Pei Shu’er took advantage of the midday break, walked up to Lu Qing, and handed him a purse full of money.
It was approximately two hundred taels of silver.
"Lu Jieguan, this is the money my great-aunt and the others put together, to thank the Lord for taking care of us along the way."
This did not contradict the previous incident of losing money, after all, the lost money earlier was Pei Shu’er’s, and this money was collected by her great-aunt.
Lu Qing accepted the money, smiling: "Don’t worry, you’ve done so much along the way and achieved merits, the government officers here won’t treat you unfairly."
With this, Pei Shu’er felt relieved, no longer needing to exhaust her mind to have Lu Qing look after them.
Luckily, Lu Qing was perceptive, dealing with smart people was indeed easier.
Sent to fetch them were government officers from Gulan Mountain, sturdy and fierce-looking, holding long whips in their hands. Upon seeing everyone, they first cracked the whip harshly and beat the gong while shouting.
Everyone stood still, the government officers counted them like livestock.
This group of convicts was allocated to a particular piece of land.
As far as the eye could see, there were only stones of various shapes and sizes, not a patch of yellow earth in sight.
Everyone from the Third House was stunned, without any soil, how could they plant, build houses, or even survive?
As for the other convicts, they were in a similar situation to the people from the Third House.
Some who had made arrangements in advance were allocated slightly better land, but there wasn’t much soil either.
It was simply a place where farming and building houses were impossible.
Some other convicts muttered complaints, only to receive glares from the government officers.
"What? Dissatisfied, huh? Then don’t take it, we’ll allocate your land to someone else."
Saying this, they pointed at Pei Shu’er and her group.
Lu Qing had already spoken to them, Tang Zan and Pei Shu’er had made significant contributions, and this officer used to be under the command of the War King, so naturally, he favored Tang Zan.
Moreover, that piece of land was right next to the Third House’s.
Now, with the addition of the newly allocated land, the Third House had a combined area of about five acres.
As for Yinxing and others, land was allocated based on the number of people, but the quality was extremely poor.
The land was thus given to Pei Shu’er and her group, and the short man who had been shouting earlier glared at the people from the Third House with a fierce look in his eyes.
After the government officers registered the land and left, the man with red eyes approached the people from the Third House, pointing viciously at Pei Shu’er.
"Why didn’t you refuse earlier?"
Liu Xu looked guilty, just about to speak.
Tang Zan sneered, raising his eyebrow: "What, tired of living?"
He then grabbed the thin man’s neck with one hand, lifting him up.
"Seeking death with me, eh?"
Seeing Tang Zan’s dark, nearly opaque eyes, the thin man immediately wet himself, the pungent smell dripping down his pant leg.
Tang Zan looked disgusted and tossed the man violently.
He happened to crash into a protruding rock, wailing in pain, with his lower body becoming completely immobile afterward.
It turned out his spine had been hit, rendering him perhaps not dead, but perpetually paralyzed.
And here in exile, a paralyzed fate was worse than death.
He would experience the coldness and warmth of human nature before eventually dying in resentment and despair.
Pei Shu’er didn’t know whether this fate was a result of Tang Zan’s malice, but it was certainly more terrifying than killing the man.
Seeing this, the man’s family rushed to his side, tearfully accusing Tang Zan.
"He just came to reason with you, was it necessary to be so harsh?"
Pei Shu’er had nothing to say; Tang Zan’s method was violent, yet effective.
It also established firm authority.
Aside from the woman jumping around, no one else dared to speak.
Pei Shu’er coldly remarked, "If you’re dissatisfied, go find the soldiers; when they were here, you didn’t dare make a peep, and now that they’re gone, you come looking for trouble."
"What, picking on the weak, huh?"
Saying this, Pei Shu’er picked up a stone and smashed it fiercely against a nearby rock.
The stone shattered, sending fragments flying onto the woman and man’s face, leaving bloody scratches.
The woman, frightened, shrunk back, and the man’s relatives quickly came to drag the man away too.
No one else dared to speak, as the Third House hadn’t done anything wrong.
The government officers allocated the land; could they really refuse?
At the beginning of exile, they could have perhaps criticized the people from the Third House, as their consciences hadn’t yet been completely smothered.
But now? Along the way, people had starved to cannibalism, and yet some were asking why they didn’t refuse the soldiers’ land allocation.
No one could reasonably do that.
There’s no harm in taking it.
So this guy came looking for abuse on his own.
The Third House had the largest plot of land, but it was equally barren.
That vast plain had a lot of land, but it simply wasn’t suitable for habitation due to frequent conflicts.
Crops grown there couldn’t even survive, let alone guarantee one’s life.
Pei Shu’er’s life was still tied to Tang Zan’s waistband, so she didn’t dare go there.
Otherwise, if a conflict broke out and she was separated too far from Tang Zan, she might just get killed by the enemy if she got lost and disoriented.
But given the current situation, forget farming; building a house was already a problem.
And the soldiers wouldn’t provide them any food, even taxing half of what little grain they had.
This was completely unlivable.
Others were consumed by despair, feeling lost on where to even start.
Pei Shu’er, however, crouched down and carefully used her hands to pry open the rock, examining its structure.
Yinxing, wiping tears nearby, asked: "Miss, what should we do?"
Pei Shu’er smiled slightly: "Simple, dig."
Saying this, Pei Shu’er produced several spades for everyone, along with that massive bag and wheelbarrow, which had returned to Pei Shu’er’s side.
Everyone thought Pei Shu’er had taken the opportunity while the officers were distracted to grab them.
The rock was so hard; how to dig?
Seeing everyone’s hesitation, Pei Shu’er squatted down and beckoned everyone to look.
"Everybody, look here with me."
No one noticed anything unusual.
Pei Shu’er continued: "From my observation, this stone mountain is only rocky on the surface; there should be soil underneath."
While the quality of this soil wasn’t great, it was better than nothing.
Moreover, wasn’t there a lot of soil in the plains? Those soils were soaked with blood and likely very nutrient-rich.
At worst, they could find a safe time to transport some soil over there to enrich the land, preparing it for next year’s planting.
But for now, the soldiers watched them closely, and there were even government officers guarding the area, likely to prevent escapes.
They’d have to wait until the government officers’ vigilance relaxed before making a move.