Chapter 349: 345: Resettling Refugees_1

Jiang Sanlang found the scene before his eyes more astonishing than Chunniang did.

Though he knew his daughter could summon objects out of thin air, he hadn’t known about such a place, where he and his wife could also enter.

“Baobao, can you bring others here and did you mention this to anyone else?” Jiang Sanlang was still worried about his daughter’s recklessness.

Zhou Wuchang, though her master, was different from him and his wife.

He wasn’t the one who raised Yingbao and he certainly wouldn’t have her best interests at heart.

Besides, Jiang Sanlang noticed, Zhou Wuchang was deep in thought and wouldn’t care much about the life and death of villagers like himself.

“No, I told my master that I could only retrieve objects, not bring living things.” Yingbao couldn’t fully trust her master.

However, it was true that her master had offended Pei Shixian out of indignation on her behalf.

That Pei Shixian was cunning, and if he said something to the Emperor, her master would probably be his first target.

Yingbao had to resort to this trickery to show off her master’s miraculous powers and contend with Pei Shixian, partly for her own sake and partly to repay her master.

Jiang Sanlang was relieved. “That’s good.”

Then, guided by their daughter, the couple took a tour around the grotto. They also rode the gourd boat to the glowing sphere and climbed to the top along the ladder Yingbao had made from gourd vines.

Next, Jiang Sanlang and his wife were amazed again.

Swinging peonies, magnolias, and honeysuckles emitted a faint fragrance.

Apart from blossoming peach, pear, apple, tangerine trees, and grape wines, some fruit trees were bearing ripe fruits while some only had immature green fruits.

In the middle of the grove was a clear spring, nestled in a patch of pumpkin field.

Jiang Sanlang estimated this piece of land to be about five or six acres, not smaller than the land below.

This was a bit strange.

From below, this big sphere didn’t seem too large, but once up here, it revealed a different aspect.

Jiang Sanlang also saw some household items and quite a bit of grain in here.

He guessed they were what his daughter used to concoct fruit juice and brew wine.

Seeing a basket full of picked fruits on the ground, Jiang Sanlang and Chunniang decided to help their daughter brew a batch of fruit wine first.

“There aren’t enough jars here, I’ll go buy some more tomorrow.”

Jiang Sanlang checked everything and said, “I’ll buy a few more wooden barrels and large water tanks.” He wanted to keep some fish and shrimp in the tanks and see if they could survive.

Yingbao: “Okay, Dad, Mom, if you find we need anything else, we can buy them all together next time.”

Jiang Sanlang waved his hand, “I’ve got it. Go get some rest. We’ll call you when we’re done.”

There was a small bamboo bed here, with bedding laid on it. Beside the bed stood several large wooden boxes, probably her daughter’s personal stash.

Yingbao lay on the bamboo bed, resting her head on a pillow. She watched her parents busying about until she drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up, she saw her parents were still hard at work.

“Dad, Mom, you should go back and rest.” She didn’t know how long they had been working, but they had boiled several pots of fruit and were letting them cool in the basin.

Jiang Sanlang and Chunniang were indeed tired. They left the grotto under their daughter’s guidance.

Suddenly coming out, Jiang Sanlang and his wife took a moment to reacting.

It was already dark outside. Had it not been for the wind lamp still lit under the eaves, Jiang Sanlang wouldn’t have known they had already come out.

After leaving their daughter’s room, they quietly went to the eaves and put out the wind lamp before finally going back to rest.

For the next few days, Jiang Sanlang and Chunniang would work in there every evening. Later, they simply asked Yingbao to go out on her own and come back when it was time to pick them up.

Meanwhile, during the day, Yingbao planted arrowroot vines around the village, and hired a few stonemasons to go to a distant mountain to quarry stones. They brought the stones back to the village to build a stone tower.

Zhou Wuchang and his few disciples didn’t leave either. They idled around with his senior disciple and even visited other villages.

Mr. Wu was serving as a substitute teacher in the village school, teaching lessons to the high-level students.

In a flash, it was October, and Jiang Jie entered the county school for study, formally becoming a scholar.

Since he had just passed the academy exams this year, he didn’t need to take the year-end exams and became a government-fed student directly, receiving his first grain allowance and four taels of silver.

Jiang Jie handed over the grain allowance and the fish, meat, and vegetables given by the county government to his aunt. He ate meals at the specialty shop every day and came home to stay every night.

One day, he caught a glimpse of Chen Changping. They just exchanged a fleeting glance before turning away from each other.

Yingbao had been idle these days, as the cold and gloomy weather was not suitable for planting saplings. Even if she covered the vine seedlings with fallen leaves, they wouldn’t grow.

Many unfamiliar faces have now appeared at the market outside Dongchen Village.

Some of them belonged to nearby villages, while others were refugees fleeing disasters.

The refugees living in the old village had become homeless once again due to a major flood.

Luckily, they were quick-thinking and fled when the rainstorm started. Some went to North Mountain, while the others returned to market at Dongchen Village and took shelter under the thatched sheds built by Jiang Sanlang, which protected them from the disaster.

Afterward, these people became relatively obedient, daring not to confront Dongchen Village. During the day, they would look for work, and at night, they would sleep in the thatched sheds on the market.

However, winter was coming, and snow was about to fall. The shelters, which were leaky everywhere, were insufficient to keep out the cold.

So, a few refugees approached the clan leader Chen, asking him to leniently allow them to build some thatched houses for warmth on the South Slope. Clan Leader Chen was understandably unwilling.

But Sun Licheng ignored these refugees, and the county government seemed to forget these disaster victims without providing any solution.

In the end, Clan Leader Chen discussed with Jiang Sanlang and allocated a plot of uncultivated land a little away from the market for the refugees to build houses.

However, before the construction, they made an oral agreement, saying that they must not steal or do anything detrimental to Chen Village, or else, their houses would be taken back, and they would be asked to leave.

The refugees were overjoyed at the news and immediately agreed.

Having a chance to settle down in the richest village in Chuanhe Town meant their better days were just around the corner.

Therefore, taking advantage of the fact that it hadn’t snowed yet, Jiang Sanlang led a group of villagers to help these people build houses.

To save time and materials, these houses were built as terraced houses. There were twelve rooms in a row, and a total of three rows were built.

Jiang Sanlang didn’t care about how many people there were in a household, as long as there were two rooms for each household.

None of the refugees dared to speak, fearing they might anger the village head and get driven away.

Having endured repeated disasters, the refugees realized that if they wanted to stay and live, they must abide by the local rules.

After allocating the houses, Jiang Sanlang pointed to the soapberry trees surrounding the village and said, “If you want to earn money, there are plenty of soapberries on these trees. Harvest them, and someone will buy the soapberry grains.”

His dear daughter had told him that the specialty shop could buy soapberry grains and husks. If the quality was good, the price would be considerable. As long as these refugees worked hard, the money earned from selling soapberry grains would be enough to get them through winter.

The refugees were delighted to hear that the village head permitted them to harvest the soapberries and immediately expressed their thanks to Jiang Sanlang.

Having lived here for a while, they knew that these soapberry trees were planted by the fairy child of the village head’s family and were private property.

And yet, the village head let them pick the soapberries and even said that someone would come to buy them, how could they not be profoundly grateful.

Straight after, Jiang Sanlang added, “When you are picking the soapberries, do not break the branches of the soapberry trees.”

“Of course,” said the leading refugee. “We will definitely be careful.”

Jiang Sanlang: “Later, I’ll take you to cut some bamboo poles. You can use them to pick.”

The soapberry trees were tall, and the trunk was covered with many poisonous thorns, so it was not safe to get too close, so they had to use long bamboo poles to reach.

One end of the bamboo pole was slightly split open, with a small wooden stick propping it apart.

When picking the soapberries, they used the split end to poke the root of the soapberry and twisted it. The soapberry then dropped down.

As long as the bamboo pole was long enough, even the soapberries on the top of the tree could be twisted off.

This was how the children in the village picked fruits from the top of the trees.