Chapter 142: To Build a Hot Springs Resort

Chen Xiao Cai and Lu Lin discussed the feasibility of building a hot springs resort. Lu Lin had enjoyed hot springs several times in modern society, but he didn't know much about how to build a hot springs hotel.

Although that was the case, Lu Lin was still able to make several inspiring and constructive suggestions on this matter.

"Lin Ge, are you suggesting we should use bamboo as landscape?"

Lu Lin nodded, "Yeah! We should challenge ourselves and obtain materials from local sources, everything is the best when it looks effortless."

Chen Xiao Cai thought to himself, 'We can save a lot of money if we make use of locally available materials. Building a hot springs resort needs a lot of money, it's a huge project, I should listen to Lin Ge.'

There were also many local bamboo craftsmen in Sha County, Xiao Cai thought he could also order a batch of bamboo bowls and cups from the craftsmen.

Chen Xiao Cai left the county yamen after a heated discussion with Lu Lin.

Lu Lin looked at Chen Xiao Cai's retiring figure and held his chin with a worried look.

Chen Xiao Mi walked in and asked, "What's wrong? Are you worried about something?"

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes, I am actually a little worried. Cai grows so fast over the years, soon I'll have nothing to teach him."

Chen Xiao Mi smiled and said, "Don't worry, Cai will always admire you. Even if you don't have much to teach him one day, you will still be held in high esteem by him."

Lu Lin's eyes were wide opened with disbelief, "Really? Does Cai really admire me?"

......

Chen Xiao Cai started the hot springs project in full swing, and he had made a few field trips himself.

Originally, the villagers didn't really take the hot springs project seriously. In the eyes of the villagers, building something called a resort to relax and enjoy a hot bath was ridiculous, you could do all those things for free at home.

However, when the villagers saw that Chen Xiao Cai devoted so much energies to this project, they became more interested.

There were a few hot springs in the area. Chen Xiao Cai selected a less remoted area and made a specific plan with a few architects about the resort.

No one in the village had heard of such thing called 'resort'. The architects were all great professional, but they found it challenging to build a resort in the mountainous area.

Chen Xiao Cai shared Lu Lin's suggestions and his own thoughts with the architects, leaving the architects in awe of him. They constantly asked for all kinds of details, making Chen Xiao Cai tongue-tied.

Chen Xiao Cai didn't know how to answer those questions, so he always ended up turning to Lu Lin. Lu Lin was annoyed by Chen Xiao Cai's endless questions, and deep down he still enjoyed how Cai always asked him for help and suggestions.

With join efforts from Cai, Lu Lin and the architects, the architectural drawing was finalized.

"This is the Sulphur Hot Springs, right?" Lu Lin paid a field visit this day.

"What's so special about this Sulphur Hot Springs" asked Chen Xiao Mi.

"This spring water can detoxify and moisturize the skin, it's good for the overall well-being as well."

Chen Xiao Mi glanced at Lu Lin and doubted Lu Lin's words.

......

Chen Xiao Cai finalized more details before he talked to the neighboring Village Heads about recruiting workers.

Chen Xiao Cai enjoyed a very good reputation in Sha County and all the Village Heads took the recruitment very seriously.

"Village Head, I'm very interested in this job, how much is the pay?"

The Village Head said, "This is going to be a big project, Boss Chen said the pay is going to vary from 20 cents to 30 cents per day, depending on how hard you work. And the workers will get paid every seven days, it's very flexible, you can quit or take a break anytime."

" We can Boss Chen, 20-30 cents per day is a very good pay."

Chen Xiao Cai's reputation in Sha County was quite good. Chen Xiao Cai had hired a lot of villagers for his commercial street and restaurants, never had he been in arrears of wages.

The villagers started discussing, "Village Head, you keep saying this is going to be a big project, what exactly is it?"

"Something I'm sure you've never heard of, a hot springs resort for people to relax!"

The news about the Hot Springs Pavilion had long been spread across the county and the villagers were not that surprised to hear it.

"Wow, to build a resort in the mountainous area, how much money does that require?"

The Village Head shook his head and said, "Who knows? I heard Boss Chen plans to open a mountain road to the Hot Springs Resort. And I think Boss Chen has the amount of money to make anything happen, I heard he made over 1000 tales of silver from one trip to the capital city."

The villagers looked at each other with disbelief, they found it hard to believe someone could make so much money from one trip.

"Alright, I do need to warn you first, Boss Chen plans to hire from not only the neighboring villages, but also the neighboring counties. I'm afraid the competition will be intense."

The villagers asked suspiciously, "There will be people from other counties as well?"

The Village Head nodded and said, "I'm afraid so, our Sha County now enjoys such a good reputation among all the neighboring counties. There are many people in other counties who want to come find work."

The villagers soon felt the pressure, there weren't as many job opportunities in other counties, and the seasonal workers' wage was very low in other counties, of course they would be interested in working for Chen Xiao Cai for more money and better treatment.

The Village Head paused a second to let the news sink in, then he said, "The villagers in other counties have heard the big news as well, they talked to Boss Chen and said they were willing to take a less wage as long as the work was reliable, but Boss Chen promised them they would get a fair pay and fair treatment as long as they worked hard."

The villagers were angry that the outside villagers offered to take less pay. They now just wanted Chen Xiao Cai to hire them.

"I do have a question, those villagers from the neighboring counties say they want to work for Boss Chen, but there's a practical question, where are they going to stay? It's impossible for them to go home every dat."

"That's not a problem. Boss Chen has several inns in town and he doesn't mind making one a dormitory building."

"That is so generous."

"Guys, we need to work harder, we can't let those outsiders outshine us!"

The villagers all nodded in agreement.

Soon the villagers all worked at the site with full steam. Almost every villager in the neighboring counties had organized a team to work for Chen Xiao Cai. The road, the landscape and the hotel all began to take shape within a short period of time.

......

Chen Xiao Cai adopt the old way of distributing wages, he listened to Lu Lin's suggestion instead. He divided the villagers into five large engineering teams, and he had appointed a leader for each engineering team.

Under the five engineering teams, there were several small teams of three to five people. The small teams were made of people from the same clan.

Chen Xiao Cai would assign works to the team leaders, then the team leaders would divide the work into small parts for the teams under them.

Chen Xiao Cai also came up with an idea to encourage the workers, they would get paid by workload instead of work time.

In this way, everyone wanted to work harder to finish the workload faster so they could ask for more work. No one had even slacked off, because his teammates would remind him to work harder.

There were even teams who stayed up late to do more work.

Some narrow-minded villagers didn't get the idea of building a hot springs resort, they would talk about Chen Xiao Cai behind his back and talk this project down. But Chen Xiao Cai wasn't bothered by that negativity at all.

Chen Xiao Cai was busy here and Chen Xiao Mai did not idle his time away.

Chen Xiao Mai was very interested in the restaurant in the resort, and he was also interested in cooking for a large group of people using a large canteen cauldron. He volunteered to cook for all the engineering teams, and he enjoyed cooking with the heavy cauldron which tended to be quite hard to work with for ordinary people.

Chen Xiao Mai was a great cook, all the teams spoke highly of him.

"Young Master Chen is such a great person! He volunteers to cook for us, a young master!"

"His cooking skills are amazing!"

"And he is always so nice and friendly! He has never put on airs in front of us!"

......

In the County Yamen.

"Magistrate Lu, are you and Cai really building a hot springs resort?" Ji Cheng Kang asked.

Lu Lin nodded, "Yeah! Once the resort is completed, we can have hot baths in winter, it's so great to have a hot springs bath in winter!

Lu Lin couldn't help but miss the convenience in modern society, people could have hot showers every day in winter. But in this time and space, having a shower in winter was a luxury.

Ji Cheng Kang shook his head and said, "To build a resort for a hot bath? That seems a bit extreme!

Lu Lin replied, "I see where you come from, General Ji, but it provides job opportunities, and it will become an attraction for rich people in the neighboring counties."

Ji Cheng Kang frowned, but he found what Lu Lin said made some sense. The construction of a hot spring hotel was a huge project, but it might benefit the people in the long run.

"What if no one visits the resort?"

Lu Lin laughed, "I hope not, I'm sure people will be very interested in the resort."

"When will the peace talks start?" Lu Lin asked.

Ji Cheng Kang rubbed his chin and said, "Next spring, maybe the emperor will send a princess to marry the ruler of Liao Dynasty to make peace."

Lu Lin held his chin and said, "Really? Hopefully everything goes well!"

Ji Cheng Kang said, "I think the Liaos will be happy to make peace with us, they are having some internal strife now and I don't think they can afford to turn us down."

Lu Lin let out a sigh of relief on hearing that. If the war broke out, Chen Xiao Cai's stores in Sha County would be ruined. As an official, he couldn't run anywhere, he must stay in Sha County and fight the Liaos. And he was not ready to die for the country.

Lu Lin has been very busy recently. There were more merchants from the Liao Dynasty coming to Sha County to do business. And he had been trying to build good relations with those merchants.

......

In the capital city.

Ji Yun An sat in front of the window and stared at the red plum blossoming out the window.

Ji Yun An had been communicating with Chen Xiao Mai by letter, and Ji Yun An kept all the letters.

It used to be Chen Xiao Cai wrote the letters at Chen Xiao Mai's dictation, but recently it looked like the letters were all written by Chen Xiao Mai himself.

Even though the handwritings were terrible, Ji Yun An cherished them so much and he would read them over and over again.

"Yun An, what is this?! A sketch of drumstick?" One of Ji Yun An's classmates named Wei Qiyu asked curiously.

Ji Yun An put the letter away and looked at Wei Qiyu in the eye, "Aren't you supposed to be reviewing the study material now?"

Wei Qiyu stroked his hair and said, "I've done some study already, but you, Yun An, all the scholars have high hopes on you, but what are you doing? Staring at a sketch of drumstick? Hmm, to be honest, that's a horrible sketch!"

Ji Yun An glared at Wei Qiyu and said, "Don't talk nonsense, it's a pretty sketch."

Wei Qiyu tilted his head and thought, 'Why would Yun An get so defensive about an ugly sketch?'

Wei Qiyu then added, "Yun An, your drawing skills are excellent, I don't think the drumstick is drawn by you, is it?"

Ji Yun An glared at Wei Qiyu and said, "You are really talkative."

Wei Qiyu looked at Ji Yun An and thought, "He is not admitting, and he is not denying, maybe this sketch is from his sweetheart? But no daughter of an eminent family would draw a drumstick and send it to her sweetheart! What on earth is going on?'

Wei Qiyu looked at Ji Yun An and tilted his head, "I know you often send letters to Sha County. Who are you writing to? Someone you care about deeply?"

Ji Yun An lowered his head and changed the subject, "Qiyu, you are turning eighteen this year, are you engaged yet? Do you want to pay tax if you are not?"

Wei Jiyu touched his chin and said, "Tax doesn't bother me."

"Of course Young Master Wei isn't bothered by money, but it might make you look bad, people may think you are unpopular." Ji Yun An teased Wei Qiyu.

Wei Jiyu scratched his head and said, "Oh no, that's giving me a headache."

Ji Yun An glanced at Wei Qiyu and said, "Your mother seems to be very anxious though!"

Wei Jiyu smiled and said, "I'm not anxious to be honest, get married isn't as great as it sounds like. More often than not, women will become shrews after they get married."

Ji Yun An glanced at Wei Qiyu and teased, "Is this your father's experience?"

Wei Qiyu soon covered his mouth, "Uhm, no!"