Chapter 75

Chapter 75

That night, Xie Licheng did not continue to bully Gu Zhangyuan, and the two went to bed early.

The next morning, Xie Licheng went to the village to look for the scholar.

The scholar wanted to establish a school in the village. Xie Licheng thought that there were also children in the town, so he decided to build a school between the village and the town.

This way, children from the village could attend school, and children from the town could attend as well. The school wasn't too far away, and it would also let the kids get some exercise.

Additionally, Xie Licheng built soldier barracks in between. The school was located near the barracks, so there was no need to worry about bad people targeting the children.

Xie Licheng acted on his plan immediately and took an hour to build a walled compound next to the soldiers' barracks.

The compound was big, split between classrooms and living quarters.

This was to prevent bullying and fights among the students, and also to keep the teacher from mistreating them.

The compound was semi-open, unlike the more closed-off places Xie Licheng stayed in.

Parents standing outside the wall could get a rough look at what was going on inside.

This way, families worried about their kids could drop by now and then to check on them, and at the same time, they could also monitor the teacher's behavior.

Xie Licheng didn't have anything against teachers, but compared to grown adults, kids—who were young, naive, and weak—were way easier to trick and push around.

Not every teacher was a hundred percent a good person.

Some male teachers molested students, and some female teachers led the bullying.

When one side was clearly weaker, it wasn't overstepping for Xie Licheng to look out for the underdog.

After the school was built, the tables, chairs, cabinets, and whatnot were all donated by the villagers.

That afternoon, some families brought their kids by to ask about schooling.

The scholar had no house, no land, and no food at the moment.

To get by, he wasn't charging tuition for now.

Money wasn't worth much these days; grain was the real currency.

His tuition for half a year was one slab of meat and fifty jin of grain, which wasn't considered pricey.

Families who couldn't pay all at once could wait until they had grain before sending their kids.

In the afternoon, Xie Licheng had a talk with the scholar. He didn't expect the guy to be some brilliant teacher or turn the kids into prodigies. He just hoped the scholar would treat the students well and be fair to boys, girls, and gē'ér alike.

The scholar asked, taken aback, "Girls, gē'ér... young master, are you saying you want me to take in girls and gē'ér too?"

Xie Licheng nodded. "If they can afford the tuition, taking them in would be a nice chunk of income for you."

The scholar frowned. "But I'm a man. Wouldn't it be improper for me to teach them...?"

Even though he knew he was a decent guy and wouldn't lay a finger on the kids, other people might not see it that way. Some parents or outsiders might start gossiping about him and the students.

Xie Licheng said, "Don't worry about all that. Just do what I tell you. It's not like many families would dare send their daughters and gē'ér to school anyway."

The scholar asked, "What if someone actually does send them?"

Xie Licheng replied, "Then teach them just like the boys. Nobody will dare spread rumors."

As long as the scholar hadn't done anything wrong, Xie Licheng would go after anyone spreading rumors. There weren't many people around yet, so it'd be easy for Xie Licheng to track down the gossips.

The scholar wanted to say more, but since Xie Licheng had built the school, he figured he had no right to turn down the request.

He didn't really get why Xie Licheng was so set on having girls and gē'ér study too.

With the imperial exams no longer a thing and everyone just trying to survive, what was the point of educating girls and gē'ér?

Xie Licheng hadn't cared about girls and gē'ér studying before. The reason he suddenly wanted them to study was mainly because women and gē'ér made up most of the population here.

Letting them out to study was basically giving them permission to leave the house and move around freely.

Being able to move around meant they could go out and earn money and support their families, just like men.

Gu Zhangyuan's world was made up of men, women, and gē'ér.

In other words, men were only a third of the population, and the other two-thirds were stuck at home, which really limited what they could do.

Two-thirds—that was a massive labor pool.

Even if women and gē'ér weren't as strong as men, with that many of them, they could still get a ton of work done.

They might not be cut out for heavy lifting like hauling goods, but they could embroider, cook, raise livestock, grow veggies, tend flowers, run stalls, and so on.

Since he was turning the pocket world into a self-sufficient world, he couldn't afford to lack population or labor.

Besides, the people Xie Licheng had saved were mostly the elderly, women, gē'ér, and kids.

If they stayed locked up, it'd be really hard for this place to develop.

Besides, Xie Licheng would have kids of his own soon, and he couldn't be sure it'd be a boy.

What if Gu Zhangyuan had a daughter or a gē'ér?

He couldn't stand the thought of his own kid being stuck in the back courtyard forever.

So it was better to start changing people's minds now, while the population was still small, and slowly free the gē'ér and women.

The next day was overcast. Xie Licheng took Xu Xiahe to recruit soldiers in the village.

These soldiers would need to train and could not frequently return to farm.

If they did not farm, they could not support themselves and their families, so Xie Licheng would need to provide them with food and drink.

This was essentially military expenditure, requiring both money and grain.

Since they were trained to protect everyone's safety, the cost of supporting them should not come solely from Xie Licheng's own pocket.

However, considering that everyone had not yet grown any grain, it would be cruel to levy a poll tax now.

Xie Licheng discussed it with everyone and decided that he would cover the military expenses for the first two years.

The "first two years" meant that the poll tax would only be paid two years after entering the pocket world.

This deadline is based on when each person first arrived.

For example, if someone arrives a year later, they'd owe their taxes a year later than everyone else.

This gives new arrivals a grace period.

You have to start paying the poll tax once you turn eighteen.

For the first five years, it's twenty wen per person per year.

That's thirty wen less than what they charge in Dazhou, and most folks can scrape that together without too much trouble.

The draft is aimed at young, able-bodied men.

Twenty guys signed up in all, including Liu Xiaoyuan and Han Xihe.

Guys their age are just bursting with energy and a sense of justice.

They're more than happy to serve and protect the folks around here.

Peach Blossom Village sent seventeen men, and the other three came from the town.

Soldiers get room and board, plus five taels of silver a year.

And if there's ever a battle, there'll be extra pay on top of that.

A lot of young guys who can't afford a house or land are happy to sign up under Xu Xiahe.

Once the school and conscription stuff was squared away, Xie Licheng teleported over to the county seat to scope things out.

Taking the county town needs fifty men, and right now they only have twenty, so they're short thirty.

There are thirty bandits in the city, plus two leaders, so thirty-two enemies altogether.

Xie Licheng can take out the two leaders himself, and the rest can be picked off by Xu Xiahe and the others.

Since the thirty bandits aren't all grouped together, they can take them out in waves.

These bandits aren't real people and go down easy, so Xie Licheng isn't about to fight over the kills.

His level's pretty high now, so leveling up takes a lot more work.

Instead of wasting all those kills on scraps of XP, he'd rather let the others get some practice in.

The more they train now, the less they'll panic when they run into real enemies later.

After scouting the county town, Xie Licheng rounded up his forces the next morning to launch the attack.

The moment word got out that they were hitting the county town, folks from both the village and the town got all fired up and curious.

Some of the new arrivals had no clue how a siege worked, so they wanted to tag along and see what it was all about.

The ones who'd already been with Xie Licheng when they took the town knew there wasn't any real danger, so they wanted to come along for the fun too.

There wasn't much to do for fun around here, and the crops were already in the ground. Folks were bored out of their minds at home, so a whole bunch of them tagged along when it was time to head out.

The county town was a lot farther out than Peach Blossom Town. The fifty men Xie Licheng picked rode horses, donkeys, or drove oxcarts.

That crew moved faster than the rest, so by the time the main group finally moseyed on in, Xie Licheng and his men had already taken the place.

With the county town secured, Xie Licheng got another treasure chest.

This time around, the chest had a little more in it: a blue potion, a health potion, ten packs of seeds, and ten packs of fertilizer.

The seeds turned out to be sweet potatoes, which, like the corn from last time, are a high-yield crop.

With sweet potatoes in hand, they might be able to get another crop in before the year's out.

Sweet potatoes keep well, and if they stash them in the cellar, they can still have fresh ones come winter.

They can also be turned into noodles or dried out so they keep even longer.

If they've got sweet potatoes to get them through the winter, their first cold season in the pocket world shouldn't be too rough.

When Xiao Zhuang and Xiao Ruan rolled up on a mule cart, Xie Licheng was giving Gu Zhangyuan a tour of the county town.

The heat wasn't so brutal anymore.

Gu Zhangyuan perched on his little donkey while Xie Licheng walked him around town at a nice, easy pace.

It was way more bustling than Peach Blossom Town, with pavilions and towers all over the place. The shops were real fancy too, and Gu Zhangyuan was smitten right away.

He turned to Xie Licheng and said, "I want my family to move here."

The town was plenty populated now, so even if the whole Gu family packed up and left, Peach Blossom Town wouldn't get taken over by NPC bandits again.

But if the Gu family moved out here, it'd be a real hassle for Gu Zhangyuan to keep shuttling back and forth.

Still, the houses here were a lot bigger. The First Master of the Gu family and the rest were used to the finer things, and being stuck in that town would feel way too cramped.

Xie Licheng said, "Sure, handle it however you want."

Xie Licheng didn't really care about that kind of stuff, so after that, he hung around the county town with Gu Zhangyuan and the others for a couple of days.

They stuck around for two reasons: to get familiar with the place, and to map out the county town.

Once they had the maps and the layout of the buildings down, it'd be a lot easier for Gu Zhangyuan to sell properties here later.

Xie Licheng had promised Gu Zhangyuan two houses and two shops for every map they unlocked.

Now that the county town map was unlocked and they'd scoped out the houses and shops, Xie Licheng told Gu Zhangyuan to pick his spots first so nobody else could snatch up the ones he liked.

Gu Zhangyuan spread the map out and pointed at a spot. "This here's the county office," he said. "The house behind it should go to the County Magistrate down the line."

He put a mark on it, then picked out two places right next to the office: a big four-courtyard house and a smaller two-courtyard one.

After nabbing the houses, he grabbed two shops on the next street over.

Then he and Xie Licheng drew up the deeds, and those four spots were Gu Zhangyuan's from then on.

The biggest house was obviously for the Gu family.

Once he'd picked everything out, Gu Zhangyuan sent his servants back to tell the rest of the Gu family to pack up and move to the city.

Then he sat down with Xie Licheng to talk about who'd run the county. Chen Yaosan was holding down Peach Blossom Village, Steward Xu was running the town, and now the county seat needed somebody in charge too.

Xie Licheng mulled it over and said, "I'll handle the city for now. I can teleport in whenever. I'll swing by more often and keep an eye on the Gu family too, so you don't have to make the trip every day."

The county seat was called Fucheng County, and it was a good chunk of a day's travel from Peach Blossom Village.

Gu Zhangyuan mostly stayed at the farm, occasionally returning to town to handle matters there, so he couldn't always make the trip to the county seat.

Also, he and Gu Zhangyuan were planning to have a child, and once that happened, Gu Zhangyuan wouldn't have as much energy to spare.

Since Xie Licheng hadn't found a suitable candidate for county magistrate yet, he figured he might as well keep a closer eye on things himself for now. Once the right person came along, he could hand over the reins then.

Gu Zhangyuan asked, "By the way, what area unlocks next?"

The county seat unlocked once they hit 200 people, and now they had 500 people here, so the next area should already be unlocked.

Xie Licheng replied, "After capturing Fucheng County, two new areas unlocked at once. One is called Meihua Village, and the other is Hetang Village—both are villages near Taohua Town."

He walked over and sat down beside Gu Zhangyuan, taking Gu Zhangyuan's hand in his own as he smiled and said, "We'll hold off on those two for now."

They should secure the county seat first before opening up new villages.

That afternoon, the entire Gu family moved to Fucheng County.

They moved into the large estate Gu Zhangyuan had chosen, and the whole family looked quite excited.

Two well-off families had also followed the Gu family to the county seat.

They bought houses in the county seat, and one family even purchased two shops, seemingly planning to settle here for good.

The Gu estate was big enough now, so Gu Zhangyuan and Xie Licheng no longer lived apart.

The head of the family had set aside a small courtyard for Gu Zhangyuan, so from now on, the two of them would live at the Gu residence.

After another day in the county seat, Xie Licheng brought Gu Zhangyuan back to Taohua Village.

After so many days of hard work, Xie Licheng could finally take it easy.

That evening, Xie Licheng took Gu Zhangyuan fishing at the farm pond.

They hadn't been fishing long when ripples started spreading across the pond.

Gu Zhangyuan looked up at the sky and said, "It's starting to rain. We should go back."

Xie Licheng got up at that, and as the two walked back side by side, Xuan Cui was directing people to take down the lanterns in the courtyard.

Xie Licheng's solar lights couldn't get wet, so they had to be taken down as soon as it rained.

While Xuan Cui was busy taking down the lanterns, she saw Gu Zhangyuan and Xie Licheng return and quickly asked a question.

"The kitchen just finished a pot of bird's nest soup. Would the two masters like some now?"

Xie Licheng had found the bird's nest in Gu Zhangyuan's secret chamber, and after the Gu family moved to the county seat, his things were sent to the farm.

These past few days, the wet nurse had been busy making all sorts of delicious food with them. Remembering that Gu Zhangyuan needed to nourish his body for pregnancy, Xuan Cui wanted to ask if he'd like to have some.

Gu Zhangyuan nodded. "Bring some in."

Xie Licheng wanted to say he didn't need fancy things like bird's nest. His body was strong, his defense was high, and he'd almost never get sick. Nourishing stuff like that should be saved for Gu Zhangyuan.

But before he could say anything, Gu Zhangyuan pulled him into the Xi Yuan courtyard.

Gu Zhangyuan said as they walked, "You need to take better care of yourself too. You've been hurt so many times—if you don't take care of yourself, it could leave lasting damage."

Xie Licheng replied, "That won't happen. I'm not an ordinary person."

Gu Zhangyuan didn't believe him and glanced back skeptically. "Didn't you say you're not some immortal?"

If he wasn't an immortal, then he'd naturally get old and die like everyone else.

Thinking of how skinny Xie Licheng used to be, he couldn't help feeling a twinge of worry.

Xie Licheng followed him into the living room and smiled as he explained earnestly.

"My body really is different from an ordinary person's. I also have two bottles of health potion on me for emergencies—even if I did get sick, I wouldn't die that easily."

With that, Xie Licheng raised a hand, gesturing for Gu Zhangyuan to come sit in his arms.

Gu Zhangyuan glanced at the doorway, making sure Xuan Cui and the others wouldn't come in, before reluctantly shuffling over to Xie Licheng.

Seeing him still so shy, Xie Licheng couldn't help but laugh.

Xie Licheng said, "Come on, sit in my lap. I've got something good for you."

Gu Zhangyuan shot him a playful glare, then braced himself on Xie Licheng's shoulders and sat on his lap.

He reached out and poked Xie Licheng's chest, asking, "What good thing is it?"

It had to be something he only revealed when Gu Zhangyuan was sitting in his lap—he had a feeling it wasn't anything decent.

Xie Licheng wrapped an arm around Gu Zhangyuan's waist, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then, as if by magic, produced a bottle.

Gu Zhangyuan took the bottle from his hand and held it up, studying it carefully for a long moment.

He asked, "Husband, what's this?"

The bottle was pretty, but the red liquid inside looked a bit like blood.

Xie Licheng leaned close to his ear and whispered, "This is a life-saving treasure. Keep it on you at all times. If you ever get seriously hurt, drinking this will help you recover fast."

"Is it really that powerful? Even if I were about to die, could it bring me back?"

Xie Licheng smiled. "Yes, as long as you're still breathing and can swallow it, it can bring you back from the brink."

Gu Zhangyuan carefully set the bottle on the table beside him, then reached out and wrapped both arms around Xie Licheng's neck.

Hugging Xie Licheng's neck, Gu Zhangyuan mimicked his soft whisper and asked gently, "Husband, do you have a lot of this?"

If there was a lot, he could use it to save others.

If not, he'd keep it for himself.

Xie Licheng replied, "Not much. I've only gotten two bottles so far—one for you, one for me. That's all for now."

Gu Zhangyuan understood. "I see. I won't give it to anyone. I'll keep it safe."

Something so precious, and Xie Licheng was willing to give him a bottle—it showed how much he truly cared for him.

With that thought, Gu Zhangyuan was overjoyed. He pressed his soft, sweet lips to Xie Licheng's.

Then, as they kissed, clothes fell to the floor one by one—and they were all Gu Zhangyuan's.

Gu Zhangyuan gently pushed Xie Licheng away and said, "No, Xuan Cui will come in soon with the soup."

Xie Licheng waved it off. "It's fine. I'll go out and tell her we don't need it."

Gu Zhangyuan protested, "How can that be? This—this is broad daylight."

Xie Licheng: "Who says you can't sleep with your own wife in broad daylight?"

Besides, this was his portable personal world; he could sleep with his wife whenever he pleased.

With that, Xie Licheng tossed Gu Zhangyuan onto the bed in the bedroom, then went out to let Xuan Cui know.

Hearing this, the servants outside couldn't help exchanging furtive glances, clearly understanding that their lord didn't want them to go in and serve the soup.

When Xie Licheng returned and closed the gate of Xiyuan, a maidservant whispered, "At this rate... won't our young master be too worn out to handle it?"

The martial matron chuckled at that, "What would a young thing like you know? In this matter, you only hear of men dying from exhaustion, never women or young masters. Our lord is strong and healthy; he won't have any problems. Our young master has also trained in martial arts, so he won't be worn out either."

Xuan Cui: "Alright, alright, let's not all crowd around here."

Their young master was thin-skinned; if he accidentally overheard them, he might get embarrassed and angry, and possibly take it out on the lord.