At this time, Village Chief Cui was somewhat complaining about his nephew who was the county magistrate that had sent so many tricky people his way.
In order not to suffer immediate losses, Village Chief Cui could only arrange their residence as Mo Jiuye had suggested.
Of course, he also wanted to first send these people away and then go into town tomorrow to recruit reinforcements.
When the time came, he would go to the government office and accuse these people of privately trespassing into a civilian residence, and make them eat a few days of prison food to taste bitterness.
Thinking of this, Village Chief Cui's attitude suddenly took a 180 degree turn.
"Since you are in such a hurry, I will personally take you to your place of residence."
As he spoke, Village Chief Cui had already started striding towards the gate.
The Mo brothers and He Zhiran were all aware that the sudden change in the Village Chief's attitude meant that he had some big trick up his sleeve.
However, they did not pay any mind to whatever so-called big trick the Village Chief had.
When the time came, they would just see his trick and counter it.
Of course, if the Village Chief was sensible enough to not provoke them, in order to avoid future trouble, they would also temporarily overlook today's matters.
It was unknown whether the Village Chief was deliberately stalling for time or if his legs and feet were really not good, but his walking speed was extremely slow.
Mo Chuhan was getting a little impatient and urged: "Walk faster, have you not eaten your fill?"
The Village Chief was deliberately dragging things out. He hoped that the later they arrived at their destination, the better. By that time, the sky would be completely dark.
With the houses dilapidated, plus the dark of night, it would not be convenient for them to do even simple tidying up.
Although they would not end up sleeping outdoors for the night, the dilapidated and drafty houses could still freeze someone to death while living in them.
The Village Chief did not expect that his deliberately slowed pace would actually draw urging.
In order not to arouse suspicion, he deliberately staggered.
"Ah...when one gets older, the legs and feet are just not good anymore. Even if I want to walk faster, I can't..."
Seeing this, Mo Chuhan wordlessly picked him up and strode forward with large strides.
Village Chief Cui's feet suddenly left the ground and he was immediately frightened.
"What are you doing, put me down!"
Mo Chuhan coldly said, "You just focus on giving directions now."
Cui Minglin, who had come along with the Village Chief, was also scared by this scene.
He knew that his father had deliberately slowed his pace with intention, and hurried to catch up to Mo Chuhan, dissatisfied: "Put my father down. His health is not good. You will injure him like this."
Mo Chuhan glanced sideways at him.
"If you're afraid of injuring him, then hurry up and give directions. That way, I can put him down sooner."
Village Chief Cui lay on Mo Chuhan's shoulder, not daring to move at all, for fear that one careless move would get him flung off by the other party.
Cui Minglin did not dare continue defending his father after encountering Mo Chuhan's sharp gaze.
In order for him to "swiftly escape this bitter sea," the Village Chief gave directions very carefully, afraid of taking even one wrong turn that would keep him laying over the other's shoulder a moment longer.
On the way to their residence, there was some uphill, and they still had to pass through the tribal areas of the Zhao Family and Zhou Family.
Although the weather was a bit cold and the sky was nearly dark, they still encountered a few villagers along the road.
The villagers were curious about who was so bold when they saw Village Chief Cui carried on the shoulder of a burly man, with an expression of furious but not daring to speak.
At the same time, a hint of tiny delight arose in their hearts.
Relying on a nephew who was the county magistrate, as well as the Village Chief being the head of Xi Ling Village, the Cui family had always looked down on them, the Zhao and Zhou families.
The two families lived in the same village as the Cuis without suffering a little oppression from them over the years.
And seeing how those strangers looked, they seemed to be exiled people who were assigned here.
If that was truly the case, they hoped that these people could persist in living here, creating more obstacles for the Cui family would be good as well.
When Village Chief Cui saw members of the other clans seeing his sorry state, he suddenly felt a little embarrassed.
He yelled at those people: "What are you looking at, go back home!"
The villagers feared Village Chief Cui. After his shout, they could only reluctantly leave, unwillingly, with no one daring to linger and continue watching.
Mo Chuhan walked fast. After going uphill for not too long, they arrived at the residences allotted to the exiled criminals in Xi Ling Village.
Glancing around, there were quite a few houses there, but many had already collapsed.
Even the ones that had not collapsed looked on the verge of tilting over.
Living in houses like these, they probably wouldn't even be able to sleep soundly at night and would have to be on guard at all times against collapse.
And not only that, because these houses had been uninhabited for so long, weeds grew wildly around them. At this time of year, the weeds had all withered, looking extremely desolate.
Mo Chuhan crudely put Village Chief Cui down on the ground.
Village Chief Cui stroked his chest, working hard to steady his breathing.
He pointed at the courtyard in front and said, "These are the residences allotted to you!"
Seeing these dilapidated houses, the Village Chief felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.
I'll be generous today. Choose whichever house you want from these houses.
He continued saying, "I already said that these houses are uninhabitable. Tidy them up tomorrow then come back. But you insisted on not listening."
The people present were not fools.
Everyone could see that on the surface, the Village Chief was speaking as if caring for their well-being, but in reality he was just mocking them.
Houses like these, even tidying up might not make them inhabitable, unless they were completely torn down and rebuilt.
Especially in winter, it was simply impossible to build houses. Having them live here was practically marching to their deaths.
Seeing houses like these, everyone appeared very angry.
Fang Chuanzhou strode over.
"Village Chief Cui, houses like these are at a complete loss even if we wanted to renovate them. Is this how you arrange residence for Xi Ling Village's new villagers?"
Village Chief Cui did not feel he had done anything wrong at all regarding this.
"The government also hasn't provided any places specially for you exiled people to live. These are houses left over by our ancestors. If not for this, when you came over, there wouldn't have been even houses like these for you to live in."
"But how are so many of us supposed to spend winter in houses like these?" Fang Chuanzhou wanted to reason with the Village Chief.
Little did he know, reasoning with someone harboring the deliberate intent to make things difficult would be like playing music to cows.
No matter what Fang Chuanzhou said, the Village Chief only had one response.
That Xi Ling Village had no extra houses besides these to provide for their residence. If they were not satisfied here, they were very welcome to go reason with the officials in the government.
He Zhiran had no interest in watching the two argue.
On the way over, she had already observed that other than where the three clans of Xi Ling Village lived, there really were no extra courtyards.
If they wanted to get through the present difficulty, unless they negotiated with those villagers to see if they could rent suitable housing to stay in temporarily.
Of course, those people also feared Village Chief Cui. Without his approval, even if the Zhaos and Zhous were willing to rent houses to them, they probably wouldn't dare to.
Just as He Zhiran was pondering countermeasures, Xie Tianhai walked over and pointed to the house furthest east, saying:
"I see that house doesn't look too bad. It can be temporarily lived in after simple renovations."
