Upon hearing this, the Su family members all sat up straight.
Su asked with some concern, "Then won't they lose their harvest this year?"
She spoke softly, and Old Feng didn't hear her. But Zhao's mother had a loud voice, "Old Feng, if that's the case, then all the farmers in Wufeng County will have no harvest this year?"
Old Feng cracked his whip and gave the horse a lash before replying loudly, "Not only have they lost their harvest this year and can't pay their taxes, but they're also worried about their food supply for the first half of next year."
Even if we need to harvest grain next year, it won't be until autumn.
Su's expression clearly became somewhat anxious.
Jiang Youchen comforted her, "Mother, don't worry. Your great-aunt and the others have only just arrived in Sanyang Village. Whether the harvest is good or bad is not of much concern to them. As long as we have money in hand, are we afraid of not being able to buy food?"
Mrs. Su felt a pang of self-reproach. "If only we had come sooner, how many days have we wasted sightseeing along the way?"
Madam Zhao smiled and said, "Madam, you originally said you came to the capital to relax, and you've been on your way to Taizhou to relax, so you should slow down a bit. Besides, it's been raining for the past two weeks, so we can't go fast even if we wanted to."
Just then, a bolt of lightning suddenly ripped through the dark, cloud-covered sky, followed by a rumble of thunder in the distance, and the rain intensified.
Looking at the continuous heavy rain, Xiao Youran felt as if she had overlooked something.
Old Feng inquired along the way and raced towards Sanyang Village, but the roads were slippery due to the rain, and even the fastest carriage could only go so fast.
After discussing this unpleasant topic, Xiao Youran lost interest in appreciating the rainy scenery, so she lowered the carriage curtain, snuggled into her mother's arms, and closed her eyes to rest.
Mrs. Zhao muttered to herself, "This rain just won't stop. Our clothes and bedding haven't been aired out for days. I don't know when this rain will end."
Su Yue asked, "Aunt Zhao, won't this continuous rain cause a major flood? I remember when I was little, our house was washed away by a flood..."
The sound gets quieter towards the end.
That's how her parents sold her out.
Xiao Youran suddenly opened her closed eyes.
She finally remembered.
This is the first life-or-death crisis the Yun family will face.
She called out anxiously to Old Feng, "Uncle Feng, please hurry!"
Old Feng also became nervous. "The rain is getting heavier and the roads are slippery. We should prioritize safety."
Zhao's mother became even more anxious. "Miss, what happened?"
Xiao Youran shook her head, "If we don't hurry up and get to Sanyang Village to stay, won't we suffer tonight?"
Jiang Youchen looked at his sister again, feeling that something big was about to happen.
We arrived at Sanyang Village after a bumpy ride, and it was almost evening.
...
For the past month and a half since arriving in Sanyang Village, the Yun family has been trapped in deep sorrow every day.
The last silver notes Zhou had, along with some loose change and the few silver notes Guo had on her, had been almost entirely spent during the more than half-month journey. It's said that a poor family needs to be well-fed on the road, and although there were two carriages accompanying them, the elderly, the young girls, and the children were all delicate and had never traveled far before. So how could they endure so much hardship along the way?
Then he thought, after all, Sanyang Village is the ancestral home of the Yun family. Surely we won't be without food or clothing when we arrive at the ancestral home?
So when they arrived at Sanyang Village, they were almost penniless.
Even when the two coachmen from the Zhou family wanted to return to the capital, Zhou Shi couldn't afford the travel expenses. In desperation, she had no choice but to ask the coachmen to take a handwritten letter back to the capital, asking her elder brother to compensate them for their hard work on the journey.
Sanyang Village is the ancestral home of the Yun family. The Yunhou branch was the direct line of the third branch in the first two generations. Because the earliest branch of the Yun family separated and achieved great success, the Yun family members deeply regretted it. Therefore, after Yunhou established his career, the Yun family patriarch refused to separate this branch again.
When Zhou married Yun Hou more than ten years ago, she returned to the ancestral hall as the eldest daughter-in-law of the third branch of the Yun family.
But she never expected that more than ten years later, she would return to the Yun family's old house in Sanyang Village as a commoner in dire straits.
The rest of the Yun family members in the old mansion were extremely shocked and angry at the arrival of this family.
They were shocked because they never expected that the once glorious Yunhou family would encounter such a change.
The anger stemmed from the clan chief's statement that the clan's land would be redistributed.
When the Marquis of Yun's family went to the capital decades ago, they distributed their land to their clansmen without compensation. Now that they have returned, they certainly cannot survive without land.
More than ten people returned, although only four of them were men. However, moving their household registration back to Sanyang Village meant that the rest of the Yun family would have to take out ancestral land and divide it into four parts for this branch.
This is essentially dividing up one's own fertile land; who would be willing to do that?
So, after more than a month, the matter still could not be properly resolved.
The Yun family was led by the Zhou family, who were a group of old, weak, women and children. How could they possibly fight against the strong and young members of the clan?
Fortunately, the ancestral home of Yunhou's branch had been empty, so the old clan chief took it upon himself to provide accommodation for nearly twenty people.
Even if they could settle down in their ancestral home, they had neither money nor fertile land, so their lives were uncertain.
For over a month, relying solely on the intermittent handouts from the kind-hearted clan leader's wife and a few relatives, the Yun family was nearly driven mad. Zhou even shamelessly went to their door to beg for more money in desperation; the entire family was barely managing to survive.
Recently, the entire Sanyang Village has been immersed in a sad atmosphere of no autumn harvest.
Because of the continuous drizzle for more than half a month, farmers are basically certain that the wheat fields that could not be harvested in time have long been waterlogged and rotted, and this year there will truly be no harvest at all.
Given such dire expectations, how could anyone be willing to squeeze out their own food to help the entire Yun family, especially the third branch, who were suddenly in dire need?
As for the Yun family, a group of elderly, weak, women and children, they couldn't even find work in this rural area, such as washing clothes, mending and embroidering. So Zhou was at a loss.
The only saving grace is that the old house where Marquis Yun lived before he went to the capital more than ten years ago is still empty, and people from the clan come to take care of it every year. After they arrive, they tidy it up carefully, and it's still possible to squeeze in.
So when an extra-long carriage slowly came to a stop in front of the dilapidated old house, the Yun family members, who had been starving for several days, were too exhausted to come out and check.
Moreover, it was a drizzly evening, the sky was already gloomy, and the noise of the rain meant that few people heard the approaching carriage.
Zhao Mama carefully got off the carriage, opened her oil-paper umbrella, and handed Su Yue another oil-paper umbrella, which she also opened. Then she slowly used the umbrellas to shield Su Shi from the carriage and helped her down.
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