Everyone arrived at the village's drying ground and took their luggage from the mule cart.
"Comrades, our village doesn't get many outsiders, so we don't have extra rooms to spare. For the next couple of days, you'll stay in the village warehouse. We'll start building rooms for you soon. Of course, it won't be one room per person; our village has limited conditions, so we can only build two rooms—one for males and one for females.
Also, regarding your future work, since we are in a mountain gully, there isn't much fertile land for farming. Among you ten, some will be assigned to the Changbai Mountain as forest rangers. As for who will be assigned to the mountain, I don't know; we'll have to wait until tomorrow when the forest rangers come down to pick. You can rest assured that although forest rangers live a harder life than those in the village, they often get to eat meat. They frequently hunt rabbits, pheasants, and the like on the mountain, though that depends on luck. Today, you can come to my house for dinner, or you can eat your own dry rations if you brought them. My house is over there." Li Dayou said, pointing to a house next to the drying ground.
"Alright, pick up your luggage and follow me. The warehouse hasn't been used for half a year, so it might be a bit messy. You can clean it up yourselves." Li Dayou led the way toward the warehouse.
Everyone arrived in front of the warehouse. Li Dayou opened it, and a cloud of dust billowed out.
"Alright, you can clean it up. There's a well up ahead; get water yourselves if you need it." With that, he left.
"What were they thinking, just leaving us here like this? The environment is so bad," Niu Jianwen began to complain again.
Zuo Lei glared at Niu Jianwen, and he immediately fell silent. It seemed he was a bit afraid of Zuo Lei losing her temper.
"Alright, let's clean up first. We females will stay on the right, and you males on the left." Tang Zilan spoke up, assigning rooms, then put down her luggage and walked towards the right room.
Zuo Lei followed Tang Zilan into the room to clean up, while Huang Su Su stood beside Zhao Yuanhang, not saying a word or lifting a finger.
"Alright, stop just standing there and start cleaning," Ye Hao said, seeing that no one was taking the lead among the males.
As soon as Ye Hao spoke, everyone except Zhao Yuanhang started moving—some fetching water, others moving things. Only Zhao Yuanhang remained standing idly by.
Seeing this, Huang Su Su didn't say much and went into the room to help clean.
"Huang Su Su, go to the female room and help Zilan and the others. We have so many males here; we don't need you," Sun Chaoshu said when he saw Huang Su Su come in to help.
"It's fine. Yuan Hang hasn't done manual labor before, so I'll help him. Once this side is cleaned up, I'll go clean over there."
Seeing Huang Su Su say this, Sun Chaoshu found it difficult to say anything more, as Zhao Yuanhang wasn't cleaning, and Huang Su Su was voluntarily helping.
Because there were many males, their side was quickly tidied up. However, the female side, with only two people, was cleaning more slowly. Ye Hao then said, "This side is almost done; it just needs to air out. Everyone go help the females; there are only two of them over there."
Soon, both sides were almost completely tidied up. They laid out their respective bedding.
Only then did the group have time to rest. Since the rooms were still damp from the cleaning, everyone sat outside casually chatting.
Sun Chaoshu sat next to Ye Hao and asked, "Brother Hao, do you want to be a forest ranger or earn work points in the village?"
"It's the same wherever I am; it just depends on how they arrange it. Why, do you have any thoughts?"
"Brother Hao, I want to be a forest ranger. Didn't the leader say we could eat pheasants and wild rabbits? I don't know how often we'd get to eat meat if we stayed in the village."
"Eating meat also depends on luck, you know. Do you think you'll just get to eat it once you go? First, you have to be able to hunt rabbits and pheasants. And do you think being a forest ranger is that easy? Living in the mountains year-round, do you think it's that good? Plus, there are so many dangers in the mountains here. In the deep mountains, tigers, leopards, bears, and wild boars are all more vicious than the last. Encountering one could cost you your life. This is Changbai Mountain; there are also poachers with guns, so it's very dangerous."
"Brother Hao, don't scare me; I'm timid," Sun Chaoshu said fearfully, seemingly intimidated by Ye Hao's words.
"Why would I scare you? If you don't believe me, ask the forest rangers tomorrow."
"Then I'll just stay in the village."
Everyone was full of various hopes for their future lives, but only Zhao Yuanhang, ever since entering the village and being lectured by Zuo Lei, seemed a bit dazed, unsure if he was stimulated by Zuo Lei or despairing of this place.
After resting for a while, the sun was about to set. Li Dayou walked out of his house and called everyone to his place for dinner.
Niu Jianwen and Niu Jianwu, the two brothers, ran the fastest. Then Huang Su Su looked at the unresponsive Zhao Yuanhang and also went to eat. Wang Rong looked at the others who showed no reaction and asked, "Are you going or not?"
Lu Bingsheng got up to eat, but the others had no intention of going. "In these times, everyone is short on food. Chao Shu and I brought some of our own, so we won't trouble the leader's family," Ye Hao said.
Tang Zilan and Zuo Lei also stated that they had brought dry rations and wouldn't go. Wang Rong saw that the others weren't going, so he didn't go either.
Ye Hao returned to the room, took out a few steamed buns, and handed them to Sun Chaoshu, "Just eat a little for now; I'll get you something good to eat later."
"Brother Hao, you still have chicken drumsticks?" Sun Chaoshu asked, looking greedy, thinking Ye Hao still had the chicken drumsticks they ate last time.
"Not drumsticks. Don't worry about it for now; just eat a little." Ye Hao said, picking up a steamed bun and starting to eat.
Ye Hao finished the steamed bun in a few bites and walked towards Tang Zilan.
"Zilan, could you come out for a moment? I have something to tell you."
"What is it? Just say it here." Tang Zilan was gnawing on a pancake. However, she still followed Ye Hao out of the room.
After leaving the room, they went to a secluded corner. Ye Hao pretended to take a stack of money notes from his pocket, but actually from his spatial dimension, and handed them to Tang Zilan, saying, "Zilan, Comrade Li Wan'er asked me to give these to you. Keep them safe."
"I don't want them. Take them back," Tang Zilan refused.
"Zilan, she gave these to you. If I take them back, where would I take them? You can't expect me to go back to the capital now to give them to Li Wan'er, can you? Even if I wanted to go back, I wouldn't have the chance. Please keep them; it's her intention…"
Tang Zilan looked at Ye Hao, who had already said this. "Alright, then I'll take them. If there's nothing else, I'm leaving." With that, she walked back into the room.
Ye Hao watched Tang Zilan accept the money notes, thinking that Li Wan'er's entrustment was half-fulfilled. The other half was to take care of her if possible, which he would consider later.
Sun Chaoshu watched Ye Hao return and asked, "Brother Hao, what did you want Zilan for? You even called her out alone."
"Li Wan'er asked me to give her some things, so I just went to give them to her."
"That's good. I thought you had some ideas about her, hehe," Sun Chaoshu said with a silly grin.
Bang~
Ye Hao gave Sun Chaoshu a rap on the head, "What are you thinking? I'm not interested in her. Eat your food; even eating can't shut you up."