"Dad, how many should we cook?" The village chief's wife hesitated for a moment, then took four sweet potatoes in her hand. There were eight people in their family, so they would cook four sweet potatoes and each person would eat half of one.
The village chief told her to put three back, only taking one, saying, "You spendthrift woman, these sweet potatoes were given to us by Young Master Zhu and his family for disaster relief, not for our own consumption. I told you to cook one to try the taste, but who told you to take so many? If you keep eating like this, you'll squander even the biggest fortune."
"I just feel that the sweet potatoes were a gift from someone else, and we went through a lot of trouble to carry them back. What's wrong with eating half an extra one? How can you say that? I'm just trying to make things more economical for the family. How is that wasteful?" The village chief's wife pouted.
The village chief looked embarrassed and waved his hand, "Alright, I don't want to argue with you. Hurry up and cook it, cut it into small pieces and make soup."
Zhu Qiuyu just taught him how to eat it. If there is no food shortage, it can be steamed directly. However, when food is scarce, it is best to cook it into porridge with rice, wheat, or millet. This will fill you up and allow you to eat for several more days.
Fifteen minutes later, the village chief and his family were holding bowls, drinking sweet potato soup with delighted expressions. It was so delicious! The sweet potatoes were soft, sticky, and very tasty, and even the soup had a sweet taste. Sweet potatoes are truly a wonderful thing.
"Milk, is there any more? I want more!" The village chief's grandson stretched out his bowl, begging.
"That's all. Just one bowl per person. This is disaster relief grain, not ours. We can't embezzle it." As the village chief's wife said this, her eyes swept over the village chief, giving him a sarcastic look.
"Stop making noise, go to sleep after you finish eating. We'll weigh it and divide it up when everyone comes over tomorrow, then we can eat it then." The village chief finished the last sip of soup, wiped his mouth, and went back to his room to sleep.
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, the village chief's house became lively. Everyone in the village was called over, and they were told that disaster relief grain was to be distributed. Everyone weighed the grain together, and then everyone watched as it was distributed.
"It's so noisy! What's the village chief doing?" Xingxing jumped out of bed, pouting as she looked next door. However, she had no visual clues in her mind, so she didn't know what was going on.
Zhu Lin had already gotten up and dressed. Hearing a noise from next door, she instinctively wanted to knock, but then she remembered that her two senior sisters and Xingxing were sleeping in the same room, so she gave up the idea.
Zhu Changge got up to comb Xingxing's hair. The little girl dressed herself and went out of the house, looking curious as she wanted to go next door to see what was going on. However, the noise from next door soon stopped, and the villagers seemed to have dispersed.
That's incredibly fast! What happened?
At this moment, Zhu Qiuyu entered from the courtyard gate, holding a folding fan in his hand, his expression cold and stern, as if he were angry.
"Senior Brother, who made someone angry?" Xingxing ran over and asked with concern.
Seeing the little girl's soft and cute face, Zhu Qiuyu's face softened with warmth, and she explained gently, "It's nothing. I just went next door, and the village chief was distributing sweet potatoes to everyone. The six bags of sweet potatoes were placed there properly, but some people were being sarcastic, implying that the village chief had hidden more sweet potatoes and only took out a small amount to distribute to everyone."
Zhu Qiuyu had just gotten up and was standing in the yard when she heard some villagers next door making sarcastic remarks. The village chief and his wife were upright people. They had indeed eaten one last night and felt a little guilty. They didn't have the confidence to argue back, so they just gave a good-natured explanation.
However, what should have been a simple matter often becomes more complicated the more it is explained. The village chief and his wife were better off not explaining, because the more they explained, the more excited the villagers became, repeatedly asking about the origin and quantity of the sweet potatoes, and even asking why the man in white didn't deliver them during the day, but instead delivered them in the middle of the night.
Zhu Qiuyu was annoyed by what she heard, so she turned around and went to resolve the matter.
The eldest brother, with a cold face and a stern tone, said, "We brought the sweet potatoes. We can deliver them whenever we want, to whomever we want. If anyone complains, we won't give them a single one. Are you just being nosy?"
Yesterday they were behaving themselves, but today they're all jumping around like crazy. If they're tired of living, they can go back to their dry wells or caves. Once they've received their share of food, they should hurry home. If they dare cause trouble again, nobody will get a single sweet potato today.
The villagers were so frightened that they dared not move or utter another word. Although Zhu Qiuyu had an ethereal aura and didn't seem like a bad person, and had even saved the villagers, his cold-faced speech was truly chilling.
Think about the Red Maiden and her group. When they first entered the village, everyone thought they were gentle and kind. But when they started to draw their knives and kill, people realized that you can't judge a book by its cover. Some people may look decent, but they do terrible things.
These men in white are formidable; we dare not anger them.
"Village chief, we were wrong just now. We shouldn't have spoken out of turn at your house so early in the morning. We'll never do it again." A thin, monkey-faced, triangular-eyed middle-aged woman hurriedly apologized and tried to make amends.
Si Tou, a tall young man, stepped forward and shouted, "Pah! Iron Bucket's wife, you were the only one who said those things. We all trust the village chief. He's always been fair and has always thought of us. We don't doubt him at all. You're the only one who's been nagging and causing trouble. Now you're trying to shift the blame onto everyone. Who's with you and us? Take away the 'doors,' and it's just you."
Iron Bucket's wife dared not retaliate, not only because the four men were too big for her husband to handle, but also because Zhu Qiuyu was standing nearby, and she was afraid of angering the latter.
But before she had even received her share of sweet potatoes, she could only give her husband a gentle push and whisper, "Tietong, you stay here and distribute the food. I'm going home first."
That's how it is.
Xingxing nodded in agreement after listening, her face full of disapproval. "Every village has people like this who are gossipy, greedy, and love to stir up trouble. They're so annoying. But she's just so lucky. Several people in the village have died from suffocation, but she just doesn't die."
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