Song Ning borrowed paper and pen, and a table from the county magistrate.

Then they called Zhou Ling'an over.

Now that the goods have been delivered, they naturally need to be distributed.

After Village Chief Luo organized the people, Song Ning stood in front and said loudly, "As you can see, Tianxiang County has nothing. From now on, no matter what we do, we will have to earn it with our own hands."

Everyone has a share of these things delivered today. If you want to stay, you can take the things and start thinking about building a house. If you don't want to stay in Tianxiang County, you can take the things and find another place to settle down.

Last night, Song Ning discussed the matter with the two village chiefs. The conditions here are not good, and if anyone doesn't want to stay, they won't force them.

Song Ning had already said in advance that if you didn't want to stay, you didn't need to say goodbye, you could just leave, so as not to lose face.

There were twenty households in total, and fifty taels of silver in total. Each household could receive a little over two taels. Although it wasn't much, it was still a resettlement allowance for everyone at the moment.

Village Chief Luo and Village Chief Zhou stood by to maintain order, making everyone line up and send one person from each household to register.

Zhou Ling'an sat at the front and was in charge of registering the list, while Song Ning, Li Xingwang, and Gao Tiedan led a few people to distribute supplies to the registered households.

The prefect sent quite a lot of things, including bedding, pots and pans, and farming tools; he had all the basic daily necessities.

The only problem is that we haven't gathered all the materials needed to build the house yet.

Looking at the stacks of bricks on the ground, Song Ning silently thanked Xie Linzhou in his heart. He never expected that, thanks to Xie Linzhou's influence, they would still be able to use bricks in this era.

Although there weren't many bricks, at least each family could get some. It wasn't enough to build a house with these bricks, so Song Ning planned to use the bricks her family received to build a kang (a heated brick bed).

They started working early in the morning, without even having breakfast, and continued until noon.

They built stoves with earth outside the tents and started cooking. Then, Zheng Gaoyi brought Shitou over to freeload a meal.

They didn't go anywhere else, but went straight to where Song Ning and the others were cooking.

He sat down on a pile of hay nearby and asked, "What are you doing?"

"My mom is making pancakes."

After he finished speaking, there was silence for a long time. Zheng Gaoyi sat to the side, glancing at the pancakes in the pot and then at Song Ning, as if to say: "Speak quickly, speak quickly so I can stay!"

Seeing that Song Ning's family remained silent, Zheng Gaoyi couldn't sit still any longer. He reluctantly got up, turning back to look at them every few steps.

Helpless, Song Ning was about to speak when he said, "Magistrate, why don't you stay..."

"I'll stay, I'll definitely stay and eat pancakes." Before Song Ning could finish speaking, the man replied.

Stone next to him really thought his parents were crazy. If he wanted to eat, he could have just said so. Why did they have to ask him to stay?

Zheng Gaoyi sat back down on the haystack and saw Song Ning seemingly sketching or writing something. He asked, "What are you sketching?"

"I'm planning where to build my house and what kind of house to build it. I'm going to settle down here, so I need to think about it carefully."

Song Ning didn't know how to use a brush, so he could only burn a wooden stick black and scribble on paper.

Zheng Gaoyi became interested and glanced at Song Ning's drawing; his expression instantly lit up.

The things drawn on this look too much like city defense maps.

His eyes flickered slightly as he asked, "So, where are you planning to build your house?"

Song Ning pointed to the mountain to the north behind them: "Isn't there a mountain over there? Right at the foot of the mountain, there's a river to the south. I've heard that when building a house, it's important to have a mountain behind you and a river in front of you, with the house facing south. That's perfect."

Zheng Gaoyi chuckled lightly: "You know about this?"

Song Ning chuckled dryly twice: "I just... heard the older folks mention it." That's what the seller told her when she bought the house, and that's all she remembered.

Zheng Gaoyi didn't ask any further questions, but he had a general idea in mind: Song Erya was a promising young girl.

After lunch, the distribution of goods continued in the afternoon. All the things that the prefect had promised were delivered by the afternoon, and everyone was happy. All that was left for them was to build houses.

There weren't enough bricks to build houses, so people still had to make adobe bricks.

There was nothing else here, but plenty of soil and thatch, and people got busy that afternoon.

Until nightfall, none of the twenty households had left.

Everyone's asking, where can they go? Right now, we're all together, so we can help each other out. If they go somewhere else, they'll be unfamiliar with the place and might get rejected.

It's better to stay with Er Ya. No matter what happens, as long as Er Ya is there, they feel at ease.

Hundreds of people were squatting outside making adobe bricks, and none of them were sleepy.

Zheng Gaoyi glanced out from the yamen and began to make his own plans.

"Tell me, what do you think? Would it be alright if I let Er Ya work in the yamen?"

Stone stared wide-eyed as if he had heard something shocking: "Sir, the yamen does not allow women to work." Besides, she was just a child.

"Oh, I'll do it quietly, and no one else will know, so what's there to be afraid of?"

We have to bring them here.

Song Ning, who was not far away, couldn't help but sneeze. Who was cursing her?

People worked until midnight before going back to rest for a while. The things were all left outside, so they weren't worried about them getting stolen.

There are only the two of them and the two people in the yamen living in Tianxiang Town now. Not to mention that thieves won't come, even if they go out and run naked, it wouldn't be a problem.

They finally got to use the blankets at night, but they weren't filled with cotton; they looked like they were filled with animal fur, but they were still much warmer.

Inside the yamen, Zheng Gaoyi was holding a map of Tianxiang County, his brows furrowed deeply.

The next morning, after breakfast, people continued making adobe bricks, while Song Ning went to the place where she wanted to build a house.

It looked close from the tent, but it actually took half an hour to walk there.

After glancing at the distance, Song Ning made a mark on the ground and turned to the two village chiefs: "I plan to build my house here."

It's not too close to the mountain, and the distance to the government office is also reasonable. In case there are any projects on the mountain in the future, they can avoid them.

Upon hearing this, Village Chief Luo didn't hesitate and also picked a spot nearby to mark it.

They can no longer build houses like they did in the village; they need some planning. After all, it's a county town, and things need to be more orderly.

However, I need to speak with the county magistrate about this.

Upon entering the yamen, Zheng Gaoyi greeted him very warmly, and Song Ning immediately asked, "Magistrate, may I see a map... uh, a map?"

Zheng Gaoyi was taken aback, then overjoyed. Not only did he not feel it was inappropriate, but he also happily took out the map.

Song Ning looked excitedly at the ancient map, but as soon as she unfolded it, she was dumbfounded.

"This is... a map?"

"This is a map."

The map only has two large characters that read "Map," and the rest is just a rough outline; there's nothing else.

Even this basic outline was drawn after Zheng Gaoyi had circled Tianxiang County several times since he arrived.