Seeing that Ningxia didn't understand anything, Li Gang looked at her with amusement, "So you came all the way here to settle down without knowing anything?"

Ningxia smiled embarrassedly. After her birth, she wandered for more than a year, moving around in some small gathering places. Later, she went to the Shuguang Base, where she lived for more than four years, almost five years. She had no access to information and had never lived in such a formal place.

"And the forest area is tax-free for one year! Now all of us soldiers have to pay taxes. The city areas are exempt for half a year, but not only do we have to pay taxes in the shelter, but it's also twice as expensive as the forest area."

Ningxia blinked. "Trade currency is no longer usable. What can we pay with? Food?"

"It's just food, isn't it? But it's not like before, where you had to pay a few percent. After all, some people exploit loopholes and grow so little at home that even if they paid 50 percent, it was still just a tiny bit. As a result, people secretly opened up plots of land and planted a lot. Now there's land everywhere, and the state government can't control it. So they simply set a mandatory requirement: 80 kilograms of food per year for adults, and 30 kilograms for minors, regardless of age, even if they're just a month old."

"It's half a year's rations."

Old Liao took over the conversation, "It's not that much. In a year, you can pick enough wild vegetables. There are food all over the mountains and fields. Are you still worried about not being able to pay the tax?"

"Can wild vegetables be handed in?"

"Only in the forest area can you do that, but you have to make sure it's edible, otherwise the fine will be doubled if you're caught. Cities and refuges can only hand in food. We encourage everyone to move to the forest area and farm more," Old Liao chuckled. "So, your pressure is relatively low. You can still get by."

Ningxia secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that since he was living far away to avoid the world and was poor, he had gotten a great deal.

Everyone walked and talked along the way, and before they knew it, they arrived.

As they walked along, Ningxia pinched her sore shoulders and said, "We're almost there," the squad leader said, "Just get through this patch of weeds."

As they got closer, the dilapidated village came into view. Ningxia realized how small it really was. At first glance, there were only a dozen or so houses, most of which were wooden and had long since decayed. The few houses with concrete walls were the ones Ningxia's eyes immediately caught. A two-story building, half-hidden in a small forest, caught her eye.

"This house..." It's made of reinforced concrete, but the exterior is modeled after traditional wooden houses, as if pursuing style. The tiles reflected a porcelain sheen, and Ningxia suddenly understood what the squad leader had meant by the houses wealthy families built to escape the summer heat.

Li Gang nodded. "That's what you saw. This forest is small, and there won't be any wolves, tigers or leopards hiding there. Don't worry."

Walking into the woods, it was unexpectedly cool. After being outside in the sun all morning, they suddenly entered a place that was completely shielded from the sun, so of course it was cool.

Soon, they entered the courtyard. The gate was two tall iron gates, painted gold, which looked very impressive. However, they could not be pushed open, so they entered one by one through the half-open gate.

The high courtyard walls extend from both sides of the house and are not much shorter than the house, giving a full sense of security.

The yard is quite large, about 40 square meters, with a smooth cement floor. Because it has been through so much, the ground is full of cracks of various sizes, with weeds growing between the cracks, and even a few clusters of unknown wild flowers can be seen.

In the left corner of the yard, there was a rickety grape trellis. Of course, all the grapes had died, with only some dry vines hanging on it. There was a small round table underneath, which was still usable, but the benches fell apart at the slightest touch.

There are several fixed whetstones under the grape trellis, which seem to be still usable. There is also a stone table on the far right side of the yard, and the legs of the table are carved with time-honored craftsmanship.

There were about ten trees planted against the wall of the yard, but none of them were very tall. The only one, an old locust tree, was tall and eye-catching, and its shadow occupied nearly one-third of the yard.

From the front, the house looks like a large trapezoid extending down to become a rectangle, with a small triangular room next to it.

The roof is covered with shiny brown-red resin tiles, which are still eye-catching even after so much rain and wind.

The sight returned to the house in the middle. There were four windows opposite. Two of the super large ones were empty, and the other one was also in danger of collapse. There was no trace of glass in the two small ones.

The original color of the house outside can only be vaguely distinguished as light blue walls, but now it has become mottled and looks like a haunted house.

The bottom of the house, up to about thigh height, was severely decayed. The wall paint was even gone, peeling off to reveal neatly stacked gray bricks.

The house is surrounded by flower pots of all sizes, some big, some small, made of different materials, with different colors, and arranged in an irregular pattern. It seems that the owner added them one by one.

However, there are no flowers left in it. There are only completely dead branches. Many pots don’t even have roots, only soil.

The door was on the left, a double-opening security door, but it was already rusted and the lock was missing, leaving two fist-sized holes there.

Ningxia pushed hard but couldn't budge. Li Gang stepped forward and kicked it twice, finally opening it. Dust and wall paint flew everywhere. He touched the back of his head and said, "I'll make you a latch later."

The group walked in carefully. There was a small carpet at their feet. It was in a mess and even a few unknown small insects ran out when they stepped on it. Upon closer inspection, they found that the floor was paved with granite. No wonder there were no cracks on the floor.

"Xiao Jie, you and your uncle Chen go gather some mugwort leaves and fumigate the house. Otherwise, how will you live there at night? It will be full of snakes, insects, rats and ants." Li Gang ordered Xiao Jie as he stepped on a mosquito to death.

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