed toward the town.
After walking for three hours, he finally arrived near dusk.
At this point, he only had one hour to wander around and must return before 4:30, or else it would get dark.
The town had only one street, no cafes, just teahouses, and one teahouse had someone playing the erhu.
After listening for a while, Xia Yu determined that the player’s skill was about LV3, so he knew Plan A wouldn’t work.
An LV3 erhu performance, although far inferior to LV5, unfortunately, the difference was not noticeable to the general public.
Aesthetic appreciation requires cultivation, especially for musical instruments. Ordinary people without musical education could at most reach LV3. Whether it was LV4 or LV5, to their ears, there was no significant difference from LV3.
Moreover, the erhu player seemed to be a relative of the teahouse owner, who called him “Uncle.”
Plan A was the easiest to achieve, while the probabilities of Plans B and C were very low.
Indeed, giving money directly was more convenient.
If transferring money wasn’t an option, he could put the cash in an envelope and mail it.
However, experienced couriers could judge the contents by feel and might intercept the letter.
In this world, local errand services had already emerged, but inter-regional logistics were still under development.
He still needed to come in person, get close to the town, and use someone else’s hand to place the money.
What a hassle.
Sighing, Xia Yu randomly picked up a nearby newspaper and started reading.
“Can’t you do it? If not, stop looking for other ways to make money and just go back to weaving baskets,” Yin Shulan tried to bring Xia Yu back to the right path.
Two days ago, she discovered that Xia Yu’s speed wasn’t just twice as fast. In two hours, Xia Yu could keep weaving nonstop, while she needed to take breaks. Moreover, her efficiency declined over time, but Xia Yu’s didn’t.
With this contrast, the difference was actually double!
She could earn twice as much money in a month!
Such a great talent, it was a shame not to weave baskets!
Hearing the suggestion of weaving baskets, Xia Yu tightened his hands. He thought about whether to temporarily stop coming here until he successfully delivered the money.
It would take about two or three days to deliver the money, which wasn’t too long.
Before he made a decision, he saw a job advertisement in the newspaper.
They were hiring a translator who could speak Russian and was fluent in the local dialect.
This was a newspaper from four days ago, and the deadline for the recruitment was today.
The location was a chemical plant in the small town.
If it was solely for making money, Xia Yu didn’t need to work; he just had to wait quietly for the main body to come nearby and drop off the money.
However, he wanted to conduct an experiment.
He had wanted to do this experiment for a long time, but had been too busy previously. Neither Xu Youxiang nor An Siyao were suitable experimental subjects.
Following the address in the newspaper, Xia Yu arrived at the chemical plant.
After telling the guard, the guard, puzzled, led him to the office of the boss.
“Who are you?” the boss looked at the elderly woman in front of him with confusion.
“I’m here to apply for the translator position. I know Russian,” Xia Yu replied.
“Granny, we’re talking about Russian, not ‘e’ like in ‘swan’ or ‘goose,’ and it has nothing to do with poultry,” the middle-aged boss thought Xia Yu had misunderstood.
“I can read. I know it’s the ‘ren’ radical in ‘e’ (meaning ‘Russia’).” Xia Yu didn’t expect the boss to be quite humorous.
“Oh, granny, you can read? That’s really rare,” the boss smiled, merely expressing surprise at Xia Yu’s literacy.
Unwilling to explain further, Xia Yu directly asked, “Have you found someone already? If not, you can test my skills.”
“I know granny, you speak the dialect well, but here it’s mainly Russian,” the boss still didn’t believe him. Looking at the elderly woman in front of him, dressed simply, with calloused hands and an aged face, she was clearly a regular farmer.
Still, he followed Xia Yu’s suggestion and conducted a small test.
He took out his phone from his pocket, opened the translation app, and asked Xia Yu to say “Good morning.”
This was not difficult at all, and Xia Yu pronounced it accurately.
The boss uttered an “Ah.”
He looked at Xia Yu in surprise and said, “Now translate ‘Black fertilizer volatilizes and turns black.'”
This sentence, in Mandarin, was a tongue twister, but in Russian, it completely lost its effect.
The text that appeared on the phone’s translation app had some word order issues, but all the words he said were there. The word order problem was due to the translation software. The boss confirmed Xia Yu’s ability.
Putting the phone down, he enthusiastically grabbed Xia Yu’s hand: “I never thought there was such a hidden master in our small town.”
Finding a Russian translator wasn’t difficult, but finding one who also knew the local dialect was hard.
When dealing with someone who only spoke the dialect, if the translator didn’t know it, how could they translate?
To use such a translator, one would have to assign another translator who could bridge the dialect and Mandarin. A single sentence would have to go through two translators before reaching the other person’s ears, which was too cumbersome.
Now that he had Xia Yu, he was overjoyed.
“Let’s talk about salary and working hours,” Xia Yu said.
“For three days total, starting tomorrow around 2 PM until noon on the 30th, I can give you two thousand!” The boss immediately took out his wallet.
This price was acceptable.
“I can only work during the day,” Xia Yu added this condition to conceal the eight-hour time difference.
“No problem, but tomorrow night there’s a dinner…” the boss looked at Xia Yu.
“Just don’t go past nine o’clock,” Xia Yu replied.
“Okay.” The boss shook Xia Yu’s hand. “Your salary will be paid daily. I’ll give you eight hundred tomorrow night, seven hundred the day after, and the last five hundred at the end.”
“Okay.” Xia Yu knew the boss was afraid he might suddenly run away, so he chose installment payments.
After finishing the conversation with the boss, Xia Yu left the chemical plant and walked back toward the village.
“Two thousand in just three days?” Yin Shulan couldn’t believe it.
“This is the power of knowledge,” Xia Shu replied.
“But even if I learned, I wouldn’t be able to do it,” Yin Shulan admitted her self-awareness.
“This is indeed something you wouldn’t be able to learn, but you have another talent,” Xia Yu probed.
“What is it?”
“Preparing medicine,” Xia Yu said.
“Herbs? I do know a little,” Yin Shulan said. “But after the ban on unlicensed medical practice, I haven’t prepared medicine anymore.”
“You can?” Xia Yu was delighted. “Once the money issue is resolved, I’ll prove to you that this is the true path for you to become prosperous.”
The profit margin on medicines was also quite impressive.
After eight hours, he returned to his own body.
Looking at the doubled game points he had earned, Xia Yu confirmed that as long as he used someone else’s body to do what others hoped for, he would gain more game points.
This way, the speed at which he accumulated experience cards could be much faster.
However, this proved once again that dominating Dongzhi Township was indeed not what An Siyao wanted. During the entire process, An Siyao never showed any increase in game points.
The next morning, he told You Xue and Kong Hanyue that he had felt a call from nature and needed to travel for a week.
Then, he went to the bank, withdrew cash, and boarded the high-speed train.
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