The little one's purse connects the two worlds, turning a desolate village into a paradise.

Grandma Li looked at the two sensible young women with heartache: "You two can go to the other side room to catch up on your sleep. We'll take care of things in the mountains."

After saying that, she put her arms around one of them and led them to another small side room.

"Oh dear, then Grandpa Chen has nowhere to rest."

"It's alright, Sister Xinghua, Dr. Chen can just squeeze in with my brother Xiong. Go and rest!" Da Niu's voice came from inside the house.

After settling the two girls in the side room, Granny Li returned and sat down: "Tiger, take a nap now. Tonight, lead a few of us up the mountain to finish the two things Gousheng mentioned, and we can have some peace of mind."

"Auntie, your health..." Zhao Hu said with some concern.

"It's alright. We've been practicing that Eight Pieces of Brocade every day with Old Man Fang, so we're all in good health. Besides, we have more experience in those things than you do," Granny Li patted Zhao Hu on the back.

"Old Fang, we need to work on those pulse grids and solar panels that Nannan brought back as soon as possible, especially the grid. We must figure out electricity first and set up the grid, which will increase our self-defense capabilities to some extent."

Fang Tiesheng scratched his head; this was even more difficult than asking him to take the imperial examination at his age.

After the matter was roughly explained, no one spoke for a while, and the previously ignored smell became more obvious.

"Ugh, what's that smell? It's stinky!"

"It does smell a bit bad, really rotten."

Zhao Hu's gaze fell on Da Niu. "You, you only changed your clothes and didn't take a bath, did you...?"

"I wasn't in a hurry to tell everyone, so I just wiped it off quickly," Da Niu said with a red face and an embarrassed smile.

"You...you've been covered in shit for days! It's practically pickled in there. Go wash yourself, and scrub it thoroughly with that sulfur soap."

"I should rub it more often. I've been so dizzy from the smell of that little brother these past few days..." A weak voice came from behind the group. Xiong Bo covered his head. This stench, which seemed like a ghost, had been both foul and cold to him for three days. He had suffered terribly.

Everyone turned their heads in unison, their eyes all focused on Xiong Bo, who was covering his head.

Da Niu's eyes lit up immediately, and he rushed over, "Brother Xiong, you're finally awake! Is there anything else that's bothering you?"

Xiong Bo: "Step back a bit, my nose is bothering me right now."

Da Niu sheepishly retreated to the doorway: "Dad, Tiger, I'll go take a shower first."

Doctor Chen reached out and touched Xiong Bo's wrist to take his pulse. He paused for a moment before letting go and said slowly, "There's nothing seriously wrong. He's just lost too much blood and has some scrapes and abrasions. The kick to the stomach was quite severe, and there's some blood stasis inside. He needs to rest for a couple of days and have some meat broth and rice porridge to help him recover."

Xiong Bo struggled to sit up, his lips still pale, and bowed to everyone in the room: "Thank you all for saving me, and thank you to that young man from earlier. I will remember this life-saving favor."

The village chief discreetly hid the plastic bag containing the medicine on the table behind his back, then stared at Xiong Bo, sizing him up: "Brother, I'll call you 'brother' because I'm old. Now that you've recovered, can you tell us what happened and what your plans are for the future?"

Xiong Bo sighed deeply, leaned against the headboard, his gaze falling on the military green cotton quilt covering him, and his hands tightened.

The texture is amazing; it's filled with cotton!

Cotton was a rare commodity that was only introduced from foreign countries a few years ago. Not to mention ordinary people, even high-ranking officials and nobles would hold a banquet to show off if they had a cotton quilt.

This village has many secrets.

"My name is Xiong Bo, and I was originally the president of the Suzhou Coppersmiths Association. But now the world is in chaos, and the association has long since disbanded. Ever since the great defeat at the northwest border and the invasion of foreign cavalry, the imperial court has been too busy to take care of itself and has only been able to rely on a few bandit groups to hold the frontier. Local vassal kings have their own armies, and while they claim to be loyal to the emperor, they are actually carving out their own territories and fighting for control of their own land."

Prince Su somehow found a treasure map and searched far and wide for craftsmen skilled in mechanisms and ingenuity. He eventually found me. I refused to submit, so he sent men to kidnap my wife, children, and elderly parents to blackmail me. I had no choice but to follow his men into the mountains to search for the treasure.

There were a few more brothers from the association on the road, but they all...

"So you're planning to go back to Suzhou to find your family?" Granny Li asked.

Xiong Bo slowly shook his head, his face ashen: "Young Master Wei is ruthless. My family members are probably long dead. Even if some of them have survived by chance, if I go back alone, I will only be walking into a trap and implicate them."

He paused for a moment, then looked up at the people in the room: "If you don't mind, I'd like to stay here and earn a living. I've been learning blacksmithing and bronze casting since I was a child, and I love tinkering with ingenious mechanisms. Whether it's repairing tools or making mechanical boxes, I'm good at it all. I would never eat your food for free."

Upon hearing this, Fang Tiesheng exclaimed, "Ingenious craftsmanship, blacksmithing and bronze casting..."

His eyes lit up immediately, and he stepped forward: "Can you read?"

Xiong Bo nodded: "I attended school for a few years when I was young, so I can recognize most common characters."

"Then!" Fang Tiesheng slapped his thigh, about to agree, but quickly shut his mouth and looked at the people in the room, "Gousheng, what do you say?"

The village chief pinched the bridge of his nose. Xinghua and Gouya had both said that Xiong Bo had provided them with a lot of cover during the operation, and Da Niu had also mentioned that he had originally been prepared to die, but Da Niu had carried him back by force.

They should be good people, but we still have to be careful. What if they saw Xinghua and Gouya's electric mahjong devices and took the opportunity to infiltrate them to steal something?

After a long pause, the village chief finally spoke slowly: "It's no problem for you to stay, but I have to make this clear beforehand: once you enter our village, you'll never have the chance to leave. You'll have to stay here for the rest of your life, and if you die, you'll be buried here."

Without the slightest hesitation, Xiong Bo immediately nodded in agreement: "I understand. I have nowhere else to turn outside. If I can find a safe place to stay, I will naturally abide by the rules."

"That would be best." The village chief nodded.

This person was the first to accept it.

"By the way, I noticed the two young ladies were carrying small forks earlier. They were extremely powerful, seemingly possessing a unique aura that caused people to collapse upon contact, and even smoke and burn upon prolonged touch. May I take a closer look?"

The village chief and Fang Tiesheng exchanged a glance, and Fang Tiesheng said, "No rush, Brother Xiong, you should focus on recovering first. Once you can get out of bed and walk around, come with me and learn to read for a few days. After you've learned enough characters, I'll take you to see those rare items. Our village is currently in dire need of manpower."

Once you've recovered, we can study this together.

Anyway, neither of those machines had power, so even if they were taken out, it wouldn't cause any harm to the villagers if the person had bad intentions.

Xiong Bo was perfectly aware that they were wary of him, an outsider, and this arrangement was reasonable.

If it were him, he wouldn't even accept any outsiders.