Chapter 137: The Dilapidated House

Lin Miaomiao glanced at Yuan Lin, took a sip of tea, and said to him, "I don't know about being powerful or not, but I do know that reading more books is always useful."

Upon hearing Lin Miaomiao tell him to read more, Yuan Lin immediately pulled a long face and replied, "I don't like reading. I get sleepy the moment I start."

Lin Miaomiao looked at Yuan Lin with amusement and said, "If you get sleepy reading, then how do you expect to become a great general?"

Yuan Lin looked up at Lin Miaomiao and asked, "Do great generals need to read? Is it that important?" He added, "In my view, my father is just a rough-around-the-edges man; he doesn't look like someone who would read much."

As soon as Yuan Lin finished speaking, a hearty laugh echoed through the pavilion. Lin Langluan sat down next to Lin Miaomiao, poured himself a cup of tea, and remarked, "I thought the same way when I was young. But my sister forced me to study and attend extracurricular classes. Only now do I realize that reading a few more books is indeed useful."

Seeing that the brat Lin Langluan was speaking, Lin Miaomiao shot him a look of annoyance and rolled her eyes. "Didn't I do that because you were young and I needed to keep you in line?" she retorted. "If I didn't make you study and keep you occupied, you would have been tearing the roof tiles off every day and making the whole neighborhood restless."

Lin Langluan rubbed his nose, looking a bit sheepish as he looked at Lin Miaomiao and asked softly, "Did I really do that back then?"

Lin Miaomiao glanced at Li Yanhe, who gave a light cough and looked at Lin Langluan, saying, "You did. But you were more afraid of me back then; as long as I was around, you were relatively well-behaved."

With no other choice, Lin Langluan shook his head and replied to Li Yanhe, "That’s only because you were too stern, brother! Just seeing you made me feel like you were radiating a cold chill."

Hearing this, Lin Miaomiao shook her head and said, "Why didn't I feel that?"

Lin Langluan looked at Lin Miaomiao and said, "That’s because when he looks at you, his eyes are filled with nothing but tenderness. Where would the cold chill come from?"

Lin Miaomiao fell silent at his words.

Yuan Lin, hearing Lin Langluan call Li Yanhe "brother," asked curiously, "You are the sister-in-law's younger brother; logically, you should call him brother-in-law. Why do you call him brother?"

Lin Langluan was momentarily stunned by the question, then thought for a moment and replied, "It’s probably just a habit from childhood."

Yuan Lin didn't press the matter further. Lin Miaomiao smiled at Yuan Lin and explained, "Back then, your brother and I weren't officially together, so it felt a bit abrupt to call him brother-in-law. So, I just let them call him brother. As they got older, it just became a habit, and they couldn't change it."

Yuan Lin nodded, and Lin Miaomiao turned to Lin Langluan with a smile, asking, "How do you have time to come back today? Isn't the shop busy?"

Lin Langluan grinned and said, "Not really, I just wanted to be a bit lazy today."

Lin Miaomiao possessed considerable wealth, so in the early stages, she had tasked Lin Langluan with buying land, building factories, and hiring workers. Although she had sold her original single-mouth business to Li Zheng, she could still open other types of factories. This time, she planned to open brick factories and others related to construction materials.

She truly wanted to do something for Li Yanhe; after all, this would be their home in the future, and it wouldn't be good if the surrounding neighbors were too poor.

Her garment factory would continue to operate under Lanzhi’s supervision, and the food processing plant would remain under Ruoyu's charge. Lin Qi continued to serve as the general manager for all of Lin Miaomiao’s light industrial ventures, while she now intended to open a brick factory and a carriage yard.

Because the area was so impoverished, if it were to prosper in the future, it needed at least a few respectable businesses. Although Lin Miaomiao had no experience in running brickyards or carriage depots, as the saying goes, failure is the mother of success. With money in hand, she had no fear of failure.

Lin Langluan and Lin Jiwang were currently in charge of the brickyard and carriage depot. Lin Miaomiao recalled watching *The Qin Empire* in the past, where King Ying Zheng of Qin decreed that all carriage tracks be standardized because the varying road widths in different states hindered his rule.

While Lin Miaomiao couldn't standardize all the roads, she could ensure that the carriages she produced were identical, which would allow her to align the carriage construction with the track widths used when building the roads.

She shared this idea with Li Yanhe in the study. After a long period of contemplation, he nodded and agreed with her logic. Indeed, as long as the carriages she produced matched the standard track widths of the Great Yong Dynasty—which were mostly uniform—it would work. Since only a few isolated regions had different road standards, Li Yanhe could simply ensure the roads he built followed the standard Great Yong design.

Seeing Li Yanhe sitting at the desk, looking deep in thought, Lin Miaomiao sighed and said, "Actually, we could start by making the local people here wealthy. To do that, we need to understand them thoroughly. Only then can we know what to do for them."

Following this, the two donned simple cloth garments and traveled to various villages by ox cart. They shared a smile as they rode. Li Yanhe looked at her, amused, and asked, "What are you smiling at?"

Lin Miaomiao looked up and replied, "I'm just happy. I still remember how dusty and disheveled we were when we were heading toward Da'an Pass."

Li Yanhe smiled and shook his head. When they arrived at a nearby village, Lin Miaomiao immediately approached a woman to ask for the village head’s residence. The woman looked sallow and thin, as if she had been hungry for a long time. When she saw Lin Miaomiao and Li Yanhe step down from the ox cart, her eyes were filled with envy. Lin Miaomiao’s clothes, though simple, were clean and without a single patch. The woman gave a fawning, oily smile. "I can tell you're from the city, madam. Your clothes don't have a single patch. Just looking at your temperament, it's clear you're not like us folks scratching a living in the countryside."

Lin Miaomiao smiled, but Li Yanhe stepped in front of her. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and though he had pasted on a beard to hide his handsome features, his natural stature and presence still drew a crowd of villagers. Lin Miaomiao felt like an animal on display at a zoo during a holiday. Sighing inwardly, she heard Li Yanhe say to the group, "We wish to settle in your village. Could you lead us to your village head?"

The villagers were surprised. These people didn't look poor—they even had an ox cart! They wondered if these were fallen aristocrats from the city who had nowhere else to go.

Regardless, the villagers speculated endlessly about their identities. Li Yanhe, maintaining his composure, pulled the ox and held Lin Miaomiao’s hand as they walked to the village head’s house.

When they met the village head, he looked at their clean, well-kept, though modest, clothes and realized they were not ordinary farmers. Li Yanhe spoke up, "Our ancestors were from this village, but we left to do business. Now that our family fortune has declined, we wish to return and settle down. I wonder if the village head would allow it?"

The village head nodded and asked for their names. Li Yanhe smiled and replied, "I am Li Zhong, and this is my wife, Mrs. Li-Lin."

The village head sat down and nodded. "It is not impossible for you to settle here, but you must buy land. As for a house..."

Before he could finish, Li Yanhe took out 100 copper coins and said, "Our family has fallen on hard times; this is all we have left. If anyone has a house to sell, we are willing to pay 100 coins."

Watching Li Yanhe produce the coins, Lin Miaomiao had to suppress a laugh. They had made this decision on the spur of the moment, seeking out the poorest village they could find and traveling there by ox cart. It had been difficult to scrape together 100 copper coins, as money was scarce and there were no proper banks nearby.

Hearing the offer, a bystander immediately spoke up, "We have a house in the village! If you don't mind it being a bit run-down, I can sell it to you right now."

In such small mountain villages, the village head could authorize land transfers as long as both parties signed and pressed their thumbprints. Lin Miaomiao and Li Yanhe were led around enthusiastically to inspect various houses, only to find that they were all thatched huts. Some were already crumbling, standing lonely and precarious. Lin Miaomiao felt a sense of instability in the air.

Seeing her expression, Li Yanhe suppressed a smile and asked, "You've never seen houses like this, have you?"

Lin Miaomiao nodded, then looked up and retorted, "Have you ever seen such dilapidated houses?"

Li Yanhe smiled, replying, "I’ve seen them, but I’ve never lived in one."

They eventually chose a thatched cottage that at least provided shelter from the wind and rain, with the roof still intact.