Hehehehe~ See you in three days~
Both Yan Shujin and Yan Qiyu were full, but the aroma still made them swallow hard. Yan Shujin led her younger brother over and said with a smile, "Mr. Du."
Mr. Du handed the items to the pageboy beside him, then stood up and patted his clothes, saying, "Sit here."
As if they had anticipated Yan Shujin and the others' arrival, a table with three chairs was set up not far away. After the three of them sat down, a maid brought tea and snacks.
Mr. Du asked, "Have you thought of an answer?"
Yan Shujin and Yan Qiyu both nodded.
Mr. Du asked with a smile, "Who wants to speak first?"
Yan Shujin countered, "Whose opinion do you wish to hear first, sir?"
Mr. Du wasn't angry. Instead, he took a sip of his tea and said, "Whatever."
Yan Qiyu paused for a moment and asked, "Sir, how many able-bodied men are there in the town? How many elderly and infirm men? How many children? And women?"
He forgot to ask this question yesterday. He thought about it all night and came up with two solutions, but he would have to choose one based on the town's situation.
Mr. Du raised an eyebrow at Yan Qiyu and said, "Is there a difference?"
Yan Qiyu paused for a moment, then said seriously, "I think there's a big difference."
Mr. Du was satisfied with Yan Qiyu's persistence, but said calmly, "I don't think there's any difference."
Yan Qiyu looked at Mr. Du with some confusion, then at Yan Shujin. He had thought that his sister had forgotten to ask the question yesterday, but now it seemed that she hadn't. Was he thinking in the wrong direction?
Mr. Du asked, "Have you thought it through?"
Yan Qiyu hesitated for a moment before nodding and saying, "My sister suggested it first yesterday, so I'll do it today."
Yan Shujin said, "Okay."
Yan Qiyu said, "I don't think the refugee is right. No matter what, it's impossible for only the elderly and children to be left. Generally speaking, the elderly and children are weak and they are the first to perish if something happens."
In the event of a famine, the elderly are usually the first to be abandoned, followed by children. Abandonment alone is one thing, but in many cases, cannibalism occurs.
Yan Shujin had never seen these things; she heard them from an old woman who served Lady Wang. The old woman said she was lucky and survived because Lady Wang saved her, so she stayed by Lady Wang's side to serve her.
Yan Qiyu thought for a moment and then said, "I think we should seal the gates and not let anyone in, and then send food down from the city wall in baskets every day."
Yan Shujin listened attentively to her younger brother's thoughts, her eyes flickered, but she didn't say anything.
Yan Qiyu was also somewhat unsure: "In addition to that, we also need to report to the authorities and ask them to send people to take these people under control."
Mr. Du suddenly asked, "If that's the case, why did you ask how many able-bodied men are in the town?"
Yan Qiyu hesitated for a moment and said, "If there are many able-bodied people, I would like to set up a separate courtyard in the town to house these people, and then have them take turns patrolling and guarding the courtyard."
Mr. Du nodded and looked at Yan Shujin, asking, "So what do you think?"
Yan Shujin touched the rim of the glass and said, "I don't know."
In fact, Yan Shujin had already thought of what to do when Mr. Du finished raising the question, but she spent the whole night considering whether to change her answer.
Mr. Du was arranged by her father to teach them, and their answers should reach her father's ears by tomorrow at the latest. Even if she felt that her ideas were correct, she couldn't guarantee that others wouldn't think she was too cruel.
Yan Shujin remembered that Madam Wang once said that if a person is too smart, he will inevitably be resented by others, even his closest relatives.
Yan Shujin asked a question at the time: What should we do? Pretend to be stupid?
Madam Wang smiled and shook her head. Pretending to be stupid is the stupidest thing to do, because if you pretend for too long, you might even start to doubt whether you are really stupid or just pretending. And... if others think you are stupid, then you will have no place to speak in the future.
Intelligent people with weaknesses are more likely to be accepted.
However, this weakness can be real or it can be something you show, depending on the situation and the person you are with.
Yan Shujin remembered what Madam Wang said, but she didn't quite understand it until last night.
Mr. Du looked at Yan Shujin with some surprise after hearing her answer.
Once Yan Shujin made up her mind, she no longer hesitated: "There are forty refugees outside, but most of them are elderly people and children. Even women are a small minority. This can only mean one thing: there must be people hiding behind them. Most of them are young adults, and women and children should only make up a minority. There may or may not be elderly people."
Mr. Du raised an eyebrow: "Why do you think that?"
"The fact that these forty old people and children are alive proves that they are not at their wits' end." Yan Shujin said solemnly, "Since these people can still walk, they must have some food and drink along the way. However, they probably don't have any adult men in their families, and the able-bodied men hiding behind them would not let their wives and children do dangerous things."
Even as a hypothetical scenario, Yan Shujin felt uneasy: "There should only be no more than a hundred able-bodied men, so they let these people who didn't come knocking first to test the town's reaction. If the townspeople weren't cautious enough or thought they had the upper hand in numbers and let these old and young people into the town, then they might take over the town at night with the help of others."
Moreover, there must be a leader among them, and that person does not show himself, hides the young and middle-aged people, and instead lets the elderly and children, who are most likely to lower people's guard, come forward. This is enough to prove that the leader is insidious and cruel.
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