Spring comes to the desperate place

It would be best for the Song family to reach the foot of the mountain in the evening of the third day. The Song family camped in a place relatively close to the official road. From this direction, they could see passers-by on the official road, but they could not see this side from the official road.

After walking on the mountain road for three consecutive days, Gu Fengyue's foot injury had not healed yet. He felt a dull pain when he sat down. He sat on a big rock and gently rubbed his sore ankle.

Song Chunsheng brought over a bowl of water mixed with spiritual spring water. After drinking it, Gu Fengyue felt that the pain in his feet was relieved a lot. He touched his right foot which was no longer painful, and watched the Song family members drinking the water one after another, and an absurd idea emerged in his mind.

"If I can bring this water back to my brother and give it to him to drink, will his illness be cured?"

However, this thought was only fleeting. He himself felt that this idea was particularly absurd. He had no idea how many doctors his brother had seen and how many bitter medicines he had taken, but the condition was only relieved and not cured. Now that the weather was turning cold, his brother's body was most afraid of the cold. Every winter, he would fall seriously ill.

Gu Fengyue would rather believe that those magical little pills could cure her brother's illness than believe that a small bowl of water could cure her brother's illness.

Perhaps because they were about to arrive at the provincial capital, the Song family seemed very excited. Song Dazhuang and Grandpa Song had been planning how many acres of land to plant in the future, while Grandma Song and Song Qin were figuring out what furniture to buy for the new home.

"Chunsheng is already twelve years old. In two years, it will be time for him to get married. He needs a room of his own. Chunlin and Xiaobao can share a room now, but in two years, when Chunlin grows up, he will need a room of his own." Amao Song counted on her fingers. No matter how she counted, they both needed a room.

Song Qinshi: "We need to buy a big yard. Daddy, they say everything in the capital is expensive. The land around the capital is not cheap either."

"Aunt Song, do you want to buy land in the capital? Most of the land in the capital belongs to the nobles, and they are only rented and not sold. If you want to buy land, you may have to go far away. If you don't mind, I can help you find a place. It's a little far from the capital, and it will take about a day by carriage to get there."

Song Qinshi and Song Amo's eyes lit up. Isn't this like someone giving you a pillow just when you're sleepy?

"Wouldn't that trouble you, Young Master Gu? We don't necessarily need to go to the emperor's feet. The surrounding counties are also fine. It's just that the price... When we were in our hometown, the best farmland was three taels of silver per mu, and dry land was one tael. The wasteland was worthless and could be bought for three cents of silver. I don't know how much the land in the capital is worth. Young Master Gu, please tell us so that we can have a rough idea."

Gu Fengyue thought for a while after hearing this: "If it is a county town under the capital, the best farmland is about five taels, dry land is three taels, and wasteland is also three cents. However, there are fewer wastelands over there. Basically, they are all sandy land that can't grow any food. It's all gravel and can't hold water. There's no point in buying such land."

After hearing the price Gu Fengyue mentioned, Song Chunlin was very tempted by the wasteland. Wouldn't the sandy land be just right for growing potatoes? At worst, he could grow watermelons. Potatoes could be used as staple food, but watermelons were relatively rare. There should be no watermelons in this era. Even if there were, he didn't believe that the ancient watermelons would taste better than the fine varieties cultivated in modern times.

Moreover, it was only three cents of silver. Song Chunlin counted the Song family's savings and found that there were a total of sixty taels. For an ordinary farmer's family, this was already a considerable amount of savings.

But the best farmland costs five taels of silver. He calculated that he could only buy twelve acres with that. But in his hometown, they could buy twenty acres. Suddenly, they had eight acres less, which was a huge difference.

Song Qinshi and Song Amao fell silent after hearing the price mentioned by Gu Fengyue. Even Song Dazhuang and Song Grandpa, who had been discussing what to plant, stopped talking. They knew that prices in the capital were high before coming here, but they didn't expect them to be so high. And from Gu Fengyue's tone, this land was a little different from the one in their hometown, and they couldn't buy it just because they wanted to.

Come to think of it, there are so many dignitaries over there, it is normal for them to have several farms at home. The county magistrate there also has a big farm himself. If common people want to buy it, they may not be willing to buy it.

Seeing that they were all silent, Gu Fengyue realized that she might have said something wrong, and quickly tried to smooth things over: "My family has some connections in the capital, and I will ask my housekeeper to bring people from the pawnbroker to look for a place for you. I'm sure they'll find a place that satisfies you."

Grandpa Song thanked him and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Gu. We are farmers and don't have much savings. We can just buy a few acres of land to settle down."

Gu Fengyue agreed verbally, but in his heart he was thinking about asking the people in the dental shop to sell it to them at a lower price. At worst he could pay the difference privately, as a way to repay them for bringing him back to the capital.

As for the life-saving grace, Gu Fengyue felt that once he arrived safely in the capital, according to his brother's attitude, he would definitely reward him with a generous gift, and no less.

I don’t know if my brother in the capital is getting angry and anxious. It seems that I will have to find a way to pass on a message to my brother when I get to the provincial capital.

They had already reached the official road, so Gu Fengyue spent the next two days riding a unicycle. The speed was much faster than on the mountain. Gu Fengyue was still a little awkward at first, but he got used to it after two days. It would only be awkward for two days, and it would be fine once he reached the provincial capital. There were still a few gold leaves in his original clothes, which Song Qinshi found when she took off his clothes. He could just use the gold leaves to hire a carriage when the time came.

Perhaps it was because Song Chunlin's spiritual spring water was more powerful, Song Dazhuang felt that he had endless energy. The next afternoon, he saw the city gate from afar.

"Dad, little daddy, we've arrived at the provincial capital!" Song Dazhuang shouted excitedly. All the Song family members looked at the tall city gate in the distance with surprise. It was indeed the provincial capital.

"Oh, it really is the capital city, old man, we are really here!"

Grandpa Song also looked ahead with a smile, and he and his wife supported each other and walked towards the city gate step by step.

The soldiers defending the city were obviously much more energetic than those in the small town before. Seeing that the family was exhausted, they guessed that they were refugees. However, they found that their clothes were relatively thick and clean, and the material did not look like those of a poor family. The two gatekeepers looked at each other and stepped forward to ask for their household registration passes.

Song Chunlin pretended to look for something in the backpack, but actually took it out from the space. Song Dazhuang took the household registration and pass. The guards compared the portraits one by one and found that there was an extra Gu Fengyue.

"Who is this person?" the guard pointed at Gu Fengyue and asked.

Gu Fengyue took out his pass from his arms. When the other party saw that Gu Fengyue was from the Yongyi Marquis Mansion in the capital, he immediately knelt down to salute, and then respectfully welcomed him in.