She first drew a picture of three small wooden houses and then sketched a blueprint of a single-story house in a modern Chinese style.

From the exterior to the internal structure, including intricate details like fire pits and heated floors, she meticulously illustrated everything and added annotations.

Anyone with construction experience could build the house just by looking at the blueprint.

“Father, what do you think of this blueprint?”

After finishing, Shen Qingwan immediately took it to Old Man Lu for his opinion.

As he gazed at the exquisitely drawn house on the paper, his eyes lit up.

“What a beautiful house.”

What impressed him the most was how lifelike the drawing was, as if the house were real.

“Father, do you like it? If so, how about we build a house like this?” Shen Qingwan asked patiently.

Old Man Lu took a couple of puffs from his tobacco pipe and said, “This kind of house must cost a lot of silver, right?”

Seeing that his tone had softened, Shen Qingwan quickly responded, “It won’t cost too much. Besides, I managed to get a lot of money from those bandits before. Spending it like this won’t make my heart ache at all.”

Lu Wenguang, who had just returned from chopping wood, chimed in, “Father, sister-in-law is right. I also have quite a bit of wealth. Keeping that money only makes me uneasy. It’s better to build a house and stockpile food—this way, we’ll never have to worry about going hungry.”

Old Man Lu remained silent, which was as good as giving his approval.

On their first day settling in, everyone was busy working hard.

By the second day, a new village had been established just five miles away from theirs.

The two villages were close, and since the surrounding land was open plains, they could see it clearly.

After three days of hard work, Shen Qingwan and her group had already built a rough structure of the wooden house.

It wouldn’t have been so quick if not for the help of the Yang family’s four brothers.

Their assistance sped up the process considerably.

On the fourth day, Shen Qingwan took twenty or so strong men from the village to Suzhou City to bring back the grain they had purchased earlier.

Just as they reached the city outskirts, she spotted a group of armored soldiers interrogating refugees one by one.

They were searching for those who had passed through the area on the day of the battle between the black-clad men.

Shen Qingwan immediately thought of the tiger tally she had acquired that day.

She suspected these soldiers were looking for it.

Though the tally was useless to her, handing it over would only invite disaster.

These men were ruthless in their search, even killing innocent people at will. Anyone they deemed suspicious was executed on the spot.

If they found their way to her village, the people there would surely be in danger.

Though the thought of killing them crossed her mind, she was still hesitant.

After loading the grain onto the carts, Shen Qingwan instructed the store assistants to cover it with a layer of dry grass to avoid attracting attention.

However, she hadn’t expected that they would still be targeted—by none other than the armored soldiers outside the city.

The soldiers weren’t suspicious of them at first but were drawn to the large amount of grain they had.

Anyone who could afford that much food in these troubled times must have considerable wealth.

Realizing they were being followed, Shen Qingwan quickly instructed Lu Dachuan and the others to take the grain convoy ahead while she made an excuse about needing to relieve herself and would catch up later.

As she watched the convoy move further away, she stepped into the path of the pursuers, blocking their way. The leader of the soldiers sneered as he looked her over.

“So, it’s just a little lady. What now? Are you offering yourself to warm our beds?”

The man wore cold, imposing armor and sat atop a tall horse, scanning Shen Qingwan from head to toe.

She didn’t immediately act, stalling for time instead.

This was an isolated area with no one around.

Seeing that the convoy had disappeared from sight, she finally smirked.

“Who exactly do you work for?”

Her calm demeanor surprised the soldier, and he burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! You’ve got guts. I am Fu Chong, deputy general under Prince Liang. Little lady, hand over the grain and come with me. Maybe I’ll spare your life.”

Fu Chong seemed interested in her, circling her on horseback.

There were about forty men in his group, six on horseback while the rest were on foot.

Clearly, not everyone was privileged enough to ride.

This was the first time Shen Qingwan had heard of Prince Liang.

Though she didn’t know much about him, she immediately labeled him a villain.

Seeing that she remained silent, Fu Chong leaned down to grab her, intending to pull her onto his horse.

However, Shen Qingwan reacted swiftly, grabbing his extended arm and yanking him off the horse.

Caught off guard, Fu Chong was thrown to the ground.

Before he could react, he felt a cold sensation at his throat, followed by a spray of hot blood.

“Commander!”

Seeing Fu Chong killed, the remaining soldiers rushed toward her.

Shen Qingwan flicked her wrist, sending out a dozen silver needles.

Each needle was coated with a lethal poison, instantly felling a number of enemies.

Worried about attracting attention, she opted for a swift resolution.

Taking out a silenced gun from her spatial storage, she fired rapidly—thump, thump, thump—until all of them lay dead, their expressions frozen in disbelief.

To destroy the evidence, she collected the bodies into her storage space, then carefully wiped away the bloodstains.

As for the horses, she couldn’t take them back, nor could she risk letting them go and having them traced back to her. Instead, she killed them and stored the meat.

Though it was wasteful, she had no choice—her space couldn’t store live creatures.

If these horses bore any special markings, it would be disastrous if someone discovered them later.

Finding a low-lying area, she dug a large pit and buried the corpses.

She stripped them of valuables but found they had little—only a dozen or so taels of silver.

No wonder they resorted to robbery.

Among their belongings, she found a command token, which she kept before finishing the burial.

It wasn’t out of kindness but caution. In ancient times, investigators never missed the smallest clue. She had to be careful.

After handling the situation, Shen Qingwan calmly returned to the village.

When they brought back so much grain, the villagers were overjoyed.

The village chief announced that the food would be distributed equally among all families.

As autumn approached, life in the village grew busier.

The able-bodied men focused on clearing land for farming, while women, the elderly, and children worked on making adobe bricks to build houses.

Building adobe houses was simple, and even women, the elderly, and children could contribute.

One morning, as everyone was busy, Shen Qingwan noticed outsiders carrying buckets toward their water source.

Curious, she approached them and learned they were from Lijia Village, which had been established just days ago.

Since this was the only water source nearby, the people of Lijia Village had no choice but to come here to fetch water.