The sour and sweet yellow peach juice spread in the mouth, making people salivate. Even though the yellow peach was not peeled, it still tasted amazing. If you didn't taste it carefully, you wouldn't even be able to detect the disgusting fuzzy texture on the outside of the peach skin. He Zhennan subconsciously slowed down his pace when eating, intending to slowly savor the flavor of the peach.
Wanxi Village was surrounded by mountains on three sides, so there wasn't much to wander around. So, Qin Suyun took He Zhennan on a tour around the village, taking the opportunity to see for themselves the extent of the earthquake damage.
After a round of inspection, Qin Suyun also discovered that the area in Wanxi Village that suffered the most damage was probably the area with the most houses in the village, while the surrounding farmlands suffered less damage.
But this small is only relative to the village.
Naturally, the rice fields in the village are untouched. A few months ago, high temperatures prevented planting, and then winter, with its cooler temperatures, also made rice impossible to plant. Large tracts of paddy fields remain empty. These days, grain yields are high, with one acre typically yielding over a thousand kilograms.
With the abundance of food, people no longer plant two crops of rice a year as they used to, but basically only one. Therefore, these places can be said to have been unscathed. Instead, the private vegetable plots of the villagers were greatly affected.
With the arrival of the earthquake, except for some vegetable fields near the foot of the mountain that were affected and buried underground, most of the other fields were affected by the hailstorm last night. The spinach, cabbage and other crops in the fields that could have been harvested were all smashed to pieces by the hail. Only the radishes buried in the ground should be slightly better off.
But now everyone is busy with village affairs and wants to dig out the supplies buried in the ground as soon as possible. Even though they know that the hailstorm has smashed the newly planted vegetables in their own vegetable gardens, they have no time to come and rescue them.
Qin Suyun took He Zhennan on a tour of Wanxi Village. Seeing the broken road at the entrance, she sighed. She knew that a village road of this level would not be able to withstand the damage of an earthquake.
Fortunately, Wanxi Village is not the epicenter of the most powerful earthquake. The collapsed section of the road only accounts for one-third of the total section, so you can still pass it by riding a bicycle.
"Let's go back to the village. I want to see the situation in the village and talk to the village chief about my intention to stay in the village for a while." He Zhennan has been staying at Qin Suyun's house since he woke up. Although he had heard many villagers mention that the earthquake was wide in scope and large in magnitude, he was still shocked to see it with his own eyes, especially the devastation in the village at a glance before, and the hailstones on the ground that had not melted yet.
While still in the yard, He Zhennan discovered that the hailstorm that fell last night had even broken the glass mirrors of two of the three cars in Qin Suyun's yard. Spider-web-like cracks spread across the glass mirrors, and one could tell just how severe the hailstorm was last night.
Looking at the situation in the village now, it is almost the same as he imagined. He Zhennan frowned and looked coldly.
"Okay, then I'll take you to the village chief." Qin Suyun walked in front to lead the way, and didn't notice the strange expression on He Zhennan's face at all.
The two returned to the village again from the village entrance.
Now everyone in the village was busy, many of them digging out what was left of their homes, such as quilts and cotton-padded clothes that hadn't been smashed, and some grain that hadn't been damaged. Many of them even dragged out the pigs, cattle, and sheep that had been smashed to death in their backyards.
The Chinese New Year is approaching, which is the time when the pigs in the family are the fattest. These large livestock are a great fortune for farmers, so everyone naturally dug them out first. Many chickens and ducks that were originally kept in the backyard were also dug out by them.
When Qin Suyun arrived at the village, she found that many people had dug out their dead pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese and dumped them on an open space on the side. Two households even started to sell them directly. It was unknown from whom they borrowed tables, chairs, and kitchen knives, but they simply skinned the pigs and cattle that had been smashed to death and cut them into several large pieces.
As for the butchers sitting behind the table, they were two kids about twelve or thirteen years old with four or five little brats.
It goes without saying that the adults in the family are looking for their own things in the ruins, and they let these children who don't have enough strength to carry stones stay here to help them watch the meat stall. After all, everyone in the village knows each other, so there is no way they will encounter someone who takes the meat and runs away without paying. In addition, the adults are watching not far away, so as long as the children here yell, they will come over immediately, and there is no need to worry about any problems.
Many of these pigs and cows that were smashed to death had large wounds on their bodies and had already bled out. In addition, it was freezing cold last night, so they looked very fresh when they were dug out.
Qin Suyun glanced at the five unskinned pigs, three sheep, and a cow next to the two stalls, then looked at the children sitting behind the two stalls and asked, "How much are you selling the meat for?"
"What's on my side is beef, and what's on his side is pork. Our parents said that if you don't pick and choose and just take what's on the chopping board, it will be cheaper. If you ask for them to be separated, it will be more expensive. Sister Qin, how do you want to buy it? My dad said both food and money are fine." The oldest girl behind the two stalls stood up and explained to Qin Suyun.
Qin Suyun looked carefully at the meat on the table. A pig was directly divided into seven large pieces by the other party. The other party did not separate the bones and meat, but sold them directly by piece. The large piece of pork ribs with pork belly in the middle should have been bought by someone. Now there are only six large pieces left on the table.
The beef on this stall is not the yellow cattle sold in the vegetable market on weekdays, but a big buffalo that plows the fields. This buffalo is quite big, so the other party only put half of it on the table, and the other half was hung on a tree next to it.
"You name a price, or you can ask your parents to come over and I will discuss the price of the meat with them." With so many dogs at home, there is never too much meat.
Ever since she knew that the natural disaster was going to happen, Qin Suyun didn't like to leave money on the card. Except for the last 100,000 yuan left in the card, the rest of the money had been withdrawn by Qin Suyun long ago. Now the money she had was more than enough to buy the meat.
However, Qin Suyun felt that after the earthquake, the money in her hands would be of little use, and it would be better to exchange it for food. But she couldn't tell others this, after all, not everyone would believe what she said.
"Okay, Ermao, go call my parents and come over with you, and tell them that someone wants to buy our meat." The little girl nodded at Qin Suyun and called to the little boy sitting at the pork stall nearby.
The little boy was smart. He nodded and ran towards the village like a little whirlwind.
He Zhennan followed behind Qin Suyun, but did not rush her to leave. Instead, he followed her with great interest, listening to Qin Suyun and the little girl's parents discussing the purchase of meat.
The two people who came were named Zhao Weizhong and Zhao Weide. Three generations of their ancestors were villagers of Zhaojia Village. The other family could be regarded as a four-generation family living under one roof, which was quite common in Zhaojia Village. Old Mr. Zhao had only two sons, and the two families had not separated until now, so the pigs, cattle, and sheep in the family were all raised together.
Their family is large and they work on the farm at home every day. On weekdays, they just do some small business at the market. Therefore, they have a lot of livestock at home. They have ten fat pigs alone, not to mention chickens, cows, and sheep.
With the Lunar New Year just around the corner, they were hoping to sell their fat pigs for a good price to help save for their children's school fees. Suddenly, an earthquake struck, crushing all the pigs to death! The family spent a day digging, only to recover eight pigs. Of the eight pigs they dug from the rubble, two were so badly damaged they had to keep them for themselves, while the remaining six were intended to be sold for a little extra money.
Now that they have encountered such a big thing, only money can give them a little peace of mind.
The pigs that were crushed to death naturally could not be priced the same as the pork Qin Suyun had bought from the farm before, even because of their breed. In addition, there were many more pigs, cattle and sheep that were crushed to death by the earthquake yesterday.
Therefore, after Zhao Weizhong and Zhao Weide discussed it, they gritted their teeth and asked for only double the original market price of Qin Suyun.
The houses where the two families lived had completely collapsed in yesterday's earthquake. They had to quickly use the money to sell some bricks, tiles, food and other things. In the current situation, they didn't know if they could wait for the government to come to rescue them. They still had to rely on themselves.
Qin Suyun had no interest in the price offered by the two brothers Zhao Weizhong and Zhao Weide. She happily bought two pigs and a sheep, and also bought the cow that was cut up on the chopping board. She planned to feed meat to Dahei and the others every day during this period, and hang the leftover meat outside to smoke and make stinky bacon.
But Qin Suyun still remembered that she had to take He Zhennan to see the village chief.
Therefore, Qin Suyun made an agreement with the two Zhao brothers that she would go to the village chief first, and then come back to bring the meat back. When the time came, she would just wait for the two brothers to help her carry the meat into the yard, and she would immediately pay with cash.
"That's no problem, Sister Qin. Just take this young man to find the village chief. He's in Secretary Zhao's house up ahead, discussing things with him."
When Zhao Weizhong heard that Qin Suyun was willing to pay in cash directly, he immediately smiled sincerely at Qin Suyun.
Although it is winter now and the temperature is lower than usual, how can an ordinary family eat so much meat at one time?
There were more than a dozen people in their family. Even if they ate meat every day, they would still have to eat the buffalo that was killed until it stank. Not to mention the numerous dead and injured livestock in the village! If he didn't buy it now, he was afraid that everyone would want to come out and sell all the dead livestock!
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