The Place to Resettle
The darkness faded, and a new day began!
Morning light shone over the Endless Mountains. Birds flew low, clouds drifted, and mist wreathed the peaks like a jade fairyland!
In Hundred Stars Village, wisps of cooking smoke rose into the air! Hundred Treasures Chickens clucked and cackled! The village paths were wet with the heavy mountain dew! There was still a chill in the mountain air that morning...
"Xiao Fan, the old village chief is taking the village elders out today to discuss where to resettle, and your uncles and I are going with him! Stay home and behave yourself these next few days!"
"Huh? Dad, have you found a place to resettle?"
"Mm! Merchant caravans pass through Phoenix Cry Village all year round. Someone from our village went to ask around a few days ago, and yesterday he sent word back that there's an abandoned stretch of land fit to live on. It'll have no trouble holding a hundred households or so! The old village chief told us to set out and have a look."
Phoenix Cry Village lay along the route between Sunset City and the Endless Mountains! Sunset City was the most remote city in the Qian Kingdom! Mang Village fell under the jurisdiction of Sunset City's lord. Hundred Stars Village, being deep in the mountains, had never been entered in the registers.
To move east this time, they needed the city lord's manor to approve the village's relocation!
As father and son talked, Ye Fan's mother packed the bags: dried meat, waterskins made of animal hide, coarse linen shirts to change into, and the few silver coins they possessed! (Silver coins were currency used throughout the Qian Kingdom, and could also be obtained by bartering in Mang Village! They did not circulate in the village, so there were few of them.)
Once the bags were packed, Mother Ye repeatedly reminded her husband to be careful on the road, not to worry about things at home, and to take good care of the old village chief! Ye Fan's father nodded again and again, agreeing to everything!
Ye Fan and his mother saw his father off at the village entrance, where the rest of the group was already packed and ready to go. A few burly men had made a simple frame out of logs for the old village chief to ride in. The villagers all said the old village chief was too old to make the journey himself, but he was adamant about going. Moving the village required an official document from the city lord's manor, and none of the others had ever seen one.
With everything ready, the group set off carrying the old village chief! Among them were Ye Fan's father, Xiao Changlin, and five or six other uncles. All were respected village elders!
Mother Ye watched the group recede into the distance, worry lingering on her face! On the other side, Xiao Ke'er looked much the same. "Father has never even left the mountains before, and now he's going so far away! Nothing will go wrong, will it?" Her delicate brows were tightly knitted, and her hands crossed restlessly, her expression so pitiful it was beyond words!
The opposite was true of the Xiao family's eldest son, Xiao Feng! Watching his father and the others recede into the distance, the fellow could barely contain himself, his body trembling uncontrollably. Woo-hoo, woo-hoo, woo-hoo! he shouted three times in his heart. Haha, I'm free! I'll send my little sister to the medicine shop, and Ye Fan and I will go into the mountains!!!? We'll hunt, fish, and raid birds' nests for eggs... Haha, mm-hmm, it's settled~
Still trembling, Xiao Feng raised his eyes and looked around! Just then, he caught sight of Ye Fan staring at him in bewilderment!
Ye Fan: What kind of madness has possessed him?
"Brother Fan, can't we stay instead of moving the village?" Once her father had disappeared from sight, Xiao Ke'er could no longer hold back! She asked with tears in her eyes!
"Ke'er, only by leaving the mountains can we see hope! Although we've lived apart from the world's disputes, that has also limited our future! Grandpa Village Chief, Uncle Xiao, and my father and mother must feel the same way!" Having experienced the creation of heaven and earth, Ye Fan's outlook was very different from before!
The sorrow of parting left Xiao Ke'er listless. After a brief conversation, she returned to the medicine shop! Xiao Feng was just about to speak when Ye Fan and his mother turned and left, leaving him alone at the village entrance...
"Huh? Huh? Huh?"
After returning home, Mother Ye prepared feed for the Hundred Treasures Chickens in the courtyard! Most families in the mountains kept poultry!
Ye Fan stayed alone in his room, quietly sensing things! The events of last night were still vivid in his mind! He simply couldn't tell anyone else about them!
There had never been much to do at the Xiao family's medicine shop. With Xiao Changlin away, there was even less!
Xiao Ke'er rested her cheek in her hand, gazing out the door with a mind full of worries!
Elsewhere, Xiao Feng was bent over his hunting tools, tinkering with them. They had gone unused for so long that they were covered in rust!
"Big brother, does Father leaving make you that happy?"
"Huh? I'm not happy, haha."
"???"
"Hehe~"
Xiao Ke'er could stand it no longer. She sprang to her feet and headed out, cheeks puffed up with anger! As she went, she said, "I'm going to find Brother Fan. You can look after the medicine shop yourself."
"Huh? Ke'er, Ke'er!"
The old village chief's group had already emerged from the mountains and was heading toward Phoenix Cry Village!