Watching Narcissus Brown leave with her two daughters, Peter Brown turned to his grandfather in confusion, "Grandpa, what were you talking about? I didn’t understand."
Alvin Brown smiled happily at his grandson, "Peter, it’s a good thing, a very good thing!"
Peter was even more perplexed, "How is it a good thing?"
"Peter, our village has always had certain traditions, which we keep to ourselves because our village has always been poor. One of those traditions, like you saw just now, is when you helped Narcissus and they have nothing with which to repay you. In those cases, they agree to give their daughter to you to be your woman."
Peter looked at his grandfather in shock, unsure of what to say. After hesitating a while, he finally managed to say, "Grandpa, actually... I already have a woman in Flower Creek Village!"
It was then that Peter thought of Quinn Walker.
"Are you married to her?"
"No, it’s Quinn from the village, we... we were together..."
Peter blushed as he spoke.
Alvin grunted and said, "I know the child. She’s fine, but you have potential. Even a good girl like her can’t be your legitimate wife!"
Peter was even more confused, wondering why his grandfather was talking about having a legitimate wife.
Peter began to feel like his grandfather was trapped in the past, as if he was still living in a feudal society.
Alvin had Peter sit down before stating, "The current policy is one man, one wife, right? But this policy does not exist in our village. What you don’t know is that there are many men in the village who have two to three women. As long as you’re capable and the other party is willing, there’s nothing strange about having multiple women!"
Peter was at a loss, completely unaware such things occurred.
"This is really happening?"
"Peter, the village is poor. Sometimes, some women can’t support themselves, even some families struggle. Even though the policy doesn’t allow it, some families have private agreements to send their daughters to better off families. This is quite common, as long as outsiders don’t know."
Peter was stunned and looked at his grandfather.
"Don’t worry, Narcissus is a smart woman, apart from wanting to repay you, she wants her daughters to have a good life. It’s a shrewd move on her part. Even if her daughters were to marry, they would only marry villagers who couldn’t compare to you. Only by being with you can they have clothes to wear and food to eat. Narcissus knows she’s gaining from this, and the Jackson sisters are just your women, not your wives. You should be clear about that."
What on earth was happening!
Peter felt slightly overwhelmed. The two beautiful girls had apparently been agreed upon by their parents.
Just as Peter was about to refuse, he thought of the gentle visage of the two girls and he was unable to utter the words of refusal.
Alvin chuckled lightly. "The two children aren’t bad, you don’t need to worry too much. Having a home here isn’t bad either. When the time comes, let them help manage the household. You can spread your branches in this place."
Alvin was clearly happy about the arrangement and didn’t care much about Peter’s thoughts. After speaking, he turned and left the yard humming.
Watching Alvin’s departing figure, Peter was slightly dumbfounded.
Shaking his head, Peter didn’t know what to say.
"Peter, are you going to collect the herbal medicine today?" Just as Peter was thinking, Ben Taylor quickly arrived and asked.
"Yes, we should collect as much as we can!"
Despite having True Master Smith’s medicine field, Peter knew that Lingcao was a kind of plant that he would want as much of as possible.
Upon arriving at the field with Ben, some early risers had already begun to gather Lingcao.
Seeing the honest faces of those around him, Peter felt his heart clearing up. This mountain village was indeed a very useful place for him, and the Spirit Vein was pretty good as well. It seemed he should make some plans for it.
"Peter, we need to finalize the contract soon."
Even Alvin was already here. After joking with everyone for a while, he turned to Peter and started the conversation.
"Grandpa, I’ve thought it over. The first issue we need to tackle here is the electricity. I’ll go to the town to see what can be done. We need electricity for development."
Alvin replied, "The town has been planning to bring electricity for a while now. But they’re considering if the villagers can afford it. However, the government does have demands. New Rural Construction can’t proceed without electricity. I will chase this up, but transportation in and out of the village is a problem."
Looking around, Peter said, "Setting up communication lines may be difficult. I think we can request the county to set up a communication base station here, then we will have signal here. We can use cell phones to contact the outside and even go online. This is necessary otherwise, the village will remain isolated."
"How much would that cost?"
"Not much, one to two hundred thousand should be enough. I’ll finance it. As long as the county agrees, we must proceed with it urgently. I will head back to deal with this today."
"Yeah, you should contact the village people when you get to the town. They’ve already taken your contract materials to the town. If possible, finalize the contract there and sign it directly. In that way, you’ll have something to base your development on."
Seeing that his grandfather had already thought out everything for him, Peter nodded, "Okay, I’ll leave right away. Please take care of everything here, grandpa. I’ve left the necessary money in the house. It should be enough."
"Are you familiar with the road? Should I have someone guide you?"
"Don’t worry, grandpa. I’ve familiarized myself with the way. I should leave now while it’s still early."
Alvin nodded, "Take care on the road, Peter. The village is depending on you."
As he turned to leave, Peter saw Lana Jackson with a reddened face, shyly watching him. Peter’s heart leapt, and he also felt a bit embarrassed.
Peter nodded at Lana, "Try to feed your mother more nutrients, she needs to recuperate. You and your sister should also eat well, too. Purchase good clothes to wear. I’ll get you some new clothes when I go to the city this time."
Lana Jackson tugged on the hem of her dress and said softly, "Be careful on the road, Peter."
Peter did not know why he had said those words. When he raised his head and saw his grandfather’s grinning face, Peter quickly turned and left.