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Wei Ruo had already made some adjustments.
But the village chief shook his head, his attitude firm. “No. One hundred taels means one hundred taels. And the yearly one thousand wen for the spring water cannot be reduced.”
“Is there really no room for negotiation at all?” Wei Ruo asked.
“None,” the chief insisted, refusing to budge, looking proud and arrogant.
“Alright then. There’s no need to continue this discussion.”
Wei Ruo suddenly stood up and headed out with Xiumei and Steward Yu.
She walked away decisively—she wasn’t pretending.
The village chief’s expression changed instantly. He hadn’t expected this young Master Xu to just leave like that.
This was far from what he’d predicted. He thought that since Master Xu had spent so much effort finding this location and seemed wealthy, as long as he pressed harder, the deal wouldn’t be difficult.
Seeing the three already seven or eight steps away, the chief hurriedly ordered the villagers to stop them.
“Stop right there! You’re not allowed to leave!”
Wei Ruo ignored his shouting completely.
Seeing that yelling didn’t work, the chief quickly instructed the young men of the village, “Hurry! Stop them!”
Several young villagers rushed forward and blocked the group’s path.
Forced to stop, Wei Ruo turned back to face them. “Village Chief Wang, what is the meaning of this?”
“Please don’t be in such a rush, Young Master Xu. Sit back down and let’s continue discussing properly,” the chief said. His complexion was unpleasant, but he still put on a forceful posture.
Life had not been easy for the village these past two years. Someone was finally here to bring them money—how could they just let them walk away?
As village chief, he represented the villagers in negotiations. If he succeeded, not only would he personally receive more silver, he would also win more respect from the villagers.
But if the negotiation fell apart and they lost this income, the villagers would blame him, and his authority would suffer.
He knew he had made a misjudgment—this young Master Xu was not as easy to manipulate as he had imagined. But things had already reached this point; for the sake of his pride and the villagers’ benefit, he couldn’t just let Master Xu walk away.
Seeing this, Steward Yu felt annoyed. If he had known they would encounter such unreasonable villagers, he would have brought more people along. Their estate certainly didn’t lack strong young men.
The only reason the village chief dared to be so arrogant was that he saw they had brought only a few people, and although their young master wore fine clothes, he was still just a businessman buying land to open a distillery—not someone with government backing.
Xiumei instinctively stepped closer to Wei Ruo, ready to protect her at any moment.
“But just now, Village Chief Wang said there was no room for negotiation, didn’t he?” Wei Ruo asked.
“The price can’t change, but the business can still be discussed further,” the chief replied.
He was the village chief—he had already spoken, and he couldn’t take back his words.Even if he had to use tougher methods, he would force this deal to go through at the price he named. As long as he succeeded and the villagers received more money, then what he did today would be justified, and no one would dare criticize him.
“So you’re trying to force us to buy, Village Chief?” Wei Ruo let out a short laugh. She had experienced tough negotiations before, but this was the first time she had met someone so domineering and unreasonable.
The chief looked at her with cold arrogance. “Don’t say things like ‘force to buy,’ it sounds ugly. Our Daqing Mountain is a wonderful place—beautiful scenery, clear water. Otherwise, why would Young Master Xu go through so much trouble to buy land from us?”
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