Chapter 205 204. Thank you very much
When the refugees saw the cakes and fruits, they couldn't help but look eager. Although they couldn't understand what the people here said, they could tell from their actions and expressions that they were being invited to eat.
The villagers could hear them growling with hunger and swallowing their saliva, but a few of them looked anxious and frightened, and for a moment no one ate.
The oldest man spoke again timidly, his eyes fixed on the food as he mumbled several broken sentences.
“…”
Zhou Yi didn't understand a word he heard. He spoke in Mandarin, which is similar to the local official language, "Is there anyone who can speak Mandarin? Or the Xiling dialect?"
"I can……"
The youngest man among the refugees looked at the young man who was only in his early twenties and whispered, but he did not speak Mandarin very fluently and spoke haltingly.
"I, I know a little bit of Mandarin, but I'm not very good at it..."
"Then tell me."
Zhou Yi pointed to the snacks and fruits in the basket and said, "These are for you to eat. They're free. If you want to eat these tomatoes, I'll give them to you."
"But you can't steal anymore. We're using these tomatoes for business."
"Hey, thank you, thank you..."
The young man nodded repeatedly in gratitude, turned around and said something to his companions. The others also looked grateful, muttered something, and pushed the tomatoes in their arms, as if they wanted to return them to Zhou Yi and the others.
The young man spoke again, with a simple yet guilty tone, "Here are the tomatoes, I'll give them back to you. We stole them because we were extremely hungry. I'm so sorry..."
"Who wouldn't say that..."
Gui Fulang patted his husband and asked him to take off his clothes and hold the tomatoes. When he heard what the young man said, he rolled his eyes and muttered something.
But in the end, no unpleasant words were said.
The young man didn't understand Gui Fulang's dialect, but he knew from his expression that it was probably not a good word. He blushed with shame, hesitated for a moment, and finally said in a low and stumbling voice:
"Can we take these foods back home? We can't bear to eat such delicious food ourselves."
"My wife hasn't eaten anything proper for a long time. She's only eaten wild vegetables. The same goes for Daqing's parents, Fu's wife and children, and Uncle Wang's and Aunt Wang's grandchildren..."
"So many people?"
Zhou Yi frowned. He didn't expect there were women and children. He asked again, "Where are they?"
"Across the river."
The young man was probably used to it, or maybe Zhou Yi's tone was gentle, so his official language was much smoother than before.
"We are from the East. There was a war over there, and our homes were occupied by foreigners. Many people died, so we had no choice but to flee with our wives, children and the elderly."
"Nanjiang refused to accept refugees like us, and the officials even ordered us to be driven out of the city. I heard it's the same in Zhongchuan. Outsiders are not allowed to enter the city, and the people in those villages won't let us get close."
"We had no choice but to walk all the way here, along the river, eating wild vegetables and catching fish to survive... We... stole a pot from someone on the way. There's plenty of firewood in the mountains, so we can have something warm to eat."
"It's just that we adults are fine, but Brother Fu's child is sick, and all our money was stolen. We also lost our identity seals on the way. We can't enter the city and find no work."
"That's when I thought of stealing some things from the village and selling them to see if I could raise money to treat his child."
If they earn more money, they would like to buy some salt. They haven't eaten salt for a long time and their health is not very good. If there is no salt, the adults will probably get sick too.
Moreover, it is already the end of October and winter will come soon.
Winter comes early in Dongyuan and is very hard to bear. These Dongyuan people don’t know that winter in Xiling is much warmer and comes much later, so they want to earn more money to buy cotton clothes for their children so that they can survive this winter.
Lei Li sighed softly upon hearing this and said to the young man, "You two should discuss it and go back to get your wives and children. This little food alone is not enough to eat."
"I'll have someone stew a pot of rice for you to eat first."
The young man was so excited when he heard this that he quickly knelt down and kowtowed to Lei Li several times. The men following behind him didn't understand why, but they also knelt down and kowtowed.
"First one to get up, first one to get up."
Lei Li was startled and hurriedly helped them up with Zhou Yi. However, he saw two lines of tears on the young man's face, and he kept expressing his gratitude in a mixture of Mandarin and local dialect.
The other men also understood and their eyes were filled with tears. They even imitated the young man and awkwardly said thank you in Mandarin. After a few words of discussion, one of the middle-aged men went back to fetch the woman and child.
Lei Li took these men back to the Lei family, and other villagers followed him. First, they were afraid that these outsiders would lie or do something bad, second, they wanted to lend a hand to the Lei family, and third, they wanted to hear some gossip.
After hearing what the young man said, Lei Li and Zhou Yi finally had a more complete understanding of the war in Dongyuan.
The war between Dongyuan and foreign tribes started at the end of last year. The border counties of Dongyuan were the first to bear the brunt of the disaster. The affected people had no choice but to leave their homes and flee towards the provincial capital.
However, the foreign invaders soon reached the city. Everyone in Dongyuan City was in danger and refused to allow refugees to enter the city for fear that foreign spies would infiltrate. The people in the city also tried every means to get out and flee to other cities.
There are many high-ranking officials, wealthy people and tycoons in Zhongchuan, who have always looked down on ordinary people and will not help the refugees from Dongyuan. Nanjiang also does not allow refugees to enter the city.
The prefect of Nanjiang was a timid and conservative man.
Nanjiang borders Dongyuan. When foreign tribes attack Dongyuan, they occasionally harass Nanjiang's border defense forces. The prefect was worried that the foreign tribes would turn around and attack Nanjiang, so he used a feint to the east and attack in the west.
They were also worried that the two small countries sandwiched between Tarkin and the foreign races would interfere and join the attack on Nanjiang, so they sealed off the city and strictly prohibited civilians from entering or leaving.
These refugees from Dongyuan stopped along the way and finally reached the territory of Xiling. Some of them should have reached Songyong and Wensheng.
However, Wensheng and Wuxing are also fighting with Wanyi. Although the war is currently at a stalemate and the impact is still small, if a confrontation breaks out, there will probably be a lot of refugees on their side.
The Dayou Dynasty is now being attacked from both sides. If the news of Emperor Anshun's critical illness reaches Takin, Wanyi and foreign races, the situation will become even more critical.
If you are being harassed while you are ill, you may end up being attacked from three sides.
——Shouldn’t we be thankful that there is the sea on the other side of Baihui and towering mountains on the edge of Kyoto Prefecture, rather than another big country eyeing us covetously?
The middle-aged man brought back the families of these refugees, including men, women, young and old, a total of thirteen people. The young man said that two younger children died of illness on the way, and the other relatives could not escape from Dongyuan.
The atmosphere was a little silent for a moment.
But at this time, the Lei family's meal was ready. Steaming white rice was served, along with two simple dishes and a soup. These refugees suddenly burst into tears, probably thinking of their deceased relatives.
She cried and kept thanking Lei Li and the others, and even pulled her child to kneel down and kowtow. After being persuaded by them, she wiped her tears and started to fill her hungry stomach.
However, they had not eaten well before, sometimes full and sometimes hungry, so Zhou Yi told them not to eat too much, so as not to upset their stomachs and cause accidents.
The refugees nodded repeatedly and followed his instructions, eating only until they were about 70% full.
The children were still hungry, or perhaps too hungry, and subconsciously stuffed food into their mouths when they saw it. However, their parents told them not to eat it, so they could only watch helplessly as the food was taken away.
There was a very young child, about four or five years old. When he saw that the food was gone, he screamed in panic, cried while grabbing for more, and spoke indistinctly in the Dongyuan dialect.
His mother held him in her arms and wiped away her tears, apologizing to Lei Li and the others while comforting the child.
The young man couldn't bear it either. He wiped his face and said in Mandarin, "Sir, don't blame the child for crying. His father starved to death. He gave the last piece of steamed bun to the child's wife."
"This child wants food whenever he sees it. He wants to save some for his father, thinking... if he has this food, his father won't die."
Those who heard it also sighed.
Lei Li just saw the child grabbing the rice and hiding it in his arms, as if he didn't know it was hot. His mother was afraid that the child didn't know the rules and would make Lei Li angry, so she slapped his hands several times, and the child finally took out the rice with tears in his eyes.
The food was not wasted. His mother ate it all and fed the child some lukewarm rice.
Lei Li originally thought that the child was too hungry and was afraid of being hungry, so he hid the food, but he didn't expect that he wanted to leave it for his father.
He subconsciously glanced at his parents, and indeed they were both very reluctant. His mother wiped her tears and even gave milk candies to the children.
These refugees came from Dongyuan, so they naturally recognized milk candy. Moreover, milk candy was very expensive in Dongyuan, and only wealthy families could afford it.
The adults were reluctant to accept it and kept refusing, so Liu Yeer gave it to the children directly and asked them to eat it. The milk candy was bought for children.
"Thank you, thank you..."
Several adults couldn't help crying and even wanted to kowtow to them again, but Liu Ye'er and Lei Dashan helped them up and kept saying "no, no".
The children were overjoyed when they got the candies and wanted to give them to their parents, but the parents said they didn’t like them. Only when they saw that their brothers and sisters also had candies did they cherish and carefully put the candies back into their mouths.
Soon, the villagers returned home. The Lei family's place was large enough that they could squeeze in and sleep on the floor, so they let the refugees stay there for the time being.
Fortunately, Little Ginger was sleeping at Xiaobao's place tonight and didn't wake him up. Otherwise, if he knew that there were other children in other places who had no food to eat and no parents, the little guy with a strong sense of justice would definitely be sad.
After Lei Li and Zhou Yi returned to their room, they were also thinking about how to deal with these refugees.
Zhou Yi said he would help them register their household registration.
Although it is somewhat difficult for outsiders, especially those without identity seals, to settle down in Xiling, there are ways around it.
For example, they could register with the locals, like Zhou Yi marrying into the Lei family, or boys and girls marrying into Xiling families. Local people of high status and prestige could also act as guarantors, guaranteeing that these people were decent citizens and not wanted criminals, and then they could pay money to arrange the matter.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi had a good relationship with Lord Xu, so this was naturally not difficult. They could also provide financial support for the sick child.
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