There is An Apocalyptic Man in the Village

Chapter 18- Settling Down

Zhou Fuxi, who he thought would take a lot of time to find, was found as soon as he arrived here. Wu Qingyuan was in an excellent mood- this was a good start. He didn’t want to find another place to settle in as Liushu Village was already very suitable. 

The purpose of his leaving his own world was just to live a stable life. So far, Liushu Village has given him a good feeling- he likes it here very much. He promised Lin Laogen to help his family and he is not a man who is fickle with his words, so he settled in Liushu Village.

There is also Zhou-ger. Since he had promised Zhou Daniu that he would help take care of him, he couldn’t just find him and just leave him alone to fend for himself. Although he was indifferent by nature, he has always been a principled person. From now on, he will be more considerate and kind towards the ger- yes, it’s not a bad idea for him who is a lonely person.

From rebirth to the present, after having tossed for so long, he can finally settle down.

The vision of a better life in the future made Wu Qingyuan full of enthusiasm for a while, and the next day he took the initiative to find the old village chief to solve the housing problem. He couldn’t stay in the Lin family house all the time. These things must be done as soon as possible. 

During this time, there was not much work in the fields, and every household was still idle. When he came to the door, the old village chief did not delay, and immediately took him to see the vacant houses in the village.

These are left behind by villagers who moved their household registration to other places to settle down. They are not particularly good houses. Good houses must have been sold early to make money, so how could they be left for nothing.

Therefore, what Wu Qingyuan saw were the most common mud-thatched houses in the village. In addition, the house was left unoccupied for a long time, and the houses were dilapidated, overgrown with weeds, and rotten.

But fortunately, the ancient people built their houses sincerely. Every house was built by their own hands, and the materials and craftsmanship were guaranteed. Therefore, these houses looked dilapidated, but they were still solid, and they could be lived in with a little bit of fixing and repair.

Although Wu Qingyuan was a little unsatisfied, he would have to wait for at least several months if he were to build from scratch. At this moment, he could only do this first, and wait for everything to be straightened out before he could build a big house.

The procedures for the house were done quickly, and the next step was the repair work.

There are no special construction teams here. Repairing and fixing houses are essential skills for the men in the village. Wu Qingyuan simply asked Lin Laogen to help and spent money to ask a few honest villagers to help.

In terms of wages, he is generous. According to the village’s rules, the labor of building a house is 30 copper coins a day and includes food. What he gives is 40 coins a day. 

This is not because he has too much money to spend for just the repairs of the house. It is because the time he wants the house to be repaired is short therefore he pays more and they would work harder. In fact, he will not spend too much. The money can also make a good impression on him with the villagers, which is a very cost-effective idea.

As Wu Qingyuan expected, the villagers’ good attitude towards him rose again on the second day after the workers were paid.

The villagers actually had a good impression of him when he came to recognize his relatives. He was handsome and polite. He seemed to have read books from the way he spoke which made him very popular among the rough people in the village who don’t know how to read characters.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Now that he pays so much money to repair the house, people can guess that he is at least not someone selfish, and naturally, he is more pleasing to the eye. 

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The house repairs were going on lively. Wu Qingyuan, Lin Laogen, and a few villagers worked together. At noon, Lin Amo and Zhou-ger helped to deliver the food to everyone.

At noon, Lin Amo and Zhou-ger came over with food on time. 

“Father, Brother Wu, Second Uncle, Uncle Zhang, and Uncle Wang, come eat…”

“Cousin……”

The two teenagers put down their things and greeted them.

Compared with Lin Amo’s lively and outgoing character, Zhou-ger hurriedly greeted Wu Qingyuan and hurriedly took out a serving spoon to help everyone with food. He seemed to be a little bit introverted and not good at expressing himself. 

But in fact, Zhou-ger is not introverted. He was just not as lively as Lin Amo. He is still lively on most days. After more than ten years of suffering, he has an extra cousin who takes care of him overnight. Well-fed and well-dressed, he felt like he was dreaming, and suddenly he was a little uncomfortable.

Wu Qingyuan didn’t take his embarrassment to heart. His life changed all at once, and it was normal for Zhou-ger to be uncomfortable. It would be nice to get acquainted with him after a while.

After working all morning, everyone was tired and hungry. The food they prepared was also very good. One meat and one vegetable dish- this good meal was much better than other meals with only vegetable dishes. Everyone ate very fragrantly.

Now that the weather is very hot- after eating, Wu Qingyuan didn’t let everyone continue to work. He sat in the shade of the trees to rest and chat. This didn’t delay much. The villagers who came to help worked fast, and there was only a short time for rest. 

The topic for chatting with people in the village is actually very scarce. It is not this year’s field harvest or gossip about who is wrong in the village. Ordinary things are like rocks in the mountains, and they will not change for a lifetime.

But the ordinary also has ordinary fun. Only those who have really experienced the pain and despair of the wind and waves will realize how rare the ordinary is.

However, Wu Qingyuan likes this kind of plain warmth very much. His biggest wish now is to settle down as soon as possible, and then find someone he likes to live his life with.

Drinking mung bean soup to cool off the heat and chatting with a few villagers, Wu Qingyuan was still very satisfied except that the weather was too hot and there was no air conditioning, and he sighed that the standard of living was relatively backward in ancient times. 

“Brother Wu, it’s not too hot now, and it will be the hottest in a few days. Actually, it’s not bad. Take a bath with cold water and eat a few watermelons. It’s just sad in winter. It’s snowing. It’s useless to hide in the house and put on the duvet cover…”

Hearing that it was too hot, Lin Amo, who was sitting next to him, laughed and talked while handing him a bowl of mung bean soup.

“Brother Lin is right. I hate winter the most. It’s so cold that I don’t want to go out. And the firewood is too expensive. My wife says every year that I don’t even make enough money for burning charcoal, eh.”

“Yes, yes, yes, my daughter-in-law said the same to me, but the better coal costs more than twenty copper coins per catty, and it’s almost like eating meat. Who can afford to burn every day…” 

Everyone next to him followed and sighed.

Wu Qingyuan’s action of drinking soup suddenly stopped, and raised his head, “A catty of carbon costs more than twenty copper coins?”

In the past few days, he went to buy materials to repair the house and gained a better understanding of the prices here. One catty of carbon is only a few copper coins, and pork is only more than twenty copper coins a catty. The usual vegetables are cheaper. Why is coal so expensive?

“A dozen or so of them are better, and some are cheap. A few may just cost a few copper coins, but the cheap ones are smoky.” 

Everyone knows that he didn’t know what was normal when he first came here, so they explained patiently.

“I see.”

Wu Qingyuan was relieved of the bowl, and his heart wandered.

There is also a kind village man who reminded, “By the way, Brother Wu, I saw that the kang in your house is broken just now. You can buy the materials tomorrow, and you have to fix them together. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get through the winter. It will cost at least five or six ounces of silver to burn that much carbon in the open for a winter…” 

“Thank you, brother, I will buy the materials tomorrow, but I don’t know how to repair the kang, do you know anyone who could?” Wu Qingyuan nodded.

“Brother Wu, you don’t need to find someone else, Brother Dazhu will do it. He is the one who can repair the kangs in our village the best!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Amo took over the conversation, pursed his lips and pointed at the sturdy, bull-like Zhang Dazhu facing the other side.

Originally, Lin Laogen did not intend to ask him to help Wu Qingyuan. Although Wu Qingyuan paid forty wen a day, Zhang Dazhu did a part-time job at the landlord’s house in the neighboring village, and his wage was 50 copper coins a day, which was unreasonable. Let people suffer. 

But who knew that Zhang Dazhu ran over himself on the day the work started. He didn’t say anything. He picked up the tools and started to work. Wu Qingyuan gave him money and he even refused them saying he just wanted to help the other workers.

What is the reason for this? Everyone knows that when he eats at noon every day, it is so obvious that he keeps his eyes fixed on Zhou-ger and doesn’t move a bit!

At this moment, he heard Lin Amo take the conversation to himself and winked at other, Zhang Dazhu reacted, stammered his head, and answered, “Yeah, I can repair it! Cousin, I will help you repair the kang bed tomorrow…”

As soon as he finished speaking, all the people present laughed. This Zhang Dazhu really had thick skin. Before he married his ger, he called his cousin directly. 

Zhou-ger also gave him an annoyed look, and then hid his face behind his friend in embarrassment, and secretly cursed the silly cow.

“That’s all right, Brother Dazhu, thank you. A-xi, let Brother Dazhu have a bowl of mung bean soup…”

Wu Qingyuan couldn’t help but nod and then motioned to Zhou-ger to serve another bowl of soup. Axi is Zhou-ger’s name.

Zhou-ger could not refuse, nodded cautiously, and then obediently carried the soup. 

But Zhang Dazhu’s eyes became even more obsessed when he saw Zhou-ger walking before him.

Although the parents’ order and the word of the matchmaker are emphasized here, it is not impossible to love freely. Besides, the villagers know about Zhang Dazhu and Zhou-ger.

Lin Amo snickered while covering his mouth, while Lin Laogen banged on his head with a smile and whispered, “It’s just you who are troublesome, and you have learned how to play matchmaker for others, it’s a shame!”

Suddenly receiving a knock on his head, Lin Amo rubbed his forehead aggrievedly. Seeing that his father wanted to make a long sermon, his eyes rolled and he hurriedly filled the empty bowl in his hand with soup and ran to Wu Qingyuan. 

“Brother Wu, I have boiled this mung bean all morning, but it tastes good. I’ll give you another bowl. Drink more since it’s hot.”

While talking, he stuffed the bowl into Wu Qingyuan’s hand, then adjusted his position and hid at Wu Qingyuan’s side.

Looking back to see Lin Laogen could only shut his mouth halfway, his little face smiled cheerfully and slyly.

“…” 

Wu Qingyuan just happened to see it when he lowered his head.

Although the green spots on the boy’s face were still ugly, the cheerful smile made his long silent heart tremble, and he couldn’t help but straighten his back to cover him.