Chapter 51: Spreading the Name of Ren Shan

The chill was deep, but the people's hearts were warm; with thousands gathered together, they felt no fear even while traveling through the night.

The guards still escorted the commoners to Yangmen County.

The walls of Beishan County had not yet been built, so the entrance to Yangmen County still served as the first gate of the border. Without official documents, ordinary people could not enter or leave at will.

Zhang Yuan held up the transit pass high and shouted to the soldiers guarding the wall, "Zhang Yuan, Registrar of Beishan County, acting under the orders of the Magistrate of Beishan County, is escorting the laborers home to visit their families!"

A crack opened in the city gate, and the guards came out to verify the number of people.

By the time the Zeng brothers returned to the village, it was already past the hour of the Ox.

The dogs in the village began barking again, and simultaneously, several children keeping watch at the village entrance shouted, "My parents are back!"

Half the households in the village opened their gates. The elderly and children came out to meet them, searching through the crowd for their own kin.

Those who had returned grabbed their children, pulled off their shoes, and gave them several swats on the buttocks. "What time is it? Still playing outside!"

"But Father said we were coming back today!" the child protested, sounding increasingly aggrieved. "I've been waiting here since early morning, and you only just got back."

Old Lady Zeng was also searching. She was old and her eyesight was poor; she simply followed the villagers forward, but in the pitch darkness, she couldn't distinguish who was her son.

"Mother!" It was Zeng the Third who spotted her first. "Big Brother, Mother is here."

Old Lady Zeng patted her two sons on the arms. "Are you both well?"

"We're fine." The two brothers spread their arms in a circle. "We're all well."

"Where is Meizi?" Old Lady Zeng asked.

"The road is long; she didn't come back," Zeng the Eldest said. "Once we get home, we'll..."

"Auntie." A woman leading a child walked over. "Meizi is frail. If she had to walk three hours to get back, she certainly wouldn't have been able to hold on. She might have had the strength to walk here but not the strength to walk back. If she delayed the government's affairs, the whole village would be implicated. We all advised her to stay there. There's no shortage of food there anyway, so don't worry about her, Auntie."

"Are you Bai Song's wife?"

"Yes."

Old Lady Zeng said, "Thank you for looking after my Meizi."

Sister Wanjin waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, I can't look after her all by myself. Fortunately, the entire group consists of people from our village and the neighboring village. Everyone knows each other, so we naturally look out for one another."

"That's right, that's right!" A sturdier woman nearby said even louder, "Those of you who didn't go don't know—the guards there are quite reasonable. They specifically let the women from our village sleep together and grouped us with the women from the neighboring village. When we work, we're all working with people we know."

"Don't just talk about you women; it's the same for us men."

"Hah, so now you're saying it's the same?" the sturdy woman said loudly. "Before, we always heard you complaining about how hard the labor was, saying you'd lose a layer of skin in a day. Now that we women have gone, we're digging and carrying soil just like you, and it doesn't seem as terrifying as you made it out to be."

Immediately, a man disagreed. "The work you women do is different from ours. You don't use the heavy rammers; do you know how much strength it takes to lift those?"

"That's not it." Another man pointed out the key issue. "This round of labor is different from the previous ones. Take a few months ago when we were conscripted to Wushan County to repair the city walls. That was truly grueling. Not only was there no food, but we had to work for six or seven hours a day. If you couldn't keep up or moved even slightly slower, the guards' whips would come down immediately."

"That's true. Ultimately, it comes down to the officials in charge. There are few magistrates as generous as the one in Beishan County; he lets us eat our fill and sleep well."

Some of the returning commoners chimed in, "This new official is a rare, good official indeed."

The children listened blankly amidst the adults, their attention focused more on the bundles.

Inside was millet rice.

Some impatient children reached into the bundles, digging out the millet to eat.

Sister Wanjin picked up her own child. "Come, let's go home and I'll heat up your food."

Standing outside the crowd, Chi Chunmei listened with envy. "If I had known, I would have gone."

She had pushed the uncertain and dangerous task onto Meizi; now that she knew the benefits of Beishan County, it was too late to want to go.

At dawn, she went to find the Village Head first thing in the morning, saying she wanted to go to Beishan County to work.

But the Village Head said, "You didn't go when you were asked last time; it's too late now."

"What do you mean? Haven't they always been short on people?"

"They were short before, but so many people went last time that the numbers were filled instantly. A few days ago, an official order came down stating that various places no longer need to conscript more people."

Chi Chunmei returned home feeling dejected, but as she entered the house, a scheme formed in her mind.

She found Old Lady Zeng and suggested that this time, she should go with Zeng the Eldest and the others to swap places with Meizi.

"Would that work?" Old Lady Zeng asked.

"Why wouldn't it? Her health was already poor to begin with. Didn't Big Brother say last night that she had fainted over there? It's better if I go to swap her back."

Old Lady Zeng thought that if Meizi fainted again and was sent back, there would be another mouth to feed in the house. It was better to let Chunmei swap her back.

After Zeng the Eldest and his brother woke up, Old Lady Zeng told them about this.

Before Zeng the Eldest could say anything, Zeng the Third jumped up. "Mother, why do you always listen to her! People are already on the government registers; can we just swap them whenever we want? If we get caught, our whole family will face legal trouble!"

Old Lady Zeng rubbed the cloth of her sons' bundles. "Is it that serious? We are all one family. If others ask, we'll just say she is Meizi. The officials won't be able to find out, will they?"

"Mother, you make it sound so easy. You don't understand how things work here." Zeng the Third nudged Zeng the Eldest. "Big Brother, say something!"

"Mother is only thinking of the family, in case Meizi can't handle the work and gets sent back."

"What Third is saying is true," Zeng the Eldest said. "There are checkpoints at Yangmen. They count heads every time someone enters or leaves. Last time, someone brought a well-digger along without telling the guards in advance, and he was hauled up and scolded by the guards."

"If Chunmei goes, she will definitely be found out."

Old Lady Zeng compromised. "Oh dear, then that won't do. It would be too much trouble for you if you were caught."

"Mother, you really can't listen to Second Sister-in-law about everything anymore." Zeng the Third stood in front of Old Lady Zeng. "You don't know the dangers. You listen to her nonsense; she always lies to you about how good things are, but she never tells you the harms. Mother, listen to me. Even if the guards were blind and let us take Second Sister-in-law and swap her for Big Sister, how would you expect Big Sister to come back alone? Without government officials accompanying her, she wouldn't be able to enter the gates of Yangmen County at all. Do you want her to die out there? In what way is Big Sister inferior to Second Sister-in-law that you dislike her so much?"

"You child, I don't know the details of it either," Old Lady Zeng explained. "They are both my daughters-in-law; there is no reason to like one more than the other. It's just that since something happened on your second brother's side, I'm looking after them a bit more."

"Mother," Zeng the Eldest said, "It was my fault for not looking after my younger brother well. I will make it up to him. Once Meizi returns, don't let her suffer grievances."