The village head said he didn’t have one.
Wan Jian’an then said, “Let’s all come up with one then. The name of the lake up there is not bad, Sunset Lake. It’s very aesthetic. Let’s give the reservoir a pleasant name too.”
The village head said with a grin, “People with a sense of culture should be naming it, let’s do this. Why not let Wenxuan come up with a name?”
Everyone then turned to look at Mo Wenxuan.
But Wan Jian’an spoke up, “Hey, how about this? Everyone here, including Lizheng, come up with a name. When the time comes, I will use the one I think is the best. How does that sound?”
“OK, fine!” The village head had no choice but to agree.
Mo Wenxuan stepped forward first, rolled up his sleeves, brushed off the dust on his cuff, and then said, “The reason we are building this reservoir is for every household to live comfortably and happily, and to continually live a wealthy and peaceful life. I propose to name the reservoir as ’Jianing’ Reservoir.”
“Jianing Reservoir? This is good,” Wan Jian’an nodded, then asked the village head, “What about you? Do you have a better proposition?”
The village chief said, “What good ideas could an uneducated old man like me have? I’ll go with Wenxuan’s suggestion. Let’s call it ’Jianing’.”
Wan Jian’an then asked Nan Feng, “Girl, although you haven’t had much of an education, I can see that you are a smart girl. Why don’t you come up with a name too?”
Nan Feng wasn’t good at Chinese or naming in her past life. However, she had once visited a reservoir on a mountain and remembered it was named “Minan Reservoir”. So, she blurted out, “How about we call it ’Minan’?”
Unexpectedly, Wan Jian���an approved right away: “This is good, it’s a good choice. ’Minan’ is grander than ’Jianing’. ’Min’ represents the entire nation, ’Jia’ only represents the individual, so the girl’s idea is more in line with the original intention of building the reservoir.”
Nan Feng thought to herself, see, as expected, fate has a peculiar way of favoring her.
Wan Jian’an then asked Wild Brother, “What about you, Wild Brother? Do you have any ideas?”
Wild Brother casually said, “I’ll go with Nan Feng. Minan, as in ’the country is prosperous and the people are safe.’”
Nan Feng didn’t expect that her casual name suggestion, following Wan Jian’an and Wild Brother’s explanation, would carry such profound implications. She was truly in awe of her own wit.
In the end, Wan Jian’an asked Lizheng, but Lizheng was too lazy to think. Besides, it was clear that Wan Jian’an favored the name “Minan”. If his suggestion turned out not as good, wouldn’t he be losing face?
Lizheng said, “Let’s go with what the little girl said. Let’s just call it ’Minan’.”
So, that’s how the name of the reservoir got decided. Everyone cheered again.
Next, the village head arranged for the unmarried girls in the village to perform mountain songs, and also arranged for the men to do duet songs with the girls. It was very lively.
As a person of merit, Nan Feng naturally sat in the audience to watch the performance.
But now, it was winter, the wind was strong in the mountains, and it was freezing cold. Her nose was running because of the cold.
She was sitting next to Wild Brother. Seeing Nan Feng shivering, he would have taken off his coat to drape over her if it was a usual day. But there were many villagers watching, so surely it wouldn’t look good if he did such a thing.
Nan Feng sneezed, thinking to herself why her constitution was so weak, despite getting stronger compared to when she first arrived, and catching a cold so easily. Back when she was at the Special Agent School, she didn’t get a cold even taking cold showers in the middle of winter.
She thought about going back home, but then remembered the village head was supposed to distribute wages after the performance ended. If she left and the village head decided to go back on his word and not pay her, wouldn’t she have lost out on two month’s wages?
About the wages for this project, Mo Wenxuan had all the bills. Who went up the mountain to dig up the mud for how many days, who delivered how many meals – it was all performance-based pay.