Liang Shengdi sat at the entrance of the cave and listened to Zhang Xiaonv cursing her mother all day long, from "Who are you going to protect now, Bodhisattva?" to "Those damn robbers who are going to hell," to "Those dying ghosts who are hard to persuade with kind words."
Little Yulan squatted beside her with her eyes wide open, listening with great interest. From time to time, she would whisper a few words, and then Liang Shengdi would gently pat her on the mouth.
"Don't nag like your grandma!" Liang Shengdi glanced at her. "Did you learn the words your dad taught you to write today?"
Lin Wenxuan can read, but of course only knows how to read.
Since last year, I've been teaching Yulan to read in my free time. Without pen and paper, I'd scratch in the mud with a twig or trace on the table with my wet fingers.
Lin Wenxuan also wanted Liang Shengdi to learn with him, but was rejected by Liang Shengdi.
"I'm lazy."
But she inexplicably insisted on supervising Lin Yulan's studies, and would pull her back from her crazy play state to learn characters every day.
In the past three months, the walls of the cave have been covered with tofu-like words.
Little Yulan knew that her mother and grandmother couldn't read, so she wanted to fool them by saying that she knew everything. She pointed to the stone wall on the right and started reading each word one by one.
The clear voice of a child broke the stagnant atmosphere in the cave caused by the chaos and turmoil below the mountain. Little Zhang stopped cursing and looked at her good granddaughter with loving eyes as she read the words one by one.
"My Magnolia is so smart~"
Several families nearby also came over and praised her for being smart and clever, which made little Yulan feel a little flattered.
Only Liang Shengdi didn't praise her. She squinted her eyes and looked at her for a long time, then said quietly,
"Why do I remember your father carved the words this morning on the left? Wasn't the one on the right from last month?"
Little Magnolia: ...Grandma, help me!
At the foot of the mountain,
Lin Wenxuan carried the bloody hoe and the grandson of the Ma family, the only scholar in the village, and ran very fast. Behind him followed a crying old woman with bound feet, and her son and daughter-in-law.
"What should we do with the fields? They've all been harvested!" Ma's daughter-in-law cried even harder than her mother-in-law. She ran while looking back at the fields over there. They had worked hard from dawn to dusk every day to take care of the rice, but now they were just going to give it away like that?
"Don't worry about Tian anymore! Your father is gone! Do you want us and Dexiang to die too?"
Old Granny Ma wiped away her endless tears while looking at her grandson who was carried on Lin Wenxuan's shoulders.
"Our family has been a single-line family for nine generations. Your father died just for Dexiang. We can't let him die with his eyes open!" The field is no longer needed. As long as there is someone around, life can always start over!
Lin Wenxuan rolled his eyes as he ran. He was so optimistic now. What was he doing when the village chief was scolding people before? Did he have to wait until the people were gone before he could let it go?
Ma Dexiang lay face down on Lin Wenxuan's shoulders, his stomach pressing on his shoulder blades, and he felt like he was about to vomit.
"uncle……"
"Be careful! A house has collapsed here! We'll be in the mountains soon, run faster!" His uncle ignored him and ran faster while going around the collapsed beams.
Lin Wenxuan rushed quickly, and the Ma family, having already lost a member, also ran relatively quickly. However, several other families were still fighting and quarreling with the bandits in the fields, and the cries and shouts were endless.
Lin Youliang watched as a woman he usually called "Auntie" was cut in half by a knife. He roared and raised his rake to knock the man off the horse.
The man rolled on the ground and was about to chop back with his saber raised. Chen Dachun, who was still trying to persuade people in the field, immediately let go of the difficult-to-persuade ghost and came to help Lin Youliang with a sickle in hand. Dashan, Xiaogou and others on the side also rushed over.
A group of people hacked one person to death with their knives, and even Lin Youliang was bleeding.
"We have food! We have to go! There's a fire going on over there!"
"Village Chief! Your leg is bleeding!"
"Brother Youliang! Didn't you say it? It's hard to persuade a dying person with kind words! We have to protect the people on the mountain first!"
Lin Youliang spat bloody saliva into the field, then pointed at the fallen horse and said, "Can you drag that horse up the mountain? It'll be enough for a meal!"
In the end, only half of the people who were rescued back to the mountain were those who had come down the mountain before. Not to mention the food in the fields, almost all their original food was looted. Many of their houses were also set on fire. They sat in the mountains and cried loudly.
Lin Youliang didn't feel sorry for them at all. He stood under a big tree with his legs limped and his hands on his hips, cursing them as he pleased.
"Dachun and the others are still guarding the foot of the mountain! They're afraid the fire over there will spread over and burn the mountain!"
"Who the hell is this for!"
"Every day I keep shouting about farming and harvesting crops! If I don't let you go, it's like I'm going to dig up your ancestral graves! Well, now that someone else has dug it up, you can feel good!"
"You worked so hard to farm, but now there's no food in the fields, and there's no food at home. What are you going to eat and drink? What are your children going to eat and drink? Huh?!"
A group of people were crying their hearts out, begging Lin Youliang to think of a solution, but Lin Youliang said he was out of ideas!
This is the most annoying thing.
Why don't you go down and save them? We're all from the same village, and have lived together for generations. If you stand by and watch others get into trouble, then when you get into trouble, others will do the same.
But his mother was rescued, and we still have to consider the aftermath.
This group of people who had no food lived together in the mountains. Firstly, it was impossible to watch them starve to death. Secondly, if they were hungry for too long, something might happen and they would drag down others.
Lin Youliang squatted on the ground and smoked a bag of tobacco before finally standing up.
He called out to Lin Wenxuan, Dashan and the others to see how to slaughter the dead horse that had just been dragged up. It was too hot and if they left it until tomorrow, it would probably attract flies.
"Give more meat to the brothers who come down the mountain, and less to those who stay on the mountain, but they still need some. Throw the rest to them, add some water and make soup. It will be enough for two or three days."
As for two or three days later...
"Notify every household to count the grain they have and ask them to lend some out."
"The kind that will sign and seal."
Zhang Xiaonu's sky has fallen again, and it's not just her, because the sky has fallen for everyone who has been staying honestly in the mountains.
Many people went up to the forest to make trouble, and even scolded those who had come down the mountain. Why should they, the honest people, be blamed for their mistakes? In this situation, who knows when they can get out? No one has much surplus food, and they have to borrow it?!
"My wife is still pregnant! We don't even have enough to eat at home!"
"Then what do you want me to do!" The wound on Lin Youliang's leg was still bleeding, and he had no time to bandage it. When he got angry, his leg cramped and hurt.
He is now annoyed with his ancestors. Why should he be the village chief?
"Let them starve? Then sneak in in the middle of the night to steal their food? By then, if anyone's food is low, they won't know where to go?
Or am I so hungry that I want to chop you with a knife?"
When human nature reaches its limit, no one can grasp it.
He just wanted to minimize the losses.
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