Chapter 303 Inquiry
Then he covered it up again, forced a smile and said lightly: "That's good. Add more dried vegetables to it. It can be eaten for several days. You don't have to starve."
But I don’t know where the food for a few days is.
This was before the Chinese New Year, and people were needed everywhere to do odd jobs to barely make a living. She didn't dare to imagine what a bleak scene it would be after the Chinese New Year.
Xu Lin's eyes were filled with deep sorrow, but a smile rose on his face as he softly consoled her, "Young Master Liu just said that even if the matter was not completed this time, he will go again in a few days and there will be food by then."
The woman was delighted at first, but then she asked worriedly, "Young Master Liu wants so many people, and he didn't say what it was, so what exactly do he want you to do?
Isn't this something illegal? Master, you must not be foolish and do evil things."
Xu Lin looked at his wife, who was trembling with hunger as she walked, and thought of his children, who were huddled together in the thatched hut, wrapped in a tattered quilt for warmth. Was he breaking the law? As long as he could keep his wife and children alive, he would be willing to be caught and beheaded!
"We are a family that lived and died together. When we go to the underworld, we will all be innocent. Maybe we can be reborn as a good family again."
When Xu Lin thought about what Liu Sheng asked them to do, he felt a pang of sadness in his heart.
He has done bad things and is no longer an innocent person. How can he be reborn into a good life in the underworld?
Forget it, let him go to hell, as long as she and the children are alive and well.
"It's all my fault. Before the flood, I was thinking about the good harvest, so I tore up some cloth to make new clothes for each of the children. Otherwise, the money would have been enough to last them for a while."
Xu Lin wanted to say how could he blame you? If he had to blame anyone, he could only blame himself for being incompetent and earning little. He couldn't even afford to patch up the children's clothes. Now that there was a good harvest this year, why wouldn't he think of making them new ones?
And without clothes, I’m afraid I won’t be able to survive the winter in Jincheng.
"Alas, there are too many people affected by the disaster, and we arrived late. Otherwise, we could have sold it to wealthy families earlier so that they could at least have something to eat."
Xu Lin nodded.
Who doesn't want to sell themselves to a wealthy family? But in times of disaster, people are worse than animals, and rich people are not stupid. Will they buy you home and waste their food?
He soothed her, "Okay, don't think about it. You can still get some sleep."
"Yes, sleep more. You won't be hungry when you sleep, and you can save some food."
.....
A group of people in the distance watched the man go into the low thatched house and then discussed in a low voice.
Jiang Xiangnan said first: "Sister-in-law, they are much worse off here than we were in Qili Village!" At least the thatched houses in Qili Village are bigger than this.
"This thatched hut is too low, but it may be because the weather is cold. If it is too high, it will not keep warm?" Jiang Dabao analyzed.
Zhao Bao retorted, "What? It must be because they can't find tall wood to use as pillars. Look, there aren't many trees around here, let alone big ones."
Among the necessities of life, firewood ranks first. The trees around the city have been almost all cut down, and those that have not been cut down are owned by others, so people dare not move them easily.
Huo Bing didn't respond. His eyes were fixed on the thatched huts in the distance, and he was calculating the number and estimating the approximate number of people in his mind.
There are more than sixty men, but less than twenty thatched huts in total. One thatched hut is for one family, which is equivalent to two to four men in their prime in a family.
But think about it, families with too few able-bodied men have no clan members to protect them, and no villagers to form a team with. Many of them can't even find a place to stay and die along the way.
But my mother is right. Young men are capable of working, and their families are not supported in vain. They just can't find work now. If there is work in front of them, they may not do worse than men, nor will they earn less than men.
After watching for a while, Huo Bing whispered, "Let's go home."
"Ah?" Jiang Xiangnan responded blankly, blinking and asking, "Sister-in-law, are we going back like this?"
Huo Bing asked, "What else? There are only five or six of us. Are we going to rush in and fight against at least sixty strong men?"
Jiang Xiangnan shook his head like a rattle.
"Or maybe when these men go out to find work, we can take care of the women and children who are starving and can barely stand?"
Jiang Xiangnan shook his head violently again.
"So, why stay here if you don't leave? It will take several hours for us to get back."
Go back and rest early so that you can go out with your mother.
Jiang Xiangnan nodded blankly.
The team walked quickly and soon met up with the teams of Lei Dafu and Jiang Xiangxi. The three teams summarized the information they had received while they were on the road.
"The room where we collected the money had a double courtyard, and there was another room inside. I quietly climbed up and took a look. Inside was an old nanny and a little maid. From their accents, they didn't seem to be from Jincheng."
"The outside of the granary is tattered, I think it's just a cover-up. The innermost room is packed full. I estimate there are at least several thousand kilograms of grain!
How could Liu Sheng have such wealth? It must have been bought by that old woman with a foreign accent. It’s really hard for them. I remember that the price of food in Jincheng rose sharply after the disaster victims arrived!
Really rich.
"We are all disaster victims here, and the ones who have suffered the most. I guess we didn't get much food because we arrived late, and the land we were given wasn't very good either." There's nothing we can do. We can't farm in the winter, and we have to wait until the next year when we sow and harvest. We have to do all kinds of work all year round.
"I can see that the disaster victims are trading their lives for food. I guess those vicious men are not good people to begin with. They are doing things for money.
The victims were not afraid of hardship or fatigue, and were eager to come back today and go again tomorrow, as long as they could earn food.
The group that's going to get the silver won't leave for three or four days, which means we only have two or three days at most."
By the time they got home, it would probably be dark. The journey was too far and a round trip would take a whole day and night.
"Then let's go back and discuss it with Auntie, the village chief and the others. At worst, we can rush back overnight! It's not a big deal if we don't sleep for two or three days anyway." Feng Meng said proudly.
Jiang Xiangnan's eyes widened, but he thought about the urgency of the situation, which concerned the life and safety of his sister-in-law. Feng Meng, an outsider, was busy running around without sleep, so how could he, the brother-in-law, fall behind?
He responded emphatically: "Okay!"
The group took some dry food and did not dare to delay for a moment, so they hurried back as fast as the wind.
*
Shen Qing's family had already prepared food. Because they didn't know when they would get home, they were afraid that it would be cold and not tasty, so they stewed a big goose in an iron pot and boiled mutton soup.
Several side dishes are added to the iron pot stewed goose, and it is simmered slowly over low heat until the flavors are absorbed. It can be eaten as soon as someone comes back to heat it up;
The same is true for mutton soup. The difference is that there are already vegetables in the goose, and there are no side dishes in the mutton soup. The mutton and mutton bones are used to make the soup, which has a rich flavor.
The staple food is chewy rolled noodles and cornmeal pancakes, and they taste delicious no matter what they are paired with!
As soon as the men arrived at the entrance, the gong was struck the corresponding number of times according to the previously agreed rules to notify people that they had returned.
Here, Jiang Yu and Jiang Shui immediately started a fire to heat up the food.
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