The group quickly descended the mountain.
Upon seeing Chen Gui, Gou Dan's mother cried out in anguish, "Old village head, Qin Ru is dead."
"What happened?"
A look of worry flashed across Chen Gui's face.
"I heard that he was trying to save food for his family, so he only ate one meal a day, half a bowl of wild vegetable soup, and went to pick fruit on the cliff edge. He accidentally fell off."
"He died a terrible death. I heard his face was smashed beyond recognition."
Everyone suddenly realized.
Qin Ru was a widow with three children and a mother-in-law.
"It's so tragic. Her mother-in-law is also a lazy woman, greedy and cunning. She stays at home all day making shoe soles and never does any work in the fields. Her excuse is that her back hurts. She's just like Xian Ge."
Chen Xian: "..."
“I saw her when she went up the mountain. She was pale and bloodless, and she was walking unsteadily. I think she was so hungry that she couldn’t walk. She was too weak to pick fruit and accidentally fell down.”
"Yes, the villagers have basically picked all the easy-to-pick fruits and wild vegetables, leaving only dangerous and remote places."
"That's terrible."
Chen Gui looked gloomy, and it appeared that he had accidentally fallen.
In reality, it's still because there's no food.
Chen Gui said seriously, "Each household should contribute a small handful of grain to help the Jia family through this difficult time. Once the grain is collected, the Jia family will repay the debt."
Everyone scoffed. The old village headman was putting on a nice front, but what did he mean by "it's considered a loan to the Jia family"?
It has been several months since the beginning of spring.
Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that this year is definitely going to be a year of famine.
In this situation, lending grain to the Jia family was essentially a waste of money.
The villagers whispered among themselves.
Granny Jia, with her dog-like eyes wide open, cried and wailed.
“My son and my old man, you died too young. Only this old woman is left. I am struggling to survive in the village. Where will we, a widow and her children, find shelter in the future?”
"Nobody pities us at all, boohoo..."
Anyway, it was all bark and no bite.
The Jia family children stared blankly at the corpse wrapped in a white sheet on the ground.
Chen Gui looked at the villagers with a cold and hard expression.
Granny Jia usually stays in the village, talking nonsense and spreading rumors, and her three children are also bad kids who steal chickens and dogs.
No matter how bad things were, he had lived in Qingxia Village for decades, and he couldn't just watch his wife and children starve to death.
Chen Gui's expression was stiff.
Originally, he wanted to tell everyone about the pineapples first, so that everyone could pick them and take them home.
Finally, I'll tell you how to divert the mountain spring water.
But now I see everyone's suspicious expressions.
My thoughts are racing.
He spoke with great vigor.
"I just came down from the mountain, and to tell you the truth, everyone's food harvest this year may be saved. At the very least, we can expect to harvest half again as much."
"What?"
"quiet!"
Chen Qingshan is now playing the role of a tool, finding two stones and forcefully banging them together to act as a gavel.
"There is a mountain spring!"
A simple sentence gathered in the crowd and created a huge sound.
Zhang Daguang said with a grin, "Uncle Village Head, this is a good thing!"
Da Cheng's mother: "That's right! The well in the village has been producing very little water since yesterday. I reckon the water stored underground is almost used up."
Just then.
Dog Egg's mother rushed over, panicked, and said, "Uncle Gui, the well in the village is no longer producing water."
"What?"
"My God, a person can survive for a few days without food, but if they don't drink water, I reckon they won't last even a day."
"Does this mean we have no choice but to go to the neighboring Red Leaf Village?"
"You're overthinking it. The well in our village can't get any water. If the well in the neighboring Red Leaf Village could get water, wouldn't they take advantage of our misfortune and make us bleed?"
"Yes, it will probably cost quite a few copper coins."
"No, I think those guys from Red Leaf Village should ask for food!"
The more they thought about it, the more frightened and terrified they became, and some people in the crowd began to wail.
Chen Gui had a bit of a headache!
"Take a break, there's a mountain spring, no one will die of thirst."
Everyone was overjoyed.
Zhao Dayou said lazily, "Uncle Gui, the news is good news, at most no one will die of thirst, but have you thought about how much water will be left after we carry buckets up the mountain and down?"
A bucket of cold water was poured over them, and the villagers fell silent.
very good.
Chen Qingshan watched coldly from the sidelines.
He instructed his son to take a small notebook and write down the names of all the troublemakers in the village.
When the pineapples are distributed later, these people will only receive half the amount of the others.
I hold grudges.
My father is so old, yet he still cares about your well-being, and all you do is spout a bunch of sarcastic remarks to the outside world.
Chen Gui stood on high ground and shouted, "Cut down bamboo to get water!"
What's the meaning?
Chen Gui seemed like a wise man; he didn't want to talk to the villagers anymore.
He was very hurt.
Chen Qingshan stepped forward to take over.
“Take bamboo, cut off the middle section, so that the mountain spring can flow down along the bamboo section.”
If one bamboo pole isn't enough, then use two, three, four, until you can reach the foot of the mountain and the fields.
We tied the bamboo poles together with hemp rope.
The villagers suddenly realized the answer to their whimsical idea.
"Is this feasible? The mountain is so high, and there are so many steps. How many people do we have here? Can we finish it? How long will it take?"
Granny Jia's muttering was quite loud.
Chen Qingshan glanced at them coldly, thinking, "What's the point of donating grain to people like that?"
By the way, how do you write "婆" (po) in Jia Pozi's name again?
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