Happiness System

The head of the Ning family naturally has money, but that is the capital for the Ning family to make a comeback, and of course it cannot be taken out easily.

Especially spending money on those side branches is even more impossible!

Of course, in the end, people were crammed into those dilapidated houses that were bought with public funds and were originally vacant in the village but were now full of people.

The head of Baiyuan Village looked at the Ning family members who had not learned to face reality after being exiled, and shook his head, sighing in his heart.

Maybe when the barbarians attack, there will be another group of lonely souls in their village!

But the village chief still chose not to meddle in other people's business. Almost every year, there are people transferred down to their Baiyuan Village, but not many of them can survive more than a year!

To him, these new arrivals were no different from the dead.

Fu Xiuwen had just arrived at the main house when the village chief arrived soon after.

The village chief went to the Fu family because he had chosen a place for the burial of the Fu family members. That piece of land could be said to be the Fu family's cemetery in the future. Of course, he had to pay for it.

Although Fu Ronglang had not been in the village for a long time, he actually knew the place that the village chief mentioned, and it was indeed quite good.

He nodded to his cousin Fu Rongchun.

Fu Rongchun then took out the silver from his pocket and signed a document with the village chief.

"Alas, your luck is a bit bad. If you had arrived two days earlier or if there hadn't been this icy rain, you might have been able to make a few more coffins...

What a pity! I found carpenters from several nearby villages and asked their young men to work together overnight, but we only managed to make ten coffins.

You all know that the barbarians may invade at any time, and many people may have to flee by then. Everyone was sent to the mountain on a straw mat. Those who prepared coffins were not short of money..."

Upon hearing this, Fu Rongchun took out another 100 taels of silver from his bosom and gave it to him, saying, "My Fu family has just settled down in your place, and we don't understand the rules here in Mo Nan. I'll trouble the village chief and the villagers to help with tomorrow's event."

The village chief took the silver and said with a smile: "Don't worry about me, Hu Laomo, doing the job!"

Seeing that the Fu family still had things to discuss, the village chief tactfully took the silver and left.

Seeing that there were no outsiders around, Fu Rongchun took out the remaining silver and asked Fu Xiuwen, "Just now I heard from your father that you and Qin are now working for the mighty general's mansion?"

Fu Xiuwen nodded. Except for his father and grandmother, they claimed to everyone else and the outside world that the truth about setting up the academy was that they were working for the General's Mansion, and this matter was also made clear.

Fu Rongchun saw him nod and did not doubt it. Mo Nan was a small court, and those who understood would understand that it was customary to complain about poverty in the court.

Maybe Mo Nan is not as bad as the legend says?

As for why such a large-scale academy was not established before but only now, he also attributed it to the lack of talent in Mo Nan.

After hesitating for a while, Fu Rongchun said, "Is this money from the public library of the academy?

Xiu Wen, you must not be confused and don’t let down the trust of the General’s Mansion!

Although the relationship between the Qin family and the Gao family is very close, one wrong step will eventually lead to all the wrong steps, and the truth will come out sooner or later!

My Fu family..."

Fu Xiuwen looked at his father and saw him shaking his head. After thinking for a while, he said, "Patriarch, you are worrying too much. We, the descendants of the Fu family, naturally disdain those despicable things!

All this silver came from Qin's private property.

Because her nephew had done some stupid things before, Qin didn't trust him, so she hid all the money.

Now that my Fu family has suffered such a great disaster, Qin and I have opened our hearts to each other. She gave all the money to her nephew, and used the rest to buy a farm.

These days she has been dealing with Zhuangzi's affairs."

Fu Ronglang also took over the conversation and said, "When she was in Dingyuan Marquis's Mansion, Fu liked quietness. There are too many people in this house and it is noisy all day long. Do you plan to move to the manor?"

Fu Xiuwen quickly replied: "Yes, I originally planned to move there after the academy was built and began to recruit students, so that it would be convenient for the children to go back and forth every day...

But when I went to the farm this morning, I saw that Qin looked much better, and she hadn’t had a headache in the past two days, so I decided to move there after I had settled my affairs at home.”

Fu Ronglang nodded and said, "The family has already been divided. You and your spouse can discuss the affairs of the second branch."

He turned around and said to Fu Rongchun and Fu Rongjia, "Let's have lunch here at noon. We brothers haven't sat down for a while in a long time.

Tomorrow, after sending all the tribesmen to the mountains, you will have to settle your family, get some food and firewood, and be on guard against the Hu people. I'm afraid you will be busy this winter."

"Hello, uncles!" Qin Yunxi said as she walked in.

Seeing that everyone was staring at her, she said with a smile, "I just heard my father leaving some food for us at the door. You uncles are in for a treat. It just so happened that my niece-in-law got some game yesterday. It's rare even in the imperial capital!"

This person is the real financial sponsor, so Fu Rongchun and the others can't be too polite to her.

Hearing this, he said gently, "Why don't you stay home and rest, Xiu Wen's wife? You must be freezing all the way here, right?"

After a pause, he said with some embarrassment: "Xiu Wen's wife is kind and righteous, and your uncle is not an ignorant elder. Please let the clan take their time, and your uncle will write you an IOU for the money first."

"Look at what uncle said, it's as if Yun Xi came here to collect a debt! If uncle talks like this again, Yun Xi won't dare to stand in front of you in the future!" Qin Yunxi covered her mouth and smiled.

Fu Ronglang also said with a serious face: "Patriarch, please do not mention the IOU again! Xiu Wen and his wife and my Fu family are one. Now they have done their best for the clan. We are not old yet, so we cannot rely on them, the young ones. We must take over the burden as soon as possible."

Fu Xiuwen also quickly responded, "That's true! Uncle, please don't embarrass your nephew and his wife."

Qin Yunxi also nodded in agreement, and then said: "Father and husband are mostly in the academy, and may not know the situation in the village.

Baiyuan Village will distribute land to people like us, but because the survival rate is too low, people who come to Mo Nan in the second half of the year usually have to wait until the snow melts in the spring of the following year before the village will distribute the land according to household registration and the number of people.

My niece's wife is lucky enough to have obtained some seeds with good yield. They have been planted on the farm. If they grow well, we can survive next year just by farming!

By the way, in addition to allocating land to us, we don’t have to pay taxes in the first year, and we only have to pay three times the tax amount in the second and third years.”

This was undoubtedly good news for the Fu clan. Fu Rongchun hurriedly asked Qin Yunxi to continue speaking, as they needed to fill in the information gap as soon as possible.

Fu Rongchun's great-grandfather and Fu Ronglang's great-grandfather were brothers.

Back then, the two brothers followed Taizu to build the country, and the Fu family was awarded a marquisate. In order to eliminate Taizu's doubts about these heroes, the dominant elder brother gave the title to his younger brother.

Moreover, my brother only accepted the gold and silver rewards and did not serve as an official in the court. Instead, he became a knight and wandered around the world.

When his eldest son was seven years old and it was time for him to receive formal education, he returned to the imperial capital, met with his younger brother, entrusted the child to him, and disappeared with his wife.

My brother is really outstanding, even his bloodline is not bad.

Fu Rongchun knew even more clearly that they were not exiled because of their involvement with the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion.

If it weren't for the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion, even if they were not exiled, they would have been demoted to a barren land, and the best situation would not be much better than it is now.

Fu Rongchun is his brother's direct descendant, and the achievements of their branch are no worse than those of the Dingyuan Marquisate. His father, Fu Yijin, has already been promoted to the second rank!

Fu Ronglang is only a third-rank official, and will only be a third-rank official.

The current emperor has long been wary of these aristocratic families and has long wanted to take action against them.

This is also the reason why Fu Ronglang trained the crown prince Fu Xiusheng to be so mediocre. Another reason is that after Fu Xiusheng's generation, the title will expire.

For lunch, several men placed the meal on the terrace. Except for Fu Xiuwen, other juniors were not invited to join the guests.

Qin Yunxi also stayed to have lunch with the old lady and mother-in-law, and formally informed them that the second house was about to move.

The old lady sighed and said, "It's not bad to move there. It's not easy to travel now because of the snow. I heard from your father that the academy has stopped construction. They don't plan to let those houses go to waste this winter. Since they are going to start recruiting students, it will be much more convenient for you to move here."

Qin Yunxi wanted to invite the old lady to live with him in the manor, but the old lady refused without a second thought, "Your uncle and his family just arrived, it's not easy for me to leave."

Seeing that Qin Yunxi did not invite her, Li Mutong smiled in disappointment and said, "Your father said that he has a finalized position in the academy. When the snow melts in spring, the academy will build houses for the managers. When the houses are ready, I will live there with your father and send your grandmother to the farm."

Qin Yunxi nodded and said, "That's fine. There's no hot spring in the manor, and it's open and colder than the village.

If my grandmother went there now, she would probably be trapped in the house and feel lonely, but here at least she has her mother and aunts with her.

Then I will come back to pick up grandma in the spring."

The men outside only had a few drinks and were not drunk. Even if they entrusted the funeral arrangements to the village, they still had a lot of things to deal with.

Qin Yunxi didn't see Fu Xiuwen again until the auspicious time of the next day.

Although the scale of this funeral was large, many procedures were simplified. Baiyuan Village relied on the help of the village chief to get more than 20 coffins, and bought less than 20 coffins from the town and the county.

More than one hundred members of the Fu clan died on the road, most of them were elderly people, women and children.

Of course, not all of them had their bodies collected and brought back. For example, concubines who had no children or concubines who had no sons were buried on the spot.

After death, people were divided into different classes. The more than 80 corpses brought back were arranged according to their status and were buried in coffins, large earthenware jars, and straw mats.

The women and children of Fu Ronglang's lineage were only arranged to burn some incense and paper in the open space in front of the village, and did not go up the mountain with the funeral procession.

The little maid in Fu Xiusheng's room was a girl they bought from the village for cheap. She grew up in the village and had never seen such a large-scale funeral. She quietly followed her master up the mountain when he was not paying attention.

When she came back, she cried and gestured, saying that the infants who had died in the Fu family were also brought back and were given earthen jars. A small area was specially marked out for their burial, but no tombstones could be erected for the infants.

There were about twenty black clay pots crowded together in just one big pit, which eventually became a nameless big mound of earth.