The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 99 - 88: Questionnaire Survey (For book friends: the Imperial Guard: Rongrong’s tip and updates)

Chapter 99: Chapter 88: Questionnaire Survey (For book friends: the Imperial Guard: Rongrong’s tip and updates)

Zhou Sanlang had just straightened up to look around when a whip cracked through the air and struck the ground next to him. The petty officer barked, "What are you looking at? Get back to work. If this section isn’t finished today, no one gets to knock off!"

Zhou Sanlang immediately nodded.

Manbao let out a loud shout, and when Third Brother didn’t respond, she clambered onto Zhou Wulang’s neck, sitting there and shouting towards the crowd once more, "Third Brother—"

This time, the overseer finally noticed the children. Pointing with his whip, he asked, "Hey, you kids, what are you doing?"

Some of the laborers stealthily raised their heads to look. Covered in dust, Manbao did not recognize them, but the villagers from Qili Village could easily make them out.

Zhou Family’s Wulang and Liulang, especially the one sitting on a neck, wasn’t that the Zhou Family’s precious child?

Someone immediately shouted, "Zhou Sanlang, your little brother and sister are here looking for you!"

Although the officers were supervising, they hadn’t forbidden talking, just laziness and shirking work.

Zhou Sanlang heard clearly this time. He didn’t care about the whip as he swiftly raised his head and turned to see Manbao sitting on Five’s neck. His eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Manbao, what are you doing here?"

The petty officer glanced at the children and, with a gesture of disdain, waved Zhou Sanlang away, "Go on, go on. You have fifteen minutes, but come straight back to work."

Zhou Sanlang bowed repeatedly in gratitude, dropped his hoe, and ran towards them.

Manbao finally recognized her Third Brother amidst the dusty crowd because she saw him running towards her.

Manbao wrapped her arms around Zhou Wulang’s neck, skillfully preparing to slide down, but Zhou Liulang quickly caught her.

Bai Shanbao looked on with great envy and decided that when they went back, he’d have Manbao’s brothers let him sit on their necks too. He had never sat on an adult’s neck before.

Zhou Sanlang rushed over, first eager to hug Manbao. But remembering he was covered in dust, he withdrew his hands and looked towards Zhou Wulang, "Five, is something wrong at home?"

"No," Zhou Wulang said, trying to keep a straight face. "Manbao said she missed you, so she came to see you. Third Brother, we... we missed you too. Is the labor very hard?"

He had only been there for a few days, yet he looked much darker and thinner; the weight he had only recently gained was all gone.

Yet, Zhou Sanlang smiled with a glint in his eye and shook his head. "It’s not hard, really. In such cold weather, Manbao, you should know better. And you too, trekking all this distance..."

Zhou Sanlang rambled on, and instinctively he reached for his money, wanting Manbao to use it to buy candy on her way home.

But Manbao had already taken out a piece of candy from her pocket, peeled off the wrapper, and popped it into his mouth. With a tender look, she tiptoed to touch his face, "Third Brother, you’ve lost weight."

Bent at the waist, Zhou Sanlang felt an overwhelming comfort in his heart, but he wasn’t good with words, just shaking his head continuously, "It’s not hard, not hard."

Manbao, curious, looked at them digging the soil by the roadside. "Third Brother, what are you doing?"

"Building roads," said Zhou Sanlang, happy yet unsure how to express himself. He began to eagerly tell Manbao about their service, pointing to two ditches by the roadside, "This place floods. See, the official roads are all uneven because the rainwater can’t drain, which damages them. We’re digging two small ditches to take the mud and fill the holes, so the rainwater will run off into the ditches and the roads won’t get damaged so quickly."

He pointed at a row of thatched huts in the distance, "Those are our quarters, all built temporarily. We’re responsible for eight miles of official road and nearby water management, so we live here too..."

Manbao listened intently and asked several questions. Zhou Sanlang provided more details, such as what kind of work they were doing on water management.

"It’s really simple—digging channels, four feet wide, five feet deep, encircling these fields, digging from that spot to this one..." said Zhou Sanlang with envy. "I don’t know when the county magistrate will have someone fix our village’s waterworks. If our village had a channel like this, it would be so convenient."

"So, fixing the water system is a good thing?" Manbao asked.

Zhou Sanlang replied with a smile, "Of course, it’s a good thing."

Manbao and Bai Shan exchanged glances, scratching their little heads, and whispered, "But didn’t you all not want to come and do the labor, to fix the water system back in the village?"

Zhou Sanlang immediately looked around and seeing that no officer was paying attention, whispered, "Of course we’re not willing, when it’s not our own village’s system we’re repairing..."

And indeed, the labor was very hard.

But as the thought surfaced, Zhou Sanlang again managed a smile.

Manbao then roughly understood that while it was a good thing, the benefits of the work didn’t fall on those who did the laboring.

Manbao wanted to ask more, but the petty officer was already hurrying them along, "Zhou Sanlang, come back to work, right now!"

Zhou Sanlang responded and asked Zhou Wulang to take Manbao home immediately, and then he rushed back to his labor.

Having finally arrived, even if Manbao was willing to go back, Bai Shan was not.

So, the two of them took out a small notebook from their bundle and, with pens in hand, started asking questions after grinding ink on the spot.

Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang were full of awe as they watched. Their little sister was so impressive, so young and yet already able to write; they followed her curiously to watch.

With Keke’s help, Manbao and Bai Shan had devised a clear and concise survey questionnaire, which they had noted in their notebooks.

The two children squatted in front of the laborers, asking how many people were in their families, how many able-bodied men they had, how laborers duties were divided at home, what provisions they had been given for this journey, and under what circumstances would they willingly come to repair the water system and the roads if the government did not impose the labor order?

The laborers didn’t really want to answer, being so tired from their work, who had time to humor two little kids?

But these two kids, one with a notebook and brush, the other holding an inkstone, certainly looked respectable, and it was immediately clear they came from a family of scholars.

Although nobody had the opportunity to learn to read or write, they revered scholastics.

So, they started to answer the children’s weird and wonderful questions in their spare moments. An officer noticed what was happening and came over with a whip. Seeing Bai Shan crouched and taking notes, the officer didn’t interrupt but nonetheless frowned and waited until he looked up to say, "Young Master, little lady, this is no place for you to be playing. Go somewhere else, quickly."

Bai Shan replied, "This is homework assigned by our teacher, we have to complete it."

The officer thought their teacher was messing around, sending such tiny kids here. What if something happened—whose responsibility would it be?

He said, "If you have any questions, just ask me. I can answer them all."

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