There is a row of foundation marks on the ground, which should be the marks left from when the house was built. However, the house is long gone now, leaving only a tiny trace of the foundation.

Now people are unhappy, they no longer think the village chief is a good person, and their hearts are cold.

Meanwhile, the village chief's house was bustling with activity.

As soon as Village Chief Yao got home, he sat down in a chair, picked up his pipe, and started taking puffs.

The village chief's wife brought out dinner and asked, "Didn't you go out? How is it?"

Village Chief Yao scoffed, "What can you do? There are quite a few people, and they seem to be a complete family, but there are also many elderly people and children, and none of them look like wealthy people."

Those who can still live as ordinary citizens at this time are those who had family wealth before, but those people don't seem to be like that at all.

He had heard that the village chiefs of those villages that accepted refugees had received a lot of benefits.

Let it sit for now; they'll learn the rules as time goes on.

Song Ning and his group were heartbroken. They had walked for so long, risked their lives to survive, only to end up like this.

Their demands are not high; even if they are not treated well, they just want a place to stay.

Not to mention the women, even the grown men were secretly wiping away tears.

Song Ning clapped her hands: "Alright, we don't have time to complain now, let's think about where we'll sleep tonight."

Crying won't solve the problem.

Song Ning was also furious, but what could she do even if she was furious?

They are already very fortunate to have a village to live in.

"Let's solve our sleep problem tonight first, and we can talk about the rest tomorrow."

Fortunately, when they left Yanzhou City, the government returned some of their tools for working.

Now they have hoes, kitchen knives, and shovels in their hands.

"Brother Tiedan, take a few men and go cut down some trees. Bring all the tools you can use to cut down trees, and try to tie the cut wood together."

“Mother, Aunt, gather the women from each household together, build a fire, and have the children gather some firewood nearby.”

"Don't worry, we'll go right away."

After these arrangements were made, everyone got to work and proceeded in an orderly manner.

Song Ning told the two village chiefs and then walked out of the village.

Seeing that most of them had left, Song Ning took out some food, as well as the large pot and wooden bucket she had bought earlier, from her spatial storage.

I bought all of these in case of emergency, and sure enough, that "just in case" happened.

When Chu Ning returned carrying the pot and bucket, Village Chief Luo and the others were startled and quickly ran over to take the things from Chu Ning's hands.

"Er Ya, where did you get all this stuff?"

“A wealthy family happened to pass by on the road just now. They bought new things and didn’t want these things anymore. They also gave us this grain.”

Village Chief Luo sighed, "There are still more good people than bad in this world." Look at this pot, it looks brand new.

"Village chief, please have some people build a bigger stove so we can have a big pot of food tonight."

There's only one pot, but luckily it's big enough for so many people to cook several batches.

He handed the buckets to Li Xingwang and said, "Brother Xingwang, I see a river to the north of here. Could you take some people and fetch some water?"

Li Xingwang was timid at night, but he couldn't care less about that in the current situation, and led his men to the riverbank.

While people were shouting to move wood over there, a stove had already been set up over here. Li Xingwang returned with the people who had fetched water, and the women began to prepare the meal.

Liu Yuelan will lead the way; we'll make dumpling soup tonight.

There was someone in the group who knew how to make bowls, so he sat there and started scooping out bowls with a piece of wood.

Looking at the dumpling soup in the pot, Song Ning quietly added some salt. She really wanted to add a few more eggs, but in the end, she gave up the idea.

While everyone was gathered around the pot, they secretly threw a few potatoes into the fire. Roasted potatoes are a good thing.

After finishing their meal, everyone continued working. Gao Tiedan cut down a lot of wood and tied the soft branches together side by side to make beds for the night.

There's plenty of hay here; you can lay it out and make do for the night.

The weather is getting colder every day, but fortunately almost everyone has a water bag. Filling the water bag with hot water before going to bed helps a little.

But Song Ning was woken up by the cold shortly after falling asleep; the water pouch in her arms had long since lost its warmth.

The crackling sound of burning firewood and the voices of men made Song Ning unable to lie still any longer. She sat by the fire and pulled out her potatoes, giving one to each person present.

"Er Ya, where did you get this?"

Song Ning: ......I forgot about that, and then immediately changed the subject.

"Next, we need to hurry up and build the house. We'll make adobe bricks tomorrow. Brother Tiedan, you make a few wooden frames that are about this long and this wide tomorrow."

"Okay."

Since I've already been assigned here, I guess I'll just have to settle down here for now.

Most of the houses in the village are made of adobe, which is not a difficult thing for them.

Tang Xinghuai sat with them. Song Ning glanced at him. His face was still not fully healed, but it was clear that it was much better than before. His leg was still limping, and it was unknown when it would fully recover. Because of this, Tang Xinghuai was always in a bad mood.

Tang Xinghuai sat to the side, helping to whittle the wood, without saying a word.

Song Ning sat down and whispered, "Dr. Tang, Sister Jiang has already gone home. Aren't you planning to go home too?"

Tang Xinghuai remained silent for a moment, and Song Ning, thinking that she had touched on his painful memories, tactfully refrained from asking further questions.

Then, the next second, Tang Xinghuai looked up and said, "I've made up my mind. I'll follow you from now on."

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!