The family was so moved they didn't know what to do and could only express their gratitude repeatedly.
"Don't be shy, you can eat in the restaurant from now on, you don't need to cook for yourselves," Ruan Fang said.
“That won’t do. Our house has collapsed, and our family will have to live in the academy from now on. We’ll have to take care of our own meals.”
"There's no need for us to cook for ourselves. There are only five teachers in the academy right now, so adding two more people to eat won't be a problem."
If my sister-in-law has free time, she can help out in the kitchen; it's better than starting a new stove herself.
That's a good idea. Let's leave it at that for now. Du Yi didn't refuse any longer.
It was nearing noon when several elderly men returned from selling couplets. They were all in high spirits, as the New Year was just two days away, and prices for all goods in the market had gone up.
There were other people selling couplets on the street, and they protested to several elderly gentlemen, demanding that they raise their prices, otherwise they would be unable to do business.
The elderly gentlemen had no choice but to raise their prices, and even so, their couplets sold out quickly.
That's great! They've earned enough for half a month's worth of drinks in one go. They plan to work hard for another day tomorrow and then celebrate the New Year in a lively and festive manner.
By this time, the food had been served, and there were noticeably more dishes than usual. Only then did everyone realize that Du Yi had arrived, and that he had brought his wife with him.
Because the old lady had just eaten a large bowl of dumplings, she did not come over for dinner and instead stayed in her room warming herself by the fire.
In weather like this, the old lady dared not go out at all; her legs would stiffen as soon as she caught a chill.
Upon seeing the elderly gentlemen, Madam Du performed a curtsy to them. After exchanging pleasantries, they sat down to eat.
"Mr. Du, it would have been better if you had come back a few days earlier. We wrote and sold couplets at the market and made quite a bit of money. Tomorrow is the last day, so you must come."
Du Yi smiled and said, "Okay, I'll definitely go tomorrow."
After lunch, the elderly gentlemen got busy. Since his mother was being cared for by his wife, Du Yi had nothing to do for the time being, so he helped the elderly gentlemen cut paper.
At dusk, Zhao Xian had two quilts brought over, one a mattress pad and the other a cover-up.
This was the first time the old lady had ever been in contact with a cotton quilt. It was so soft and warm. After the quilt was laid out, the old lady couldn't wait to crawl into bed.
The old lady was covered with a brand-new quilt, and the night was no longer cold, so Du Yi was completely relieved.
Finally, it was Lunar New Year's Eve. From dawn until noon, the market was still very crowded.
After lunch, the number of people in the market suddenly decreased as everyone went back to prepare for the New Year's Eve dinner.
In the afternoon, you can still see some people on the street; they are all beggars, probably from out of town.
The village has a patrol team. As instructed by the village head, when they encounter beggars at the village entrance, they usually give them some travel money and let them leave.
However, during the Spring Festival, the village was crowded with people, and some beggars followed the crowds into the village to beg.
At this time, the village head arranged for people to clean up the market and found some beggars looking for food in the garbage. This was a rare occurrence, so someone told the village head about it.
These are clearly homeless people, and keeping them in the village would certainly pose a safety hazard, but kicking them out now seems a bit cruel.
Instead of going home for the New Year, they were still begging outside, so the village headman decided to go and take a look.
The collected garbage was piled up, and before it could be transported out, the beggars rummaged through it, looking for food.
Upon seeing this, the village head was stunned. Usually, when people came to beg in the village, they would go from house to house asking for food, and they would not rummage through the garbage for food.
Besides, today is Lunar New Year's Eve, and it will be dark soon, which will be very cold.
The village head walked up to the garbage and asked, "Who are you people? Where do you live? Why are you looking for food in the garbage dump?"
The group stopped rummaging through the trash, stood up, and nervously sized up the village head.
"Come here, all of you. I have some questions for you," the village head said.
These beggars were all quite young, the oldest being no more than thirteen or fourteen years old, and the youngest only around ten years old.
"Sir, we come from a small fishing village by the sea in Laizhou. We have made our living by fishing for generations. Although we are poor, we are still able to survive."
But in the last two years, pirates have appeared in our waters. Once they spot a fishing boat, they rush forward to kill the fishermen, rob them of their property, and even steal the fishing boat.
The local government has taken some measures to crack down on these pirates, but the pirate ships are very fast at sea, and the government has no way to deal with them.
Our parents were both killed by pirates while fishing at sea, leaving us as orphans.
Now the villagers dare not go out to sea to fish, but if they don't go out to fish, they will starve to death. In order to survive, people have all gone out to escape famine, and there is no one left in the village.
Because we are orphans and young, we couldn't find anything to do and couldn't support ourselves, so we had to beg our way here.
It's freezing cold now, and we can't find anything to eat, so we have to rummage through the garbage to see if there's anything edible.
Upon hearing this, Li Zheng was shocked. In his view, the people should be able to make a living, and only a minority of them were begging.
But what he didn't expect was that in a small fishing village, there would suddenly be so many people begging, and they were all children.
Wang Lizheng is a warm-hearted person. He couldn't just sit idly by when he encountered this situation. He planned to settle the children down first and then deal with the rest after the New Year.
Thinking of this, the village head then spoke:
“I am the village head. You can’t go on like this. I’ll take you somewhere to settle down first, so you won’t freeze or go hungry. We’ll talk again after the New Year.”
When the children saw that the person in front of them was the village head, they quickly knelt down and kowtowed to him.
"Thank you, Lord Village Head."
"Don't do that, get up, hurry up and come with me, if we delay any longer it will get dark."
The village head has already decided that the only solution is to place these children in the academy. The academy has empty rooms and a kitchen, so there won't be any problems with food and lodging.
Soon, seven or eight children were taken to the academy by the village head. Today is Lunar New Year's Eve, and several old gentlemen are helping with the work, all for the New Year's Eve dinner tonight.
Seeing that Zhengli had brought so many children with him, and that their clothes were tattered and the younger children were shivering from the cold, he quickly asked what had happened.
Through the village head's explanation, everyone learned that these children were a group of orphans who had fled from war, and they quickly invited them into the house.
Without the village headman's instructions, Ruan Fang immediately began to settle the children. The teachers took out some old clothes, which didn't fit, but they didn't care and put them on first.
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