Chapter 403
"Sister, look, this is a gift from me to you."
Sixiang held a huge colorful conch like a baby.
"I picked this up from the beach. Look how beautiful it is! It has rainbow colors on it. If you put it next to your ear, you can hear the sound of the ocean. Shi Cui offered me some rice candy to trade with me, but I refused."
Sixiang raised the conch in front of Su Qingci and said, "This is for you."
Su Qingci looked at the little girl's expression and could see that she really liked the conch. Now she gave her favorite thing to her sister.
"Thank you Sixiang, it's really beautiful, I like it very much."
Su Qingci took the conch and thanked Sixiang happily.
When Sixiang saw that Su Qingci liked her, her skinny and dark face was full of joy.
Just as the two were chatting, Xu Dasheng and Liao Sigui ran in, sweating profusely.
Su Qingci quickly stood up and said, "Uncle Dasheng, I miss you."
Sixiang scooped two buckets of well water she had just brought back and handed them to Xu Dasheng and Sigui.
The two men, sweating profusely, took the water scoop and gulped down half a scoop of water.
Then he raised his head and said to Su Qingci, "I've found out everything."
"They were all from our town. There were fifty-four of us who signed the contract, and only two of us came back."
Xu Dasheng's eyes were filled with grief. Seeing the families of those who had lost their pillars today...
If they hadn't been lucky enough to meet Miss Su, it would be his mother and Xiaoyu who would be crying at home with despair on their faces.
So he and Sigui could empathize with each other on this matter.
Seeing that several people had drunk water, Su Changzhi quickly called them, "Let's talk inside."
A group of people walked towards Su Changzhi's inner room.
Outside, Liao Fengmei knew that Su Changzhi and the others might have something important to discuss, so she asked Sixiang to help her prepare dinner, and asked Sijia to squat at the door and watch, and let out a sound if anyone came.
Inside the house, Sigui pulled out a long bench and sat down face to face with Su Qingci.
Then he took out a worn little textbook from his pocket and handed it to Su Qingci.
"Sister Su, this is what Uncle Dasheng and I found out. Aside from the two of us, the remaining fifty-two families are all here. Some of them are fathers and sons, two are brothers, and a few are cousins."
"Uncle Dasheng is right. These people come from very poor families. Their homes... their homes... are like the sky is falling..."
"Besides the daughter-in-law of Haiyong's family in Panxidong who jumped into the sea with her child, two families in Shuibian Village and Qishiliu Village also couldn't withstand the pressure. One elderly man, fearing he would burden the younger generation, secretly took medicine. Another man hit his head against the wall, but fortunately, the force wasn't strong enough, so the impact wasn't serious, and he's not seriously injured."
Sigui's eyes welled up with tears. Thinking of the bleak and tragic scene he saw that afternoon, he choked up and said, "That old man who drank rat poison is beyond saving."
"Neither of his sons came back. The eldest son's wife died in childbirth, and the second son hasn't even gotten married yet. Now all he has left are three children and an old grandmother in the family. The oldest of the three children is only twelve years old."
"The old man had been ill and needed to take medicine. When he learned about this incident at home, he secretly took rat poison while his wife wasn't paying attention."
"The villagers held him down and tried to give him a gastric lavage with soapy water. The old man gritted his teeth and refused to open his mouth. He blew white bubbles and told everyone that if he died, his rations would be left to his grandson, so that his grandson could survive. He begged everyone to consider their past friendship and let his young grandson... wuwuwu..."
Su Qingci reached out and patted Sigui's shoulder, and Xu Dasheng continued.
"What I've learned here is similar to what happened in Sigui. There are 52 registered people here, but only 37 families. Most of the people left behind are the elderly, the weak, women, and children, and... "
After a moment of silence, Xu Dasheng said, "There are two other crew members who applied for the same position, and their family situations are not very good either."
Su Qingci was a little surprised. During this period of time, Xu Dasheng and Sigui hated the crew on the ship to the core.
Xu Dasheng recalled his previous complaints to Su Qingci and turned his head away embarrassedly. "Actually, they are not all bad people. There are still good people. These two families are pretty good. They have never made things difficult for us. Their families are not in good shape either."
Su Qingci nodded and also talked about the situation on her side.
"I went to the cruise ship this afternoon. The safe I salvaged contained about 300,000 Bay Dollars. I brought it all with me."
As she spoke, Su Qingci opened the schoolbag next to her and pushed it towards the middle of the table.
Xu Dasheng, Sigui and others instantly fixed their eyes on the schoolbag.
"Now let's discuss how to divide the money and how to give it to them."
Su Changzhi interrupted, "It's best to give it privately and tell them not to tell anyone. Firstly, it's to avoid causing unnecessary trouble. After all, the owner of the Ghana has people at home."
"Secondly, if people knew that this family, which has lost its pillar, suddenly had such a large sum of money, it might not only not be a good thing for them, but could become a bad thing."
"Every family has a few troublesome relatives. Even if you're lucky enough not to have such relatives, if someone with ulterior motives gets their hands on the money, it might end up harming them."
Xu Dasheng strongly supported Su Changzhi's proposal.
"Dazhitou is right. How about this? Sigui and I will handle this matter. We will go to each family in the middle of the night and tell them that it was their husband, father, or son who asked us to bring him back before he died. We will ask them not to tell anyone."
Sigui nodded. "Yes, let's explain the seriousness of this matter to them. We'll say that the money spilled out of the captain's safe when the ship sank. The men knew they might not survive, so they stole it from their families. If word gets out, the captain's family might come after them."
In the dim room, four people sat in a circle around the table, discussing something one after another. Soon it got dark and there was a knock on the door.
"Bang, bang, bang~"
"Dad, Mom asked me to call you to dinner."
"Oh, I see." Su Changzhi responded, and then said to Xu Dasheng, "Dasheng, I won't hide it from you. Qingci is my niece. She came here just to find us. After we finish this business, we will follow her back to the inland."
"Although what we're discussing today can be considered a good deed, I'm also afraid of running into someone who's greedy and unreasonable. If I run into someone like that and get involved, they might even drag me into the abyss."
"So you and Sigui go together tonight. Let Sigui show his face. If anything happens, Sigui will be there to block it. If anything really happens, we can leave by then and it won't affect us. But you..."
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