A quarter of an hour later.
The two arrived at the residential settlement for the border garrison—the Military Household Village.
The village sat right behind the military camp. Looking from afar, it was a row of low-slung earthen houses with roofs covered in worn thatch and broken tiles.
There were no cobblestone paths in the village. The ground was entirely dirt mixed with gravel; a single step could kick up a cloud of dust.
The air was thick with the smell of firewood and livestock, mingled with the dry, earthy scent unique to the borderlands.
This place was nothing like the capital, with its grand estates and intricately carved beams.
Life for a military household was simple and rugged.
Here, men fought in the army, and women farmed and managed the home. How well a family lived depended entirely on military merits and food rations.
Su He followed behind Xiao Zheng into the village, her eyes swiftly scanning the surroundings.
In just a few steps, she had figured out most of the village’s layout.
The well was in the center of the village, and the clearing for drying grain was on the east side.
At the doors of a few households, worn-out remnants of weapons were piled up, likely scrap metal brought back from the battlefield.
At the border, these were valuable items.
A few scattered elm and seabuckthorn trees grew along both sides of the road, their trunks withered and yellow, their leaves sparse.
Su He silently took note of everything.
To survive, one had to check the available resources first!
As the two walked into the village, a few army wives who were hanging clothes by the roadside paused what they were doing all at once.
Their attention was instantly captured, their eyes falling first on Xiao Zheng before shifting to Su He behind him.
“Oh my~”
One of the wives was the first to speak up.
“Did Commander Xiao bring a wife back?”
As soon as she said this, the other women immediately crowded around her.
“He really did!”
“I saw Shen Feng bring a woman back just a moment ago too.”
“The imperial court is truly generous, letting someone get a wife for free without spending a penny.”
“She’s a bit on the thin side, though.”
“Tsk tsk, that waist looks like it could snap with just a pinch.”
“Can someone like that even do chores?”
“Let’s hope she isn’t some delicate young lady~”
They spoke directly, though without much malice.
Border women had always been like this; they lived rugged lives, so they spoke bluntly.
“….”
Xiao Zheng’s brow furrowed, and his pace noticeably quickened, as if he wanted to get away from their stares as fast as possible.
Su He, however, was in no rush. Her expression remained calm, her steps steady as she followed.
She was well used to these kinds of stares; she had heard things far harsher than this.
It was just a few comments.
She even had the spare energy to keep observing the village—for instance, which yard had chicken coops? Whose yard had piles of firewood?
These were all resources!
Soon, Xiao Zheng stopped in front of a courtyard.
The gate was made of mismatched wooden planks, hanging askew. The walls were rammed earth, already somewhat weathered and peeling, exposing the coarse yellow mud underneath.
The thatch on the roof had turned black, looking as though a few strands would drop if the wind blew.
Xiao Zheng pushed open the courtyard gate. In the corner lay a few bundles of dry firewood, a broken wooden bucket, and a few heavily patched clothes hanging out to dry by the wall.
Though the house was crude, the courtyard was quite spacious.
Su He took just one glance and made a straightforward assessment in her mind.
This family was truly poor!
Just then, footsteps came from inside the house, and a woman lifted the curtain and stepped out.
She looked to be in her forties, not very tall, with a face roughened and reddened by the wind. She wore old clothes made of coarse cloth, but they were washed thoroughly clean.
Her facial features were sharp, giving her a fierce, formidable look.
Wang Guixiang saw Xiao Zheng first, and joy immediately washed over her face.
“Azheng, you’re back?”
The next instant, her eyes fell upon Su He, and she froze completely.
“This is…?”
Xiao Zheng stood in the courtyard, his voice deep.
“Assigned by the government.”
Four words, as simple as it got.
Wang Guixiang was stunned for two seconds. She clearly hadn’t expected her son to bring a wife back as his reward.
She grabbed her eldest son, pulled him over, and began muttering urgently in a lowered voice.
“You big blockhead! You really brought a woman back? Don’t you know our family’s situation?”
“How are you going to feed her? Look at her, she’s as thin as a toothpick, looking all delicate and fragile.”
“I mean really, couldn’t you have asked for a different reward? Grain, silver, even half a pig’s head would have been better! Bringing back a delicate lady like this, do you plan to worship her like a living deity?”
“An imperial decree was issued, couldn’t refuse.”
Xiao Zheng replied helplessly. He also wanted to exchange her for grain and silver, but the higher-ups didn’t have any extra grain or silver to give out.
“This is truly…”
At the thought of the disaster plaguing the north, which had caught up to the borderlands as well, Wang Guixiang swallowed back the words at the tip of her tongue, her chest feeling tight and stifled.
It was all because of these disasters!
Since things had already come to this, complaining was useless. She could only comfort herself with the fact that her eldest son—the biggest worry in the family—had finally settled down to start a family.
In normal years, with her eldest son’s age, children would have been running all over the place by now.
Thinking this way, Wang Guixiang couldn’t help but carefully size up Su He.
The young girl was very thin, her hair was disheveled, and her face was dirty, making it hard to see her features clearly.
Moreover, her lips were somewhat pale, making her look not very healthy.
“This physique of yours…”
She stopped halfway through her sentence, ultimately refraining from saying anything unpleasant.
Though this girl looked frail and thin, her back was straight and her gaze was calm, showing neither crying and throwing tantrums nor timidity and dodging away.
She didn’t look like those previous criminal slaves who did nothing but weep and wallow in self-pity.
Such a temperament was actually quite decent.
Wang Guixiang let out a sigh.
“Forget it, come on in. The wind is strong outside.”
Her body looked so weak that it could be blown away by a gust of wind. It would be bad if she fell ill from the wind, as the family didn’t have the money to pay for her medical treatment and recovery.
Seeing this, Su He felt a slight wave of relief in her heart.
This single phrase, “come on in,” meant that the elder of this family had already accepted her.
Right at that moment, a flurry of footsteps came from outside the courtyard gate.
“Mother~ we’re back!”
The voice carried the characteristic clarity of a teenage boy.
The courtyard gate was pushed open once more, and a fifteen-to-sixteen-year-old boy rushed in first, followed by a thin, small girl behind him.
The boy had already grown quite tall, about 1.76 meters, but his shoulders didn’t look fully filled out yet. His coarse cloth clothes were covered in patches, and he held a bamboo basket in his hand.
However, the bamboo basket was completely empty.
The moment he entered the courtyard, he muttered rather dejectedly.
“We couldn’t dig up anything today. The outer perimeter of the mountain has been dug entirely clean by the villagers; not even a single wild vegetable root is left.”
The girl behind him also let out a sigh, softly chiming in.
“I walked a long way toward the east, but I couldn’t find any other wild vegetables either.”
The two of them looked up, only to realize there was an extra person in the courtyard.
Looking at the young woman who had suddenly appeared, the siblings instantly stopped in their tracks, their eyes widening into circles.
What was the situation?!
“Eldest Brother?”
Xiao Zheng naturally understood his younger siblings’ confusion. “This is your sister-in-law.”
“Sis… Sister-in-law?!”
The siblings looked thoroughly astonished.
Their gazes fell directly on Su He, their eyes brimming with curiosity.
Xiao Zheng was concise and to the point: “A wife allocated by the government for achieving military merits this time.”
Hearing this, the boy instantly gasped. He scratched his head somewhat awkwardly and was the first to speak up, introducing himself.
“Uh… Sister-in-law… I’m Xiao Jun.”
After saying that, he pointed to the girl behind him.
“This is the youngest sister in the family, Xiao Yue.”
Xiao Yue wasn’t very old, looking to be only thirteen or fourteen. Though she was thin and small, her eyes were very bright.
She quietly stole a few glances at Su He, her face a mix of curiosity and slight nervousness.
“Hello everyone, I am Su He.”
Su He offered a slight smile and took the initiative to greet them.
“Alright, don’t just stand around in the courtyard. Everyone get inside the house.”
Wang Guixiang clapped her hands. She turned around to walk into the house, muttering as she went.
“We were just waiting to have lunch. There’s nothing good left at home, only some black flour flatbreads. Let’s just make do with that.”
Reading Notes!
Dear readers, let me clarify the background beforehand. In this book, the Great Jing Dynasty has suffered a two-year drought, not that the borderlands themselves have been in a drought for two years.
It’s just that the northern region adjacent to the border has suffered a more severe two-year drought, and the borderlands have also been affected because of it, having seen no rain for over half a year.
However, at the start of the plot, it hasn’t reached a point where no grass grows and there is no food or water; it’s just that the crop yields from the fields are poor and the water sources have shrunk a bit.
The material conditions at the border were already poor to begin with, so life now is even more difficult. To prepare against the drought, everyone is simply trying their best to hoard supplies out of instinct and living very frugally.
When writing earlier, some phrasing might have been inaccurate, causing some readers to misunderstand. Modifications have been made, though some parts might not be completely polished.
If you find anything inappropriate in the subsequent plot, feel free to mark the error and point it out. Thank you for your understanding!
Hope everyone enjoys the story!