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

After everyone received their new household registration certificates, Village Chief Tian led the twelve households out of the city.

He was old, and when he traveled from the village to the county government office, he rode in the village's oxcart. The old yellow ox was tied to a stone pillar at the entrance of the government office, and after waiting for most of the day, it was impatiently swishing its tail.

Tian Dasheng untied the ox rope, helped Village Chief Tian onto the cart, turned back to the crowd and said, "Keep up close," and the oxcart creaked and groaned as it moved forward.

The large group followed the oxcart out of the city gate, walked along the bluestone road, turned from the main road to the side road, and then from the side road to the country lane.

The road narrowed as we walked, and the mulberry trees on both sides grew denser. Moonlight filtered through the bare branches, spreading across the ground like shattered silver.

After walking for nearly three hours, no one in the group had the energy to speak anymore.

The calf fell asleep on Jiang Xing's back. Third Uncle took the bundle from Zhang's back and carried it on his own shoulder. Doctor Gu had to stop every now and then to catch his breath while holding his medicine box. Chen Shuisheng saw this and silently reached out to take the medicine box from him.

The women linked arms with each other, and the children were carried on the backs and in the arms of the adults in turns. The group moved forward silently in the night.

Finally, a few scattered lights appeared ahead, shining from the village entrance. Most of the villagers had already gone to bed, even the dogs were asleep. From a distance, the entire village looked like a gray shadow shrouded in darkness. Only the old locust tree at the end of the village road stretched out its bare branches under the moonlight, barely revealing its outline.

Tian Dasheng drove the oxcart to an open space and stopped it, then helped Village Chief Tian down.

Village Chief Tian glanced at the group of people behind him who were too exhausted to speak, and said nothing more. He only instructed his son, "Dasheng, take them to be settled tonight. I'll go back first."

After saying that, he turned around and walked towards his own yard. His footsteps gradually faded away and disappeared at the end of the village road.

Tian Dasheng led the twelve households halfway into the village and stopped in front of two dilapidated old houses next to each other.

It's called an old house, but it's actually just two mud-brick houses that have been abandoned for who knows how long. The base of the walls is covered with withered weeds, and a door panel is leaning against the door frame with the hinges long since broken. Fortunately, the roof can still provide shelter from the sun, and the four walls are still standing.

"You can make do here for the night. After the villagers discuss it tomorrow morning, you can move." Tian Dasheng said, taking the torch off the oxcart and handing it to Shen Dehou, who was at the front.

Lin Mancang, carrying his broken pot, stood at the doorway, peered inside, then backed out, a fawning smile on his face: "Brother Tian, ​​why do we still need to wait for the village to discuss it? Haven't we already been assigned to Maocao Village? What's there to discuss?" His wife nodded in agreement beside him, the child in her arms asleep, his head resting on her shoulder.

"What are you discussing?" Tian Dasheng was already so sleepy his eyelids were drooping, and the question made him even angrier. "There are only a few empty houses in the village. Who lives in which house and how they are allocated should be decided by the village elders. Do you think this is your backyard, where you can live whichever house you want?"

He glared at Lin Mancang, then glanced at the others, lowering his voice but his tone becoming harsher, "Stay put tonight and don't wander around the village. If you're running around in the middle of the night and get beaten up as a thief, don't blame me for not warning you."

Lin Mancang shrank back after being rebuked and said repeatedly, "I know, I know."

Tian Dasheng was too lazy to say anything more. He piled the bundles of hay on the ground and drove the oxcart away.

After Tian Dasheng's figure disappeared into the night, Lin Mancang's wife spat on the ground and muttered in a low voice, "What kind of thing is that? What's wrong with asking a question? Bah!"

Jiang Xing ignored the Lin family's complaints. The torch in her hand had burned down to only half its original length, and the flame was being blown about by the night wind, threatening to go out at any moment.

While the firelight still provided some light, she pushed open the dilapidated door of the old house and stepped inside.

A musty smell of dust wafted from the room. The main hall in the center was still relatively intact; although the beams overhead were blackened by smoke, the wood was solid and there were no signs of breakage. To the right was a side room with its door still intact and the floor leveled. To the left was another room with a large hole in the window, through which cold wind blew in, causing a few strands of cobwebs in the corner to sway.

Going back from the main room, there's half a kitchen. The stove is partially collapsed, the iron pot has long been removed, and the burner is gaping open in the dark.

Aunt Wang followed Jiang Xing in, waved her hand in front of her nose to remove the dust, looked up at the roof, and muttered, "Thank goodness, we can live here."

Shen Dehou also came in and looked around; it was much better than he had expected on the way.

The other old house was in a much worse condition. The two old houses were next to each other; one had half of its kitchen collapsed, while the other had a corner of its main room collapsed, leaving only two habitable rooms.

The He family and the Lin family shared an old house, which was already crowded. Lin Mancang's wife tugged at her husband's sleeve, and the two whispered a few words to each other.

Lin Mancang tiptoed and peeked over Jiang Xing's side. His heart warmed, and he turned around and called to his family members, wanting them to squeeze over as well.

Lin Mancang's son was a boy of about fifteen or sixteen. He obediently took a step forward. He had just reached the door and hadn't even had time to step over the threshold when he saw a short knife fly past quickly and stick straight into the gap next to the door frame. The blade was still trembling slightly.

The kid fell to the ground with a thud and scrambled back several steps.

Jiang Xing drew his short knife, the blade gleaming coldly in the torchlight.

She didn't speak, but simply leaned against the door frame, sheathed the dagger back into her waistband, her face expressionless, as calm as a stagnant pool.

Lin Mancang's wife grabbed her son and pulled him up, retreating quickly: "Who cares?"

After that, the Lin family turned their attention to the kitchen next door. They could tidy it up and squeeze in two more people, which was better than sleeping in the open.

The Lin family woman moved with lightning speed; before she even entered the house, she had already tossed a tattered bundle inside. The He family didn't argue with them, silently moving their luggage into the remaining two rooms.

After walking for a whole day, everyone was exhausted. No one offered to cook, and even Hu, who ate the most, didn't complain of being hungry.

Aunt Wang chopped up the few remaining wild vegetables, threw them into the pot, added water and salt, and boiled them into a pot of salty soup with a few vegetable leaves floating on top. Each person had a bowl, and after drinking it, no one said a word; they just wanted to finish quickly so they could go to sleep and rest.

When it came time to assign rooms, Shen Dehou suddenly stopped in the main room, dusted off his hands, and said, "On the way we fled famine, we couldn't care less about the differences between men and women; there was no other way. Now that we've arrived, we should separate. There are more women, so they'll take two rooms; the men will take one."

This made sense, and none of the households objected. So Zhang, Jiang Xing, Aunt Wang, and Granny Chen lived in the room on the right; Widow Sun, with Niu Niu, along with Hu and Chen Sumei, lived in the room on the left.

Shen Dehou led the men to the small room on the side of the main room, and soon after, one of them sat up snoring.

Chen Shuisheng and Wang Laoshi were left to take turns keeping watch at night, and that's how the night passed.