Night, nine-thirty, Xia Dong.
"What, Fox Immortal, you've returned!?"
"Thank Mazu, bless the Chen ancestors, I can finally get rid of them!"
Sitting in his backyard, wearing a tank top, sipping tea, and scrolling through videos, Old Chen saw the message from Fox Immortal, saying he's about to reach Jiule City and asked him to help prepare a charcoal fire and meet at the ancestral hall.
The moment he saw the message, Old Chen felt a surge of joy, almost to the point of tears.
For Old Chen, the message from Fox Immortal was no less than a thunderbolt on a sunny day, shattering the darkness.
While Fox Immortal was away, life in Changxi Town remained unchanged. The tea farmers continued their routine inspections, pest control, and spraying, while tea factories in the village worked overtime to fulfill orders from the tea competition.
The atmosphere in Changxi Town was peaceful and harmonious. Everyone benefitted from the village-level tea competition, and some tea merchants were even looking to buy Upper Slope Mountain and summer teas for blending.
Everything was looking up.
However.
During this time, Old Chen was quite restless.
But with Fox Immortal's return, all difficulties and frustrations would be swept away!
"Village Chief, does it say Yongchun Buddha's Hand tea on the label? Is it a type of light Anxi Tieguanyin? I just Googled it and it says Yongchun Buddha's Hand has a citrus aroma, similar to the flavor of Gesha coffee beans..."
As Old Chen was receiving the message from Fox Immortal and tears of relief began to fall, suddenly, an awkward Xia Dong accent, mixed with stilted English expressions, came from inside his house.
A standard blonde, blue-eyed woman with tanned skin, wearing a bikini top and shorts, sporting beach sandals, ran out of Old Chen's house, holding a can of high mountain oolong tea worth 3,500 per jin.
She ran up to Old Chen and presented the Yongchun Buddha's Hand to him with both hands.
Compared to the gift box-packaged tea can, the American woman's flag-themed bikini was particularly eye-catching.
"Can you tell the difference? Just Yongchun Buddha's Hand," Old Chen snatched the tea can back, holding it tightly against his chest.
"Oh! Village Chief, you're underestimating me, I'm an SCA-certified senior barista in America," the foreign girl said confidently.
She felt that some things needed clarification.
Being a stripper wasn't her profession; it was something she chose out of necessity when she couldn't afford property taxes. She was a devout believer, but... when the American tax office pressured her, she had no choice but to sell her body.
After all...
If she couldn't pay the property tax, her mansion, worth over eight hundred thousand US dollars, would be auctioned off.
Mr. Chen said that if she pleased the old gentleman, he would handle the property tax issue for her.
"What coffee nonsense, just some burnt foreign soy milk, don't mess with my tea cabinet," Old Chen muttered as he tucked the tea leaves back into his arms.
"Chen! Your shower gel is all gone!" the foreign girl shouted from the bathroom inside.
"Use sulfur soap! Shower gel? You all are practically pickled already!" Old Chen said helplessly.
Chen Nian, besides donating money for temple repairs, also brought back two foreign girls for Fox Immortal.
His idea was for the monks to pray for the temple while the foreign believers recited scriptures on the side, creating a blend of East and West.
After all.
According to Chen Nian, Fox Immortal originated from Changxi Town but had skills that reached abroad.
When building a temple, how could it lack foreign followers to celebrate!
They were devout believers, but so poor they'd resorted to selling their services.
Ten thousand US dollars per person, and jobs arranged upon returning to their country.
Whoever pays their salary is their god.
The god of gods is their "daddy"!
Fox Immortal ≈ Daddy!
Chen Nian arranged everything, but he obviously forgot one thing.
These two foreign girls were so poor their underwear had holes from washing, and they were quite shameless.
They chose to stay at Old Chen's place.
And seeing these two foreigners, Old Chen got a headache.
If they weren't complaining about foreign soy milk being too sweet, they were wandering around the village in bikinis and shorts, petting dogs or playing with the village children.
They also said that tanning was healthy; their bronze skin would make "daddy" happy and tip them.
The villagers had varied opinions.
Not everyone was against it; some admired them, and some even came to the office asking if there were any channels to marry foreign women.
In short.
Seeing these two foreign girls gave Old Chen a headache, but all of this would become history soon.
Fox Immortal was back in the village.
Old Chen immediately planned to hand the two foreign girls over.
They were, after all, Chen Nian's offerings to Fox Immortal, so returning them to their rightful owner made perfect sense.
...
"Why does Old Chen's voice sound strange?"
Sitting in a black business car, having just listened to Old Chen's voice message, Ansheng showed a puzzled expression.
Old Chen's voice was as calm as ever.
But one could tell he was very excited.
"He probably has a surprise for Fox Immortal," Lin Bingyun said with a hint of a smile.
The reason for the village chief's excitement was something Lin Bingyun knew.
Under Chen Nian's leadership, Changxi Town's village committee agreed to help enshrine Fox Immortal and build a temple.
Chen Nian's two million dollars were more than enough.
But after Lin Ying heard the news, she also chipped in some money for land acquisition and construction.
What was originally meant to be a clay statue became 99.99% gold.
The land meant to be 500 square meters now included a mountain, and what was supposed to be a reinforced concrete structure became a genuine, traditional craft wooden work.
The first temple for Fox Immortal.
Lin Ying spared no expense, and if not for potential security issues, she sincerely wanted to place her pure gold water law bell in the Fox Immortal Temple as an incense burner for guests.
Of course.
This was something Lin Ying hadn't said, and neither had Lin Bingyun.
Lin Ying planned to take Fox Immortal to the Fox Immortal Temple during the Mid-Autumn Festival as a small surprise.
The originally shabby 500-square-meter shack became an ultra-luxurious estate covering hundreds of acres, nestled between mountains and waters.
The above-ground Fox Immortal Temple was open for tourists to worship.
The underground area was a luxurious house for Fox Immortal.
"Fox Immortal!"
Seeing the black business convoy entering the village, Old Chen, who was anxiously waiting at the gate, was suddenly full of joy.
"You, sir, you're finally back! Please come, the offerings from that brat Chen Nian have been waiting with me all this time."
"Offerings?"
Lying on an airline seat, Fox Immortal waved his hand and said, "We'll talk about those things later!"
"My schedule is very full, there are still two gangs of bandits in the mountains that I haven't dealt with, and tonight I came back just to fry some tea and participate in the city-level tea competition."
"All the tea leaves have been handled, right?"
Fox Immortal said, inviting Old Chen to board and letting Lin Bingyun drive the car.
"Ah? Then..."
"Just keep them with you for now, I trust your integrity among everyone in the village," Fox Immortal confidently stated.
Ansheng trusted Old Chen's integrity very much.
Holding the village committee in his left hand, and holding prestige in his right, he never abused his power, and he managed the collective interests of the village meticulously, earning the respect of all villagers.
Chen Nian's offerings, whether foreign girls or US dollars, could just be left at Old Chen's place.
Ansheng was indeed very busy.
After frying tea, he needed to find A Bai and Grandma Hedgehog, and then rush to catch a flight back to Chang'an, having no time to look at the offerings.
"Hey, do you think if we suddenly jumped out of the washing machine box and shook hard, would daddy take out a wad of US dollars and hit us with it?" the self-proclaimed senior barista asked her partner as she tied a red ribbon around herself inside the box.
"US dollars are nice,"
"But I still hope to see daddy swipe my backside crack like a card at a POS machine," said the foreign girl who had just finished her warm bath, her face full of pious wishfulness.
"Wow! That's a good idea of yours! Too bad we don't have a POS machine!" the barista said regretfully.
"But we have WeChat and Alipay! Daddy can directly scan us, it's just annoying that even abroad, the tax office still wants us to pay taxes."