Zhou Yu shook his head. “None of us know how to farm. Two mu of wasteland is enough.”

In this world, farming for a year wasn’t enough to feed them. Having two mu of land registered under their name was enough to prove they were landowners.

Yang Xi asked, “What about Yan Bing?”

Third Yang looked at his jiefu and scratched his head. “He lives with me.”

Zhou Yu reached out and took the household registration book, pointing to Yan Bing’s name. “He’ll be registered under our household registration from now on.”

Yáng Xī noticed that Yán Bǐng’s surname had changed. He had become Zhōu Bǐng instead. “He—he registered under the Zhōu family? I suddenly have a new xiǎo shūzi?”

Zhou Yu, “Yes, if he passes the imperial examination, he can be exempted from two households of corvée labor. Registering under our household registration will give us an extra spot.”

Yang Xi frowned. “Our household registration is fake; Yan Bing’s is real. Now that we’re registered under the same household, can he still take the imperial examination?”

Zhou Yu looked at Third Yang, who touched his nose. “Jiejie, on the day Yan…”

“Yan Bing is taking the imperial examination. After inquiring about the village, I specifically asked around. Quite a few people have migrated south from Xiang County in recent years, and many have settled there to take the exam. The county doesn’t thoroughly investigate the original household registrations; they only check the newly registered ones.”

He paused, then continued, “Ruizhou is too far from the north, and with so many people migrating south, there isn’t enough manpower to investigate.”

Yang Xi added, “Yan Bing isn’t registered with us. He’s changed his surname now. You must have spent a lot of money!”

Zhou Yu chimed in, “Yes, it costs a hundred taels of silver to bribe officials.”

Yang Xi nodded. That’s right. To prevent merging household registrations to evade corvée labor, merging registrations was not allowed. However, a hundred taels of silver was indeed expensive!

Yáng Xī frowned. “Wasn’t the Xiàngxiàn Xiànlìng supposed to be someone who actually handled practical matters? I refuse to believe he doesn’t know about the merging of household registrations.”

Zhou Yu guessed, “This Xiànlìng has his own foresight; he probably sees the situation clearly by turning a blind eye.”

Yáng Xī narrowed her eyes. “Is the Xiànlìng doing this for the sake of increasing the population?”

Zhou Yu nodded. “You can tell from the fact that he’s allowing people to register their households; the Xiànlìng has his own considerations.”

Yang Xi was relieved to know they wouldn’t check their household registrations. “Yan Bing registered his household with our family, and the extra quota for exemption from corvée labor after passing the imperial examination will go to the Wu family?”

Third Yang said, “Third Brother Wú and Fourth Brother Wú will be following me from now on. I have to let them feel at ease, don’t I?”

Yang Xi understood; it was thanks to Yan Bing changing his surname to Third Yang.

Third Yang explained, “Yan Bing doesn’t plan to buy a house and wants to live with us. We have a younger sister who’s unmarried. We didn’t care when we were traveling south, but now that he’s settled down, there’s a lot of gossip. If he changes his surname and becomes part of the family, the rumors will stop.”

He originally wanted Yan Bing and his sister to get married, saying he’d marry into the family and be registered under their household registration. Since that didn’t work out, he had to find another way.

Yang Xi said, “You’re very thoughtful.”

Third Yang looked a little guilty. “Xiǎomèi is my mèizi too. It’s only right.”

He admired Yán Bǐng. Whether in character or learning, Yán Bǐng was quite outstanding. He was also thinking of Xiǎomèi’s future, truly treating her like a mèimei. He could not bear to see her, after finishing her mourning period, married off to someone unworthy of her.

What a pity. The mèifu he had taken a liking to was gone—instead, he had turned into a gē!

Yang Xi put away the household registration and the land deed. “Let’s eat first.”

Zhou Yu said, “Order two more dishes to welcome the new family member.”

Yang Xi was speechless.

Now that she had gained a xiǎo shūzi, she really did have to formally acknowledge him.

That evening, Ye Shi digested the news for a while: she had a son!

The surname change wasn’t really a happy one. Zhou Bing called out to everyone one by one: Zhou Bing was nineteen after the New Year, Zhou Xiaodi was seventeen, Zhou Xiaomei was fifteen, and Third Yang was eighteen after the New Year.

Zhou Bing, being the eldest among them, gave gifts to his younger brothers.

Third Yang, holding a jade pendant, said, “I have one too.”

Zhou Bing smiled insincerely, having gotten something valuable out of it, called out readily, “Gē.”

The moment Zhōu Bǐng heard that “gē”, his heart twitched violently, and goosebumps rose all over his body.

Zi Heng was the only junior, and Zhou Bing gave him a gold lock, clearly newly bought, with the inscription “Peace and Safety”.

Zhou Yu and his wife also gave gifts; Zhou Yu gave him a hidden inkstone, which Zhou Bing accepted with a sense of security—a sign of recognition.

The gift-giving was done without the other families seeing it. The other families were still trying to process the fact that Yán Bǐng had become Zhōu Bǐng!

The next day, Yáng Sān took Zhōu Xiǎodì with him to handle matters related to building the house. The house would be built with qīngzhuān, and they needed to purchase enough of them. Qīngzhuān was not something one could simply buy whenever they wanted; they needed someone to make introductions and lead the way.

The Wu and Ye families had already bought courtyards and moved into the village, planning to cultivate their fields as soon as possible.

The Zhao family had money, and Old Man Zhao rented a courtyard in town to live with the Zhou family. Old Man Zhao didn’t plan to build a brick courtyard, so there was no rush to build a house.

That evening, the Zhou and Zhao families moved into the rented courtyard. Yang Xi bought a lot of firewood and charcoal, as it was very cold that day. The next day, Zhou Yu took Zhou Bing to the county. Zhou Yu first pawned a jade pendant of good quality, then bought some snacks and other gifts. They returned to the village to pick up the village head and find a government-subsidized student to act as guarantor.

Because Zhou Yu’s family had just settled down, the guarantor’s fee had doubled. Locally, it would only cost five taels of silver, but Zhou Bing needed ten taels. Including the gifts, it cost twelve taels.

After completing the process, they escorted the lǐzhèng back to the village and gave him three taels of silver as a thank-you gift.

The lǐzhèng chuckled cheerfully. “From now on, we’ll all be living in the same village. If anything comes up, come find me. If it’s something I can help with, I definitely will.”

Zhou Yu didn’t stand on ceremony; he’d be troubling the lǐzhèng a lot in the future. “Thank you for your help in the future.”

The lǐzhèng touched the silver in his pocket, not finding it troublesome at all. Unlike Xiahe Village, he didn’t discriminate against the people who settled there. Look, he’d saved quite a bit of money in the past six months. In this chaotic world, money was the most practical thing.

Back in Yangzhen, Third Yang and Zhou Xiaodi were already back, doing their accounts.

Yáng Xī saw the joyous expression on Zhōu Bǐng’s face. “It succeeded?”

Zhou Yu nodded. “Yes, it was a success.” Third Yang put down his pen, “Money is still the best. There’s nothing you can’t do without it.”

Zhou Xiaodi looked up. “Don’t be lazy; finish quickly.”

Third Yang didn’t like doing accounts; his jiejie had made them calculate every expense for building the house—the accounts were too tedious.

Yang Xi glanced at him, and Third Yang picked up his pen again, behaving himself.

Zhou Yu asked, “What are we having for dinner?”

Yang Xi pointed to the kitchen. “Sun Liu is rolling out noodles; we’ll have noodles for dinner.”

Zhou Yu’s stomach rumbled with hunger; in this weather, all she wanted was something warm. He picked up his son. “I want to eat a lot tonight.”

Yang Xi asked, “How are Brother Wu and the Ye family doing in the village?”

(End of Chapter)

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