Chapter 47 Government Interception

Liu Ye instantly understood what he meant. Didn't he just think she was ugly? "Hahaha, Brother Bai, do you think I'm ugly? What do you think? Am I good enough for you? Am I your type? Hahaha, hahaha."

Liu Ye's laughter, like her personality, was soft, sweet, and melted Bai Zilin's heart. No, Liu Ye was so beautiful, she couldn't be seen by others, otherwise... He was afraid that they would have more trouble on their way. He quickly walked to the cart, smeared his hands with black ink from the bottom of the pot, and then touched Liu Ye's face.

Her small, delicate face immediately turned completely black again. Bai Zilin nodded with satisfaction: "That's right. Hurry up and put the black on your hands and neck too. It's not safe for us to travel with someone as beautiful as you..."

Liu Ye nodded in agreement. Even if he wouldn't help her apply it, she would do it herself. She smeared some soot from the bottom of the pot and applied it to her hands, neck, and face again: "I'm done, Brother Bai. Do you see if there's anything I missed?"

Bai Zilin covered her face with her hair again before saying with satisfaction, "Alright, it's applied very well. Let's go now."

Bai Zilin pushed the cart onto the road, Liu Ye sat on it, and the two set off again. They didn't stop at noon, just walking and eating a few bites as they went, until it got dark and the sun went down, at which point they finally stopped to rest.

The next day, Bai Zilin did not go up the mountain to hunt again. Instead, he ate breakfast and set off immediately. That wolf would be enough for them to eat for a while. The sooner they reached the south, the safer they would be. The two of them traveled for three days.

Liu Ye, with her sharp ears, overheard two disaster victims not far away saying that they would reach Xiancheng in two more days. If Xiancheng was similar to the south and there was food in the mountains, they would stop. Otherwise, they would have to travel through two more cities to get to the south. Now they had run out of water and food and were really too exhausted to walk any further.

"Brother Bai, I've heard from several people that they're planning to settle down in Xiancheng. What are your plans?"

Bai Zilin frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "There are indeed many prey in the mountains here, and there is water in the mountains. Actually, we don't have to go south. If we continue to go south, it will take another month. It was already cool this morning, and it is quite cold at night. In another half month, it will be winter. Let's wait until we get to Xiancheng before we talk about it."

Three days later, the two successfully arrived in Xiancheng. As soon as they entered the city, Liu Ye noticed that there were an unusually large number of disaster victims and soldiers maintaining order. "Brother Bai, what's going on? Something seems off. Why are there so many soldiers? Why don't you go and ask them?"

Bai Zilin handed the cart to Liu Ye to watch while he went to ask around. He returned quickly: "Liu Ye, the government has sent people to intercept the disaster victims and prevent them from going south. We can't go either."

Liu Ye was a little confused after hearing this. What was going on? Why couldn't they go south? "Brother Bai, why can't we go south? The government won't let us go south. Are they going to send us back?"

Bai Zilin shook his head and said, "No, the imperial court has already sent disaster relief funds and grain. We've come at just the right time. Tomorrow, the government will distribute disaster relief silver and grain to the disaster victims. Each person will receive 50 catties of mixed grain rice and five taels of silver. For disaster victims who don't want to return to their original hometowns, the government will also relocate them to new villages, register them, and allocate houses and land. Moreover, there is water in Xiancheng. I heard that the wells in Xiancheng are almost all still flowing. It even rained a couple of days ago."

"Liu Ye, why don't we stay in Xiancheng? The government has been intercepting disaster victims heading south since yesterday. They say there are too many disaster victims heading south. If the government doesn't stop them, all the people in the north will run south, which will put pressure on the south. That's why the court is intercepting our small group."

"The disaster relief funds and grain were distributed to our small group of people, but not to the disaster victims who went to the south. They want to come back now, but it seems they can't. The imperial court has ordered them to be intercepted in the south as well, probably to save some disaster relief funds. That's my guess."

"Willow Leaf, if you want to stay, I'll stay with you. I'll listen to you. If you still want to go south, we can go through the woods."

Upon hearing this, Liu Ye thought, "Why bother going? We can survive anywhere anyway. If he wants to go south and wait until the disaster is over, then I can go too. Right now, I want to settle down. I'm tired of moving around all the time." She said, "Brother Bai, let's stay here. We can go south when the disaster is over. Do we need to register with the government?"

Bai Zilin nodded and said, "That's right, but we don't need to register at the government office. We can just wait on the street, and the officials will register us one by one. You still have your letter of severance, right? With the letter of severance, we can register as separate households."

Willow Leaf nodded, thinking to herself, "Can I throw this away?" "I'll keep it."

Before long, the officials came to register the two men's household registrations. After reviewing their letters of severance, the officials issued them separate household registrations two days later. However, the registrations were not for Shizigou Village, but for Erdaogou Village in Xiangshan Town, Xiancheng County. The registered residents were Liu Ye and Bai Zilin. Both of them now had household registrations.

After the villages were allocated and the household registrations were completed, Bai Zilin and Liu Ye lined up to receive their grain and silver. They then joined about a hundred disaster victims and, led by soldiers, arrived at Erdaogou Village, a poor and dilapidated small mountain village with few people. It was about two miles from Xiangshan Town and five miles from the county seat, neither of which was too far.

Village Chief Wu of Erdaogou Village noticed that Liu Ye and Bai Zilin were just the two of them, unlike other families who had their own. After arranging for the other disaster victims, he moved the two to a dilapidated house at the end of the village, closer to the mountain. Of course, they weren't placed in the same courtyard, but each had their own dilapidated courtyard, and the two became neighbors.

Liu Ye walked around the front and back of the house. Although the house was quite dilapidated, it was quite large, with five main rooms, a side room on the east side, and large courtyards in the front and back. The front courtyard was about two acres of land, and the back courtyard was about two acres of land. It was huge. If this were in her previous life, it would have been enough to feed a family of five or six.

Moreover, the houses are not next to each other; they are separated by more than ten meters. No two houses are adjacent to each other. The house of Bai Zilin is more than ten meters away from theirs, and the house is about the same size as theirs.

The front and back yards were made of broken tree branches and were in a dilapidated state. The house also needed repair, and winter was fast approaching. She looked at the houses in the village and saw that they were not mud and thatched houses, but rather built of blue bricks. They looked alright. Her house was the same, except that the windows were broken and the house was so old that it was about to collapse. It had to be demolished and rebuilt. It would be fine to stay there for a couple of days, but it would definitely not be suitable for winter.

After inspecting his own house, Bai Zilin went to Liu Ye's house and said, "Liu Ye, the houses that Village Chief Wu assigned to us are too dilapidated and are about to collapse. If we want to stay here for a long time, we will have to rebuild them."

"Village Chief Wu is really something, he gave us the most dilapidated house."

Liu Ye thought to herself, what can we do? They're both alone and think they're easy to bully. If we don't give them the worst house, no one else will be happy.