The Indifferent Village

Feng Jun was utterly bewildered when he heard that. After a long while, he finally asked, "What's a hidden household? And what's an escaped household?"

Lang Damei's mouth fell slightly open in astonishment. How could he ask such an idiotic question?

But when she considered his strange clothes and the various odd tools around him, she felt that asking such a question... wasn't entirely unacceptable.

So she patiently explained it to him.

This place belonged to a country called Donghua. It had a government, and where there was a government, there were taxes.

For ordinary commoners, the government levied a poll tax, which was calculated and collected by registering the population.

Some people had no land and attached themselves to local wealthy families, concealing their identities. They were called hidden households. Others were registered residents who fled because of famine or other reasons and refused to return. They were called escaped households.

Neither had legitimate identities. Compared with escaped households, hidden households had people protecting them, so as long as they did not travel far, they were generally fine.

Therefore, escaped households had more criminals among them. Escaped households with clean records could, if they truly could no longer survive, attach themselves to wealthy families and become hidden households. Only those unwilling to be exploited by wealthy families were genuine escaped households.

According to Lang Damei, her father had originally wanted to thank Feng Jun. But he suspected Feng Jun was an escaped household and did not want too much contact with him. If something turned out to be wrong, should he capture him or not?

Feng Jun was not particularly opposed to household registration management. He came from a country with rather strict registration laws himself. Still, he did not quite understand Lang Zhen's reaction. "Does the government pursue