Li Ming looked at the old madam and asked, "Are all the children in the orphanage today?"
"Yes, all of them are here." The old madam replied.
"Alright, call all of them outside." Li Ming told the old couple and stood up. She walked to the front yard and looked at the old and barely standing house in front of her. She sighed.
The old madam had left to call all the children outside. Li Ming asked the old man, "If you were making enough money, why didn't you renovate this house?"
"I also wanted to renovate it but my wife thought that it will make the villagers suspicious." The old man (Old Mo) was clearly embarrassed.
Li Ming didn't know whether to praise the old madam or call her stupid. On one hand it was right that if they renovated the house, there would be questions but at the same time what's the point of earning money if you couldn't even afford a proper house.
After a few minutes, the old madam came out with 28 children. The children stood in a group and bowed to Li Ming.
Li Ming shorted out the children in different groups. All the children who were younger than 10 were placed in one group. Only two children were younger than 5, Li Ming asked the old madam to take both of them aside.
Then she placed three girls of her own age and one girl slightly younger than them, in another group.
After that she divided the remaining children into three more groups.
The old owner of her body had known these children for years. That's how she knew which of these children were good in which kind of work.
The old couple were confused, so the old madam asked, "Miss Li, why are you dividing them in groups?"
Li Ming looked at the first group of 8 children who were younger than 10 and said, "Old Mo, I want you to teach these children how to read and write. Can you do that?"
"As you wish, Miss Li." The old man bowed and accepted the task.
"The rest of you will also learn with the old sir for two hours every day. Is that clear?" Li Ming looked at the rest of the children and they all nodded their heads.
"Good. Also from now on, you all don't need to go out and work. I'll provide food, clothes and other necessities for you all." Li Ming told the surprised children standing in front of her.
Then she looked at the second group which had four girls, "You all can cook, right?" Li Ming asked them.
When the four girls nodded their heads, she asked, "I'm going to train you four in cooking special dishes. Do you want to learn or is there anything else you want to do?"
The four girls excitedly accepted her first offer. Li Ming nodded her head and looked at the third group. There were three children in this group, one boy and two girls.
"You all know the needle work, Right?" Li Ming asked. Again the three kids nodded their heads.
"Good, then the three of you will train with me in needle work." She told them.
Li Ming then looked at the last group. This group had 11 children. "I want to train you in martial arts. Do you all agree?"
In response to her question a loud yes could be heard.
"Alright! Then it's settled. You all will start your classes with the old sir from tomorrow. So...all of you want to see some magic?" Li Ming asked the group of children standing in front of her.
When the children again echoed a loud yes, she asked them to wait for her there. She told two boys to bring something to plant seeds.
After a few moments, the two boys returned with trowels in their hands. She brought them outside the house and gave some weird looking seeds to them. The seeds had runes all over them.
She asked them to sow a seed at every corner of the fence of the orphanage. After 5 minutes, the boys returned after completing the task.
Li Ming told them to go back inside the orphanage. After the boys went inside, she closed her eyes and focused a little bit of her energy on the seeds.
Soon after vines sprouted out of the seeds and started covering the fence. When the vines had covered the entire fence, Li Ming also returned back inside.
The people inside had also seen the vines but they stayed silent.
Li Ming asked them all to stand behind her in the front yard. Everyone did as she said. Li Ming faced the house and again closed her eyes. She had been preserving her powers for the past two days. She focused on her energy and directed it towards the house.
Everyone was confused by Li Ming's behavior but no one dared to disturb her. Soon everyone saw something that left them in awe.
The house which was nearly destroyed was changing into something new. There was originally only a single floor but now the house which was constructing itself in front of them had two floors. The design of the house was a little different than what they had seen before. It was simple but beautiful. Barely after five minutes, there was a complete new house in front of them.
They all looked at Li Ming with pure admiration and curiosity. Li Ming opened her eyes and looked at the house. Although it was not exactly what she wanted, but due to her limited powers they had to do with it for now.
She looked at the others and found them gawking at her. "What? Don't you want to decorate your front and back yard?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
The children again nodded their heads but this time with a lot more excitement.
Li Ming took out some vials with different color liquids. She opened the first vial and emptied it in the front yard. After a few seconds, the whole front yard was covered in grass, perfectly mowned, of course!
Then she emptied two more vials and the front yard changed into a beautiful garden. There were various colored flowers. There were also some fruit trees. At one side of the garden was a swing covered beautifully in vines.
On the other side of the garden was a very large table with at least 40 seats.
After finishing, Li Ming looked at the stupefied children and the old couple and said, "Let's go to the back yard."
All of them followed her to the back yard. This time Li Ming emptied two vials and stood at the side. Soon the back yard also changed. The area around the well got covered with tiles and a flower bed.
The rest of the back yard changed into a soldier training place.
"What do you think? Do you all like your new house?" Li Ming asked the audience.
It took some time but finally everyone came out of their trance state. "We love it. This is so beautiful. How did you do it? What is your cultivation level?" One of the girls asked with pure curiosity.
"Didn't I said that I'm going to show you some magic? That's it, just a little magic." Li Ming said.
Li Ming brought everyone inside the house. There was a kitchen, a dinning room, a storeroom, a library with paper and ink, 15 bedrooms and a common room.
When finally everyone had looked over the entire house and was sure that their eyes was not playing tricks with them, they all kneeled down in front of Li Ming and thanked her while kowtowing. According to them, this Young Miss was sure some great cultivator.
Li Ming looked at all of them and said in a serious tone, "The vines that I grew on the walls are enchanted vines. It will make sure that anyone who is not a part of the orphanage will see it as the old house it was before. You all can still go out in the village to meet with others or play but make sure that none of you will say anything that has happened here today. You will tell no one about me. Remember clearly, I hate those who betrays me. Am I clear?"
Everyone nodded their heads in understanding and promised to not say a single word to anyone.
Li Ming asked them to stand up and helped the old madam. Then she told everyone to freshen up and went into the kitchen with the four girls of the cooking group.
By the time Li Ming was finished with preparing the dinner with the help of the girls, everyone had finished washing up.
The boxes that Li Ming had brought with her contained clothes, vegetables, fruits and some sweets. She asked the old sir to put the boxes in the store room. She then filled the entire store room with rice, flour, cereals, fresh veggies and fruits, tea leaves and other cooking materials.
After that everyone enjoyed a hearty dinner in the evening.
Old Mo signed the contract and gave all the information about their slaves business to Li Ming.
"Miss Li, the next transaction is after 4 months. Until then we don't have to worry about those people. I hope you will find some way by then." Old Mo said.
"Don't worry." Li Ming gave the old sir a pouch.
"Here are your 100 silver taels. I hope you will not dissapoint me."
"Rest assured, Miss Li. We will not give you any reason to regret this." The Mo couple bowed and promised.
"Alright! Now, it's time for me to leave. I'll visit after a few days and officially start the training." Li Ming told them.
"But Miss Li, your carriage left in the morning. How will you go back?" The old madam asked with worry.
"Don't worry. I don't need a carriage." Li Ming had saved enough of her energy to teleport herself back to the inn.
The carriage took too much of her time. But she couldn't use teleportation as her traveling solution because right now her powers were too low for that. Based on her current situation, She could only use teleportation powers once in a three days.
She sighed irritably in her mind and teleported herself back to inn, leaving behind a very shocked old couple.