Sold immediately after wearing it? I took my family and fled the famine.

The group traveled along the official road for five whole days.

On the morning of the fifth day, the official road under our feet changed from a gravel road to a bluestone road, and large areas of farmland and scattered farmhouses began to appear on both sides of the road. Further ahead, a low city wall rose from the horizon, marking the town of Anxi.

The county town was not large, and the city gate was a whole section shorter than that of the prefectural city. The stone plaques on the lintel were blurred by wind and rain, but the stone lions on both sides of the gate were clean and tidy. Each lion had a faded red cloth strip tied around its neck, an old mark left from the New Year.

The yamen runners escorted about two hundred refugees through the city gate and led them directly to the open space in the backyard of the county government office.

A number of people were already standing in the open space. The village heads and village chiefs from various villages and towns were all there, and a dozen or so middle-aged men were holding rosters in their hands, waiting for the refugees to arrive.

A young man who looked like a clerk stood at the front. As soon as the refugees arrived, he opened the roster and began to call out names.

"Bamboo plaque numbers sixty-seven to seventy-eight..."

Upon hearing their numbers called, the families instantly perked up. Shen Dehou walked in front and handed over all the bamboo plaques to the families.

The clerk checked the number, made a mark on it in his notebook, and then looked up and shouted into the crowd, "Village chief of Thatched Village, come and get them!"

Besides them, there were five other families who were assigned to Maocao Village. Three of these families were relatives of the same clan, surnamed He, and together they had thirteen people. The other two families were surnamed Lin, and this family had a large population, totaling seventeen people.

The village chief of Maocao Village, surnamed Tian, ​​was in his early sixties. He was tall and thin, wearing a somewhat worn gray-blue long coat. His face was tanned dark, and he had a tuft of white goatee on his chin. He had a serious expression. After glancing at them, he instructed his son to start counting the number of people.

Dasheng checked the bamboo tag numbers one by one on the roster, counted the heads again, and nodded to his father after confirming that everything was correct.

Village Chief Tian glanced at everyone. He was tall and thin, standing there like an old tree hardened by the wind, with a slightly upturned white goatee and not a single smile line on his face.

"From now on, you twelve households are residents of Thatch Village. I am the village chief, my surname is Tian, ​​and everyone in the village calls me Village Chief Tian. I don't care where you were from before. Once you're in Thatch Village, you must abide by the rules of Thatch Village." His voice wasn't loud, but every word seemed to have been rolled over a dry riverbed, carrying an undeniable firmness: "Stealing chickens and dogs is unacceptable, bullying your neighbors is unacceptable, and cheating is even more unacceptable. Anyone who dares to cause trouble will be dealt with according to the village rules. If the circumstances are serious, you'll be sent directly to the yamen for sentencing. You can decide for yourselves. Do you all understand?"

Having just arrived in an unfamiliar place, the group hadn't even settled in yet, so how could they dare to challenge the village chief? They mumbled replies like "We'll remember" and "We'll definitely follow the rules." Old Tian was fairly satisfied with the newcomers' reaction, nodding slightly as his tense smile relaxed.

"Now bring your household registration records from your original hometowns," he said, pulling a brand-new blank register from his pocket and patting it in his hand. "Come with me to the county government office to exchange them for new household registrations. Only after that will you be considered Southwesterners. Prepare your money; the fee for exchanging household registrations is one hundred coins per person."

Before Jiang Xing and his family could even speak, the Lin family members standing in the back row erupted in uproar.

The leader, Lin Mancang, was a man in his forties with broad shoulders, clearly someone who was used to physical labor. But at this moment, his expression was as if he had been hit on the back with a brick: "Why do we still need to pay money? We've spent all our money on the road, where would we get any more money..." They had endured countless hardships and had nothing left but some savings, which they were waiting for to settle down and use.

"What are you yelling about!" Tian Dasheng took a step forward, glaring at Lin Mancang with fierce eyes. "The imperial court ordered you to flee the famine. From the day you left your original hometowns, your household registrations there were invalidated, and you were all transferred to the southwest. The imperial court didn't charge you a single penny for the relocation fee. The fee for changing your household registration was a fixed amount collected by the county government. Once you paid this one hundred coins, you were considered southwesterners. Is that clear enough?"

Lin Mancang took a step back after being yelled at. His lips moved, but he dared not utter another sound. The woman behind him secretly tugged at his sleeve, and he quickly lowered his head, staring at the tips of his shoes.

After Tian Dasheng returned, Village Chief Tian spoke slowly and deliberately, his tone gentler than before, but the weight of his words remained undiminished: "Don't think this little bit of money is a waste. Let me tell you something: several more batches of refugees will be sent here after the New Year. Changing household registration then won't be as simple as just paying money. If you change your registration smoothly today, the government will give each of your households two catties of grain as a New Year's gift from Anxi County. With your new registration and grain, you can go back and celebrate the New Year peacefully. That's better than anything else."

Upon hearing this, Lin Mancang slowly raised his head, the pained expression on his face fading slightly. Two jin of grain wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. He pursed his lips and said nothing more.

Throughout the entire process, not a single one of the seven households in Jiangxing uttered a sound.

Old Tian's gaze swept across the faces of the families, and he nodded slightly. In all his years as village head, he had always preferred families like this—those who were quiet, well-behaved, and obedient. He didn't say anything more, turned, and led the way.

When I arrived at the county government office, I realized just how crowded it was with people coming to change their household registrations. The open space outside the county government office was packed with people, with village chiefs from several villages lined up in front, followed by villagers carrying bundles and holding children. The line stretched from the entrance of the government office all the way to the street corner.

Old Tian led the twelve households to the back of the line, peeked ahead on tiptoe, clicked his tongue, and turned back to say, "Just wait, it'll take at least an hour."

Jiang Xing helped Zhang Shi sit down on a rock by the roadside. Xiao Niu squatted beside them, drawing circles on the ground with a twig, drawing circle after circle. When he drew the thirteenth circle, Zhang Shi suddenly spoke.

"Xing'er, should our family register be registered under your name or Xiao Niu's name?"

Jiang Xing hadn't expected her grandmother to ask this at this moment. She paused for a moment, about to speak, when the little calf, who was squatting on the ground drawing circles, suddenly raised its head, the twig in its hand still stuck in the mud, and said crisply, "Grandma, let's put Third Uncle on the same household register as us."

Zhang was taken aback. Xiao Niu pulled out the branch, looked at his third uncle, and said with an expression more serious than that of an eight-year-old: "Third Uncle has his own household registration. We are family, so we should be registered together."

Third Uncle looked at Xiao Niu's serious face, his Adam's apple bobbed, and then he raised his eyes and glanced at Zhang Shi.

Zhang reached out and touched the calf's head, then looked up at Jiang Xing.

Jiang Xing didn't hesitate. "Okay."

Shen Dehou listened from the side, nodded, took a step forward, and said in a low voice, "That's fine. But Xiao Niu's name must be on the household registration." He paused, then explained, "Xiao Niu's father is gone, and his mother has severed ties with him, so he's the head of the household on the registration. Third Uncle is from the same clan as Xiao Niu, and by seniority, he's Xiao Niu's great-uncle. He has no children and is supported by his grandson from the same clan, which makes sense in the government. If we put Third Uncle's name on the registration, he has no direct blood relation to you and cannot be registered in the same household."

Upon hearing the words "head of the household," the calf straightened his back, his expression as if he had received a tremendous mission.

Third Uncle gently patted the back of the calf's head, then bent down and handed his copy of the household registration to the calf. He didn't say anything, but simply pressed his calloused hand on the back of the calf's hand.

After waiting in line for nearly an hour, it was finally Maocao Village's turn. Village Chief Tian led the heads of several households to the clerk's long table.

The clerk took the old household register without looking up, checked the names, asked about the number of people, collected the money, and then quickly wrote a few lines on a new piece of paper.

After finishing writing, he took out an official seal from the drawer, pressed it on the inkstone, and then pressed it firmly onto the household registration paper before pushing it onto the table. The red stamp was neatly placed on the new household registration paper, the ink not yet completely dry.

Xiao Niu held the new household registration certificate in both hands, lowered his head, and slowly read it word by word. Although he didn't recognize the words, he had a very strange feeling in his heart.

After reading it, he looked up, glanced at his third uncle, then at Jiang Xing, and carefully folded the household registration book, handing it to Jiang Xing to put in his pocket.