37: Chapter 37 No clothes on? Clearly, they forgot to wear human skin!

"Young Master Zhang, didn't you say there were fewer than a hundred clansmen?"

At this moment, Li Mingyu, who was inside the carriage, couldn't help but speak up as well. "Looking at this, there must be over two hundred people."

Zhang Qianlü was also somewhat confused.

There weren't this many people when he left.

Furthermore, most of them were not members of the Li Clan.

These people consisted of both men and women, though they were primarily men in their prime.

They were currently busy helping to build houses.

"They aren't from the Li Clan?" Liu Shenyou looked ahead.

With the way those people were working, how could they be putting in so much effort unless they were building their own homes?

Otherwise, he wouldn't have asked why there were so many people in the village the moment he spoke.

More than half of the men in his Liu family had joined the Zhenguo Army. Although he hadn't gone himself, he had spent his time mingling with his uncles and elders, and he prided himself on having a keen eye.

He hadn't expected to be so mistaken.

"Regardless, we won't have to live in a cellar anymore," Li Mingyu said with a smile.

At that moment, Zhang Qianlü jumped down from the carriage. The Old Clan Leader had been called over, and Zhang Qianlü went to greet him.

"Qianlü, you're back?" the Old Clan Leader greeted him with a cheerful smile.

His eyes shifted to the person behind him.

The person jumping down from the carriage was a young man who looked to be around twenty years old.

His eyes were bright, his temples were bulging, and he had thick eyebrows and large eyes. He had a tall, straight posture and walked with a light yet very imposing Aura.

This must be the martial arts Instructor.

After him, another young man stepped down from the carriage.

He wore a green robe, had a very handsome face, and possessed a scholarly air.

After getting off the carriage, he helped his equally young wife and a toddler who had just learned to walk down from the vehicle.

"Is this the master who's going to teach us to read?" Li Fusun, who had followed along, couldn't help but ask Zhang Qianlü. "He's so young, can he teach well?"

It wasn't surprising that he asked this.

In the eyes of the Common People, it was best if a teaching master or a doctor who saved lives was elderly to be considered reliable.

If a doctor had white hair but a youthful face, with a snow-white beard like an old immortal, they would be most trusted.

A master should be lean, have a beard, be strict, and ideally have wrinkles between their brows from constant frowning.

No one explicitly said that doctors and masters had to look like that, but everyone felt that they should.

Even though almost no one in the Li Clan had ever seen a master.

Nor had they seen an elderly doctor.

In the past, when the villagers fell ill, they mostly found herbs to treat themselves.

Occasionally, they would encounter a doctor who could come to their village to treat people. Although not young, they weren't old either; after all, one needed agile legs to travel such long distances.

"This master has literary fortune protecting his body," Zhang Qianlü said with a smile.

With just that one sentence, nothing more needed to be said.

He then introduced Liu Shenyou: "This Instructor Liu has a cultivation of the fourth rank in the Martial Dao."

Immediately, a group of children swarmed forward, hugging Instructor Liu's legs.

When Li Mingyu helped his wife and led his child over, they were instantly met with the eager gazes of the Li Family Village people.

They had never seen the Qi of literary fortune before.

They had heard that it lingered three feet above the head like a swirling green cloud.

"...That must be the smoke from hair catching fire, right?" Li Mingyu didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The so-called literary fortune was indeed a green Qi.

However, it wouldn't appear above the head all the time.

It would only manifest when one was reciting or silently contemplating a text.

"Will any kind of text work?" Li Fusun asked.

"Of course not." Li Mingyu looked at him and smiled. "It must be a good piece of writing capable of stimulating literary Qi."

Next, Zhang Qianlü introduced the two to the Old Clan Leader and then asked, "Where is our Young Lord?"

"The Young Lord... the Young Lord is busy with something," the Old Clan Leader said. "Let's invite the gentleman inside first. Sit down, have some water, and rest before we talk."

And so, the group walked inside.

"Clan Leader, why is Li Family Village so lively?" Zhang Qianlü asked, blatantly aligning his story with the Old Clan Leader in front of Liu and Li. "I see these houses are almost finished."

"Our Li... Li Family Village is this lively because we hired people to build the houses." The Old Clan Leader was cunning; he immediately understood and said with a smile, hands behind his back, "Those helping us build the houses are all Common People from nearby."

Though he said nearby, the closest village was more than ten li away.

The furthest village was estimated to be over thirty li away.

Therefore, at night, many people wouldn't leave and would stay in Li Family Village instead.

This saved them from traveling back and forth and wasting time.

Besides, by staying here, they were provided with two extra meals in the evening and morning.

"Two extra meals? Does that mean you provide three meals a day?" Liu Shenyou was somewhat surprised to hear this.

It wasn't that he was ignorant or making a fuss over nothing.

It was just that the state of the world was truly not very good.

Although the Great Yong Dynasty hadn't seen war for many years and was generally peaceful, the world was permeated with yin baleful energy, which greatly affected farming and harvests.

Moreover, evil spirits and demons were emerging everywhere, and the Zhenguo Army could barely keep them suppressed.

The lives of the Common People could only be described as barely surviving.

Even among the people living in the Prefecture City, not everyone could afford to eat three meals a day.

Furthermore, it was currently the lean season between harvests.

"To be honest, if it weren't for the assistance and care from the Li Residence, we wouldn't be able to eat three full meals either."

The Old Clan Leader smiled and said, "So, it's because we've connected with a good relative that we have these good days."

The members of the Li Clan all began to laugh.

Instructor Liu and Master Li were somewhat bewildered.

Why did these people seem so proud?

They were quite thick-skinned.

Yet, there was also a certain kind of honest and open brightness to them.

"Old Clan Leader, I see that our Li Family Village must have its own savings. Otherwise, even with a good relative's help, you wouldn't be willing to hire so many people."

Liu Shenyou also smiled and said, "Providing both meals and wages... I'm afraid it must cost quite a lot!"

"Wages?" The Old Clan Leader shook his head. "No, no, no, we don't give wages."

"No wages?" Liu Shenyou raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying they're working for free?"

"There must be some other form of compensation, right?" Li Mingyu spoke up at this point. "Otherwise, how could these neighbors who came to help be so hardworking?"

"Haha, as expected of a master, you're clever. You guessed it right away," the Old Clan Leader said. "There is compensation. Look over there."

Several people looked in the direction he was pointing.

First, they saw three pale white things.

They looked like they were made of bone.

They were startled at first, but then they let out a sigh of relief.

They weren't human bones.

Then, they saw a skeleton.

The bad news was that it was a human skeleton.

The even worse news was that this human skeleton was moving!

"Is that... a Skeleton Ghost?" Liu Shenyou was shocked. He looked left and right, then looked up at the sky.

In broad daylight and under a clear sky, they were actually seeing a ghost?

And why were the Common People around them so calm!

"Oh! Little Leopard, you're running around without clothes again!" the Old Clan Leader scolded, pointing at the Skeleton Ghost. "Get back inside right now!"

Li Mingyu's wife hugged her child tightly and thought to herself, 'Is he not wearing clothes?'

'He clearly forgot to wear human skin!'