Registering Households
Gousheng walked and looked along the way, only feeling a bit curious, “Why are so many thatched huts empty in this village?”
Seeing so many houses, he thought there were many people. Now it seems there are only about a hundred people, not as many as Apricot Flower Village.
Zhao Da simply said, “Many people in this village have moved away. When the war came, many people also fled famine, which led to the village being mostly empty.”
After walking for a while, they met a middle-aged man in his forties. The man wore clothes full of patches, and he looked like a kind and honest person.
Seeing several people, Li Yishi immediately smiled and greeted them, “Officer, are these the people settling in Qing Stone Village? There are quite a few of them!”
Their Qing Stone Village has few people, and they eagerly want people to settle down, so that they can strengthen the village and not be bullied by other villages.
Zhao Da responded, “Yes.”
Li Yishi smiled and nodded at them. After introducing each other, he took everyone to his home.
Village Chief Li’s house was also a few earthen houses. Although it was not as grand as the blue-brick tile-roofed houses, the house and courtyard were kept very clean, and the firewood piled up next to it was neatly stacked.
At this time, there were many people queuing up for registration in the Village Chief’s courtyard, bustling and noisy, and the voices of the crowd could be heard from afar.
The person in charge of registration was also an acquaintance, Ma Ming.
“My name is Li Guangyong, Guangyong’s Yong.”
“Yong?”
Ma Ming held the writing brush, frowning and listening to the person in front of the table speaking with difficulty. Because everyone’s words had an accent, he couldn’t quite understand them, and he felt that registration was a hard job.
If he didn’t know where Jiang Girl and the others lived, Zhao Da would have been the one registering here.
Watching the middle-aged man repeat “Guangyong’s Yong” again, he was about to collapse.
Only when an old man leaning on a cane next to him reminded him, did he suddenly realize and finally identify the other person’s name.
“Glorious’s Rong.”
The originally lively courtyard became quieter when Village Chief Li brought Jiang Yimian and her group in.
Everyone’s gaze fell on Jiang Yimian and her group, looking them up and down, with curiosity in their eyes, but not much malice.
Gousheng felt a little uncomfortable being looked at, so he looked back one by one. In the end, he puffed out his chest and looked up at everyone with a displeased look.
Jiang Yimian was a little helpless, gently patted the back of his head, and whispered, “What are you doing? Be normal.”
She was afraid that if this guy continued like this, their group might be misunderstood.
Gousheng then said “Oh”, and quickly restrained the expression on his face, muttering in a low voice, “Why are they always staring at us? I just looked back.”
Being stared at by so many eyes, he really felt uncomfortable.
Fortunately, this scrutiny quickly disappeared mostly, and the crowd only whispered, their words containing some dissatisfaction.
“Why are all these refugees arranged in our village? Didn’t they arrange two households a few days ago? Now there are so many more people. In a while, our Qing Stone Village might be occupied by refugees.”
“Who told us that our village has few people? More refugees are better, so that other villages won’t always bully our village.”
“Yes, it’s better to have more people.”
“What’s good about that? They are all outsiders. The people in our village might be overshadowed.” The speaker was a young woman, and her gaze at Jiang Yimian and her group was full of disdain.
Another person hesitated for a while before saying, “It’s not necessarily true. It’s only a few households, what are we overwhelmed by? There is nothing good in our village, we are so poor.”
“That’s right, these people don’t look like refugees either. They are clean and tidy. They look better off than the people in our village, and they look much more energetic than the household that came yesterday.”
As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at them again. This time, their eyes were full of doubt. When they saw Zhao Da following them, everyone nodded knowingly.
“They have a backer. Didn’t you see they are very familiar with this officer?”
“No wonder, the officer personally brought them here for registration. Their identity is not simple!”
As they were speaking, Jiang Yimian and her group also stood behind the crowd and lined up. Her gaze fell on those few people.
Meeting that disdainful gaze, Jiang Yimian’s eyes turned colder.
The woman who said that the villagers would be overshadowed was startled and immediately shut her mouth. The other people who were talking changed the topic and talked about other gossip.
The dark and thin young woman who was in line in front of Jiang Yimian curiously approached and whispered, “Girl, what is your relationship with that officer?”
The young woman was dark and thin, with a pair of sharp triangular eyes scanning the few people. Her hair was neatly done up in a woman’s hairstyle, and although her clothes were grayish and had a few patches, they were still relatively clean.
Jiang Yimian glanced at her indifferently and said, “There’s no relationship, we met unexpectedly.”
The young woman didn’t quite believe it, and curiously asked, “If you met him unexpectedly, why did he personally send you here for registration? Where were you from originally? Did you hide in the mountains since the war began?”
Those constables were always arrogant and usually didn’t have a good look on their faces towards ordinary people like them. How could they possibly personally bring these people down the mountain? They must have some kind of relationship with that constable.
Jiang Yimian just frowned at the series of questions, without answering.
The young woman didn’t feel embarrassed, and asked other things, “Oh, I went to town the other day, and I heard that there are tigers in the mountains. Is this true or false? Did you encounter them in the mountains?”
Upon hearing this, Gousheng immediately puffed out his chest and said seriously, “Of course we’ve seen tigers. Those tigers are very fierce. If you dare to go into the deep mountains, the tigers will definitely bite you to death.”
Mimi has often been away from the small low-lying land recently, searching for food on the nearby hills all day long. If these people go up, being scared away is a minor matter. If they have unfavorable thoughts towards Mimi, Mimi will definitely take action and will not let them off easily.
The young woman was startled, her dark and thin face full of fear, and she looked at them again before hesitantly saying, “Then how come you’re fine living in the mountains? The tigers didn’t attack you?”
Although she had never seen a Big Bug, she had also heard the village elders mention it. The Big Bug was very ferocious, several meters long, and with a roar, the ground would tremble.
If these people really encountered it, they would be eaten.
Gousheng proudly said, “Because the tiger is ours, it naturally won’t eat us.”
As soon as these words came out, everyone was stunned.
After a while, several people laughed and teased the young woman.
“Little Zhang, look how annoying you are. Why are you asking so many questions? People don’t like you.”
“That’s right, even the words about raising tigers have come out. Ask less! You’re always gossiping.”
“That’s right, Zhang Ba’s words didn’t get you wrong.”
Being teased, Little Zhang’s dark and thin face showed displeasure, and she said angrily, “I’m saying what I want to say, what’s it to you? If you can, don’t listen.”
Seeing that they were about to quarrel, the Village Chief rebuked, “What are you arguing about? Shut up! If you have nothing to do at home, go to the wasteland in the village and reclaim it.”
Hearing that they had to reclaim the wasteland, they immediately shut their mouths.
Little Zhang glanced at the Village Chief and muttered in a low voice, “That broken land in the village, even if it is reclaimed, it won’t produce grain, it’s a waste of effort.”
Li Yishi frowned and glared at Little Zhang.
Little Zhang quickly shrunk her neck and dared not speak again.
After a while, she leaned over to Jiang Yimian and reminded her, “The Village Chief is very fierce when he gets angry. Don’t provoke him.”
Jiang Yimian was startled, just about to speak, when a dissatisfied voice came from the crowd.
“Village Chief, our village should have a lot more land now. That land belongs to our village, and it shouldn’t be taken away by outsiders.”