Chapter 294 Foresight

Bringing such a large group of people to seek refuge with Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan, not to mention what Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan would think, he himself would first feel that he was extremely shameless.

Not to mention relatives, you simply can't select them based on their character.

He can guarantee that his family and his parents are not the kind of people who take advantage of others, and he can also restrain his brothers and their families.

He could even reason with most of his relatives and persuade them.

But the remaining small group...

In Chen Zhao's plan, even if he took his family to seek refuge with Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan, he would only trouble Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan to take some time to find a house that could accommodate all of them. He would also ask Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan to look after them for a while to prevent them from being bullied by local thugs because they were new to the area.

In other aspects, such as rent and the family's food, clothing, and daily necessities, he would never let Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan bear the burden as well.

But Chen Zhao didn't think that some of his relatives, who were always looking to take advantage of others, would behave themselves.

They'll definitely act like a locust swarm, trying to ransack Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan's house.

If he sets rules for them beforehand and warns them to behave themselves, they will argue back with great conviction:

“We’re all relatives. Now that we’re in trouble, isn’t it only right that they provide us with food and lodging?”

"Now that they've become successful, what's wrong with them taking care of their poor relatives?"

"......"

Even if you tell people who have no intention of reasoning with you that Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan are his and Wang Xiaozhi's relatives, not theirs, they will only argue with you unreasonably.

He's unreasonable, uncontrollable, greedy, and stupid. If he dared to bring such a person to Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan, they would never compromise for his sake.

Well, let alone Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan, even his wife Wang Xiaozhi is the kind of person who would immediately overturn the table and kick someone out if they took advantage of her.

Rather than letting things get ugly later, he might as well eliminate all potential problems from the very beginning.

It must be said that Chen Zhao was indeed very prescient in this regard.

He hadn't even brought his own eccentric relatives over yet, and they had already come knocking on his door after hearing the news.

Chen Zhao had no idea how the other party had the nerve to persuade him to take them along to bother Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan.

Even if he doesn't plan to go, and even if he changes his mind due to circumstances and really goes, he will only bring his wife, children, parents, and brothers. What kind of uncles from the Eighth Route Army, cousins ​​he hasn't been in touch with for a long time, and aunts who used to have a lot of conflicts with his mother when he was a girl... How dare they come looking for him?

The only thing that made Chen Zhao feel somewhat relieved was that his parents and his brother and sister-in-law were still quite clear-headed. Although their respective eccentric relatives had also come to them, they had all simply sent those people away without bringing them to Wang Xiaozhi and Chen Zhao.

Of course, there were a very few who were oblivious to the consequences and insisted on dancing right in front of Chen Zhao, and there was really nothing that could be done about them.

While they were bustling about, busy preparing for the possible natural disaster, the Chen family, who had also received Xie Wanniang's invitation to stay temporarily, had a rare disagreement.

As the only legitimate doctor in Mingfu Village, Dr. Chen naturally couldn't abandon the villagers at this time.

Elderly people with common sense know that major disasters are inevitably accompanied by major epidemics. This is why, while reminding the villagers to stockpile food, Chen Lizheng also specifically reminded Doctor Chen to stockpile medicinal herbs.

Dr. Chen readily heeded Chen Lizheng's advice, but when he planned to empty his savings to buy medicine, his wife and daughters-in-law objected.

Well, actually his sons didn't agree with him emptying the family's savings to buy medicine, but they had always been punished by their father because they were so bad at studying medicine, so they didn't dare to say anything against it in front of Dr. Chen.

His wife, as the main force in the fight, stood with her hands on her hips, pointed at Dr. Chen's nose, and shouted insults.

"I think you've gone mad with greed! You've spent all your money on medicine. What, are you saying your family of dozens of people will starve starting tomorrow?"

"Look at your son and grandson, toiling away from dawn till dusk, and then look at me and the others, scrimping and saving, working tirelessly every day! Do you think it was easy for us to save up this little bit of wealth? Huh?"

"You old geezer, all you ever do is be too kind. No matter who drops a few drops of cat pee in front of you, you'll give them a discount on their medicine. Not to mention you've secretly given away who knows how much of it for free."

"Whose money do you think you're wasting? It's mine, and it belongs to your son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and granddaughter!"

"We fought tooth and nail to make it, and you fought tooth and nail to lose. So, the lives of people from two different families matter, but the lives of your wife, children, and grandchildren don't matter?"

"Let me tell you, Mr. Chen, if you dare to take all the money in the house and use it to buy and hoard medicine, I'll fight you to the death!"

Dr. Chen was scolded by his wife and kept backing away, but in order to stockpile medicinal herbs, he could not go along with his wife's wishes and say that he had changed his mind.

"Our family has saved up quite a lot of grain, so we're not going to starve."

"Besides, I'm a doctor. If I stockpile medicinal herbs, I can exchange them for food and money when people come to me for treatment."

"Pah! I don't believe you for a second!" The old woman pointed at his nose. "In a year of famine, who would be willing to exchange grain and money for medicine with you? They'd all be kneeling in front of you crying, trying to lift you up, you old geezer, and you'd still have to keep paying them out!"

The other members of the Chen family nodded in agreement.

Dr. Chen was so angry that he was fuming, but he couldn't refute his wife, because during the war years, his family had experienced the same embarrassing situation more than once.

In Mingfu Village, most of the villagers share the surname Chen and are his relatives. The remaining small portion, although not related to him, still share some neighborly affection with him because they have lived in the same village for so long. He couldn't bear to hold back the medicinal herbs and not go to save the person who was crying and kneeling there, playing the victim.

The problem is that he also has a large family waiting for money and food to make a living. Every time he softens his heart, his entire family has to pay the price.

If it weren't for the fact that Chen Lizheng and a few wealthy families in the Chen clan had been secretly helping his family, he wouldn't know how many times his not-so-lazy family members would have gone hungry.