Carrying the little lucky star, leading the villain on the road to exile

Chapter 282 282. Location
Gu Kaiyuan thought about it and agreed that it made sense. They were building a farmhouse courtyard, and it would be incongruous to build a garden in this place.

Following Bai Suihe's lead, he said, "I wonder what kind of fruit Madam would like? I'll have someone try to get some seedlings."

"Then let's see what kind of fruit trees are suitable to be planted here?" Bai Suihe knew what kinds of fruit trees were available here, but she didn't know if those fruit trees were still around at this time. "We have several large mountains here. If we plant fruit trees on them all, we'll need a lot of seedlings. I'm afraid we'll have to find out more."

“I’ve already asked Lin Wei to make arrangements. Even if we don’t have any here, we’ll try to find more by visiting several other places.” Gu Kaiyuan thought for a moment. “It’s just that this place is still a bit cold in winter, and some fruits from Lingnan are not suitable for planting. We’ll see what’s suitable to grow here first.”

If they want to eat more varieties of fruit, they will have to walk another hundred or two miles. After they are pardoned and Bai Suihe's baby is born, he can take his wife and child and continue on that journey.

As for returning to the capital, Gu Kaiyuan truly has no such intention now, as that place will remain a hotbed of trouble for a long time to come.

After two days of questioning and assessment, Bai Suihe roughly knows that this place is the future Hunan Province, located at the junction of the Nanling Mountains and the Luoxiao Mountains, but it is currently under the jurisdiction of Yue Province.

The most difficult seasons here are spring and autumn, when it can be rainy for more than a month in a row, making it exceptionally damp and cold.

Not to mention winter. Although it's not as cold as the north, the warmth of the south is also far from being comparable due to the mountains. Being in the middle, people didn't build heated brick beds or fire walls. Winter here is basically something you have to endure.

Although Bai Suihe felt that the time spent sleeping on the kang would be relatively short, she still had to have it.

Besides dealing with the cold for a short period of time, I also wanted to use the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed) to dispel some of the dampness during rainy weather.

"By the way, when the weather gets warmer, there will definitely be a lot of snakes, insects, and rodents around here. Let's have them build the fence a little higher." Bai Suihe was also afraid of these things. In the countryside, it's inevitable to face them, but she could do her best to reduce their presence in front of her.

“These instructions have already been given,” Gu Kaiyuan said. He didn’t want their lives to be spied on in the future, so he had planned to raise the wall a bit earlier. Even though they would be living in the countryside, he still wanted to have some sense of boundaries.

Although this might make him feel out of place, he didn't want people to come over with bowls of rice every time they wanted to.

It's not that I dislike others, but I'm afraid that if their quality of life is too good, it will inevitably attract some envious gossip over time, and it's better to draw clear lines from the beginning than to try to make amends later.

After waiting for several days, the construction team that the Gu family had hired finally entered the village.

Moreover, these weren't the people Gu Kaichen had previously hired; they found too little work here and took on jobs in the next village.

“You can’t blame the previous workers,” the foreman who came to work chimed in. “If you had given them a deposit when you were negotiating, they wouldn’t have been able to change their minds.”

"There have been quite a few people coming to Zhang County lately, most of them hiring workers to build houses. Sometimes, because someone offers a higher price, they make a different choice."

Gu Kaichen said, "He could have asked me for a deposit. He just stood there without saying a word, making us lie on the ground for several more days."

The main problem is that he's been scolded a lot these past few days. Look at how big Gu Kaiyuan's house is almost finished, while they're only just breaking ground.

Especially the families of Zhou Gang and Chen Dafu, who live not far away, whose houses are not large and have already been built.

Zhou Gang hired the villagers to do the work, but he didn't expect that these farmers could build houses, and they actually looked quite decent.

As for Chen Dafu, he was incredibly stingy, unwilling to hire anyone to do anything, and relied solely on his sons to slowly build up the house. It looked quite decent, but Gu Kaichen was certain that the house wouldn't last long. After the next heavy rain, that mud-brick and thatched house would definitely be the first to collapse.

At that moment, he overlooked the fact that other households in the village also lived in similar houses, yet they still lived very well in the village.

"There's really nothing I can do. Sometimes the contractors are in a rush," the foreman said. He never expected that this grown man would be so talkative, nagging from early morning until now. At first, he would agree with him, but now he's lost patience.

I understand why the previous foreman didn't take the job; it was too hard on the ears.

"You're not going to give up halfway through too, are you?" Gu Kaichen stared at the other person with a suspicious look.

The foreman really wanted to throw down his hoe and quit, but said, "How could I? But it would be even better if you could pay me part of my wages in advance."

Gu Kaichen remembered that the last person he hired could refuse to come because he hadn't paid a deposit first, so he readily took out the silver that Gu Baijiang had given him before, "Then I'll give you ten taels of silver as wages first. You can bring your people and do a good job for me."

The foreman happily accepted the money, saying, "Of course, I'll make sure the brothers all work hard..."

Seeing that these people were really working hard and quickly completed the foundation, Gu Kaichen was very satisfied and hurriedly ran over to Gu Baijiang to express his gratitude.

Seeing that these people were really working hard, Gu Baijiang rarely praised them, saying, "You've done a good job this time. The house will be built quickly. Go and contact the tile supplier."

I don't know how long I'll be staying here, but it's just a matter of spending a dozen or so taels of silver, so of course I have to fix the house up nicely and make it more comfortable to live in.

Gu Kaichen reached out his hand, "Then Father, give me some more silver, and I'll go order it right away."

"I just gave you ten taels of silver. You can have them send it over first, and I'll pay you back later."

"We just gave it to the foreman, and since he's working on it, he wants us to pay him some money first."

Gu Baijiang also thought there was no problem and gave him another 20 taels of silver. "Remember to buy more grain when you come back. I thought we had bought enough before, but now that so many people are working, the grain is not enough."

Gu Kaichen readily agreed, and led the oxcart and his son out of the village.

Xu Shuanghong hesitated several times, feeling that the second son of the Gu family was not very reliable, but given her current awkward position, she really couldn't afford to offend anyone.

Forget it, let them do what they want. Gu Jia might be able to return to Beijing soon enough. Once she gets what she wants, she'll figure out a way to get away.

Facing Gu Baijiang's ferocious face every day, she felt she had to eat less.

"Mom," Fan Meibao said, her voice trembling with tears, "my hands really hurt so much, I can't do any work..."

(End of this chapter)