Chapter 68: The Chicken Flies and the Egg Breaks

  The address has been decided, and now it's time to mark out the land.

  Because it is in the forest, nominally it is the land of the Great Han, but whoever knows that it is just a saying, now Lin Bei still says that the forest is his.

  Because Ping San was still unconscious due to his injury, An Zhongzhi and Lin Bei stayed behind to take care of him. Meanwhile, the other hunters formed pairs and began to explore their surroundings. Although their tools were simple, they had a good idea of how to build houses. The hunters would thoroughly search this area and then remember the rough outline in their minds. As for what to do next, it would require professionals like them. Anyway, Lin Bei didn't understand.

  "By the way, the school is built here, how will you prepare for the road out of Xishan Village?"

  "By next spring, farmers can take a break for three to four months. The school is a grand event in Xishan Township, and everyone has a share. Each family sends one person, as long as they work hard, the school and road will be repaired by next year."

  "During this period, how will the peasants' daily food be supplied? Is it provided by your government office? How is the monthly allowance calculated?"

  An Zhong straightened up and asked in surprise, "Monthly pay? What are you talking about, sir? After the school is built, everyone in Xishan Village will benefit from it. They can't even find such a good thing, why would they want monthly pay? Every day they still go home to eat or bring their own dry rations, what do we need to worry about?"

  "Hmm, did they work for nothing?"

  "Sir, didn't I say that the benefits of this matter will be shared by everyone in Xishan Township later? It's not like we're doing it for nothing. However, I'll report to the county magistrate and see if he can provide some warm clothing for these people. But I'm afraid the county won't agree, as every year the taxes collected are mostly sent to the imperial court, leaving little for the county. To be honest, sir, in recent years there have been consecutive droughts, poor harvests, and the county magistrate has already sent out several urgent reports, but received no response. I heard that the central plains area is even more severely affected by the drought, so those officials probably don't care about this remote region of South Vietnam."

  Nanyue is far away from the Central Plains, and has always been a place where neither aunt nor uncle cares about. Coming here to be an official is equivalent to being exiled. The Han Dynasty's control over Nanyue was not strong to begin with, and now that the Central Plains are in chaos, the court is at its wit's end. How could they possibly care about this small place of Nanyue? To put it bluntly, even if someone were to kill an official and start a rebellion here, it's unlikely that the news would even reach Luoyang City.

  Lin Bei could only nod, okay, since An Zhongzhi said so, it seems that this kind of thing is an unspoken rule. Lin Bei didn't have to worry about the monthly salary either. As for food, Lin Bei had to arrange some, after all, road repair was hard labor, and dry rations were only enough to fill their stomachs, eating well was definitely not possible. Building a school was a good thing, but if someone died from exhaustion because of it, then the good thing would become a bad thing. In modern times, Lin Bei was a kind-hearted person, even if he had turned into a snake now, he was still a kind-hearted snake.

  The hunters returned quickly to tell Lin Bei the results of their exploration. In ancient times, a "zhang" was used as a unit of measurement, but it was different from the modern one used during the Han Dynasty. After converting the measurements, Lin Bei estimated that the length of this flat area from east to west was approximately 5 kilometers, and from north to south about 3 kilometers, which was already quite large. Moreover, they could extend or widen it at any time without worrying about running out of land. Additionally, the hunters said that this plot of land was indeed good because there were about ten meters of soil beneath the surface with very few rocks, making it a suitable place for laying foundations or building roads in the future.

  After finishing all these, this matter can be considered as already completed. Later on, whether it is planning or specific construction, it will be up to Baifu Zi and An Zhongzhi to arrange uniformly. These have nothing to do with Lin Bei's affairs anymore. However, maybe in the future, Lin Bei will propose some of his own ideas, such as building a lotus pond or something.

  After Pingba returned, he took a look at Ping San's injuries. Ping San's breathing had become calm and his face was no longer deathly pale, but rather had a few hints of rosiness. The shoulder that had been sprayed with the Bone Revival Grass juice had already scabbed over. Anyone could see that his injuries were getting better, and as long as nothing unexpected happened, death could be avoided. The mood of the hunters began to improve.

  Back in Longtan, Mù Tóu had already come out to greet them. Looking at Lin Bei's eyes, he seemed a bit evasive, and finally gritted his teeth: "Sir, some little masters have slipped away."

  "Huh?" Lin Bei didn't understand.

  "Those little adults." Mu pointed to the top of the wooden house, "I saw them crawling away, they were too small, I didn't dare stop them."

  It turned out that the wooden ones were referring to those small snakes, and they actually added a title of "little adults". Lin Bei was somewhat amused and annoyed, but hearing that they had crawled away, Lin Bei quickly climbed up.

  After the first small snake hatched, there were snakes hatching one after another. So far, nearly three hundred have hatched. Another 1,700 or so snake eggs are still unknown whether they're bad or need time, so Lin Bei hasn't touched them for now. These young snakes fell into a deep sleep as soon as they hatched and slept for a very long time. However, Lin Bei didn't think much of it, perhaps this was just the growth habit of young snakes. Who knew that once they woke up, they would run away?

  Lin Bei has been living on the rooftop for several days. He naturally knew where the young snakes were sleeping, and when he came to take a look, he found that eleven of them had already disappeared.

  The snakes stretched out, and Lin Bei quickly caught up with the trail of these young snakes. They were crawling too slowly, and so far, none of them had crawled more than 500 meters away. However, Lin Bei only saw nine young snakes, while the other two young snakes were nowhere to be seen.

  These are all Lin Bei's younger brothers after all, and Lin Bei naturally cannot let them run away, so he hurriedly chases after a young snake.

  When Lin Beigong was in action, a mountain mouse came out from under the leaves around a young snake in his field of vision, and with a snap, it bit the young snake's head off. In the blink of an eye, the mountain mouse dragged the young snake away. For the mountain mouse, the young snake was a delicious food. Usually, Lin Beigong took care of it, so the mountain mouse didn't dare to go to the wooden house. Now that it had crawled out, it wouldn't be polite.

  Lin Bei cursed in his heart, but didn't bother with the dead little snake anymore. He quickly came to another little snake's side, this one had yellow and black stripes on its body, but it was too small, Lin Bei still couldn't tell what kind of snake it was.

  The young snake sensed Lin Bei's breath, stopped, stretched out a small snake letter, and probed Lin Bei's body as if greeting him. Then, however, it continued to crawl forward resolutely.

  "Huh? These young snakes actually won't follow their mother's actions?" Lin Bei felt a bit annoyed.

  Lin Beibei chased after another young snake, and indeed, none of the young snakes stayed behind, all crawling in the direction away from Lin Beibei. This time, Lin Beibei was at a loss.

  The snake is not wise, Lin Bei won't speak snake language either, and they can't communicate at all. Moreover, through these young snakes, Lin Bei thinks that all snakes should be like this, so the strong melon will not be sweet.

  "This way, won't my little brother's plan be ruined? I even prepared locusts for the snake group, what can be done about this?"

  Lin Beishou raised his head at a 45-degree angle and gazed up at the sky, looking very melancholic. This was the rhythm of chickens flying and eggs shattering.

  PS: Thanks to MuMuHeZi brother for the five rewards, and today's homepage has been recommended, everyone come and collect and recommend it, collection is almost three thousand now.