Lin He had thought it would take some time for the authorities to make arrangements.
But to his surprise, good news arrived the very next day.
Early that morning, in a top-tier guest room at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.
Lin He was yawning as he washed up when hurried footsteps suddenly sounded in the corridor outside his room.
A pounding knock followed.
"Boy Lin! Boy Lin! Are you in there?"
Lin He paused. Why did that voice sound so familiar?
He quickly got up and pulled open the door, only to find Old Man Sun panting, one hand braced against the doorframe. The left side of his face, swollen from Lin He's slap, looked even more comical in his excitement.
"Elder Sun, what's going on?" Lin He hurried forward and caught Old Man Sun firmly by the arm.
At the sight of him, Old Man Sun exclaimed excitedly, "Boy Lin, wonderful news! The authorities have put up a new notice."
"It says us folks from Emerald Mountain Village don't have to squeeze into straw huts outside town anymore. They're settling all of us in Golden Lake Village, south of town! So I stopped by on the way to fetch you."
"Golden Lake Village?" Lin He raised his eyebrows and turned to Su Qiuran.
Su Qiuran immediately ran through the local gazetteer she had read and rattled off an explanation. "Golden Lake Village was named for the enormous lake at its entrance."
"The water and grass there are plentiful, and the villagers make their living fishing and farming year-round. It's much larger than Emerald Mountain Village, with more people. Most importantly, the soil is fertile, it's close to town, and public safety has always been good."
"Yes, yes, yes! That's the Golden Lake Village!" Old Man Sun's hands shook with excitement.
"It's such a fine place, it's practically dripping with wealth! Back when us folks from Emerald Mountain Village went to market in town, we were too embarrassed even to walk alongside people from Golden Lake Village!
"The authorities say a whole stretch of newly built wooden houses there just happens to be vacant. Refugees like us can move straight in with our bags!"
"Move straight in with our bags?" Lin He nearly choked on his own spit.
"For free?"
"Of course they're not free!" Old Man Sun grinned. "For the first three years, we have to pay a set amount of rent every month. Once we've paid three full years of rent... the houses and land deeds will be ours for good!"
Lin He and Su Qiuran exchanged a glance, each seeing shock in the other's eyes.
"Three years of rent for a land deed... isn't that just buying a house on a fucking mortgage?" Lin He couldn't help swearing as he rubbed his chin and grumbled.
"The authorities in this cultivation world are this efficient? The benefits are this good? I thought they'd just toss us mortals outside town like garbage and leave us to fend for ourselves."
"It certainly isn't out of the kindness of their hearts," Su Qiuran analyzed calmly. "The discovery of an immortal's ruins over at Green Mountain was a major incident. The cultivators sealed off the mountain and drove the mortals out.
"You have to understand, cultivation Lineages also need mortals to farm and produce daily necessities. If all the mortals starved to death, or a riot broke out, that would be trouble for them too."
"They might as well push the boat along with the current, gathering the workforce in the more fertile Golden Lake Village to manage them all together. For them, it's just a matter of marking off a few plots of land."
"That makes sense." Lin He nodded and turned to Old Man Sun. "So when are you planning to head over?"
"The village chief is already counting heads. We're leaving right away!" Old Man Sun looked eagerly at Lin He. "Boy Lin, are you and your wife coming with us? If we're late, all the houses in good spots might be taken!"
"All right! Wait a moment, Old Sun!" Lin He promptly began packing.
There wasn't much to pack, really. Lin He slung the powerful black python sinew bow with its hundred-and-twenty-jin draw weight over his back, secured his quiver, tucked his chopping blade into his belt, and concealed his few Spirit Stones and bits of silver close to his body.
Then he kicked Goudan awake in the corner, where he was gnawing on a table leg, and pushed Su Qiuran's wheelchair out the door.
When they checked out, Shopkeeper Wu looked reluctant to see them go. He insisted on giving Lin He a packet of fine Longjing tea and told him to "come by whenever you have time, and let's be friends."
Lin He gave a perfunctory agreement, then pushed his wife after Old Man Sun out of the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.
The main road outside town bustled with villagers from Emerald Mountain Village, families and belongings in tow.
Lin He pushed the wheelchair along the edge of the crowd.
In less than half an hour, an enormous, shimmering lake came into view.
Blue sky and white clouds were reflected on its surface. A breeze blew past, carrying a refreshing hint of moisture.
Not far from the lakeshore, broad stretches of neatly arranged farmland complemented the staggered wooden houses. It was indeed countless times better than that gloomy, impoverished backwater at Green Mountain.
The authorities really were remarkably efficient. Several gray-clad yamen runners were registering people at the village entrance.
Lin He spent half a tael of silver greasing palms and smoothly secured a sturdy wooden house with its own private courtyard at the westernmost edge of Golden Lake Village, near a patch of lakeside reeds.
Though secluded, it had the advantage of being quiet, perfectly suiting their aim of keeping a low profile while building themselves up.
He pushed open the courtyard gate. Just as the officials had said, the place was spotless. It even came with a sturdy wooden bed and a set of table and chairs. They really could "move straight in with their bags."
"The handover standards for this mortgaged house are leagues better than those crooked developers in my past life." Lin He pushed Su Qiuran inside, looked around, and nodded in satisfaction.
"Quack, quack!" The moment Goudan entered the courtyard, he bounded toward a battered wooden bucket in the corner and frantically dug at the ground with his dog paws.
After shutting the courtyard gate and the door tightly, Lin He carefully checked the windows. Only after making sure no one outside was peeking in did he take the crystalline, emerald-green Jade Gourd from his inner pocket and solemnly set it on the table.
"We've been running around all morning. Let's get on with it." Lin He looked at Su Qiuran, a hint of anticipation in his eyes.
After absorbing it over the past few days, the Jade Gourd had accumulated a fair amount of Essence of the Moon.
Although it had yet to condense a full drop of liquid Essence of the Moon, an extremely dense silver mist already swirled inside the gourd, amounting to several wisps.
They had originally planned to absorb it at the inn today, but plans couldn't keep pace with change, and it had been delayed until now.
Su Qiuran didn't decline.
She took a deep breath and gently rested her slender, pale fingers on the Jade Gourd.
Humm-
An almost imperceptible breeze seemed to sweep through the wooden house.
Lin He's eyes widened. A mercury-like gleam flowed across the Jade Gourd's surface, then the Essence of the Moon rushed along Su Qiuran's fingertips and vanished into her body in an instant, like a whale gulping down water.
Su Qiuran closed her peach-blossom eyes, her brows knitting slightly.
Lin He stood nervously beside her, not daring even to breathe heavily.
He could clearly see a healthy flush spreading at a visible pace across Su Qiuran's cheeks, which had grown somewhat pale from the journey.
Not only that, but her sickly frailty, that sense that she might drift away on the wind at any moment, was being replaced by an indescribable vitality.
Time trickled by.
After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Su Qiuran slowly opened her eyes.
"How is it? Can you feel your legs?" Lin He hurried closer and asked.
Su Qiuran looked down at her utterly senseless legs and shook her head.
"There's still no feeling in my legs. But..."
"I can feel that withered, dried-up Spirit Root inside me recovering a little more!"