He knew that it would be impossible to ask An Jiuyue to live in the village. Although they had only interacted for a few days, he could tell that she did not like socializing.

Living on the mountain also had its benefits.

A flood might occur by the Cascade River whenever it rained heavily. The mountain was safer than the village.

“Maybe you can build a bigger house next to the treehouse and buy two servants from the brokerage to watch after Zheng’er and the others. Then you’ll have some free time to do your own things. Will that be better?”

An Jiuyue was surprised. She stopped in her tracks suddenly and looked at Qian Jiyun, who stopped too.

“Will that be better for you?” she asked unhappily.

All the talk about building a house on the mountain is so that he can come and stay for a few days whenever he wants, right?

Does he think I’m a young lady who can’t figure out his hidden agenda?

Qian Jiyun lowered his head and chuckled.

“It will.” He did not deny it.

With An Jiuyue living in the treehouse and five children constantly around, he found it impossible to grow closer to her.

An Yilu and the other two were fine—they were too young to understand adult relationships. However, Zheng’er and Rong’er were older. They would catch on to them if something happened.

He also wanted her to buy a few servants to watch over the children as he did not want her to busy herself with them every day.

Of course, he would make arrangements for her servants instead of letting her go to the brokerage to buy some unreliable ones. It would be bad if they caused trouble for her.

“But Jiuyue, you can’t deny that there are many children now, right? I won’t have to suggest this if you only have Zheng’er and Rong’er.

“The children will grow up in a few years. Even if we don’t do anything now, they will need a bigger house in a few years.

“Of course, we can live in town or the county if you’d like. It’ll be easier for me to take care of you. However, I know you won’t agree to it, so I won’t mention it.

“I just hope you and the children can live in a more spacious house. What do you think?”

An Jiuyue took a deep breath after listening to him. She did not nod or shake her head.

“Let me think about it again.”

“Okay.”

Qian Jiyun was relieved that she did not immediately reject his suggestion.

He was afraid she would object to it and even more afraid she would dislike him because of it. He would not know what to do if that happened.

Fortunately, the young lady did not dislike him.

“Let’s go deeper into the mountains today. How about that?”

“Sure.” An Jiuyue nodded. She wanted to see if there was anything she could gather too.

She had to go deeper into the mountains for that. A lot of villagers had been coming here recently. Almost everything that could be found around the mountain had been brought into the village.

There was a continuous mountain range near An Yue Town. With so many mountains, not many people would starve to death even if a flood occurred.

It was easy finding something on the mountain to sustain a family for a couple of days. If any family starved to death, the fault would lie in their laziness!