Li Si’s smile stiffened. Clear a path?
That path was piled high with countless trees and mud; relying on him alone? In his dreams!
Zhao Qingzhu understood this moment and exchanged a glance with his brother. Each of them placed a hand firmly on Li Si’s shoulders.
Laughing mockingly, he said, “That’s right, Big Brother Li Si is so capable, there’s no way you’ll have any problems, right?”
“No, that’s not right…” Li Si felt very strange. Clearly everyone was smiling at the moment, so why did he feel a chill running down his spine?
“Not right? What’s not right?” Su Nianyuan suddenly stopped smiling, tilting her head to look at Li Si as she waited for his answer.
Li Si swallowed hard, wanting to back away, but his shoulders were heavily pinned by the two Zhao brothers, leaving him nowhere to go.
He could only carefully weigh his words, and this time, what he said was much milder than before: “I’m just one person; I can’t handle that much work.”
“Why not?”
Su Nianyuan asked again, looking very much like an unreasonable child. Li Si trembled even harder, saying in a shaky voice, “I really can’t do it.”
“Really can’t?”
“Really can’t!”
Su Nianyuan shrugged and said helplessly, “What a useless fellow. Uncle Zhu, Uncle Daming, drag him out and give him a beating.”
Zhao Qingzhu and Zhao Qingming grinned, shouting in unison, “You got it!”
Following that, the two of them carried the terrified and struggling Li Si out of the dilapidated temple. Outside, Li Si’s howling from the beating immediately rang out, each blow more miserable than the last.
The crowd: ……
Is this little village chief crazy?
Su Nianyuan turned around to look at the few people who had been hanging out with Li Si earlier. Their whole bodies trembled, and they immediately lowered their heads, far too cowardly to act up.
Su Nianyuan’s voice was calm: “If anyone else disagrees with me and my father, step forward and let’s have a good chat.”
“I’ve always been a reasonable person. As long as you give a suitable reason, I’ll hand the position of village chief over to you. If you don’t have one, then your fate will probably be a bit more miserable than Uncle Li Si’s.”
She looked so cute, all delicate and pretty like carved jade.
Yet the words she spoke made people’s hearts run cold with terror.
Li Si was the chicken she killed to warn the monkeys. Between the reasonable little village chief and the crazy little village chief, the latter was clearly much more terrifying.
Su Nianyuan waited for a moment, but no one answered. A bright smile bloomed on her face, very sweet: “Alright, from now on we are a family, so be obedient and don’t cause conflicts~”
“According to yesterday’s arrangement, go get to work.”
The crowd hurriedly fled, collected their rations, and went out to work.
Overnight, the water level had dropped by half. Many houses on the hillside had already been exposed, and there were even some bloated corpses.
The mood of the crowd was extremely heavy.
Su Nianyuan instructed, “Everyone, cover your faces. Once the corpses are pulled up, burn them immediately. Keep the ashes, and then bury them.”
Someone cried out, “Can’t we even leave behind an intact body?”
Those were their family members.
Su Nianyuan understood their reluctance to let go, and said earnestly, “You’ve all read books; epidemics always follow closely after natural disasters.”
“The Great Immortal said there are viruses on these corpses. If we don’t burn them, we’re the ones who will suffer. Besides, you must never drink water that has soaked bodies!”
Her words chilled everyone to the bone, leaving them with no lingering attachment.
It was better to burn them; at least they would still have a handful of ashes left.
All day long, black smoke billowed everywhere on the mountain. Because much of the firewood was damp, the crowd was constantly driven to tears by the smoke, though it was impossible to say how many tears were shed from grief.
Su Nianyuan watched them work the whole time. Even Huzi, the youngest of them all, worked very hard, hauling up whatever could be used to clear a path.
In the afternoon, Su Jiancheng, who had been sent up the mountain, returned with his men, his expression looking ugly.
Su Nianyuan’s heart sank.
They hadn’t found the cave.
Su Jiancheng was filled with immense guilt: “I’m sorry, daughter, your dad couldn’t find it.”
There was simply no path to be found on the mountain; they had even almost gotten lost, yet still failed to locate it.
At this moment, Mother Hu also walked out, whispering, “Little Village Chief, we’re running out of food.”
Even if they only distributed a tiny bit to each person, it wouldn’t be enough to eat anymore.
Su Nianyuan closed her eyes. She still had 4,800 wen, but she couldn’t get out, so even with money, there was nowhere to spend it.
At that moment, Old Madam Lin and Liu Ju, along with six other elderly women whom she had sent out, returned carrying baskets. Their faces were filled with joy: “Little Village Chief! We found them! We really found them!”
A smile blossomed on Su Nianyuan’s face as she ran out on her short little legs to welcome them.
She would not sit and wait for death.
At age 28, she had advanced from an ordinary female college student to a female county magistrate. During those five years, she didn’t know how many villages she had visited, all to experience things firsthand and tailor her approach to local conditions.
Every place had its own special produce; as long as the methods were proper, they could all transition from poverty to modest prosperity.
Lingnan’s produce was simply too abundant.
Opening the baskets, all kinds of wild vegetables met the eye.
Fernbrake, purslane, and wild amaranth.
Additionally, there were wild yams and Pueraria root (kudzu); these root systems buried in the soil had just been washed out by the heavy rain and floods.
Furthermore, in a few days, various types of fungi would be able to grow on the rotting wood in the mountain.
Mother Hu was somewhat surprised: “Can all of these be eaten?”
Actually, you couldn’t really blame them. Everyone in the exile village had come from the capital; no one had taught them what on earth could or could not be eaten on the mountain.
The older generation had never suffered hardship, let alone known how to teach their children, yet they all pinned their hopes on their children returning to the imperial court.
Only after three generations of exile could one restore eligibility for the imperial examinations, and there was still a chance to bring glory to the family name.
“Little Village Chief, did the Great Immortal teach you this too?” Mother Hu asked cautiously. Su Nianyuan nodded vigorously: “Mhm! The Great Immortal taught me!”
Everyone immediately believed it.
Since the Great Immortal said so, then everything must be edible.
Su Nianyuan then explained the simplest way to cook each ingredient one by one. Mother Hu and the other old women listened attentively, since they were the ones in charge of these matters after all.
Especially Old Madam Lin; after discussing it with her son last night, she was full of hope for the future.
“These are good. Tomorrow I’ll go pick some more. Once they’re dried in the sun, we can even take them to the county town to sell for money!”
“That’s right, let’s pick more tomorrow. I think I even saw a bamboo grove; we can go dig for bamboo shoots too.”
“Indeed.”
They walked toward the dilapidated temple while chatting and laughing. Compared to the young and able-bodied, these elderly people who had experienced the cold and warmth of life recovered their vitality the fastest.
Lin Shoufeng was also quite surprised. He felt somewhat ashamed; the Lin family prided themselves on being a scholarly family, but purely reading books was completely useless.
“Little Village Chief, Lingnan’s produce seems very abundant.”
Su Nianyuan nodded. “Yes, given the manpower, material resources, and capital needed for this reconstruction, adapting to local conditions is the best approach.”
She bent her short little fingers, counting them off one by one: “The variety of dried goods alone is quite extensive: dried bamboo shoots, dried mushrooms, dried fernbrake, and so on.”
“We also have wild medicinal herbs: poria cocos, kudzu root, plantain weed, mugwort, and honeysuckle.”
“When the time comes, we’ll accumulate a larger quantity and sell them to the interior; we’re guaranteed to make a profit.”
Su Nianyuan had already figured it out. Within a year, she would transform Qingzhu Village into the most prosperous village in all of Lingnan!
The exile village was no good?
It was fantastic!
The two mountains in the back belonged entirely to her dad!