Chapter 287: Those barren mountains have an owner now, huh?

Chapter 287: Those barren mountains have an owner now, huh?

Xingxing smiled and called out, "Brother Yan."

Wei Shiyan finished the last two sword moves before sheathing his sword and standing upright. He smiled slightly at Xingxing, "You came?"

Xingxing stepped forward with familiarity. Since Wei Shiyan was still holding his sword and it was inconvenient, she directly reached out to untie the pouch hanging from his waist.

Wei Shiyan had started wearing pouches a few years ago. The earliest pouch he wore was one Xingxing made when she was four years old, just starting to learn needlework from Bai Xiaofeng. The stitches were crooked, barely passing as a "bag."

But Wei Shiyan cherished it and kept wearing it until Xingxing turned seven. By then, her needlework had improved significantly, and she couldn't stand the sight of the "bag" she made at four. She made a new pouch for Wei Shiyan, replacing the old one.

The pouch Wei Shiyan currently wears is the one she made at seven.

Of course, from Xingxing's current perspective, although the pouch is much better than the one she made at four, the handiwork is still embarrassingly immature.

But Wei Shiyan didn't mind. He didn't find the pouch ugly and continued to wear it on his waist. Xingxing often came by to help him replace the bug-repelling herbs inside.

This time, Xingxing untied the old pouch from Wei Shiyan's waist and took out a brand new pouch from her pocket, already filled with herbs to repel bugs and snakes.

"Look, my skills have improved, right?" Xingxing waved the new pouch in her hand, boasting to Wei Shiyan, her smile revealing two small dimples. "I made them for Second Brother, Third Brother, Fourth Brother, and Ju Geer too! They all said they loved it!"

As for Bang Geer and the other little ones, they were still too young to keep anything on them. After losing two pouches Xingxing made for Bang Geer, she stopped making them for the younger kids.

Wei Shiyan carefully examined the new pouch in Xingxing's hand and praised, "The handiwork is excellent. As expected of you."

Xingxing laughed happily, her eyes sparkling.

Wei Shiyan then extended his hand to Xingxing, "Hand me the old one too."

Xingxing handed the pouch over, "You still want this ugly thing, huh?"

Wei Shiyan glanced at her, slid the pouch into his pocket, and said nothing.

Xingxing didn't mind much.

Now a teenager of fourteen or fifteen, Wei Shiyan was in the midst of his voice-cracking phase and rarely spoke.

But as the boy gradually outgrew his childish looks, his features grew more handsome and heroic. Xingxing felt it was fine if her Brother Yan didn't speak.

She was happy just looking at his face.

After changing the pouch for Wei Shiyan, Xingxing chatted with him about daily life.

Mostly, Xingxing rambled on, with Wei Shiyan occasionally adding a word.

Xingxing didn't stay long, as Li Chunhua was still waiting for her at the Taoist shrine.

"Brother Yan, I'm off," Xingxing bid farewell to Wei Shiyan.

Wei Shiyan watched Xingxing's figure disappear into the labyrinthine forest before picking up his sword and returning to his house.

Over the years, Xingxing had visited often, and his misfortune seemed less severe. Occasionally interacting with others no longer caused any harm.

This meant his situation was getting better.

The elderly Taoist priest was also overjoyed, counting down the days until Wei Shiyan's eighteenth birthday.

...

Xingxing went back to the Yu household and, upon hearing Wei Pozi and Yu Laotou's explanation, finally understood why the two Zhao family members had made such a fuss about moving the graves.

"What about us?" Xingxing asked, unable to help but glance at Yu Laotou.

As soon as she walked in, Xingxing noticed that her grandfather seemed a bit down.

Xingxing had gone with Yu Laotou to visit the graves many times and naturally knew that some of their relatives were buried on the back hill too.

Wei Pozi cleared her throat: "Even though our family isn't hurting for a few dozen taels of silver, but... after all, they're nobility. They could squash us like bugs. We're living pretty comfortably, why stir up trouble over this?"

Although Wei Pozi was speaking to Xingxing, Yu Laotou could also sense that she was trying to persuade him.

Yu Laotou grumbled: "I understand the reasoning... I'm not opposing it, it's just that thinking about our family members who have been peacefully buried for so many years, suddenly having to move them, it just feels wrong to me."

Xingxing's eyes widened: "Wait... Grandpa, Grandma, I just thought of something."

Wei Pozi and Yu Laotou both turned to look at Xingxing.

Xingxing twisted her fingers, a little shy: "...Earlier, when Grandma Da Xi had her birthday, I didn't have a good gift, so I used some of the yearly allowance my second brother gave me and bought a few mountains to give to Grandma Da Xi... but Grandma Da Xi didn't accept them, so the deeds for those mountains have been sitting in my little stash. Since I never mentioned it, only Grandma Da Xi and I know about it..."

Wei Pozi and Yu Laotou took a moment to process what Xingxing said and couldn't help but look a bit conflicted.

Xingxing said softly: "What I mean is, if they want to build a mausoleum on the back hill and make everyone move their graves, but without the deeds... can they really do that?"

...

Meanwhile, the guard captain got word from the village head that the villagers had mostly agreed to move the graves.

The guard captain was very satisfied, and the village head cautiously reminded him: "...However, sir, although there's nothing much on those mountains in our village, it seems that area is directly under the county's jurisdiction. If you want to build a mausoleum on the back hill, wouldn't you need to go to the county to complete some formalities?"

The guard captain frowned, somewhat impatient.

Wasn't it just a matter of building a mausoleum on a barren hill for the Lin'an Marquis's estate?

Compensating the villagers for moving the graves was already very generous!

Why would they need to go through the hassle of dealing with a small county office?

But the guard captain suppressed his impatience: "It's just a formality for a piece of barren land, we'll take care of it."

They were planning to return to the county inn to rest anyway, so they might as well take care of it on the way.

He didn't believe that such a small, insignificant county office would dare to obstruct the formalities of the Lin'an Marquis's estate?

The guards rode swiftly towards the county town.

The guard captain, with a brisk pace, took two guards to the government office.

Upon hearing that they were from the Lin'an Marquis's estate, the officials at the government office dared not neglect them, and even the Magistrate hurried out from the backyard, dressed formally as if facing a formidable enemy, standing by their side.

The scribe official in charge of land taxes, under great pressure, quickly flipped through the records to find the deeds for the mountains behind Nantuo Village.

However, the more he flipped, the more cold sweat he broke out.

Until he reached a certain page, and as he read line by line, the sweat poured down even more.

Seeing the scribe official's expression, the Magistrate had a bad feeling.

"What's the holdup!" The guard captain, seeing the scribe official frozen on a certain page, urged impatiently.

The scribe official looked up, extremely embarrassed: "...It's not that, sir, the records show that those barren mountains already have an owner..."