Chapter 23
After sending the herbs, Yao Chunnuan stopped paying attention to the Wang family. The next day, after a night's rest and feeling much better, she asked Wang Lang to add a copy of the agreement. Wang Lang gave her the copy with a dark look on his face.
When she left with the agreement, the cold aura around Wang Lang made everyone in the Wang family silent, even Zhang, who was always talkative, didn't dare to say a word.
"Don't be sad." Xiao Jieming didn't know what to say.
"I'm not sad." People are just different in terms of closeness and distance. I had no expectations of Wang Lang in the first place, so without expectations, there would naturally be no disappointment.
Fortunately, she took the medicine promptly, and her cold improved, requiring no further medication. Of course, even if it worsened, she had cold and fever medicines at her old house, both Western and Chinese medicine pills. However, since she was pregnant, she still had to be cautious and avoid medication if possible.
Over the next ten days and a half, as they got closer to Yichun, Yao Chunnuan began to take precautions. She tried to wear her valuables at all times, like the cloth shoes with banknotes sewn into the shoe lining, the thin jacket her family had asked the jailer to bring her when she was first imprisoned, and the cowhide bag.
As for the leather and duck down she collected along the way, as the weather got colder, she handed them over to Luo Suyi one by one, and she sewed them onto her and Xiao Jieming's clothes like patching them.
Due to the lack of leather, it can only be sewn on some key parts, which is not beautiful, but at least it plays a role in keeping warm. The people above see it and have no intention of snatching it away.
Yao Chunnuan's premonition was very accurate. When they were four or five days away from arriving in Yichun, slightly valuable items began to disappear inexplicably, some people's clothes were cut, and the prisoners' private collection of copper coins, silver coins, gold and silver ornaments were all stolen.
The prisoners who were seen off by their families were given special care. Yao Chunnuan's bag was also touched, but because of Yao Chunnuan's vigilance, the loss was not great.
The prisoners whose belongings were robbed dared not speak out and could only blame themselves for their bad luck.
Yao Chunnuan didn't know what to say about this. She could only admire her family's ability to hide the banknotes in her heart. Even the officials who were used to searching didn't notice it.
At night, Xiao Jieming quietly asked her, "Did you miss anything?"
Luo Suyi also looked over.
Yao Chunnuan shook her head at them.
The two understood and didn't ask any more questions.
Five days later, we finally arrived in Yichun!
It was already mid-October, the end of autumn and beginning of winter in Yichun. Yao Chunnuan wrapped herself tightly in her flowered jacket. Her first impression of Yichun was the high, thick stone walls and the strong wind that made it nearly impossible to open one's eyes.
Before entering the city, Yao Chunnuan privately pulled Tian Qigang aside and said, "Master Tian, after we enter the city, can you talk to the person in charge and ask them to let the three of us live together as much as possible?" If the three of them could live together, they could also take care of each other.
"Not with the Wang family?"
From what he said, the Wang and Han families should be divided according to family units. Yao Chunnuan shook her head.
"Let me take a look." Tian Qigang didn't give a definite answer.
Yao Chunnuan had no choice but to rely on the goodwill she had gained along the way.
After Tian Qigang and his team arrived, they immediately handed over the prisoners to the local person in charge.
After the handover, their shackles were removed.
Before they parted, Tian Qigang distributed to them all the bowls, chopsticks, spoons, and bedding they had used along the way. They were all cheap items, and the escorting officers were not interested in them, so they gave them all to them.
In addition to the clay pot she had been using along the way, Tian Qigang also gave her a broken iron pot with a hole on the side.
Yao Chunnuan didn't mind either, as iron pots were very popular.
The three of them, either carrying or hugging their arms, took all the belongings they were allocated and lined up with the team to enter the city.
Not long after entering the city, the Wang and Han families were taken away separately, and were among the first group to be taken away.
Before they parted, Wang Lang looked at her deliberately, and Yao Chunnuan looked back indifferently.
Yichun City was under military settlement management, and the prisoners were supervised by a centurion named Zhao Hong. Centurions were considered low-ranking military officers, and there were many of them in Yichun, managing between one and two hundred prisoners.
Yao Chunnuan and the other two were assigned to him. After he counted the number of people, he waved his hand and asked his subordinates to take them to their resettlement.
Yao Chunnuan and the other two were once again assigned to a small leader named Chen Jin.
Chen Jin was in charge of fifty border prisoners alone. He led them to the warehouse to collect relevant supplies.
Every prisoner who comes here will be given a month's rations, a bed, and two taels of salt after entering the city, nothing else.
This time, the three of them were only given 100 kilograms of coarse grain, which was their food for a month. They had to take care of themselves in the morning and evening, and the guard office would provide them with lunch.
Yao Chunnuan took a look. The food was coarse, and the bedding was tattered, probably left behind by the previous inhabitants. These were just necessary supplies, just to keep them from freezing or starving. But this situation was already much better than she had expected.
After distributing the supplies, the next step is to assign accommodation.
In the end, Yao Chunnuan and the other two were assigned to a dilapidated mud house.
This mud house is built in a three-sided enclosure, with a row of three bright rooms and two dark rooms in the center. In addition, there are two short side rooms on each side. These side rooms are so low that people have to bend over to enter, and once inside, they dare not straighten their backs. They are called side rooms, but in fact they are just storage rooms. Some of them have cracked walls, and it is unknown how long they can last.
This mud house was obviously occupied. The hall in the middle should be for public use, but now it was obviously occupied. Only two mud houses were allocated to them on the left, one bright and one dark.
The three of them looked at each other and decided to wait and see.
The two rooms allocated to them were of equal size, approximately 20 square meters each. The side room was even a couple of square meters larger than the inner one because it didn't have to occupy the corridor. However, the outermost room had a simple stove built into the corner.
There were two beds in these two rooms, but they were both in tatters and piled on the ground. Some of the wood was eaten by insects, and some were directly broken. It was estimated that the good bed boards had been taken away.
They quickly sorted out their accommodations. Yao Chunnuan and Luo Suyi took the smaller room inside, while Xiao Jieming lived in the room with the stove. They would stay there temporarily until a partition was built later.
Having reached a conclusion, the three of them got busy.
Xiao Jieming went to find some wood and repaired the beds for the three of them. This was the most important thing. In such a cold day in Yichun, sleeping on a bed was a must. If you sleep on the floor, you will easily get sick.
All three of them were capable people. Without saying a word, they ate some dry food, rolled up their sleeves and started working.
Xiao Jieming took out a pair of leather gloves they had sewn on the road. Tools were needed to repair beds and build some furniture such as tables and chairs. He planned to go to the warehouse to ask and get the leather gloves.
Luo Suyi found a broken wooden barrel, fetched some water, and was responsible for cleaning up the house inside and out.
Yao Chunnuan fixed the stove and organized their supplies.
Soon, Xiao Jieming borrowed a hammer, saw, and plane, and then went out to carry back some wood.
Yichun is close to the forest area, so among other things, there is plenty of timber.
With the tools and materials, Xiao Jieming started hammering in the courtyard.
Because the tools had a loan period, after Yao Chunnuan confirmed that the earthen stove was usable, she directly took over the cleaning work and asked Luo Suyi to help.
There were two men and one woman living next to them. The woman, in particular, rolled her eyes when she saw them busy in the shared courtyard.
Xiao Jieming worked tirelessly, stopping only at dusk. In half a day, he not only fixed the two beds and the doors and windows of the two rooms, but also built a simple small square table, two wooden barrels, and a square chest. It was just finished; he hadn't had time to polish it thoroughly, so it still had a few minor burrs to the touch.
It was already dark, and there wasn't even enough time to make two chairs. And that was even with Xiao Jieming's quickness. Time was limited, so he had to focus on the most important things first. The cabinet was used to store food, which was of paramount importance. The bed and the small square table with a wooden barrel were also essential.
"If we have the chance, we can make a few more chairs and one or two cabinets, and our home will be almost complete." Xiao Jieming thought.
Yao Chunnuan was quite satisfied with the progress. "This is already very good. We can take our time with the rest." At least there is a bed to sleep on and a roof to shelter the body. It doesn't require sleeping in the open air, right?
After Xiao Jieming returned the tools, they started eating.
For dinner, they had multi-grain flatbreads, and a dish of bamboo rat stewed with dried wild vegetables. The vegetables and bamboo rats were collected along the way, and after catching them, they skinned and gutted the rats and dried them along the way.
This meal was quite rich for the prisoners, and the faint aroma that emanated from it attracted the attention of the neighbors.
After dinner, the three of them heated up some water, washed up quickly, and then went to bed. After a busy day, everyone was exhausted. And the bosses would probably make sure they stayed alive tomorrow, so they needed to rest more to be able to cope tomorrow.
Currently, there was only one bed in the room, and Yao Chunnuan and Luo Suyi shared it. They were given four blankets, some good, some bad. They hadn't had time to wash them today, but once they were washed and spread on the bed, the two of them would squeeze in and still be quite warm. When winter came, she'd get some cotton to supplement it, or light a charcoal pot, and they shouldn't have any problems getting through the winter.
It’s a pity that there is no kang. Before she wore it, she was from the south and didn’t know how to build a kang, otherwise this winter would have been a little easier.
While Yao Chunnuan's life was well-organized and going well, the Wang and Han families were in chaos.
The houses they were given were much nicer than Yao Chunnuan's. Each family lived in a separate house, and the furniture inside wasn't shabby, resembling a small farmhouse. However, both families were wealthy and lacked manual labor. Wang Lang, a king with a string of bronze, worked until dark before finally settling in.
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