Seeing that most of the villagers were homeless, the most important thing now was how to resettle the population, so the village head had no time to argue with them.
Fortunately, a large ancestral hall in the village was unaffected, and the affected villagers had to be temporarily housed there.
"Let's see which family has more food. Let's all chip in a little to help them get through this difficult time."
These past two years have been tough for everyone, with consecutive years of poor harvests. Now, when it comes to giving up grain, nobody wants to be the first to step forward.
The village head looked at the group of people. They had all been talking when he said it wasn't necessary, but now that it was time to get serious, they had all become mute.
“Village head, this disaster was caused by Cui Yulu’s insistence on going deep into the mountains. Let them provide the grain; they have plenty of grain and meat anyway. Why are you all silent now that things are really serious, after all the talk about helping everyone?”
Cao Jinfang stared intently at Liu Xiuying, waiting to see what she would do next.
Liu Xiuying now understands that her family has become the target of public criticism, and it will be difficult to calm down if they don't make some sacrifices.
So he glanced at Cui Yulu and said slowly, "I know many people in the village suspect that this disaster was caused by my Yulu, but have you ever thought about how much my Yulu has done for this village? Now the heavy snow has damaged houses and left everyone homeless..."
My Han family certainly won't stand by and watch everyone starve, but our resources are limited, and we can't do everything we can. So please, everyone, lend a helping hand; let's save ourselves first.
So after Liu Xiuying took out 100 jin of mixed flour and 100 jin of sorghum rice, everyone followed suit, but they couldn't take out that much; most of them only had one or two jin.
So by nightfall, they had managed to gather a total of 300 jin of grain, enough to feed the twenty or so affected households for a month, or a month and a half if they ate it sparingly.
Actually, Cui Yulu had food in her spatial storage, but she didn't want to take it out at the moment. These people had all hurt Han Yu'an before, and she didn't want to help them. Moreover, it was obvious that these people weren't genuinely grateful.
"Liu Xiuying, don't you still have extra quilts at home? You bought quite a lot when you went to the city last time, didn't you? Why don't you give some out to everyone to keep warm? Your family hasn't suffered any disaster at all. A warm house and a heated kang are much better than us homeless people, right?"
Seeing that so much grain had been collected, Cao Jinfang also moved into the ancestral hall on the grounds that her house had been damaged.
"You really have the nerve to ask us. My Yulu told you a long time ago that this winter would be cold and that you should stock up on things for the winter, but you just wouldn't listen. Now you want to ask us for things, but we don't have any extra."
Liu Meie was telling the truth; they didn't even have enough quilts to go around, let alone any extra for them.
Not to mention despicable people like Cao Jinfang.
They'd rather give meat buns to the buns than give them to the buns.
"Hmph, this disaster was caused by your family, and you still have the nerve to say these things here? I think you are really heartless."
The men had all gone out to dig for people at the foot of the mountain, leaving only some women to rest here, so Cao Jinfang's words quickly gained everyone's support.
That's just how this woman is—long hair, short on brains. They were clearly grateful to the Han family for providing the most grain, but now, after being incited by Cao Jinfang, they've all switched sides.
People began to accuse the Han family of being heartless, watching them suffer.
“We are neither saints nor immortals. We also need to live. Grandma just gave you a hundred catties of grain. Now we are almost out of food ourselves. How dare you criticize us like this?”
Cui Yulu couldn't stand these people anymore and could only describe them as insatiable.
“Cui girl, not to brag, but I just did another divination. The divination indicates that the disasters have not stopped, and the mountain god will bring down even greater calamities. And you are the root of those calamities. Only by getting rid of you can the mountain god’s anger be completely appeased.”
"Grandma Han, it's not like that. Yulu risked her life to go into the deep mountains to save my Du Heng. If that's the case, then our family is also guilty."
The Du family's house was also damaged by the snow, and Li Jinfeng is now taking refuge here with her child.
Upon hearing what Granny Han said, she couldn't help but speak up for Cui Yulu.
Since having the child, their family would have been unable to make ends meet long ago if it weren't for the Han family's frequent financial support.
Du Heng, who was also injured and unable to go out, saw his wife step forward and echoed, "Yes, it's all my fault, it has nothing to do with Madam Han."
"What business is it of yours, you two? The result of my divination is the will of God. God said it was a woman. So what if your Du Heng is a woman?"
Granny Han was also angry, her round eyes glaring at the two of them.
"You claim to be a god, yet you can't even see a difficult childbirth. How dare you call yourself a god here? What deity would want to communicate with a scoundrel like you?"
After speaking angrily, Cui Yulu grabbed Liu Meie and left the ancestral hall. She didn't want to stay there any longer. She had nothing to say to a group of ungrateful people.
"Don't take what Cui and the others say to heart. Those gossipy women are just like that. They talk about this and that all day long, and they never do anything proper."
“Aunt, I don’t want to listen to them. God will only punish bad people, not me.”
The rescue operation lasted for about ten days. During these ten days, the number of deaths increased. Fortunately, the temperature was low, so the bodies did not decompose. However, seeing those dead people still made everyone feel a chill. Just ten days ago, they were still alive and well, but now they had become cold and lifeless.
So the villagers gradually came to believe that someone in the village had angered the gods, and that the disaster was a warning to them.
The village head refused to believe these things, and everyone had their complaints.
He even thought that one day he would abolish this village head and replace him with a new, young and promising one.
Under Cao Jinfang's instigation, everyone felt that the new village head must be Han An.
Suddenly, someone in the ancestral hall developed a high fever and coughed incessantly.
However, everyone assumed it was because of the low temperature that they had developed a fever from being cold.
"Village head, how exactly do you plan to handle this matter? It's written all over the tortoise shell that the woman angered the gods. Why don't you believe it?"
Cao Jinfang showed the village head a tortoise shell, refusing to believe that with so much evidence, he would still speak up for that girl.
“That’s right. This was dug out from the snow at the foot of the mountain. This is the will of the mountain god. If you continue to be so stubborn, we will have to choose a clever and resourceful village head to uphold justice for us.”
Granny Han glared at the village head, while signaling everyone to stand up and revolt, refusing to believe that the village head could remain inactive.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
