“This is the place.”

The west wind blew under the setting sun. Amidst the tall trees and lush grass, a lone thatched hut stood twenty to thirty zhang ahead, partially concealed by the woods.

The village head who had led Shu Wanxiu and her nephew all this way pointed to the thatched hut and spoke.

Having fled the famine to this place, she had pawned even the cloth wrapper for her bundles. Aside from the tattered clothes that barely covered her body, two chipped earthenware bowls, and a bag of rations received from the government office, Shu Wanxiu had nothing.

The man had troubled himself to lead them for dozens of li, and had even helped carry their things for most of the journey. She truly did not know how to thank him properly, so she could only bow repeatedly, murmuring her gratitude.

“That’s enough. The house has been unoccupied for a long time. Who knows if there are snakes, insects, or rats hiding inside. You should hurry and check it out before it gets dark, lest you get bitten by bugs or gnawed on by rats tonight.”

The dark, thin village head sized them up. As the furrows on his brow deepened, he finally sighed in resignation. “From now on, just settle down here peacefully. If you can make it to next spring and manage to reclaim the wasteland in front of and behind the house to plant melons, fruits, and vegetables, I will register it and assign that land to you.”

As for how to allocate the farmland for the two of them next year… forget it. They were just a woman and a child. How many mu of land could they possibly farm? He would just have to wait and see.

Exhausted from the long journey, Shu Wanxiu had not yet had time to think about the future. To have a place to live and to have received a portion of winter rations from the court was already enough to fill her with a sense of profound and overwhelming gratitude.

With her four-year-old nephew, she bowed deeply to Pang Lizhang. “Thank you for your consideration, Village Head.”

Pang Zhishan received the bow with his hands behind his back before saying, “I’m just acting according to the law. Hurry up and go take a look inside.”

“Yes!”

After one last grateful look at Pang Lizhang, Shu Wanxiu clutched the opening of the grain sack with one hand and supported its bottom with the other. Calling to her scrawny little nephew, she picked a walkable path and headed toward the thatched hut.

The hut had two rooms, and both doors were closed.

It was impossible to know how many years it had been deserted. The doorframes and window frames were draped with wind-torn cobwebs, and all sorts of weeds grew beneath the eaves.

Shu Wanxiu randomly chose a room to inspect, but she had to deal with the cobwebs before entering, or else she would get them all over her head and face.

Using what was at hand, she single-handedly pulled up a handful of weeds and used it to clear the silk from the doorframe. Only then did she reach out to push the closed but unlocked door.

With just a light push, the door nearly fell off with a ‘clatter.’ She hastily reached back to steady it, and a shower of dust from the top of the door rained down all over her.

“Cough, cough! Cough, cough, cough…” Choking nonstop, Shu Wanxiu didn’t forget her nephew. “Shouyi, cough! Get back, quickly.”

Though he was four years old, Shu Shouyi was only as tall as Shu Wanxiu’s thigh. He obediently took half a step back, then grabbed the corner of her clothes and hid behind her, not moving again.

Shu Wanxiu had wanted to step back to avoid the rest of the dust, but feeling her nephew behind her, she was afraid of stepping on him. She stood her ground, merely holding her breath, closing her eyes, and turning her head away. Only when the dust settled did she open her eyes again.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

The dusty smell did not dissipate quickly, and it was still choking to breathe.

She managed to get a clear look at the ground beneath her feet. Seeing that this small patch of ground had no standing water, insects, or rats, she carefully tiptoed inside.

She decided to just remove the rickety door panel and lean it against the wall, planning to reinstall it later. This would prevent it from falling and injuring someone as she moved in and out while cleaning.

She set the door panel aside with one hand, then re-hoisted the grain sack into her arms, finally taking in the scene inside the dilapidated hut.

From the outside, it looked like a broken-down house. From the inside, in addition to being dilapidated, it was utterly bare.

There wasn’t a single table or even half a stool, let alone any wooden cabinets or chests.

Although there was a wooden plank bed against the wall, its legs had collapsed.

The worm-eaten tracks on the bed planks, like the trails of earthworms, revealed the bed’s considerable age.

Whether the legs had been eaten through by insects or had rotted from neglect was impossible to know, but in any case, the bed was unusable for the night without repairs.

Shu Wanxiu’s gaze shifted to the walls. Of the four walls, the one on the left had a row of wooden hooks nailed into it, with nothing hanging on them. Looking up offered no better view just a few beams and a thatched roof.

Ultimately, the most daunting sight was the state of the floor.

The uneven, untamped dirt floor was covered in puddles of water here and there.

This meant the roof leaked in more than one place.

Her hands holding the grain sack tightened subconsciously, afraid the grain would get damp and spoil. After all, this was the very foundation of her and her nephew’s survival.

How should she even begin to clean this house?

Shu Wanxiu was completely clueless.

She had been a pampered child at home. Growing up, aside from spinning cloth, feeding the poultry, and helping cook a few meals during the busy farming season, she had barely touched any other farm work or miscellaneous household chores.

As her brow furrowed ever tighter, a tender, childish voice suddenly rang out, breaking Shu Wanxiu’s melancholy.

“Auntie.”

Standing beside her, Shu Shouyi tilted his head up, looking at her with tear-filled eyes in a pitiful plea.

“I don’t like it here. Can’t we go home?”

Go home?

They had traveled a thousand li with their clansmen to get here. How could they possibly go back?

Shu Wanxiu’s eyes stung, but she fought back her sorrow and forced a smile. Before she could offer a few words of comfort, however, Shu Shouyi’s pitiful, pleading expression vanished, replaced by another.

The corners of his lips curved high, the tears in his eyes disappeared, and he pointed innocently at a clump of weeds by the doorway, laughing. “Auntie! Look! Father, Mother, Grandpa, and Grandma are here to get us! They want us to hurry up and go home with them!”

Such innocent and cheerful words, coming from a child with a large head on a small, skeletal body, were already somewhat jarring. But when met with those deep-set, dark eyes, Shu Wanxiu felt an inexplicable chill run down her spine, and she couldn’t help but shiver.

…

While the aunt and nephew entered the house, the village head glanced at their backs before turning to head back down the mountain.

It had rained that morning, and the soil was soft. He hadn’t walked far before he had to scrape the thick mud from the soles of his straw sandals.

Early in the morning, he had first walked over twenty li on mountain roads to the county town, then led the people back without even unsaddling his horse. His straw sandals and the cuffs of his trousers were an absolute mess.

But no matter how disheveled he was, it was not even one percent as bad as the aunt and nephew he had brought back from the county town.

Pang Zhishan shook his head and sighed ceaselessly. This year was truly not a peaceful one.

In the spring, the Prince of Ning, who was enfeoffed in the Guanzhong region, had rebelled. The imperial court dispatched a fierce general who took several months to quell the uprising. In early summer, just as the wheat was ripening, the northern lands went three consecutive months without a drop of rain. The crops in the fields all withered from the drought, yielding not a single grain.

He had only known about the Prince of Ning’s rebellion; the latter matter he had only learned of the day before yesterday.

At noon that day, the township official had come to the village with a message, saying that a drought had struck the north and that refugees, having fled a thousand li, were pouring into their prefecture and county. The imperial court had recently issued a document ordering the officials of each prefecture and county to register these refugees on the spot, then disperse and settle them in the various townships and villages.

On his way to pick up the people today, Pang Zhishan had been anxious the entire time. He had been so distracted that he nearly slipped and fell into the fields several times.

He couldn’t help it. Wupai Village had many mountains and little farmland. If there was a large number of refugees, even if they were divided among the villages, there would still be quite a few. How was he supposed to settle them?

Who would have thought that upon arriving at the county town and making inquiries, he would learn that less than one in ten of this group of refugees had survived the journey. Furthermore, they were being settled across more than a dozen counties in the entire prefecture. When averaged out, each village only needed to take in one or two households. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

“Pang Lizhang, it’s almost dark. Why are you only just coming down from the mountain?”

As Pang Zhishan hurried down the mountain, he was immediately spotted by the mistress of the first house at the foot of the mountain.

After asking her question, she quickly realized. “Did you bring the refugees back today? Are there many of them? Can they be settled?”

Every family in the village had heard about the matter of going to the county to bring refugees back for settlement. This was a major event. If the refugees couldn’t be properly housed, they would inevitably have to be squeezed into the homes of the original residents for a while.

Later, once they were settled, everyone would have to help them choose land and build houses. Each family would have to contribute manpower. It was a very troublesome affair with no benefits, so everyone was quite concerned.

The Wang family just lived too far from the village entrance; otherwise, even if it were dark, they would surely be waiting at the entrance to get the latest news.

Pang Zhishan happened to be thirsty from walking, so when he heard the woman’s string of questions, he stopped at her doorway and asked, “Is your husband home?”

“He is, he is. He’s out back feeding the chickens.”

“Then I’ll trouble you for a bowl of water.”

The woman quickly brought out a stool and placed it by the door.

It was getting late, so it was brighter to sit outside than to go in.

After Pang Zhishan sat down, the woman turned and went into the kitchen to pour water, not forgetting to shout toward the back of the house, “Husband, are you done feeding the chickens? Pang Lizhang is here, hurry out and sit with him for a bit!”

“Coming!”

Answering in a loud voice, Wang Jincai didn’t even bother to collect the eggs from the chicken coop and hurried out from behind the house.

“Village Head is here? Is the refugee matter settled?” He had a good memory, getting straight to the point as soon as he came out, unlike his wife who had been thinking about it all day only to forget at the crucial moment.

Pang Zhishan nodded and took a sip of water. “They’ve been settled in the house where my Eighth Great-Uncle used to live.”

He had been working all day and his throat was parched. After answering, Pang Zhishan drained the rest of the water in the bowl.

Wang Jincai’s wife took the bowl and went back inside to refill it for him.

Knowing that everyone in the village was concerned about this, Pang Zhishan didn’t wait to be prompted and explained the situation in full detail.

“There aren’t many refugees this time, and the higher-ups know that our Wupai Village has little farmland, so they only assigned one household to us.”

“Only one household?” Wang Jincai’s anxious heart settled slightly, but he still pressed, “Then how many people are in this household?”

Pang Zhishan sighed and replied, “There were six people when they left home. By the time they fled to our county, only two were left.”

“It’s a great pity. All the adult men in the family are gone, and the matriarch didn’t survive either. All that’s left is an unmarried young girl with her four-year-old nephew.”

“Hiss ”

Upon hearing this, the Wang couple gasped in unison.

Wang Jincai slapped his thigh and lamented with genuine feeling, “What a tragedy! A perfectly good family, and only two little ones are left?”

His wife, Lin Xinghua, added, “How are they supposed to survive?!”

In truth, Pang Zhishan was worried too.

He had been worrying the whole way.

Although there were few refugees to settle, what was to be done with this pair, one weak and one small? Even if they were properly settled in the village and given land next year, how many mu could the aunt and nephew possibly cultivate? And how much would they be able to harvest in the latter half of the year?

He feared it would be like ten years ago, where they would have to rely on the help and support of the villagers.

There was another point. The girl was already grown up. The two of them, with no means of self-defense, living in that thatched hut halfway up the mountain… he feared they would have to guard against not only wolves, but also tigers and leopards! How could they possibly protect themselves?

Worry! The more he thought about it, the more it worried him to death.

“I won’t chat any longer.” Pang Zhishan pushed himself up from the stool and said to the couple, “There’s nothing up on the mountain. I have to go home and get some firewood to send up to them.”

Lin Xinghua glanced at her own firewood pile and said, “Let the firewood come from our house.”

Her house was next to the mountain, so gathering firewood was no trouble for her.

When it came to settling the refugees, the whole village had to contribute something. Pang Zhishan didn’t refuse, only saying, “Alright, I’ll make a note of your family’s contribution. I’ll gather everyone at the village entrance tomorrow morning to discuss this matter.”