"There are only three rooms in total, how could we possibly give you two? Besides, my son and I did most of the work back then, so we can only give you one room at most." Lian Jianpeng didn't actually want to give them any rooms, but they still had to live here in the future. No matter how bad the Gao family was, they still had some relatives here, so he couldn't push things too far.

"Let Dongxing and Qingfeng stay here for a while. We'll find a way to move out later, and we'll leave the house to you then." In this short time, Gao Shuzhen thought that this might be an opportunity to move away from Baijia Village, but she still needed to discuss with her son where to move.

“Since Aunt Gao has a better place to go, she probably won’t care about those little things. We have no objection if you want to use them during this period, but anything you bring from the Gao family will belong to us in the future.” Lian Jianpeng knew that the woman in front of him was not simple. In addition, now that he was no longer burdened by his family, her brother from her maternal family might take them in one day.

“Jianpeng, I know you used to look down on Aunt Gao, so why are you now eyeing her pots and pans? You know these are essential supplies, and we don’t know when they will be produced again. You think you can just take them for yourself with a casual remark? There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

"..."

After some bargaining, Gao Shuzhen managed to exchange the iron basins for some grain.

And so she completely broke ties with the Lian family. This time, she made a complete 360-degree turn in her attitude in the village and began to earnestly build relationships with several of the Gao family aunts, hoping they would intercede with the village chiefs on both sides to transfer her and Gao Dongxing back to Gao Family Village.

They can still bicker here over trivial matters, while other high-altitude areas are already showing signs of drought. It seems that heaven has forgotten this blue planet; there is no wind, no rain, no sunshine, and now even the moisture on the ground is slowly evaporating.

Without water, a new round of fighting began. Everyone was vying for water resources, and even military intervention couldn't alleviate the situation.

"Sir, we can't control the situation at all. Every village is guarding its own water source, and some are even fighting each other." A soldier was reporting the situation outside, while several leaders were sitting in the office.

"If all else fails, fire a warning shot. We can't let them keep making a scene like this," one of them suggested.

"This is the umpteenth time already. We've fired warning shots before, but they're not afraid at all. They're even yelling for us to shoot them. We've all had enough of this." The soldier reporting the incident was also helpless. Most of the soldiers are now short of water, and if this continues, even the troops won't be able to hold out.

"We still need to find another water source, but most of the south has fallen, and the remaining water resources are not very abundant." The leader sitting in the main seat was also very troubled.

"If all else fails, we'll have to take them with us and migrate south. Although that area is completely destroyed, it's still better than here. If this drought continues, none of us will be able to escape."

"Yes, sir, we should make a decision as soon as possible. Not a single drop of water has fallen in so long, and the moisture on the ground is still evaporating. If we don't find a way out soon, it will be too late."

“The previous tectonic activity was so severe that orientation in many places is inaccurate. Now, even military satellites can't make contact. We'll have to rely on experience to navigate, and the future is uncertain. If we're going to set off, we should listen to the opinions of the masses to avoid future complaints.” The officer at the head of the table also felt helpless. Since completely losing contact, he had been the highest-ranking officer in this area, and many decisions had to be made by him. But in the current situation, he couldn't stay here indefinitely; he also needed to find a way out for his subordinates.

"Then send out notices to each place, and let them choose for themselves whether to continue guarding this place or come with us to find new opportunities." After giving this order, he gathered everyone together to discuss where it would be safest to relocate.

Just as the drought outside was becoming increasingly severe, the last reservoir in Pinghe Village was finally completed. Yun Zhixin and Yun Zhizhong also led their troops to migrate to the county seat. They used the county seat as their base, where they reclaimed wasteland for farming and maintained order in the area. However, during this period, many people couldn't bear to see their families struggling to survive while they couldn't help at all. Furthermore, a large number of people surrendered and returned home after building their new stronghold, leaving few who could persevere.

After all, there were documents at the time stating that the security would be maintained by the troops in each locality. If they couldn't hold out, they wouldn't be forced to, but if there were any resistance forces, everyone would unite to suppress them. After this group left, Yun Zhixin still led the remaining twenty-odd men to hold their ground.

As the water level continued to drop, everyone was incredibly grateful that a reservoir had been dug. As long as the underground spring water continued to flow, each household could take turns storing water, which would temporarily ensure the village's water supply.

Other villages that followed suit and dug reservoirs were extremely fortunate, otherwise they would have been fetching water from all over the place like other villagers.

The only thing that made everyone feel fortunate was that after a period of hard work moving things, almost every household had rebuilt their houses. Although the tools were not complete and the houses were not as well-organized as those in Pinghe Village, at least they were presentable and no longer had to live in caves or thatched huts.

Of course, there were also some lazy ones who just went through the motions, simply rebuilding their old thatched huts to make them more spacious. The Lian family was one of them. In Lian Jianpeng's words, they were exhausted from planting crops every day, so where would they find the energy to build a house?

And Gao Shuzhen and her son actually managed to persuade the village chief of Baijia Village to go to Gaojia Village to plead for them, and they are preparing to move back to Gaojia Village in the next couple of days.

However, instead of moving to their brother's house, they were given a new plot of land in a new village settlement to build a new house for themselves and their son.

Because of this incident, Aunt Gao and Uncle Gao had another argument, and Aunt Gao threatened that if he brought anything from home to his sister again, she would kick him out as well. There was a reason why Aunt Gao dared to say such a thing. Gao Liang had just agreed to a marriage and was preparing to set a date. If Gao Shuzhen caused any more trouble at this time and it had a negative impact, even her own son would blame him.

As for Uncle Gao's offer to help build the house, Aunt Gao had no objection. However, she disagreed with Gao Liang going to help, since there was still so much work to be done in the fields, and she couldn't let him do all the work alone.