The fisherman grinned, "Oh, that's great! From now on, we're from the same village. You guys look extraordinary; you must be scholars. Our village has finally welcomed some impressive people."

Lin Shucheng: "Oh right, my son went to school."

The two chatted about everything under the sun that day, from now on they could teach his grandson to read, what to eat and wear in the north, and what the situation was like outside.

They also found out about the village, where they could fish and where they could moor their boats.

As they were talking, the fisherman's son, a young man in his early twenties, pulled his father away and said in the local dialect, "Oh, Dad, why are you talking to them? Oh, the other day when you weren't here, the village chief said that we can't talk to outsiders anymore, especially those who are going to move here."

As he spoke, the young man looked around, and seeing that no one was around, he breathed a sigh of relief and quickly pulled his father away.

Lin Shucheng knew that in every village, there would be some xenophobic people, but the villagers wouldn't go too far. At most, they would just stop associating with your family. There were also kind and warm-hearted people, like the fisherman from earlier. He saw that the two of them looked like scholars and took the initiative to show them kindness.

But have I ever seen someone so openly display their hostility without even putting on an act?

Lin Shucheng and his son exchanged a glance: "Has this village chief lost his mind, or are we here to take advantage of his interests?"

Lin Xueqing thought for a moment and said, "I guess it's both, but what benefits can we gain from entering the village? Can we catch all the fish in such a large sea?"

The two stopped pondering the strange thought processes of the ancients and went straight into the village, never even considering the wasteland and woodland.

In their view, those were the least valuable things.

The houses in the village were very simple, and each household had several strings of dried fish drying in front of their doors. The fishermen all wore tattered clothes with patches on them.

You're so poor, why would you worry about others coveting your things? That's ridiculous.

Lin Shucheng walked up to a slightly more spacious house. This house had a courtyard and was made of blue bricks and tiles, making it look out of place in the village.

The courtyard gate wasn't closed. Lin Shucheng knocked on the door, and the man sweeping the yard looked over with a displeased expression: "Who are you? What are you doing in my house?"

Their attitude wasn't very good, but Lin Shucheng smiled, after all, you can't hit a smiling person.

"I'm here to see the village chief. We're coming from the north and have already settled here."

The man in the courtyard cursed and swore: "From the north? Are you crazy? What are you doing in our village? We don't even have enough land to begin with, and now we have to take some from these people. It's bad luck to start the day like this."

The man was speaking a dialect, and they thought they couldn't understand him, so he cursed him in a very offensive way, but Lin Shucheng could understand Cantonese.

Lin Shucheng was speechless. So they were the ones to blame for taking over those wastelands.

Why is this wasteland called wasteland? It's because it's difficult to grow crops, so it's been abandoned. We never saw anyone from Yunhe Village farming it before, but now they're blaming us for coming here to claim the land.

An old man with gray hair and a short stature came out of the house, his body hunched over, and his expression was not good.

This is Chen Dawei, the village chief of Yunhe Village.

Lin Shucheng's smile faded: "Where is the land allocated to us?"

Chen Dawei looked him up and down with great disdain, and said in broken Mandarin, "It's just that area. The hill you were allocated is on the other side of the river. Go south from the riverbank, and that's the twenty mu of wasteland you were allocated. Add the land for the house, and it's a total of twenty-five mu. Second brother, go and fence off that land for them."

Chen Dawei's son, Chen Fuxi, then led the villagers to measure the land for them.

Chen Dawei turned around and prepared to go back to the house, but then seemed to remember something and paused, calling out to Lin Shucheng and the others who were about to leave: "If you want to cut down trees to build houses, go to the mountain on the other side of the river. Don't touch anything in the village. If you really want to cut down trees in the village, that's fine too. You'll have to pay one tael of silver for each tree you cut down."

Lin Shucheng didn't expect the old man to be so cunning. There was no bridge over the river, and they didn't have a boat, so they couldn't go to the forest they had been allocated to cut down trees on the other side of the river. If they wanted to cut down trees in the village, they would have to pay an exorbitant price. This old man was really a scoundrel.

Lin Shucheng wasn't exactly a magnanimous person. Seeing that the old man was shameless, he said, "In that case, we'll keep to ourselves from now on. Don't come to our village. If you go to the wrong place and we accidentally hurt you, please forgive us."

Chen Dawei sneered: "Fine, we'll keep to ourselves. Just don't come begging to us from now on."

Lin Shucheng ignored the old man and turned to leave.

Saying you shouldn't offend people, or at least not look too bad on the surface, is all for show. There's no need to give a nice look to an old man like this who's shameless and doesn't care about being given face.

As soon as Lin Shucheng and the others left, Chen Dawei started cursing and swearing: "What kind of person is that? How dare they talk to me like that!"

Lin Shucheng heard Chen Dawei's curses. He said, "What kind of dog keeps barking?" and left without looking back.

Chen Dawei was furious.

Lin Shucheng began to worry. The plot of land they were allocated was barren, mostly beach covered with sand and gravel, and he didn't know if anything could be grown there.

Lin Shucheng had a headache.

He went back and told his daughter and the villagers about it.

Upon hearing this, everyone panicked.

"Oh dear, what are we going to do? It's one thing for the village chief to ignore us, but he won't even give us twenty acres of land?"

"If we offend the village chief, will we ever have a good life in this village again?"

Seeing everyone's reaction, Lin Jinyue said, "It's alright, it's not a big deal. Our village is united and working together. No matter what they do, we'll do some business first. If Yunhe Village doesn't cooperate, we'll buy land in nearby villages."

In Lin Jinyue's opinion, this was really no big deal. It was just a village. What kind of trouble could they cause?

Even if they had powerful backers, and the people of Linjia Village had done a good job in fighting the plague, the officials wouldn't dare to take action against them at will, after all, they still had to be somewhat cautious.

We need to have the system check later to see if the allocated wasteland is suitable for planting. If it's not suitable, we'll have to find another way.

Seeing Lin Jinyue so composed, everyone felt relieved.

That's true. They've encountered all sorts of difficulties along the way, so why would they be afraid of a few villagers?

Lin Shucheng had already scouted the route. When he arrived at the ship, he directed the captain to a place where the ship could dock. Coincidentally, it was right in the area they were assigned to, so they didn't have to meet the villagers. They would build a port there later.

They came down with their horse-drawn carriages and handcarts, which looked quite spectacular.

There were about ten carts and two horse-drawn carriages.

Especially Tan Xue's family, their carriage was so magnificent that anyone who didn't know better would think they were a wealthy family.