Forced to be a concubine, I went to my husband's place to become a wealthy merchant

Chapter 266

Ye Xi thought of the uncle's appearance. He was indeed not in good health and looked like the young man's grandfather.

It turned out to be the other party's father. It was obvious that he had suffered a lot in prison, otherwise why would he look so old.

It is true that every family has its own scriptures that are difficult to recite.

"Let's go." Ye Xi felt that the excitement was over and she had to go somewhere else.

Ye Xi discovered something while walking on the street. She was full of questions, but she didn't ask.

After all, the people around her were not locals of Huyang City, so it was useless for her to ask.

After she returned to the inn, she asked the innkeeper to serve the dishes. Seeing that there were not many customers, she asked the innkeeper.

"Shopkeeper, I was wandering around the streets these days and found something strange. Some people on the street were obviously locals.

Some people may not think so, but this border city has underdeveloped commerce, so how come there are so many outsiders?"

Ye Xi knew that most of the outsiders in the border city were soldiers, and soldiers were not allowed to wander the streets at will.

After hearing this, the shopkeeper laughed and said:

“Girl, it’s normal that you don’t know since you are an outsider. In this bitter cold land, people often starve to death due to insufficient food production.

The population was decreasing, and the imperial court came up with a countermeasure after learning about it.

Many exiled officials and their families or people who had suffered disasters were moved here to increase the population.

Those are probably the people the girl saw. It is normal for them to be obviously different from the locals since they are new here.”

What? It's bad enough to exile them here, but it's too much to move the victims to this bitter cold place. The court doesn't care about people's lives.

But it is also true that if one has some conscience, he would not let the people starve to death, Ye Xi thought.

"So what do these exiled officials usually do here?"

Ye Xi was curious. He had always heard about exile, but he didn't know what it was specifically for.

“Most of the exiled people were assigned to do hard labor, such as cultivating military fields or doing hard labor on engineering projects.

Anyway, we will be sent wherever there is a need for work."

These are no secrets locally.

"I see."

“Some people were pardoned and no longer had to do hard labor, but they could not leave Huyang City, so they stayed and did odd jobs.

I have a young man here who was released two years ago and came to help me with the accounting. "

The shopkeeper pointed to a young man who was taking notes with a notebook not far away.

Ye Xi looked at the young man. He was dressed in ordinary clothes, which must have been washed many times.

The original colors have been washed out, but the whole person still looks clean and tidy.

Although the young man looked tall and straight, his face was sallow.

The other person seemed to feel Ye Xi's gaze. He raised his eyes and looked towards Ye Xi, and their eyes met.

The man had never thought that a girl would stare at him like this. He felt a little embarrassed and quickly lowered his head to continue with the work in his hands.

Ye Xi could see the other person's face clearly. It was a very handsome face, but it looked unhealthy because of its sallow color. However, the other person's eyes were still very clear.

She couldn't understand why such a person was exiled. Maybe he was implicated in the disaster at home.

"Is he doing well here?" Ye Xi asked the shopkeeper.

"It's OK, he's very honest, but he doesn't talk much, and sometimes he speaks quite bluntly.

He doesn't know how to adapt. Since he knows a few words, I let him do the bookkeeping work and pay him less."

The shopkeeper said this with a hint of dissatisfaction in his eyes.