Chapter 1240: Knowing Grace
Qili Village became lively the next day. Many villagers went to Lao Zhou's house to help with cooking, which was basically women's work.
The men gathered together, and the old man of the Zhou family took the initiative to open the ancestral hall. A group of elderly people pulled Zhou Lixue and a few educated people to look through the family tree in the ancestral hall. After offering freshly stewed chickens, ducks and sheep to the ancestors, they put Zhou Yin and his wife back on the family tree and recorded Zhou Yin's life in the family tree.
Qili Village is remote and the people who have lived here for generations have only experienced natural disasters and suffered catastrophic damage to their village, except for the time when refugees rushed in during the Jin Rebellion.
But such disasters are rare, because Qili Village is in the mountains. There is no food, but there are wild vegetables, weeds, and tree bark, so there will always be roots left.
As long as a few people in a family or a village survive, it can become a village again after many years, but the number of households will be reduced from hundreds to dozens, or from dozens to a few.
The drought in the eleventh year of Dading was a devastating test for the villagers of Qili Village.
At that time, many families in the village had actually packed their bags and were ready to flee the disaster. They had privately agreed to head north and walk all the way to the capital. Even if they had to beg along the way, as long as they could hold on until the drought was over, it would be fine.
However, people are worthless when they leave their hometown, and hope is like this. No one knows how many people can survive on the road. Only three of the first group of people who left the village came back, and the rest basically died on the road.
The group that went out were all young and strong, and they didn't suffer such a heavy loss, not to mention the village chief and others who planned to bring their families with them.
Just when they were hesitating, Zhou Yin brought back a bag of grain. In addition to keeping some for his own family, he also shared some with some orphans and widows in the village who had been without food for several days.
Then he gathered the young and strong men in the village together and took them to the county town, where he found them jobs as porters.
It's very tiring and hard, but I can survive, and the food I get can keep the old and young in the family going.
Thanks to the job introduced by Zhou Yin, the people of Qili Village did not have to flee the disaster and most of them survived.
The owner of the trading company liked Zhou Yin very much, so he left him as a manager to handle the business in Luojiang County, while he and the caravan took Zhou Yin away.
Everyone in Qili Village knew that Zhou Yin had sold himself into slavery. According to the rules, someone who sold himself into slavery should be removed from the family tree, but no one in the family wanted to cross out Zhou Yin's name at that time.
Old Zhou's family still lived in poverty, and the entire Qili Village was not having an easy time. In good years, they could survive a year by saving money.
When times are tough, you can just tighten your belt and get through it.
So in their spare time, everyone would sit under the big banyan tree at the entrance of the village and discuss, saying that with Zhou Yin's intelligence and ability, and the high regard the boss of the trading company had for him, he might be enjoying a good life right now, and would send a letter back soon.
But the Zhou family and the villagers of Qili Village waited for one year after another, but there was still no news of Zhou Yin.
The Zhou family even sent people to negotiate with passing merchants, but the news that came back was not good. Some said that the owner of the merchant company encountered refugee troops and bandits on the road, and the caravan was robbed and everyone was killed...
Some say there's no such business, and that the people must have been tricked into mining in the mountains. Once inside the mines, there's no need to think about finding them, as there wouldn't even be a scrap of bone left...
Thus, year after year, the people of Qili Village stopped mentioning Zhou Yin. Even the Zhou family themselves stopped mentioning him. They figured that no news was not a bad thing. Perhaps he had gone far away with the merchant and couldn't send a letter back for a while. After all, he was a servant and had no control over his life...
It was not until the third year of Dazhen that Zhou Yin suddenly drove a mule cart and happily returned to Qili Village with his wife and daughter, and the whole village became lively.
For example, although Zhang had a lot of grievances against Qian and had been at odds with her for half her life, she had no grievances against Zhou Yin, so she joined in the fun.
Not to mention other families who have a good relationship with the Zhou family.
Zhou Hu and others who used to play with Zhou Yin have also started their own families and careers. They thought that when Zhou Yin came back, they would set up at least ten tables so that everyone could have a good time.
Zhou Yin did not object, and promised that he would hold the banquet after he went to the county to pick up the things he had asked the trading company to bring back.
As a result, the couple never came back.
If you say Zhou Yin is a bandit, the villagers of Qili Village would not believe it even if they were beaten to death. How could Zhou Yin be a bandit?
It’s almost the same as if the bandits killed him!
Therefore, when the officials came to question them with Zhou Yin's blurred portrait, the men were questioned one by one at the village entrance. The women covered the couple's bodies with straw mats and then dragged them into a haystack in the rain to hide them. To prevent any blood from flowing, they held up oilcloth to block the rain...
Afterwards, he poured several buckets of water on the ground. When the officers came to search, he simply fell to the ground and drove them away.
Afterwards, no one dared to speak out. After nightfall, the young men in the village dug a large pit in the Zhou family's cemetery. There wasn't even a coffin, so they could only cover the two bodies with quilts, then covered them with straw mats and buried them...
Later, the officials came twice more, and the village head watched in fear. Finally, the elders of the Zhou family quietly opened the ancestral hall and drew a line through Zhou Yin's name, pretending that he had never returned after selling himself into slavery and had been crossed out of the family tree.
Things gradually calmed down, and no one came to ask Zhou Yin about it anymore. It seemed that the incident had passed, and the villagers seemed to have forgotten about it, but after all these years, everyone still had doubts in their hearts.
What did Zhou Yin do outside, how did he die, and how did he provoke these officials?
Not only did the villagers not know, even the Zhou family didn't know.
It was not until they heard outside that the King of Yizhou had rebelled, fighting had broken out, and there were deserters everywhere, and then the letter from Manbao and his men returned to Qili Village, that they learned what had happened twelve years ago.
They also learned that the little girl they had watched grow up had grown up and was old enough to file a complaint with the emperor on behalf of her biological father.
When the elders read these stories out loud and asked the younger generations to write them down, they felt a sense of emotion in their hearts. Time flies so fast.
Then the village chief looked at his grandson's pen, thought for a moment and asked Old Zhou, "Uncle Jin, should Manbao be registered under Uncle Yin's name? She's an only daughter and capable, so she can be included in the family tree."
Old Zhou thought for a moment and said, "Remember it."
The village chief asked, "Is it for our Zhou family or the Xia family?"
"Why remember Xia? Of course it's Zhou. Zhou Man, I gave it the name. The second son agreed and followed Dalang and the others in the list."
"But isn't Xiaoyin Uncle talking about Xia Man? After all, she's a son-in-law..."
Old Zhou was unhappy and immediately snatched the pen and said, "Who, who said that? Zhou Man! It's been more than ten years, and she's always been called this name. If you want to change her surname, then don't remember it."
The village chief nodded in agreement. The old man beside him was unhappy and said vaguely with his toothless mouth: "You must keep your word, you must keep your word..."
Old Zhou pretended not to hear.
See you at 6pm
(End of this chapter)
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