LIGHTNOVELONLINE
Chapter 208
Yin Chuan had only come for an initial inquiry and hadn't taken away the numerous items, presumably waiting until his own house was fully built before collecting them.
However, he found the Old Lady quite interesting. Rather than calling it war, it was more about human nature, he thought, sighing as he gazed at the azure sky.
Wen Qian told An An about some professions she knew or had heard of, and An An expressed that she could handle being an island keeper or a forest ranger.
Wen Qian said that if An An had been born in that era, she would have had countless possibilities, though at the time, everyone's favorite was still being a civil servant.
Now there were no civil servants, but similar professions existed, though they weren't obtained through exams.
An An thought this thing called an exam was quite fair, otherwise many professions now were simply passed down from father to son, or mother to daughter, with no opportunity to obtain them through testing.
During the period when Yin Chuan was building his house, Wen Qian and An An continued to discuss this topic, and she also asked An An to keep an eye on the newcomer's activities.
An An thought her mother wanted her to observe if this person had any ill intentions, to make sure there was nothing unusual about him.
As a result, An An appeared quite frequently, which made Guo Guo start to mutter, mostly during her alone time with her husband.
She wondered if An An was interested in this newcomer, otherwise why would she come to check on the progress so often?
An An hadn't thought this behavior could lead to such a misunderstanding, but even if there was a misunderstanding, it didn't matter much; her mother's task was more important.
But it seemed Yin Chuan hadn't done anything wrong. He appeared to be constantly buying things, so much so that the general store owner was willing to lend him his handcart, suggesting he had bought quite a lot.
The Uncle at the general store was smiling so hard his eyes were barely visible. It wasn't just that Yin Chuan had bought a lot; he had nearly bought out the entire store. The owner wouldn't mind personally delivering goods to him.
After getting this information from the store owner, An An went home to tell her mother. Upon hearing this, Wen Qian told An An to also prepare to stock up on more daily necessities.
They had enough food, but they needed to see if they should stock up on scattered items like daily necessities.
So An An also became a big shopper. Wen Qian told her to explain to others that she herself had limited mobility, so An An had to take care of her constantly and wouldn't be coming often in the future.
This reason was quite suitable, but when familiar people heard it, their first reaction was that Wen Qian was in poor health, which led to a misunderstanding.
When Wen Qian heard about this, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. To the younger generations who came to visit and inquire, she said she was fine, but she had a bad feeling, so she was buying more daily necessities.
Yin Chuan also heard about this. He told the people building his house that the south was indeed unstable, with apparent friction between cities.
So nearby neighbors, including the general store owner, all went back to stock up, thinking that regardless of what the Old Lady said, they should at least respect the news from someone who came from the south.
It was better to buy more; it wouldn't spoil even if stored for an extra year.
By the second autumn of the year, something indeed happened in the south. Several cities started fighting, though it was unclear what they were fighting over, but it lasted quite a while.
As for why they fought in autumn, perhaps it was because autumn is the harvest season, so everyone was well-fed and had the energy to fight.
An An first learned about this news from Yin Chuan, who paid her to help him mark the boundaries of his area.
Perhaps because Wen Qian had initially drawn boundaries with the surrounding people, everyone in this area would demarcate their own territory.
This way, people wouldn't conflict over boundaries. Setting them clearly at the beginning would save a lot of trouble later.
Another reason was that this place was sparsely populated with vast forests, so there was no need to fight over anything.
The war didn't have much impact on the north. The nearest small town was still under martial law, and for a long time, except for pregnant women giving birth, not many people were allowed to enter.
Even if the general store owner needed supplies, goods could come out, but people couldn't go in.
Even the villages were more desolate than usual.
It happened to be winter coming up, so there was even less of an impact on the north.
News was blocked, and people here didn't know how the fighting in the south was progressing.
In any case, as Wen Qian said, it was always the common people who suffered.
Yin Chuan was impressed by this Old Lady because of her prediction about the war. He had originally walked this far to stay away from troubled areas.
Later, he just kept walking north, stopping when he became tired and wanted to settle down.
This walk had brought him here.
He spent money buying many things for the winter, planning to make a living by hunting starting the next year. As for farming, he thought he might not be very suitable for it.
He didn't know what the Old Lady's basis was, so he later went to ask Wen Qian specifically.
Wen Qian still said the same thing: humans just like to meddle, turning bad things into good, and good things into bad.
As long as there's life, there's meddling.
Yin Chuan didn't get any definite reason, but he agreed with what the Old Lady said.
Those cities had indeed been stable for too long.
Later, when news came through, everyone learned that some decision-makers in the cities were about to retire, but how many people could let go of such significant power?
So selection became hereditary, and heredity turned into mutual competition, making war unsurprising.
On the contrary, places like the small town, which had always followed the ideals of the previous decision-makers, were still doing well.
It was only then that An An learned that in the southern cities, there were huge wealth gaps and class distinctions. Not only were there rich people, but there was also talk of nobility, which had never been mentioned in her mother's teachings.
When she asked Wen Qian about it, Wen Qian said she was just an ordinary person back then and might not have understood the world of the wealthy. At that time, forget about nobility, there was even a Royal Family.
An An wasn't interested in the Royal Family because when Wen Qian told stories in her childhood, she told many similar plots about princes and princesses.
In the end, An An got bored and asked why there were so many princes and princesses, feeling like there were more of them than the persimmons on their persimmon tree.
Finally, she learned that a country was about the size of a village, and then she became immune to it.
When Yin Chuan heard her comment, he laughed out loud, finding both people in this family quite interesting.
"Are you a noble then? The kind that wears silk and adorns themselves with gold and silver?" An An suddenly asked, because she thought this person might have come here early to avoid the war, possibly because he wasn't an outsider.
Yin Chuan stopped nailing the railing and looked at her. "My family has never been nobility. I'm a descendant of scientists."
An An's eyes widened.
She had heard stories about scientists before. Her mother had told her that scientists had gone through a great massacre after the natural disaster, so there were no scientists left anymore.