Chapter 840: It's Time to Stop Work

The group at Liuhuangdi finally waited for the Large Ship they had been looking forward to day and night. That very day, they took the Slaves to pack up all the Sulfur and then moved it onto the ship. Even though the Slaves said they were exhausted beyond measure, the Soldiers continued to urge them on.

"What does being tired now matter? Anyway, you won't need to work on the way back. You'll sleep every day—sleep during the day, sleep at night. Even if you sleep yourself to death, no one will care. It's just being tired for now. Don't you want to leave this godforsaken place and go back to Huaxia?" The Soldiers' tone also became very intense.

The Slaves dared not retort, and since they also wanted to return to Huaxia, they kept busy until they couldn't see anything anymore before stopping. When morning came, they were once again woken up early by the Soldiers, who were too excited to sleep.

They moved the Sulfur and tools, packed up the Tents, and sealed the Grain Storehouse. Mice hibernate during the Winter, and because of the location, there weren't many mice here to begin with; it wasn't until the Grain Storehouse was built that they started to see more of them.

If the grain couldn't be finished, it was left behind; they couldn't possibly haul it all back to Huaxia. Even if it really went bad, it didn't matter. The cost of transporting that grain from here to Huaxia was about the same as the value of the remaining grain, so there was no need to do such useless work. The Grain Storehouse was nailed shut and sealed; whatever happens next year will be dealt with next year.

Fan was equally excited; he could finally go home. Once he returned, as long as there was no large-scale war, his entire Winter vacation was absolutely guaranteed—no one could change that. Besides, having been out for so long, his various subsidies would certainly be substantial, and he would also be able to accumulate more merit.

Having been out for so long, loneliness and boredom were one thing, and missing his family was a given, but being out of touch with Huaxia was the problem that worried him most. He couldn't get any news from Huaxia at all; the transmission of information was one-sided. Based on the speed of Huaxia's development that he understood, he was certain that once he returned this time, there would be major changes in some aspects.

The people at Liuhuangdi were already on their way back and would be able to return before long, while Xiao Town welcomed a bout of precipitation, which was a mix of rain and Snow.

The temperature hadn't dropped low enough, so the rain and Snow mixed as they fell to the ground, still accumulating a thin layer of white. However, once the rain stopped, the Snow would turn into water at an extremely fast speed.

But this current precipitation was not a good thing for Xiao Town. The entire construction site turned into a muddy mess; one would slip with every step, and a thick layer of mud would quickly stick to one's feet.

In this situation, let alone working, even going outside to use the latrine was difficult. If one had to take a dump, once the pants were down and one squatted, the wind carrying the sleet would blow over, and it would feel painfully cold. Under such circumstances, Xiao Town had no choice but to temporarily stop work.

Zhong's work went very smoothly this time. He found several places that looked like they had thicker copper ore layers, and then, based on the thickness of the soil layers and the depth at which the copper ore was discovered, he did it himself, taking the Soldiers to start digging. At the predicted locations, they really did dig up scattered copper ore.

The moment he dug up the ore, Zhong still couldn't help but cheer: "Found it, I found it!! Copper ore, Xiao Town has copper ore!"

The Soldiers who had run around with him for several days to who knows how many places also let out a sigh of relief at this moment. Although they didn't understand the business of prospecting, they didn't like running around in vain either. Now that they could find ore, it meant their suffering hadn't been in vain.

Zhong followed the same method in several places, though not every place could yield ore according to his conjectures; only a small portion of the locations yielded it. He drew a relatively rough topographic map with contour lines and then highlighted several locations. He marked a point where ore was dug up, and finally connected the points with lines; this area was where he predicted there would be enough copper ore.

To verify this conjecture, he randomly found a few more locations within the drawn area to dig. It couldn't be said that he could dig it up one hundred percent of the time, but the probability was higher. Zhong couldn't figure out the reason for a while, but his success was already very clear.

Therefore, in such terrible weather, he could calmly sit in the Tent with Che, drinking tea and chatting, without worrying about what to do about his work.

Originally, Che was prepared to finish building the last Arrow Tower and then completely stop work and return. However, it seemed unnecessary now. The weather had clearly cooled down; one could already tell from this rain. Perhaps the weather was giving them face this time, only using sleet to warn them; next time, it would likely be a heavy Snowstorm directly.

After thinking and discussing with several others, Che decided that this year would end like this; they would stop work and return. Once the rain stopped, they would pack up the site. It would take a long time for them to return on this trip. What Che worried about more was what should be done about these Laborers from the Xuanyuan Tribe.

Strictly speaking, the Xuanyuan Tribe should have sent people to pick them up themselves, but everyone from Huaxia had already withdrawn from the Xuanyuan Tribe, and news could no longer be received there. Sending a Boat over to notify them would be less effective than just sending them back directly.

Zhong, on the other hand, was a bit carefree: "Oh, why bother with that? You came here to do construction. You just use the Laborers. You pay their wages, but how they go back and how much their wages are—does that have anything to do with you?"

Doesn't our Huaxia advocate for everyone minding their own business? With different divisions of labor, don't worry about idle matters. Look at me; I came here just to find ore. I don't even care what Xiao Town is built into.

So, if you ask me, you should just send a message to Huaxia saying you are preparing to return and give your estimated arrival time. I believe the Ministry of Revenue will definitely handle it for you properly."

After being told this by Zhong, Che also turned the corner. Indeed, when the Laborers were on the construction site, they were under his management, and he had to worry about everything they did. But once the project was over, how these Laborers were handled—did that have anything to do with him?

Not to mention those men who worked, even those women who already had little bellies—how much did they have to do with him? Except for the woman who accompanied him every day and still had no name, whose belly was also growing big—it was definitely his child, without a doubt—but he had already been warned: give them grain and supplies, and the rest had nothing to do with him. He couldn't really keep this woman by his side forever, could he?

The woman didn't know about this yet. Perhaps in her mind, she was supposed to follow Che back to Huaxia and would no longer be a person of the Xuanyuan Tribe in the future. In fact, it wasn't just her who thought this; the women accompanying the Huaxia Soldiers probably all had the same thought.