The usually calm and steady village chief immediately became nervous.
“You caused trouble?”
“No, no, no!”
The little girl hurriedly waved her hands in denial.
Behind her, Lin Guanghui secretly laughed.
Tang Tang gritted her teeth.
“A few days ago in town, I helped someone with a small favor. Then… then… to thank me, they gave me some things. I can’t use them, so I thought Village Chief Uncle could arrange them properly.”
She finally managed to finish the sentence in one breath.
The village chief also relaxed.
Lin Guanghui thought silently:
Dad, you relaxed way too early.
“What did they give you? Let me take a look and help you think it over.”
According to the village chief’s way of thinking, how valuable could a thank-you gift possibly be during times this poor?
And what did she mean by “arrange them”?
Tang Tang silently handed him the stack.
The old village chief stared blankly.
Paper?
She handed him a stack of paper?
He took it and looked closer.
Yes, definitely paper.
Paper with bright red official seals stamped on it.
What was written there…
Acceptance Letter.
Acceptance letter?
What was that?
Acceptance letter?!
Realization suddenly hit him.
He instantly lowered his head to look at the red seal underneath.
Steel Factory!
“Y-you-you…”
The little girl stood there honestly.
“There are more underneath.”
The village chief mechanically flipped through the remaining pages.
They all looked the same, except for different red seals.
Textile Factory.
Sock Factory.
Coal Factory.
Lumber Factory.
Pencil Factory.
…
It seemed like every single factory in town was represented.
There had to be twenty or thirty sheets altogether.
Were the factories suddenly unable to recruit workers anymore?
Impossible!
Then just how massive of a favor had this girl done for them to give away something every family dreamed of obtaining?
“How huge of a favor did you help them with?”
The little girl awkwardly smiled.
“Hehe… just a tiny little favor…”
She even held up her pinky finger to demonstrate.
Clearly, she didn’t want to explain further.
Since she had already handed over what needed to be handed over, Tang Tang immediately decided to retreat.
This kind of scene really didn’t suit her at all.
“Um, Village Chief Uncle, these are all for the village. You can arrange them however you want. People just need to report within one month. I don’t understand these things anyway. And don’t count me in either, okay? I’m leaving now!”
The moment she finished speaking, she turned and ran as if wolves were chasing her.
“It’s dark outside. I’ll walk you back.”
Lin Guanghui quietly followed after her.
Looking at the little girl, he couldn’t help laughing.
“You did something amazing for the village. The entire village should thank you. Why do you still look so uncomfortable?”
“No, no, no. I really can’t handle scenes like this. Besides, I can’t use those things anyway. If I don’t give them to the village, should I just give them to random strangers? And I’m going to live here in the future too.”
She had clearly gone out of her way to secure benefits specifically for the village, yet she still acted as though she was reluctantly tossing them away.
How…
How could such a cute little girl exist?
After escorting her home, Lin Guanghui turned around and headed back.
Meanwhile, the village chief had finally counted the acceptance letters.
Forty-eight.
A full forty-eight acceptance letters.
Things people normally struggled desperately to obtain even a single copy of.
There were twelve factories in town altogether.
Each factory had contributed four positions.
Lin Guanghui raised an eyebrow.
Jiang Tao must have been worried the little girl would suffer losses, so he secretly secured fifty percent more positions for her.
But after thinking about it carefully, even selling those clothes at double the price would have caused people to fight over them.
The little girl had indeed accepted a loss.
Mm.
Taozi handled this matter well.
Praise deserved.
The village chief was still emotional.
“You tell me, these things would count as enormous favors no matter who received them. Yet this child handed them all to our village just like that. What a huge kindness she’s shown us. Our village is truly blessed.
How deep of a relationship do we even have with her? We only helped her casually for a few days, yet she has already helped us this much. This child is simply kind-hearted.
Remember this. If anything ever happens to that child in the future, all of you must put your hearts into helping her. Treat her matters like your own family’s matters. Understood?”
Only after hearing all the children agree did he stop.
“And Guanghui, you too. That child isn’t familiar with anyone in the village yet, but she’s relatively familiar with you. Keep an eye on her. If she lacks anything or encounters any trouble, help her out.”
“I know. I will.”
After handing over the acceptance letters, Tang Tang stopped worrying about the matter entirely.
She had no idea how the village chief distributed them.
After all, the entire Xiangyang Production Team had over two thousand people under his management.
In any case, more than twenty days later, forty-eight people departed for factory jobs under the envious gazes of the entire commune and officially became state-employed workers.
With that matter finally settled, Tang Tang could finally relax.
The next major event was repairing her house.
She was about to have a home that truly belonged to her.
Just thinking about it made her excited.
Lin Guanghui had been away from home for ten years and rarely returned, so the village felt somewhat unfamiliar to him.
Recently, whenever he had free time, he simply wandered around the village.
This didn’t affect Tang Tang much.
Usually, when they encountered each other on the road, they exchanged a few words and nothing more.
After the autumn harvest ended and the grain tax was submitted, work on Tang Tang’s house officially began.
Since the house was village collective property, the money would eventually be distributed among all villagers.
And with all the recent good news—including over ten people from their own village obtaining factory jobs—the villagers were in exceptionally good spirits.
After all, when good opportunities appeared, naturally one prioritized their own village first.
So during the two days of house construction, the village chief personally covered lunch for all the workers, serving meals in the production team courtyard.
In only two days, the villagers built an interior partition wall, added a heated wall system inside the outer wall, constructed a heated brick bed, built a stove, modified the windows, enclosed the courtyard walls, and even completed a chicken coop, pigpen, and storage shed.
Anything a rural household could possibly need had been prepared.
They even dug a well behind the house.
The villagers were deeply grateful to Tang Tang, so naturally everyone worked with exceptional care and dedication.
Some skilled carpenters even built all the cabinets, tables, chairs, and stools needed inside the house.
The village chief still felt somewhat guilty, so he expanded the front and back courtyards even further.
Now it truly had become a large homestead.
The front and back yards together totaled nearly one and a half mu of land.
Though large courtyards were good in rural areas, Tang Tang was still just one young girl living alone.
No matter how nice it was, if the place became too large, people would still worry about her safety.