Cao Laosan and his family were called to the inner room alone. They stood there, looking around with confused eyes, and their hands unconsciously clenched and unclenched. In the simple room, except for a few tables and chairs, there seemed to be nothing extra.
Seeing Qiao Xin and Nanny Qin coming in, he couldn't help but lower his head. Even Cao Lao San restrained his emotions and didn't show off at all under the city wall.
"Mr. Cao, do you know geomancy?"
Cao Laosan quickly explained, "Madam, I can only read characters and palms, which is far from the level of geomancy!"
If he really understood geomancy, he wouldn't have ended up like this!
Qiao Xin thinks too highly of him!
Qiao Xin embarrassedly changed the subject and asked again, "It should be okay to choose an auspicious day to dig a hole in the ground. It should be okay for us to build a pigpen, right? If you can't even point it out, why should I keep you here?"
She had planned to find someone who knew Feng Shui to help her choose a location, build a house, a granary, a pigsty, and other infrastructure. But she didn't know that the other person could only read her palms. Besides, he looked like an immortal, and he probably couldn't do such physically demanding work as farming. He couldn't support this family for nothing.
Qiao Xin felt that this deal was a huge loss.
Seeing Qiao Xin's face becoming increasingly dark, Cao Lao San said, "Old Madam, although I can only read palms, I have studied for a few years and can always contribute to the family. And don't look at my wife, she is a good fisherman, and my mother is also good at tending to flowers and plants."
Qiao Xin and Nanny Qin looked at each other and were both a little surprised. They didn't expect that every adult in this family had special skills!
"Then why didn't you mention it when you recorded it?"
Mother Cao said hurriedly, "We are also trying to dissect the old lady and you misunderstood us. Nowadays, we can't even get enough food to eat, so who would be willing to hire someone to take care of the flowers and plants? We are also afraid that the old lady will dislike us for not doing our job properly."
"There are no useless skills, only people who don't know what they are doing. I was planning to plant some mosquito repellent flowers and plants on the roadside of our village, and some lotus flowers in the pond. Now I don't have to go out of my way to find help, right?
"Madame Qin, you see, we are quite lucky. We have won three out of one. God is really kind to us! In that case, let's stay here for now!"
Qiao Xin handed a bag of lotus seeds to Cao's mother and asked her to find a way to grow them. Then he said to Cao Laosan's wife Shu Niang, "Since you can fish, you must be good at swimming. Come with me along the river tomorrow!"
Qiao Xin planned to go and see the general situation of the river in Laohu Town in person. She had already asked in the government office that going down the river could quickly reach Xianshui Town, which would save much more time than going by land. However, it was unbelievable that there was no ship coming from afar on such a wide river.
According to what they said, Weizhou Prefecture still had a wharf during the prosperous period of the previous dynasty. It doesn't make sense that the waterway would be abandoned like this just three or five years after the establishment of the new dynasty.
The people in the government office were either hesitant or couldn't explain it clearly. Qiao Xin simply gave up asking and went to take a look herself, which was more reliable!
The next morning, Shu Niang was waiting for Qiao Xin on a bamboo raft by the river. When she saw Qiao Xin, she respectfully called her "old lady" and wanted to reach out to pick Qiao Xin up.
"You don't have to travel so far to call me the boss. Let's go up today and go to Saltwater Town to check out the situation first."
The long pole in Shu Niang's hand gently touched the water, and the bamboo raft moved forward steadily. The bamboo raft slid gently on the water, making almost no sound. It was obvious that she was used to it.
Shu Niang felt a little uncomfortable at first, but as she chatted with Qiao Xin, she gradually relaxed.
She couldn't help but ask one more question: "Madam, why are we going to Xianshui Town? I heard that it is basically deserted and there are few people there. Even refugees are unwilling to go there. Its reputation is worse than that of the old lake town."
"There is no purpose. It's just that our family still has more than a thousand acres of land granted by the emperor in Xianshui Town. We have to go there even if we don't want to."
"Imperial wasteland?" Shu Niang couldn't help but twitch her lips. There were only a few natives in Xianshui Town, so where would the good farmland come from? It was probably barren land again. Weizhou Prefecture had nothing else, but there were a lot of large tracts of wasteland. Even if they were distributed to the refugees who were stranded now, each person could get 30 to 40 acres, but no matter how much they got, they didn't have the ability to plant it.
Why would this saint grant the land there? Is this a royal favor or a thunderbolt?
Qiao Xin seemed to see through her thoughts and did not explain much. She just concentrated on looking at the scenery on both sides of the river.
If Laohu Town is backed by Beishan, it is only on the edge of the Kunxing Mountain Range. Xianshui Town is like a valley completely surrounded by mountains. In addition to taking the waterway, there is only a narrow path leading to the outside world.
The mountains behind stretched for thousands of miles, with countless peaks and dense valleys. In the past, there were countless large and small bandit strongholds. Some of the bandit dens in Weizhou Prefecture that were wiped out by Qiao Xin last year were all in this area.
The endless mountains not only separated the towns and villages under Weizhou Prefecture, but also blocked the convenient travel from the capital to Weizhou Prefecture. The two places were clearly less than a hundred miles apart on the map, but taking the mountain road dragged the journey to more than three hundred miles.
Just a mountain separates the capital and Weizhou Prefecture, creating a huge difference in living standards.
Qiao Xin chose a suitable place and asked Shu Niang to tie the bamboo raft, then pulled out a branch, alerted the enemy and headed for the shore.
Qiao Xin felt a chill in her heart. The grass and trees on this path were so lush, and it was obvious that few people walked on it. It was obvious how desolate the town they were about to reach would be.
Deep mountains, lonely towns, and dilapidated thatched houses are simply the best locations for ghost movies! Qiao Xin couldn't help but laugh at herself in her heart. The new emperor and the King of Qi thought too highly of her.
It's a place that even ghosts despise, but he was so stingy that he only gave him a thousand acres of mining rights. Isn't this obviously using her family as a stepping stone!
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