Chapter 697: On the way to escape from famine 3
The Zhang family probably had never seen so much gold, silver and jewelry in their lives, so they were all shocked, and then they were delighted. When they left the village before, they were nervous, but now with this unexpected fortune, they felt more at ease.
Old man Zhang looked around and took in the expressions of his family members. Fortunately, no one showed any greed; all were happy and grateful.
"This is unexpected wealth, but it is also because of those people's ulterior motives that our family got lucky. I will make the decision to divide the food and money. Is everyone okay with that?"
Old man Zhang said.
"No problem, we all listen to Dad."
Several sons expressed their opinions.
Song Dachuan also said that he had no objection. He took it less seriously. After all, there were the gold bars that Lianyi had harvested from Wankou Mountain. Giving these things to him would just be icing on the cake. It would also allow them to have a source of money to spend in the future. He had no objection to how much he got.
"That's good! I will divide the money into six parts. Your mother and I will take one part, and the four of you brothers and Dachuan's family will each take one part. When we get to Huangzhou, we can use the money to build a house and buy land."
Everyone agreed after hearing this.
"Master, after the money is divided, don't put it all in the hands of the head of the family. Hide some with the four aunts and three brothers. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Who knows what will happen on the road. If we spread it out, we can have some emergency money."
Lianyi reminded at the right time.
The three aunts all looked at Lianyi with kindness. Naturally, the money was safer when it was in their own hands.
"Lianyi is right. Most people think that the money is in the hands of the men in charge. Even if they want to rob, they will target them. If we disperse the money like this, when we encounter disaster victims who are not willing to die, we can give up some of our wealth to get away."
Old Mrs. Zhang agreed with Lianyi's suggestion.
This time, no one had any objections.
"After the money is distributed, you guys will work hard to sew the things into the layers of clothes or quilts. Hide them as concealed as possible."
Old man Zhang made the decision directly.
Then Old Man Zhang divided the money into six parts in front of everyone. He asked his wife to take one part, and gave the rest to his four sons and Song Dachuan.
The four sons declined for a while and let their wives take them. Except for the youngest son who made his own choice, the wives of the other three sons chose the pile of silver they liked. Song Dachuan waited until everyone had chosen before taking the last portion.
Afterwards the women got busy, and the men lay down in their clothes to catch up on some sleep. They would be the main force pulling the carts tomorrow, so they needed to get enough rest.
Lianyi also asked Song Dachuan to rest, and she fell asleep with Hu Zi in her arms. Only Hui Niang and her three sisters-in-law began to carefully hide the silver under the torch, whispering a few words from time to time and paying attention to the situation around them.
Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened in the second half of the night. When it was dawn, the four of them prepared breakfast, which also included Liu's confinement meal.
Because of the three bags of grain, breakfast and confinement meals were very rich, and everyone could eat until they were 70% to 80% full.
After Liu had breakfast, she held the baby Yuanbao (nickname) in her arms and fed him.
Although the village suffered a disaster in the late stage of Liu's pregnancy, the family had enough food stored. As a pregnant woman, she was the only one in the family who could eat her fill, just because she was pregnant.
This is the tradition of the Zhang family. No matter how difficult the situation is, a pregnant woman cannot be deducted. The previous three sisters-in-law all went through this. Especially since this is the youngest brother's first child, everyone is more concerned and no one says anything sour.
Because he was well fed and didn't do any heavy work, Liu took good care of him. His chest was swollen with milk, but it was relieved after Yuanbao sucked a few sips. After Yuanbao finished eating and was burped, he fell asleep with his little fists clenched, and didn't make any noise at all.
The Zhang family immediately packed up their things quickly and set off again.
Because of what happened last night, all the men were on high alert, but their pace did not slow down at all.
Looking at the fields on both sides of the road that were eaten by locusts, everyone felt sympathetic. They also saw groups of beggars on the road, but seeing that more than half of the group of 20 people were men, these people did not dare to rob openly and just came over to beg for food.
Although these people looked pitiful, the Zhang family did not dare to stop. Some victims who tried to take advantage of the opportunity to steal something were hit by Lianyi's stick and flew away.
Lian Yi only knocked the person away instead of injuring him, which gave them some leeway and could be considered as killing the chicken to scare the monkey. Sure enough, some people saw that the girls in the team were not easy to mess with, so the timid ones naturally retreated, and the brave ones just followed from a distance, wanting to wait until they relaxed before taking action.
Since setting out on the journey, Lianyi took off the white veil on her face, exposing her terrifying right face. Firstly, there was no need to cover it up, and secondly, it was to scare away some people.
There are always people who think that a girl with a veil is a beautiful girl, and they may have some bad intentions. She simply reveals her ugly face so that these people will not want to look at her a second time after the first glance.
The Zhang family has become accustomed to Lianyi's face. Besides, they all know that the scars on Lianyi's face are much lighter than when she first returned to Zhangjia Village. Hui Niang said that it was the scar removal cream prepared by Doctor Hong from Pujitang in the town that took effect, and the scars on her face have faded a lot.
Family members are used to seeing this, but outsiders will still be scared. Therefore, after Lianyi hit the man with a stick and sent him flying, there were fewer people surrounding them, which made everyone feel relieved.
"Boss! Speed up! Anyone who can walk should do so, and then rest after you have walked this distance!"
Old man Zhang got off the cart by himself, took two quick steps, and said to Zhang Zhong who was leading the group.
"Yes, Dad!"
The eldest daughter-in-law, Xin, put her youngest daughter on the cart and joined the group pushing the cart with her two sons.
It was really thrilling just now. If it weren’t for Lianyi’s help, their entire team would have been blocked by the beggars who slowly surrounded them.
Lianyi was carrying a solid wooden stick and walking back and forth in the team. She asked Song Dachuan to protect Hui Niang and Hu Zi, while she took care of the entire team.
The group hurried on their way for two hours. After they left the area where the disaster victims had gathered and left behind those who didn't have the strength to keep up, they slowed down their pace a little.
"Master, it's not safe to rest now. While there are fewer people here, let's take turns eating. We have to continue on our journey."
Lianyi walked to Old Man Zhang with a stick in her hand and whispered.
Because of Lianyilu's move, Old Man Zhang was willing to listen to his granddaughter's opinions.
"That's what I mean. I noticed that some of those people looked at us in a strange way. Maybe we have to travel overnight."
Old ginger is always wiser. Old man Zhang also saw some of the clues, so he agreed with Lianyi's words.
"They are still following us from a distance!"
Lianyi also noticed these people. Although they were dressed in rags, their figures and complexions did not look like those of disaster victims who had been hungry for a long time.
(End of this chapter)
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