The weather wasn't too cold yet, and after walking all day, the women could take a quick shower.
Under the cover of night, Lin Bianna filled the bucket in the space with water, entered the bathroom, and repeatedly scrubbed her body with a towel several times. She then rinsed off four or five buckets of water until her whole body was ice-cold before shivering as she put on her clothes.
After washing, she took her dirty clothes to the pond to clean them.
She also took out the item she had previously thrown into her spatial storage and washed it clean.
It was late at night when she finally fell asleep, exhausted.
When she woke up the next day, Old Mrs. Zhao was already packing her things, Zhang was making breakfast, and Li Shulan was squatting next to her helping to start the fire.
In an open space not far away, the villagers of Linjia Village surrounded the village chief.
"Grandma, what are my uncles doing?"
Grandma Zhao deftly rolled up the straw mat spread on the ground and tied it with straw rope.
"Before dawn, the village chief would notify the men in his family to come to a meeting."
"A meeting?"
Is there anything else to say? Didn't we just have breakfast, get ready, and set off?
"I reckon it's about the grain," said Old Mrs. Zhao, her hands still moving.
"Is there still food in the village?"
The original plan was to go to Xincheng to buy grain, but they couldn't even get into the city, and many families were out of food.
The villagers walked slowly because they would stop to pick wild vegetables and grass roots that they could eat.
Seeing her confusion, Old Mrs. Zhao explained, "The oxen belonging to the clan chief and the village chief were pulling several bags of grain. That grain belonged to the villagers and was originally intended to take care of the elderly living alone in the village."
Lin Yinan suddenly realized that she had seen the bags hanging on the cow's back. With so many people in the village, if each family got a share, they probably wouldn't even get a pound.
After saying goodbye to Grandma Zhao, she went into the woods to take care of her business.
During the day, with plenty of sunlight, there were marks all over his thighs, and even clearly visible fingerprints.
You bastard! You're really good at playing fancy tricks.
Lin Yinan was furious. If she ever met this man, she would tear him to pieces. She angrily pulled up her pants.
On the way back, she met Lin Yizhang, who was carrying a large bundle of grass. This cousin was only one year older than her, but he was as strong as an ox.
My uncle's sons all followed their father's example; they were excellent at working, but had no talent for reading and writing.
Therefore, when the Hu people massacred the city, my uncle's family, along with my grandmother, were in Linjia Village and thus escaped the calamity.
"Brother, you don't need to cut so much. The horse will eat it on its own when we get on the road."
Lin Yinan took the initiative to go up and greet him.
Lin Yizhang, carrying grass on his back, turned around with difficulty. "The horses can't finish eating it all. The rest can be used to weave straw mats. We left in a hurry and didn't bring many things with us."
Back at the camp, Lin Shuo had already returned from the meeting and was talking to Old Mrs. Zhao with a frown on his face.
Lin Yizhang threw the grass on the ground. When Lin Yisong saw the two of them return, he quickly came over to help untie the grass ropes and threw a few bundles of grass to the horses.
She whispered to the two of them, "Brother, Sister Anan, the village has distributed the public grain. Each family got two jin, and our family got four jin."
“Then the village will run out of food, and it’s still four or five days’ journey from here to Jiancheng,” Lin Yizhang said worriedly.
Two jin of grain is not enough for a family of several people, no matter how frugal they are, to last them only a few meals, not to mention that each family has a bunch of hungry children.
"It's alright. I'll hunt some pheasants and rabbits to supplement our income when we get back on the road."
She had barely finished speaking when she heard Old Mrs. Zhao arguing with someone over there.
"You little bitch, if you have any complaints about the grain distributed by the clan chief and the village chief, go and talk to them. What are you shouting about here?"
Yu Suqin, along with several women from the village, pointed and whispered about Old Lady Zhao.
Lin Yinan and the other two exchanged glances and ran to Grandma Zhao's side.
“Zhao, you also come from a wealthy family and are a reasonable person. How come you’re becoming more and more backward as you get older? Li and her children came later. How can they be entitled to a share of the village’s public grain?” said the woman beside Yu Suqin.
“That’s right. The Li family usually lives in the city, and Lin Zheng is the headmaster of the academy. They don’t participate in many village affairs. In my opinion, they shouldn’t take this grain.” Another woman chimed in.
The two of them usually have a good relationship with Yu Suqin, and you could even say they are her die-hard fans.
Yu Suqin was the wife of a scholar, and her husband Lin Boren was a teacher at the academy. Naturally, their social status was much higher than that of the women in the village.
But Yu Suqin was good at interpersonal relationships. She never put on airs in the village and was friendly to everyone, so many women in the village had a lot of contact with her.
Lin Zheng was a scholar who passed the imperial examination and was also the head of the academy. Li Shulan also came from a scholarly family, but she lived in the city and rarely returned to the village except for holidays. Therefore, she was not very familiar with the women in the village and would only greet them when they met.
Yu Suqin smiled smugly.
“Aunt Zhao, the clan elder is senile. We didn’t take any. Please return the extra two jin of grain you took.”
Two women stepped forward to snatch the grain bag from Zhang's hand.
Lin Shuo stood by anxiously, but the village women were arguing, and he, a grown man, couldn't very well get involved in their squabbles.
Li Shulan blocked one of the women's outstretched hands, but the woman pushed her away, and her hand landed right on her wound. The wound, which had already scabbed over, immediately started bleeding from her clothes.
"Ah!" she exclaimed.
"Ah!" Another scream rang out.
The woman who pushed the other woman was kicked to the ground by Lin Yinan, who arrived at the scene.
Seeing that something was wrong, Lin Yisong turned and ran towards the tent where the clan chief and village chief were.
Yu Suqin was frightened by Lin Yinan's fierceness and pointed at Old Mrs. Zhao, saying, "Aunt Zhao, your granddaughter maliciously injured someone. Is there no law anymore?"
"Oh no! You're bleeding, sister-in-law, are you alright?"
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