A day later, they arrived in Qingshui County, which naturally caused quite a stir.
"Oh my god, where did these people come from? They stink!"
"Hush, don't you see the carriage in front? They have a distinguished person leading the way!"
"Tsk... a bunch of stinking peasants, do you think they deserve help from a noble man?"
"Huh? It really stinks. They have families with them. Look at their hair, it's all clumped together. Oh my god, there are flies flying around their heads. It's so disgusting!"
"These people are even rags worse than the beggars in the city. How pitiful!"
The constant discussions made them all feel very embarrassed, and they all wanted to get to the place quickly and freshen up.
Finally arriving at the county government office, Master Li apologized, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you!"
Chief Liu waved his hand and said, "Sir, please take good care of me in the future!"
"Alas... send someone to follow me and settle down!"
The process of settling down was very smooth, but the yamen runners looked at them with sympathy.
Tang Youyou was dozing against a big tree.
[Ding! Mission completed! Commission distributed!]
She suddenly opened her eyes. Does this mean that their plague is cured?
Is this the only happy thing in the past two days?
A moment later, Chief Liu brought everyone over and brought two pieces of good news.
"Xiangyang Village is originally a deserted village, so any acres of wasteland we can reclaim are ours, and we won't have to pay taxes for three years! As for the homestead, it's one tael of silver per acre. In five days, the chief clerk will bring people to measure it!"
"There is also good news. We are the first group of disaster victims to arrive in Qingshui County!"
Everyone was in high spirits and, although exhausted, still full of hope for a new life.
"Xiangyang Village, that's a good name!"
"Isn't it? It feels so hopeful!"
"It's very close to Qingshui County. We'll be there in an hour and a half!"
"Fortunately, we are not sent to the deep mountains. We are close to the county town, so our lives will be more convenient!"
Everyone was smiling all the way, but was dumbfounded when they arrived.
"This really is a deserted village! My goodness, the weeds are taller than a man!"
"This place is quite large, why is it deserted? It's really strange!"
"Exactly, the sun is shining brightly, but why isn't there even a bird chirping? It feels so weird!"
"Look, the river in front of the village is so clean!"
"We can freshen up today."
Tang Youyou narrowed her eyes and looked at the village. It was desolate, the thatched roofs were crumbling, and most of the adobe houses had collapsed.
The village is backed by a mountain, and you can vaguely see the lush and green mountains in the distance, looming.
The sound of rushing water brought her back to her senses.
She comforted herself in her heart, it's okay, just accept it.
Patriarch Liu waved his hand, and the young men and women immediately took action. Today's task was to clear out a piece of land for everyone to rest.
Tang Youyou held an iron rod in her hand and knocked and hit things along the way. She wanted to find traces of human life from them.
Suddenly, a bush in front of her moved violently. Her heart tightened and she stared at it intently.
Unexpectedly, a pheasant flew out and pounced straight towards her. She was so scared that she stepped back instinctively, slipped, and fell miserably.
Then he watched the pheasant fly away.
She breathed a sigh of relief and patted her chest. At this time, Tang Wu ran over.
"Sister, what are you doing?"
She pointed to the grass ahead and said, "There was a pheasant there just now. Can you go and see if there are any pheasant eggs?"
Tang Wu didn't know anything about the ghost village after all, so he bravely stepped forward and exclaimed, "So many pheasant eggs!"
Tang Youyou frowned. It seemed that no one had lived here for a long time.
Suddenly she felt a dangerous gaze behind her, but turned around and saw nothing. She couldn't help but feel creepy and saw the hair on her arms standing up.
She was extremely surprised. Her intuition was right. There was indeed something staring at her just now.
Tang Wu noticed something was wrong with her. "Sister, what's wrong with you? Why are you suddenly so pale? Are you feeling unwell?"
Tang Youyou frowned and shook his head, "Nothing, let's go!"
Only when she returned to the crowd did she feel much more at ease. For the first time, she felt that having a large group of people also had its advantages.
"Uncle Liu, this place has probably been deserted for ages. How long will it take to pull out the weeds? I checked those adobe houses today, and the wood is rotten. Even if we repair them, they're uninhabitable. In my opinion, we might as well burn them down."
Clan leader Liu was slightly surprised, and then looked at the location of the back mountain. "Niece, your idea is feasible, but this village is quite close to the back mountain. If we cause a forest fire like before, it will be more trouble than it's worth!"
Tang Youyou had already thought of a solution, "Let's first pull out all the grass next to the back mountain, and then pour water on it, so that even if it burns, it won't burn through."
Clan leader Liu slapped his thigh and said, "Young people are smart. Let's do it!"
An elder echoed, "This village is quite large. Look at these collapsed houses. There are at least fifty or sixty households!"
There are only thirty-six households in total now.
After a quick lunch, everyone split into two groups and started pulling weeds.
Clan leader Liu found Tang Youyou and whispered, "Niece, no one knows about the haunting right now. Don't make it public, or it might cause panic."
"Uncle Liu, don't worry, I know what's going on!"
She wanted to use a fire to find out what kind of evil spirit was causing trouble.
The fire burned fiercely and did not burn out until dark.
The men sat together chatting and imagining their future life.
"I wonder when the disaster relief food will arrive?"
"Alas... who knows!"
"It's already the end of July, so we can only build the house first and then clean up the wasteland!"
"This is the only way now. I wonder if it's cold here in winter?"
The women and maids were washing themselves by the river.
Tang Youyou was confused. How could she wash her hair? It was all clumped together. There was neither soapberry nor soapberry in it.
Tang's mother took out a bag of wood ash and handed it to her, "Wash with the wood ash!"
Tang Youyou was dumbfounded. Wood ash really is omnipotent.
The result is that the more you wash your hair with wood ash, the stiffer it becomes.
She was extremely helpless and finally understood why soap was so expensive in ancient times.
She opened the panel and found that she had no permission. After searching for a long time, she finally found soapberry. She was so surprised that she secretly applied it on her head. Soon her hair was full of foam. She quickly washed it off for fear of being discovered by others.
At night, everyone put aside their fatigue and lay down to sleep.
Tang Youyou tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep. She was waiting for the ghost to appear.
But there was nothing. Even when her eyelids were drooping, she still didn't dare to sleep.
Chief Liu also couldn't sleep. He looked at the moon above his head and muttered to himself: "Could he have been burned to death in the fire just now? Why hasn't he come out for so long?"
Finally, the two of them fell into a deep sleep without knowing when.
"Ah..." A scream woke everyone up!
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