What? There's food? Everyone's eyes lit up, their fatigue and despair vanished, and in a flash, more than a dozen people rushed into the village.
"You've put them all away? Don't put too many away, or people will get suspicious," Song Zhuiyan said in a low voice.
"Don't you trust me to do things? Although my body has shrunk, my brain is still intact. I only put in 150 jin, which should be enough to feed those people for ten to fifteen days." Song Tantan smiled.
"So can you help me carry my uncle inside and find a room for him to recover?" Ye Moxun asked helplessly, as if he and his uncle had been forgotten.
"Don't worry, I've already reserved the biggest and cleanest room. We'll live in that room together then." Song Tantan had an expression that said, 'Trust me, I'm right.'
Song Zhuiyan dragged Zhong Qingyi into the village and followed Song Tantan into the house she had reserved earlier. The house was near the village entrance, with a main hall and two rooms on each side. It was the most impressive house in the village, with a courtyard.
Just as Song Zhuiyan got Zhong Qingyi to bed, she came out to clean the room with Song Tantan, only to see all the refugees rushing over.
"Heroine, we found the remaining food! It was so hard to find. I found thirty catties of old rice in a corner under the bed in the room."
"I found fifty catties of millet in the cellar." Although it was millet, the quantity was large, and the person who found it was overjoyed.
"I found twenty catties of old rice."
Two young women and a little girl found the millet rice; the other children found almost nothing, although three of the older children did manage to get something.
The boy, who looked about ten years old, came over with a bag and said, "We found this, but we've never seen this before. We don't know if it's edible?"
Song Tantan knew what was inside without even opening it. The bag contained corn, which her aunt had bought to feed the chickens and ducks, and she had taken it out to make up the difference.
She pretended to open the bag and said, "I know what this is. Many people in my hometown grow this. It's corn, and it's edible."
"Really? Where is your hometown? Where did this thing come from?" the woman, who was alone, asked curiously.
“Our hometown is very far from here, you wouldn’t know where it is even if I told you. Actually, this thing isn’t that rare, you just haven’t seen it before. Look, people in this village grow it, otherwise how would you find corn?” Song Tantan, a small girl, stood in the middle of the crowd, convincing everyone without batting an eye.
Hearing her say that, everyone agreed that she was absolutely right. Just because they hadn't seen it didn't mean others hadn't. There was nothing to be surprised about; having something to eat was a blessing.
"My aunt and I discovered this village. The reason there is still some food left is because when someone came to rob us, the villagers were too busy escaping to take all the food with them. Otherwise, who would be willing to leave such valuable things behind?"
At this point, Song Tantan tugged at Song Zhuiyan's sleeve, and the latter nodded knowingly. She continued, "So now I require you to hand over all the grain you find to me, and then I will distribute it equally among you."
As soon as the words were spoken, the few who had found the grain clenched their fists, clearly unwilling, while the children who hadn't found any breathed a sigh of relief, their faces showing obvious smiles.
"What you found is only for you. The four of us here don't want it. And don't think that just because we found a lot, it's all there is. We could have kept all this food for ourselves, but we didn't. We wanted to help you, but not just one or two people; we wanted to help everyone. So no one can keep it all to themselves."
"Besides, there are many people here, so it's impossible for anyone to monopolize it. No one can guarantee that this place is absolutely safe. Who knows when some barbarians or bandits might come into the village? In that case, we'll be the ones protecting you. So for the time being, you all have to listen to me. As for the future, whether you stay or leave is none of my business."
Now, the three young women each have a knife, and the older children also have knives. They all picked them up from the Hu people and the eight big men, keeping them for self-defense.
However, when they saw Song Zhuiyan flip the blade, which gleamed with a blinding, cold light in the sunlight, everyone's hearts skipped a beat. Even with the blade, they were no match for the heroine, so how could they dare to disagree with her? Those who had found the food handed it over.
There were 20 jin of corn, 80 jin of old rice, and 50 jin of millet, totaling 150 jin of grain. Song Tantan checked the quantities and was satisfied. These people were honest enough not to have secretly hidden anything.
"We happen to have a stone mill in our yard. Why don't you adults mill the grain into rice first, and then distribute the grain?"
So everyone listened to Song Tantan first grind the millet into rice, and then they divided the grain together. Song Zhuiyan calculated that there were a total of sixteen people and 150 catties of grain, so each person could get about nine catties. However, the adults would definitely get more, and the younger children would get less.
The lack of scales was not a problem; Song Zhuiyan could estimate the approximate weight with a simple lift of her hand, and the dozen or so people quickly finished distributing the grain.
Four of the children were the younger siblings of two little girls, and the remaining children had no family. After thinking for a moment, Song Zhuiyan called out to the woman who was alone.
"By the way, what's your name?"
"I, my name is Zhu Xiu. What can I do for you, heroine?" Zhu Xiu was very reserved, looking at her with apprehension.
Song Zhuiyan seemed oblivious to the apprehension in her eyes and said calmly, "These children have no one to take care of them; even cooking might be a problem. Would you like to stay with them...?"
"No, uh, no, we don't need to. We can cook for ourselves, we don't need anyone's help," the boy, who looked to be the oldest and only about eight years old, said loudly.
“You’re too young. It’s too dangerous for you to cook for yourselves,” Song Zhuiyan disagreed.
“I’m eleven years old, he’s nine, and he and he are both seven. We learned to start a fire and cook when we were back in our hometown. We can take care of ourselves.” The children clutched the food tightly in their arms, clearly afraid that Song Zhuiyan would take it back.
Then hand it over to that strange woman, who knows if she'll run away with the food.
Song Zhuiyan was taken aback. She hadn't expected that these children were two or three years older than they looked, and that they were all very wary with firm and stubborn eyes.
Think about how I could start a fire and cook when I was eight years old, and how Tantan was very capable of doing housework when she was ten. These children went through so much during their escape, how could cooking be difficult for them?
"Alright, then you can cook for yourselves. But make this clear, the older ones are not allowed to bully the younger ones. If anyone dares to steal someone else's food, and I find out, I won't let them off the hook," Song Zhuiyan said coldly.
“You’ll be staying in the room next to ours. If anything happens, we can help you out.” Song Zhuiyan’s eyes held a subtle warning as she spoke to the eleven-year-old boy.
The thin boy pursed his lips and nodded. "Don't worry, I won't bully them. My family all died while we were fleeing. I will treat them as my own family."
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