Quick travel: the life of smuggling is so exciting

After seeing off the two officials, the village chief led everyone to a gentle slope not far from the field.

There are many houses on this side of the gentle slope, some big and some small, some with yards, some without, and some just with shacks. It can be seen that everyone's progress and habits in house repair are different.

However, the houses of the indigenous people were much richer than those of the outsiders. Most of their houses were made of stone, yellow mud, and black tiles. But the outsiders, without exception, all lived in adobe and thatched houses.

Arriving at the housing construction area, the village chief turned around to face everyone, his eyes swept over the expectant faces, and without hesitation, he introduced them loudly to everyone.

"You three families will be settled in this area. This area is full of people who were assigned to Wuli'ao Village just like you. There's a lot of space here, so you can choose a spot and build your house."

The village chief pointed out an area where houses could be built. In their village, houses cannot be built randomly. The location needs to be registered with the consent of the village. This is the so-called homestead.

Of course, if the house is built in the mountains, no one will care.

Because there were already people here first, they naturally couldn't get the good territories and could only choose more remote places.

The three families were familiar with the area, and the families discussed with each other to choose a site.

Lin Xia chose a gentle slope close to the mountain. Not far away was the family where she had inquired about the news of crossing the river.

Seeing that everyone had chosen a place, the village chief began to promote it. He was not stupid to become the village chief. What he said before about how lucky they were to be assigned to the village was just a polite remark, but he actually knew what was going on.

They had clearly said before that they would not send any new people, but they sent people today. This shows that these three families had put in some effort. They are not locals, so it is impossible that they put in some effort by relying on connections. The answer is obvious: they have money.

"Many families in our village have adobe bricks ready. If you want to build a house, you can order adobe bricks from the village, or you can spend time making them yourself. But if you want to live in a house with blue bricks and large tiles, you must go to the county to order bricks."

"If you don't know how to repair the house, you can hire people from the village to help. They all have time recently."

When saying the last sentence, the village chief looked specifically at Lin Xia, obviously talking to her specifically. The other two households were large families, one with five young men and women and two children, and the other with two elderly people, four young men and women, and three children.

Compared with these two families, Lin Xia is indeed weak and powerless, and she is a woman, and she doesn't look like she can repair a house.

Lin Xia nodded to show that she understood. "I'll trouble Village Chief Wan to arrange it. I'll come to you if I need you."

Just then, someone from a household Lin Xia didn't recognize asked, "Village head, I see everyone is farming. Should we start clearing the land first so we don't miss the farming season?"

Village Chief Wan reacted and said embarrassedly.

"This matter is indeed the most important. If you hurry up and open up the wasteland, you can just catch up with this one.

Don't panic just because the villagers have already planted the rice. That's because the villagers planted this crop of rice earlier than in previous years.

Last winter, there was a sudden heavy snowfall, which didn't melt until March, so the early rice season was missed. Therefore, the village planted the mid-season rice directly, a month earlier. If you hurry up, maybe you can catch up with the previous years' time."

Everyone had never cultivated three crops a year before, so they were very curious about the planting time of early, middle and late rice.

The village chief explained to them that Lingzhou had no winter in the past and the climate was hot and humid. Although the crops grown from the beginning of the year to the end of the year were not as delicious as those in the north, there was no shortage of food.

When other people heard that they could grow crops for three seasons, they were overjoyed, but when Lin Xia heard about the possibility of growing crops for three seasons, she felt like the sky was falling.

Her face was slightly dark, her thin lips were tightly pursed, her thoughts were running wild, and a little man appeared in her mind working non-stop every day, from morning to night, from the Chinese New Year to the next Chinese New Year.

Oh my God! Will she continue to farm every year and die of exhaustion in the fields?

Lin Xia thought about it and felt terrible. But what else could she do if she didn't farm? Robbing the rich to help the poor?

Forget it. Thinking back to the time when I was hungry, I might as well just farm.

Since last year, the climate has been abnormal. The heavy snow at the beginning of the year affected the area for several months. The village chief asked them to speed up the reclamation as much as possible. If there is another heavy rain or snow, all the crops will be destroyed.

Lin Xia is not in a hurry to repair the house. She just arrived and wants to settle down for a few days. The first one to stick his head out will be the first to be shot.

She could build a shack like everyone else and sleep in it without feeling cold. Although it was hot in April this year, the weather warmed up very quickly. Just by crossing one state, the temperature went from early spring to early summer.

"Village chief, what about our seeds?" someone asked with concern.

"You can borrow seeds from the village. The term is six months, and you have to pay back eleven for every ten you borrow."

Everyone can rest assured. It’s good that we can borrow it. The only thing to be worried about is that there are no seeds.

The village chief carefully explained the matters needed for farming. Finally, seeing that everyone only had the relief food distributed by the county, he kindly asked everyone to go into the mountains to pick mushrooms and dig wild vegetables, and bluntly said that the village would not lend food.

After the explanation was completed, the village chief left, and the rest of the people looked at each other in bewilderment. Just then, the villagers who had gone to the fields came back, and they came up to get to know each other, after all, they would be neighbors in the future.

Neighbors today are not like those in the 21st century, where neighbors now interact like relatives.

It was also at this time that Lin Xia learned that her neighbors were surnamed Qi. She didn't remember their specific names, so she just called them Dad Qi, Aunt Qi, Qi Da, Qi Er, Qi Da's wife, Qi Er's wife and the three children.

The next day, the other two households went to the village to borrow tools for farming. Lin Xia did not participate in this activity. She did not know the farming skills yet. She planned to observe and learn, and only plant one season this year.

Her first priority was to build a house. The shack was not cold but rather stuffy. The main point was that it was unsafe and there was an occasional drizzle. She really couldn't stand the sticky feeling. There was also no place to take a shower. She urgently needed a house.

Lin Xia found the village chief and told him her needs: two rooms in total, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a raised yard. She also wanted to build a firewood shed and a bathroom with wooden boards next to the kitchen, and a toilet in the corner of the yard. Finally, she strongly requested to build a thatched pavilion.

As for the main hall, it is not necessary at all. If someone comes to visit, you can just entertain the guests in the pavilion in the yard.

During her private contact with the village chief, she also got some information from him.

There were originally about a hundred households in this village, each of which was a large family. Not including outsiders, there were more than a thousand people in total. It was not a large clan that dominated the village, but a mixture of the three surnames Wan, Li, and Zhang, with the Wan family having the largest population.

The situation of outsiders in the village is quite complicated, with a total of 46 households, each operating independently. Most households have four or five people, but there are also people like Lin Xia who open accounts alone, totaling about 200 people.

Lin Xia thanked the county clerk again in her heart. The money was well spent. The overall atmosphere in Wuliao was good. They were not a clan, and their residences were separated from the locals. They would not bump into each other unless they had to deal with each other specifically, which reduced a lot of friction.

Next comes the daily routine of waiting for the house to be repaired.

First, go to the village carpenter to order furniture such as beds, cabinets, tables, chairs, and wooden barrels.

Then I went to the back mountain to familiarize myself with the environment, and in between I also observed and learned about the daily land reclamation activities of my neighbors.

Afterwards, I went to the city to shop for items for my new home, and also bought some farming tools. I didn't buy any food because I had no place to put it. I couldn't just leave it in the temporary shack, because if someone saw it, it would be gone that same day.

During this period, Lin Xia almost suffered a loss. It was not convenient for her to carry all her belongings with her at all times when she was traveling outside, so the relief food distributed by the county was often kept in the shack. If Lin Xia had not gone to work and had come back temporarily to scare the children wandering nearby, she would have run out of food. Later, she could only carry more than ten kilograms of food with her.

The reason why this group of refugees were able to get here was definitely not because of their kindness. Most of the kind people died on the road. This is why Lin Xia insisted on adding a yard.

The adobe house was built very quickly. It took ten people 10 days to finish the work. After all, she was a single woman and it was easy to cause misunderstandings, so Lin Xia did not contact them at all and entrusted the work to the village chief. In the end, it cost more than four taels.

This incident also led to another troublesome thing.

Seeing that Lin Xia was so lavish in spending money and was still a young woman, the villagers thought she was a perfect match for a wealthy family, so they all started introducing marriage proposals to her.

The aunties' fighting ability was so terrifying that Lin Xia was extremely annoyed. She told the aunties directly that she was a widow and her husband had not died long ago, and she wanted to observe mourning for her late husband. Only then did she barely stop the gossips.