The villagers of Liushutun were stunned by the sight.
The initial wariness and fear were overwhelmed by a surge of sympathy.
Zhang the butcher frowned deeply as he looked at the man whose forehead was bleeding from the kowtow.
Li Laosan sighed again...
Just then, Aunt Zhao couldn't hold back any longer.
When she saw the little girl in the woman's arms, who was on the verge of death, her heart felt like it had been violently clenched.
She abruptly slung the bundle off her back and reached inside, her voice trembling, "What a tragedy... the baby... the baby is dying..."
Her husband and son were right there beside her.
The husband's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he sighed heavily and turned his head away.
The son frowned and said in a muffled voice, "Mother... our family isn't well-off either..." But seeing his mother's anxious look and then looking at the poor child, he didn't stop her anymore.
Aunt Zhao took out a dark-colored, hard, dry flatbread from her bundle and was about to break it open.
Jiang Chan kept a close eye on the situation.
Seeing Aunt Zhao's actions, her pupils suddenly contracted.
Countless bloody lessons from the apocalypse flashed through my mind instantly—never expose the food at this time!
Especially when faced with hungry people!
Without any hesitation, she pushed through the crowd, rushed to Aunt Zhao's side, grabbed her hand holding the pancake, and shouted, "Auntie! You can't give it to her!"
Aunt Zhao was taken aback, "Jiang girl? You..."
"We can't give them to them!" Jiang Chan's voice was firm and unwavering. "We can't give them to them!"
Jiang Chan's sudden intervention surprised the others in Liushutun.
"Look! Look!" Jiang Fu, as if he had finally gotten his chance, immediately pointed at Jiang Chan, his voice rising high and filled with sarcasm, "I told you she was cold-hearted! Heartless! Selfish to the core! Everyone, take a look at what kind of person she is!"
Upon seeing his elder brother's outburst, Jiang Shou immediately chimed in, adding sarcastically, "That's right! You're heartless! You'd rather die than help! All those years of your uncles' education of you have been wasted! We were absolutely right to kick you out of the house! Our Jiang family can't keep someone like you!"
Wang and Liu immediately echoed in shrill voices:
"Cold-blooded! Selfish!"
"They have absolutely no humanity!"
Jiang Fu straightened his back, feeling as if he were standing at the pinnacle of morality.
He looked at the people kowtowing on the ground, forcing a compassionate expression, and said in a loud voice, "Fellow villagers! Don't be afraid! I'm not a heartless person!"
He took out the bundle he had placed on his cart, carefully opened it, and took out a flatbread.
A hint of barely perceptible heartache crossed his face, but he still held the pancake high and exclaimed, "Look! This is the way of being a decent human being! When someone is in trouble, you should lend a hand if you can! You have to have a conscience!"
He placed the piece of bread in his palm and broke it open forcefully.
The hard biscuit made a crisp "crack" sound as he broke it into two uneven pieces.
Each petal is only the size of a child's fist.
He looked at the disaster victims on the ground, their eyes fixed longingly on the flatbread, hesitated for a moment, then rummaged through his bundle and pulled out an even smaller flatbread, breaking it open... and then breaking it open again...
Each piece is so small that it can be swallowed in one bite.
Jiang Fu carried the pieces of bread as if they were precious treasures, his face bearing the arrogance of a charity donor. He walked up to the group of disaster victims and placed a small piece into each of their outstretched, withered hands. "Take it! Take it!!"
The disaster victims kept calling him "great philanthropist" and "living bodhisattva."
Seeing that his elder brother had taken the lead, Jiang Shou, in order to show "brothers united," gritted his teeth, took out a hard cake from his bundle, broke it into pieces, and distributed it to the rest of the people.
Liu and Wang watched with heartache, but they dared not stop her out of pride, and could only glare fiercely at Jiang Chan.
Those who received the food were stunned at first, then burst into ecstatic cries.
"Thank you, sir! Thank you so much, you living Buddha!"
"Grandpa, you have a kind heart! May the Bodhisattva bless you with a long and healthy life!"
"You are a very good person! You will surely be rewarded!"
"You saved our lives..."
As they shoved the tiny bit of food into their mouths, they kowtowed repeatedly to Jiang Fu and Jiang Shou, uttering the most sincere compliments over and over again.
Hearing these words of gratitude and seeing the gazes of the surrounding villagers, Jiang Fu felt a surge of warmth rise to his head, straightened his back even more, and revealed an uncontrollable sense of pride on his face.
Jiang Shou also temporarily forgot his back pain because of the feeling of triumph.
Hearing the titles of "living bodhisattva" and "great philanthropist," Liu and Wang, though still heartbroken over the loss of grain, couldn't help but reveal a hint of vanity on their faces.
Across the ditch, the figures who had been lying and struggling suddenly noticed the commotion.
I saw that some people had received food! I saw hope!
"There's food! There's food over there!"
"Grandpa! Kind sir! Please give us a bite too!"
"Please! We're dying too..."
A dozen or so figures, looking even more emaciated and desperate than the previous group, unleashed astonishing power as they tumbled and crawled toward the Jiang brothers!
The crying was even more piercing than before, and the actions of kneeling and kowtowing were even more frantic.
Jiang Fu's smug smile froze instantly.
Jiang Shou was also dumbfounded.
"This..." Jiang Fu felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at the dozen or so hungry and crazed faces that suddenly surrounded him.
He instinctively tried to close the bundle and hide it.
"Great philanthropist! Please have mercy! Please show some compassion!" An old man, thin as a skeleton, rushed to Jiang Fu's feet, tightly hugging his leg, his face upturned, his cloudy tears mixed with dirt, "You are a great philanthropist... you can't just stand by and watch someone die..."
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