Chapter 187

With the help of the villagers of Ginkgo Village, the construction of Fan Xiaoxiao's house progressed much faster. About a month later, their first house was finally nearing completion.

That day, after everyone helped Fan Xiaoxiao pave the road outside with pebbles, the work was completely finished. Hu San had gotten along well with Fan Xiaoxiao and the others these days. He wiped his face and looked at Fan Xiaoxiao's house from afar, feeling somewhat sentimental.

"Miss Xiao, your house looks really nice! When I make money, I want to build one like that! By the way, what's that thing in your house that keeps it warm in winter called again?"

The villagers nearby couldn't stand the guy's silly appearance and patted him on the head with a laugh.

"Idiot! That's called a hearth!"

"A fireplace? I think that's called underfloor heating!"

"Yes, yes, yes, let's call it underfloor heating!"

They should have been able to finish the project much earlier. However, the addition of underfloor heating in Fan Xiaoxiao's house caused a slight delay.

At first, the villagers didn't understand why Fan Xiaoxiao had paved the floors of her house with bluestone bricks. It wasn't until a couple of days ago, after Fan Xiaoxiao turned on the underfloor heating, that they learned that the winding grooves she had left under the bluestone bricks were for connecting to a special stove in the kitchen. As long as it was burning, the house would be warm no matter how cold it was outside in winter.

Fan Xiaoxiao was planting newly bought winter vegetables in the vegetable garden they had cleared a few days ago. When she heard their words, she waved her hand at them and said, "That's not a rare skill. It's all thanks to everyone working for me that we're spared from suffering in the winter."

"Lady Xiao, you're exaggerating."

"Yes, yes! You've paid us quite a bit! We do this work to supplement our family income!"

"Hai, it's nothing, we really owe it to the village chief for his help back then!"

Fan Xiaoxiao steered the conversation toward Village Chief Fu, who was sitting to the side listening to their chat, and sure enough, the villagers' attention was immediately drawn to her.

"Yes! It's because the village chief knows we don't have much income in the winter! We should save up now so we can buy some cotton scraps to make clothes for our wives and children in the winter."

The villagers' words soothed the village chief, who stroked his small goatee and smiled broadly. But he jokingly scolded the men still working, "You talk too much! Hurry up and get to work! Aren't you going to harvest your own land?"

Speaking of this, Fan Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered that Ginkgo Village seemed to be in the midst of the autumn harvest. She patted the dirt off her hands and handed the seeds to Aunt Wang, who was standing nearby.

"Village chief! Are you going to sell the village's grain this year?"

Fan Xiaoxiao stepped forward a few steps and asked Village Chief Fu with a smile.

"food?"

Village Chief Fu was slightly taken aback, then realized that Fan Xiaoxiao and her group were outsiders and had no harvest this year.

"You want to buy grain from the village?"

"Yes, winter is coming soon, and we don't know where our food will be for the winter. I wonder how the harvest is in the village this year? Could you sell us some?"

"Selling it to you is no problem."

"However, our village won't sell many this year either."

Village Chief Fu's words startled Fan Xiaoxiao slightly, and she asked, somewhat puzzled, "Why do you say that?"

Village Chief Fu sighed, but before he could speak, Hu San hurriedly interrupted, "Sigh, what else could it be? The harvest was bad this year!"

Tiger Three's words seemed to open a floodgate of conversation, and he began to sigh and lament about the poor harvest.

“You’re new here and don’t know, but we didn’t get a drop of rain for two months straight. The crops in the fields were all irrigated by hand. But if you had known that our village had a lot of land, you could have planted the crops one acre at a time. But the seedlings need water, and you can’t just wait and see.”

"Alas, back then, the people in our village watered the plants day and night, but the harvest was still not satisfactory."

Fan Xiaoxiao hadn't expected things to turn out this way, and her expression was somewhat wistful.

Village Chief Fu sighed and pounded his leg: "You know the reason, so we can only give you some grain. Those three months of drought scared us all. If it weren't for that big river, we probably would have had no harvest at all."

"In that case, I thank the village chief in advance. We will naturally find a way to resolve the rest."

Fan Xiaoxiao respectfully bowed to Village Chief Fu with a junior's salute. The old man paused slightly in his leg-massaging motion, then sighed deeply and waved his hand.

“Alas, this mountain is quite far from our village, so few people used to come here. If you live here, you should be careful of wild animals.”

After saying this, Village Chief Fu rubbed his legs again, stood up, and led the villagers who had paid their wages to say goodbye to Fan Xiaoxiao and the others.

After they left, Uncle Wang came over.

"Girl, we should build some more fences."

Fan Xiaoxiao nodded: "And we can go up the mountain."

Now that their lodging problem is solved, the only remaining issue is food. Although Village Chief Fu promised to sell them some food,

"Go up the mountain? But didn't you hear that rich village chief..."

"I heard you. Don't worry, we won't go deep into the mountains this time. In fact, it's precisely because we heard what the village chief said that we should go up the mountain."

Uncle Wang was a little confused: "Why do you say that?"

Fan Xiaoxiao didn't say anything, but just gave Uncle Wang a smile.

Lu Ye, who was working nearby, chuckled and said, "Hehe, although the village chief told us to be careful of wild animals, he also told us that not many people usually come here. So, Xiao Yatou wants to go up the mountain to see if there are any wild fruits."

Fan Xiaoxiao chuckled and took two steps ahead to find a basket. Just in case, she also took the crossbow that Master Lu had given her.

Uncle Wang smiled and shook his head when he saw her excited expression.

After packing their things, the two prepared to go up the back mountain. Before leaving, Xiao Bao pulled Fan Xiaoxiao aside and whispered instructions for a long time.

After they went outside, Uncle Wang asked Fan Xiaoxiao with some curiosity, "What was that little guy Xiaobao whispering to you about for so long?"

When Fan Xiaoxiao recalled what Xiaobao had said to her before leaving, she couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Haha, that dumpling. He said we should catch a few more little rabbits."

"rabbit?"

Fan Xiaoxiao nodded: "When we were entertaining the villagers of Ginkgo Village last month, didn't we kill one of the rabbits we caught on the road? That rabbit was fierce and didn't want to be in the same cage as the female rabbit."

"But Xiao Bao really loves that rabbit. The little guy keeps saying that one little rabbit is too pitiful and keeps begging to catch another one. Just now, he came out to talk to me about it again."

As they spoke, Fan Xiaoxiao and the others had already entered the back mountain. It was indeed much as Chief Fu had described; few people came here, so the mountain path was covered with thorns.

Uncle Wang, no longer bothered with his casual conversation with Fan Xiaoxiao, grabbed his machete and headed back the way they had come. After walking for about half an hour, the two were exhausted and sat down to rest when they heard a slight rustling in the grass beside them.

Fan Xiaoxiao and Uncle Wang exchanged a glance—no way? Could there really be rabbits?!

(End of this chapter)