After everyone had gone far away, Village Chief Zheng turned around and went back to the village.
Once everything in the village is sorted out, training the villagers is the most urgent task. If the village wants to last longer, it will have to rely on itself!
Si Cheng gradually made a new discovery: the more he walked, the lighter the weight on his shoulders seemed to become, and his legs were no longer as strained as they had been.
Could this strength really increase? Si Cheng wondered to himself.
When they rested, he whispered the story to Yunqi.
Yunqi said, "How about we do an experiment?"
"..."
Yunqi said, "Let's add some more weight to you and see if your body can adapt."
Si Cheng glanced at the bent iron frame and said, "I'm fine, but I'm worried the frame won't hold up."
Yun Qi, "..."
That's quite possible. We don't want to break the frame, that would be very inconvenient.
Si Cheng said, "Let's go back and find another opportunity to go out and try it out. If our strength can increase, that would be a really good thing."
Yun Qi rolled her eyes at him. "You're not going to conquer the world, so why do you need so much strength? Besides, we don't even know if this increase in strength will have any effect on you. We're already doing very well as we are now, so there's no need to keep going through all that trouble."
Si Cheng checked his body's condition. "Actually, this shouldn't be a bad thing. At the beginning, although I felt a bit tired, as I walked longer and longer, my body felt much more relaxed now."
Yunqi said, "It's better to take it easy. If you still want to try, it's best to wait a few days and see how your body feels before making a decision."
Every time we went out, the return trip always seemed much faster than the departure. With a few minor hiccups, the whole group quickly returned to familiar territory.
But before they even reached the village, they were stopped by Deputy Officer Chen and his men.
"What a coincidence! I just happened to run into you here, so I don't have to make another trip," Lieutenant Chen greeted them happily.
This is the first time we've encountered this since the severe drought.
Captain Liu squeezed through the crowd and rushed over happily, "What brings you here now? How's the city?"
Lieutenant Chen said, "Although things were chaotic for a while, the remaining funds have been collected and sorted out now. So let's go out and inspect the area to see if there have been any major changes."
They said they were checking to see if anything had changed, but in reality they were just secretly gathering information about the surrounding area to see if there were any unstable factors.
Another thing is to see if there is any vacant land and houses in each village, and to try to add some people to the village.
Captain Liu nodded. "That's good. Are you getting ready to head back? Would you like to come to the village for a while?"
Lieutenant Chen said without any politeness, "I was about to leave, but seeing you come back, we can talk. Let's go back."
After saying that, he skillfully led the way, which suddenly made Captain Liu feel uneasy.
I was just being polite and didn't really want to get into trouble. Thinking about it now, I really wish I could take back what I said.
Seeing that Captain Liu was still standing there in a daze, Lieutenant Chen took his bag directly and said, "Is this thing heavy? Let me help you."
Alright, Captain Liu gave up on his internal struggle. The items were already in someone else's hands, so he might as well just obediently lead the way.
"Speak! You wouldn't come here without a reason, so just say what your purpose is." Captain Liu deliberately walked alongside Lieutenant Chen, hoping to find out information in advance.
Lieutenant Chen gave an irrelevant reply, "You guys are living better and better lives, I'm even thinking of retiring and working for you."
Captain Liu nodded in agreement, "If you really want to retire, that's a good idea. We can grow some food here, raise some small animals, and live a very leisurely life."
Lieutenant Chen didn't want to look at his smug expression, so he turned his head to look at the ruins at the entrance of the village. "The journey to Yancun was relatively smooth this time, wasn't it?"
Captain Liu said, "At least they all came back safe and sound, so it can be considered a relatively smooth journey."
Hearing this, Lieutenant Chen finally turned around and looked at him directly. "Is there still some trouble?"
Captain Liu nodded. "That's right. I don't know where all these animals came from. If they hadn't come to bother us, we wouldn't have bothered to deal with them. Otherwise, we wouldn't be home by now."
On the way back, everyone was still frightened by the wolf pack they had encountered earlier, and dared not provoke those animals again, for fear that even a hint of blood would attract enemies as formidable as the wolf pack.
However, Captain Liu thought to himself that everyone must have seen that Pinghe Village had exchanged all their bows and crossbows, and they were afraid that the team would not be able to resist those wild beasts without weapons, so they had behaved much better along the way.
Lieutenant Chen sighed, "It's the same here. Those reptiles that disappeared for a while have reappeared. I originally planned to exchange some medicine in Pinghe Village this time, but unfortunately I'm a step too late."
“You’re not just a step late, you’re a lot of steps late.” Captain Liu didn’t mince words when speaking to his former comrades. “We’ve been gone for almost a month.”
“Actually, you don’t need to go so far to exchange salt. Our city still has some reserves. Why go to such lengths?” Deputy Officer Chen couldn’t help but complain after his empty trip.
Captain Liu glanced at Deputy Chen and said, "It's been a while since we last met, and you've certainly grown thick-skinned. The exchange rates on both sides are completely different, and there are always limits on the quantity and amount each time. We've wasted so much time running back and forth; it would be more worthwhile to just go to Yancun."
“But you also know that the journey has not been peaceful, and we have to add that cost into it.” Lieutenant Chen wanted to argue his point, and besides, they rarely used the things they exchanged for themselves; they mostly lent them to other refugees.
"Unfortunately, even so, we can't afford it. Think about the drought a while ago, plus that long rainy season, how much did we harvest? Our salt reserves at home are long gone, what can we use to exchange with you?" Captain Liu had his own calculations in mind.
Since settling down in this new village, he has started to live a life of careful budgeting.
Adjutant Chen asked him curiously, "Since you didn't get anything, how did you manage to exchange for so much salt? Is salt worthless over there?"
Captain Liu smiled smugly when he heard him say that, "We have to thank that long rainy season. Perhaps because of the rainy season, the fish in the lake were darting back and forth along the shore. As long as you were diligent, you could always catch some."
“When you’re exchanging things, you’re so picky. You don’t want things like fish or meat. We just happened to have smoked all the fish into dried fish, and this time we brought it all over and exchanged it for so much salt.” Captain Liu finished speaking and patted the salt bag that Deputy Chen was helping him carry and the big backpack on his own back.
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