Chapter 127: The Second Cement Road
After much internal debate, I decided against eating. It’s better for weight loss. There's an old saying in Chongqing: "Eat and then sleep, and the fat will cling to your back." So, eating before bed is terrible for gaining weight. One more update for the sake of weight loss.
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Mr. Wang was ready to depart. First, he borrowed a decent set of clothes from San Shier, which made him look less impoverished. Then, he packed several large Silver Balls into a parcel. He intended to sling the parcel nonchalantly over his shoulder, but it promptly flattened him to the ground with a thud, leaving him immobile.
He cried out: "Help!"
Several people came to lift the parcel off him, finally freeing him.
Mr. Wang panted, "Silver truly makes one feel both love and hate."
San Shier chuckled, "Mr. Wang, you're a scholar; how can you carry so much silver back by yourself? Moreover, traveling alone isn't safe. You'll need to take a group of young men with you to act as your retainers; only then will you look like a wealthy man who can afford a bookstore."
And so, they began assembling the party anew.
Gao Chuwu, still deep in his drunken stupor, was out of the question. Zheng Daniu hoisted the silver-laden parcel onto his back, and a group of young men joined the ranks, forming a "retainer squad" that looked quite impressive indeed.
With the story perfected, he and Zheng Daniu's party finally set off for the county town.
After their commotion, Gao Family Village had fully shaken off its drunken haze. Villagers awoke one after another, stretching and limbering up.
Li Daoxuan saw Gao Yiye had also risen, so he asked her to gather the few remaining villagers from Wangjia Village and inform them that rain had fallen there too.
Regrettably, the time was now late November in the seventh year of Tianqi, with winter drawing near. Even with the rain, the villagers wouldn't be able to sow their crops.
Sowing now would be too late; after sprouting, the crops wouldn't have time to mature before the temperatures dropped. Young seedlings couldn't withstand the approaching winter.
Li Daoxuan briefly considered the idea of introducing plastic greenhouses but immediately dismissed it. It was too soon; there was no need to rush into such advanced technology and 'hardcore innovation' yet.
The villagers, however, weren't as disheartened as he was. Hearing that rain had fallen in Wangjia Village was already monumental news. They weren't in a hurry to plant; if they sowed winter wheat now, there wouldn't be time for spring wheat. Since winter was approaching, they decided to simply wait for it to pass, returning to their village to plant in the rejuvenating spring – that was the true way of farming.
A Wangjia Village resident looked up at the sky and addressed him, "Heavenly Lord, I was thinking, since we won't be able to plant until spring anyway, we could use this winter to lay a cement road all the way to Wangjia Village. That way, next spring, we could ride the Solar Cars back to our village to farm! What do you think, would that be feasible?"
Li Daoxuan was amused: "This villager is quite clever!"
"Yiye," he instructed, "tell San Shier to allocate some cement to the people of Wangjia Village. Also, arrange for some temporary workers and Labor Reform prisoners to help them construct our second cement road, extending it to Wangjia Village."
Yiye relayed the message, and the Wangjia villagers immediately erupted in cheers.
Filled with boundless enthusiasm, they set to work at once, grabbing hoes and shovels, rushing to the side of the official road leading to Wangjia Village, and began digging. A gust of wind swept through, swirling dust into the air...
As they joyfully dug, they spotted a tall, imposing horse approaching on the official road from the southwest. Astride it sat a man in official robes, followed by a large contingent of yamen runners and a group of common laborers driving carts laden with colorful, large bows.
Liang Shixian had arrived!
He had come to return the bows.
Liang Shixian considered himself an upright official. And as an upright official, he naturally had to return what he had borrowed from the Li family.
So he brought the yamen runners and laborers, driving carts loaded with five hundred bows, and headed towards Gao Family Village.
As they neared the village entrance, they saw a cloud of dust billowing across the official road ahead. A group of villagers, armed with hoes and shovels, were furiously digging by the roadside, though for what purpose, he couldn't tell.
A gust of wind blew, slapping a plume of dust directly into his face. Liang Shixian couldn't hold his breath quickly enough, inhaling a mouthful, and immediately began to cough uncontrollably.
The yamen runners were enraged: "How dare you, you rascals! You tried to ambush the county magistrate!"
Liang Shixian immediately restrained the yamen runners: "Why are you scolding them so fiercely? The villagers have been digging here for quite some time; they didn't just start when I arrived. How can you speak of an ambush?"
The yamen runners quickly fell silent, having botched their flattery.
Liang Shixian offered a gentle smile and asked the villagers, "My good people, why are you digging by the roadside?"
Seeing the county magistrate, the villagers still felt rather intimidated, huddling together as they replied, "We're building a road, planning to make one that goes from here to our village."
Liang Shixian was greatly astonished: "Isn't there already an official road here?"
The villagers replied: "The official road is too narrow and uneven. We want to widen it and then pave it with cement."
"Cement road?"
Liang Shixian, a man of profound learning, immediately activated a mental search. All the things he had ever seen in his life—curiosities, rare artifacts, even the peculiar machines brought by Westerners from distant lands—spun like a carousel in his mind. Then, with a "ding," it settled on a single image.
The image displayed four large characters: "No Such Item Found."
Liang Shixian humbly asked, "What precisely is a cement road?"
The villagers turned and pointed towards a road on the other side of Gao Family Village: "Look over there, in the direction we're pointing. There's a gray road leading to Zhengjia Village; that's a cement road."
Liang Shixian sat up straight on his tall horse, his elevated vantage point allowing him to look in that direction. Indeed, there was a gray road, snaking through the mountains and forests like a ribbon of silverfish, stretching endlessly into the distance.
"Oh? This road is quite peculiar. Why is it this color?"
Liang Shixian was no longer in a hurry to enter Li Family Fortress. He led his personal secretary and the yamen runners towards the cement road. Once on it, he looked down: "Why is this road so extraordinarily smooth? Traveling by cart on this surface would be marvelous indeed!"
His secretary replied: "It looks as if it were cut from a single, massive slab of rock."
Liang Shixian wondered: "Who could possibly cut such an enormous stone in this manner?"
His secretary shook his head: "Beyond human capability."
Liang Shixian clicked his tongue in wonder: "Gao Family Village truly is a place of endless mysteries. If I'm not mistaken, this must be another marvel from the Li family. Conveniently, I'm already heading to the Li family's residence to return five hundred longbows; I can inquire about this 'cement road' then."
He straightened his robes and slowly approached Li Family Fortress. Before the fortress gates, San Shier, having already received word from the scouts, came out to greet him.
The two exchanged pleasantries and polite remarks.
Liang Shixian then stated: "My visit this time is to return the five hundred longbows I borrowed previously, in their entirety. *Ahem*... well..."
He suddenly felt his old face flush slightly: "Some dozens of the bowstrings were broken by my men. I assure you, I will find an opportunity to compensate the Li family for this loss."
San Shier uttered an "Oh?" "County Magistrate, you've returned the bows so quickly. Does this mean the bandits won't be returning?"
Liang Shixian's spirits lifted, and he said with a touch of delight, "The bandits suffered repeated setbacks and have retreated back to Huanglong Mountain. They no longer dare to enter Chengcheng County. Our scouts report they've moved west, heading towards Luochuan County."
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