Chapter 75

Chapter 75

That night, Xie Licheng didn't keep bullying 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 build a school in the village. Xie Licheng figured there were kids in the town too, so he just went ahead and built a school between the village and the town.

This way, kids from both the village and the town could attend. The school wasn't too far away, and it would also give the kids some exercise.

In addition, Xie Licheng built dormitories for the soldiers nearby. The school was located close to the dormitories, so there was no need to worry about bad people targeting the children.

Xie Licheng acted right away and took about an hour to build a house with a courtyard next to the soldiers' dormitory.

The place was big—half classroom, half living quarters.

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

The house was open-style, unlike the more closed-off places where Xie Licheng stayed.

Parents outside the courtyard wall could get a vague look at what was going on inside.

This way, families who were worried could drop by now and then to check on their kids, and at the same time, keep an eye on the teacher's behavior.

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

Not every teacher was a hundred percent good person.

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

When one side was clearly weaker, it wasn't over the top 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 already brought their kids by to ask about schooling.

The scholar had no house, no land, and no food.

To get by, he didn't charge tuition in silver for now.

Silver wasn't worth much these days—grain was the real currency.

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

Families who couldn't afford it right now 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 genius or turn the kids into top students. He just hoped the scholar would treat the students well and not play favorites between boys, girls, and gē'ér.

The scholar asked, surprised, "Girls, gē'ér... young master, you're saying I should take in girls and gē'ér as students too?"

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

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

Even though he knew he was a good guy and wouldn't do anything to 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 that. Just do what I tell you. It's not like many families would even dare to send their daughters or gē'ér to study anyway."

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

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

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

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

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

With the imperial exams gone, everyone was just trying to survive—what was the point of girls and gē'ér studying?

Xie Licheng hadn't cared about that stuff before either. 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 to support their families, just like men.

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

So men were only a third of the population, and the other two-thirds were stuck at home, with their options severely limited.

Two-thirds—that's a massive labor force.

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

They might not be cut out for heavy lifting like porters, 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 be short on people or labor.

Plus, the people Xie Licheng had saved were mostly old folks, women, gē'ér, and kids.

If they stayed locked up, this place would never get anywhere.

Besides, Xie Licheng would be having kids 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 backyard forever.

So better to start changing people's minds now, while there were still few people, 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 couldn't keep coming back to farm.

If they didn't farm, they couldn't support themselves and their families, so Xie Licheng would need to provide them with food and drink.

This was essentially military spending, requiring both silver and grain.

Since they were trained to protect everyone's safety, the cost of supporting them shouldn't come out of Xie Licheng's own pocket.

However, considering no one had harvested grain yet, levying a poll tax now would be cruel.

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

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

This deadline is calculated based on when each person first arrived.

For instance, if someone arrived a year later, they'd owe taxes a year later than everyone else.

It gives newcomers a grace period to settle in.

You 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 the Great Zhou charges, 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 total, including Liu Xiaoyuan and Han Xihe.

At their age, they're bursting with energy and a strong sense of justice.

They're more than happy to enlist and protect the folks around here down the road.

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

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

And if war breaks out later, there'll be extra bonuses on top of that.

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

Once the school and draft business was wrapped up, Xie Licheng teleported over to the county seat to scope things out.

Taking the county seat requires fifty men, but they only have twenty right now, so they need thirty more.

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

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

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

These bandits aren't real people, so they're easy to kill, and Xie Licheng doesn't plan on fighting over them with the others.

His level's already pretty high, so leveling up any more is tough.

Instead of killing all the bandits himself for a tiny bit of XP, it's better to let the others get some practice in.

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

After scouting out the county seat, Xie Licheng rounded up his troops the next morning to launch the attack.

The moment word got out that the county seat was up for grabs, everyone from the village and the town got hyped and curious.

Some newcomers who'd never fought before wanted to tag along just to see what it was all about.

The ones who'd already gone with Xie Licheng to take the town knew it wasn't dangerous, so they naturally wanted to come along for the fun.

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

The county seat was a lot farther than Peach Blossom Town, so the fifty men Xie Licheng rounded up rode horses, donkeys, or hitched rides on ox carts.

Those fifty moved quicker than the rest, so by the time the main crowd finally trudged into the county seat, Xie Licheng and his crew had already taken it.

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

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

The seeds turned out to be sweet potatoes—like the corn from before, they're a high-yield crop.

With sweet potatoes on hand, they might be able to squeeze in another planting later in the year.

Sweet potatoes keep well, and if you stash them in the cellar, you can even eat them fresh in the winter.

You can also turn them into noodles or dry them out so they last even longer.

If they had sweet potatoes to tide them over, their first winter in the pocket world shouldn't be too rough.

When Xiao Zhuang and Xiao Rui rolled up on a mule cart, Xie Licheng was giving Gu Zhangyuan a tour of the county seat to help him get his bearings.

The weather wasn't as sweltering and miserable as it had been.

Gu Zhangyuan perched on his little donkey while Xie Licheng walked him around the county seat at a relaxed pace.

This place was way more bustling than Peach Blossom Town, with all sorts of pavilions and towers everywhere. The shops were pretty fancy too, and Gu Zhangyuan fell for the place right away.

He told Xie Licheng, "I want to move my family here."

The town already had plenty of people, so even if the whole Gu family moved out, Peach Blossom Town wouldn't get taken over by bandit NPCs again. But if the Gu family moved to the county seat, it'd be a pain for Gu Zhangyuan to keep shuttling back and forth between the two spots.

Still, there were bigger houses here. Elder Master Gu and the rest were used to the finer things, and squeezing into the 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 out with Gu Zhangyuan and the others in the county seat for two days.

Staying there served two purposes: getting everyone familiar with the place and mapping out the county seat.

With a map and the layout of the buildings, it'd be a lot easier for Gu Zhangyuan to sell properties here later.

Xie Licheng had promised Gu Zhangyuan that every time a new map was unlocked, he'd get two houses and two shops.

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

Hearing that, Gu Zhangyuan spread out the county seat map and pointed at a spot. "This is the county office," he said to Xie Licheng. "The house behind it should go to the County Magistrate later."

He jotted down a mark and picked two residences next to the government office—a big four-courtyard mansion and a smaller two-courtyard place.

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 officially Gu Zhangyuan's from then on.

The biggest house was obviously for the Gu family.

Once he'd picked his properties, Gu Zhangyuan sent his servant back to get the Gu family in town to move to the city.

Then he sat down with Xie Licheng to talk about who'd be county magistrate. Peach Blossom Village had Chen Yaosan watching over it, the town had Steward Xu running it, so the county seat needed someone in charge too.

Xie Licheng mulled it over for a second. "I'll handle the city for now," he said. "I can teleport over here. 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 took the better part of a day to get there from Peach Blossom Village.

Gu Zhangyuan mostly lived on the farm, occasionally heading back to town to take care of things there, so he couldn't always make it out to the county seat.

Besides, he and Xie Licheng were planning to have a kid, and once that happened, Gu Zhangyuan wouldn't have as much energy to go around.

Since Xie Licheng still hadn't found the right person to be county magistrate, he figured he might as well keep a closer eye on things himself for now. Once the right person showed up, he could hand over the reins.

Gu Zhangyuan asked, "By the way, what's the next area on the map?"

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

Xie Licheng replied, "After taking Fucheng County, two new places unlocked at once. One's called Meihua Village, and the other's Hetang Village—both are near Taohua Town."

He walked over, sat down next to Gu Zhangyuan, took his hand, and smiled as he said, "We'll unlock those two later."

They should get the county seat locked down first before opening up new villages.

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

They moved into the big estate Gu Zhangyuan had picked, and the whole family looked pretty excited.

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

They bought houses there, and one family even bought two shops—looked like they planned to stay for good.

The Gu estate was big enough now, so Gu Zhangyuan and Xie Licheng didn't need to live apart anymore.

The head of the family had set aside a small courtyard for Gu Zhangyuan, so from now on, Gu Zhangyuan and Xie Licheng would stay at the Gu residence.

They stayed one more day in the county, then Xie Licheng took Gu Zhangyuan back to Taohua Village.

After so many busy days in a row, Xie Licheng could finally take it easy for a bit.

The evening they got back, 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 and said, "It's raining. We should head back."

Xie Licheng stood up, and as they walked back side by side, Xuan Cui was leading a group in taking down the lanterns in the courtyard.

Xie Licheng's solar lights couldn't get wet, so they had to be brought inside right away whenever it rained.

While Xuan Cui was busy taking down the lanterns, she saw Gu Zhangyuan and Xie Licheng come back and quickly asked, "There's a pot of bird's nest soup that just finished simmering in the kitchen. Would the two masters like some?"

The bird's nest was something Xie Licheng had found in Gu Zhangyuan's secret stash, and after the Gu family moved to the county, his stuff had been sent over to the farm.

These past few days, the wet nurse had been busy making all sorts of good food with them. Remembering that Gu Zhangyuan needed to build up his body for having a child, Xuan Cui wanted to ask if he'd like some.

Gu Zhangyuan nodded and said, "Bring it in, then."

Xie Licheng wanted to say he didn't need fancy stuff like bird's nest. His body was strong, his defense was high, and he'd barely ever get sick. These nourishing treats were better saved for Gu Zhangyuan.

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

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

Xie Licheng replied, "That won't happen. I'm not like ordinary people."

Gu Zhangyuan glanced back at him doubtfully. "Didn't you say you're not some kind of immortal?"

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

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

Xie Licheng followed him into the living room and smiled as he explained earnestly, "My body really is different from ordinary people's. I've still got two bottles of life-saving red potion on me, so even if I did get sick, I wouldn't die easily."

With that, Xie Licheng raised a hand and gestured for Gu Zhangyuan to come sit with him.

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

Seeing how shy he still was, Xie Licheng couldn't help but laugh.

Xie Licheng said, "Come here, sit in my lap. I've got something good to give you."

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

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

It had to be something he could only say while Gu Zhangyuan was sitting in his lap—he had a feeling it wasn't anything proper.

Xie Licheng wrapped an arm around Gu Zhangyuan's waist, planted a kiss on his cheek, and then, like 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 from now on. If you ever get badly 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 and said, "Yeah. As long as you've got a breath left and can swallow it, it'll bring you back from the dead."

Gu Zhangyuan carefully set the bottle on the table nearby, then threw both arms around Xie Licheng's neck.

Hugging Xie Licheng's neck, he imitated Xie Licheng's soft whisper and asked, "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. "Got it. I won't give it to anyone else. I'll keep it safe."

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

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

Then, as they kissed, clothes started falling to the floor—and all of them were Gu Zhangyuan's.

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

Xie Licheng waved it off. "No problem. I'll go tell her we don't need it."

Gu Zhangyuan protested, "How can that be? In broad daylight, no less!"

Xie Licheng replied, "Who made the rule that you can't sleep with your own wife in broad daylight?"

Besides, this was his private 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.

The servants outside exchanged furtive glances, clearly understanding why their master had told them not to bring the soup inside.

Once Xie Licheng returned and closed the gates of Xiyuan, a maid whispered, "At this rate... won't it be too much for our young master?"

A female martial arts attendant chuckled at her words, "What do you know, you little girl? In this matter, you only hear of men dying from it, never women or young masters not being able to take it. Our master is strong and healthy—he won't have any problems. And our young master has also trained in martial arts, so he won't be overwhelmed either."

Xuan Cui interjected, "Alright, alright, everyone stop crowding around here."

Their young master was thin-skinned; if he overheard them, he might get flustered and angry, and possibly take it out on Xie Licheng.