The bandit incident made the atmosphere in the whole village much more tense.
The villagers were busy, not only with the autumn harvest, but also with preparing firewood for the winter.
Although there is still some time before winter, firewood is still needed for cooking. When winter comes with snow and autumn with rain, it will be difficult not only to go up the mountain to cut firewood, but also to dry the firewood.
The harvest in the fields is also a source of worry for the villagers.
These past few summer months have finally seen a few torrential rains, which has made the harvest much better than last year, preventing a complete crop failure.
However, many rice ears were not full, or even shriveled.
The withered rice ears were not wasted either; they were also painstakingly harvested and ground into rice bran with a stone mill, which could also fill their stomachs when they were hungry.
Most of the plump grains were sent to the county town to pay taxes.
This is absolutely essential.
At the Lin family's dinner table, Lin Weiming and Liu Junlan also talked about this matter.
"I was thinking of bringing some silver with me when I go to the county town to pay taxes with them in a few days, and buying some grain to bring back," Lin Weiming said.
Their crop harvest is better, even comparable to previous years.
But nobody knows what next year's harvest will be like.
Rice prices are always lowest during the annual harvest season. If you can stockpile some grain at this time, even if you don't expect to sell it at a high price next spring when food is scarce and make a fortune, you can at least avoid starving.
"But if the villagers see this, won't it easily arouse their envy?" Xuefu thought for a moment and asked.
The villagers of Ning'an Village are just ordinary people, not some great villains, but they do have quite a few minor flaws, such as being envious, gossiping, and enjoying joining in the fun.
“Hmm…” Liu Junlan nodded and said, “Xuefu is very thoughtful. Let’s postpone buying the grain for now. Go in a few days, and it won’t attract attention.”
Lin Weiming was a little worried. If he didn't go with the villagers, he would have to worry about the safety of those bandits.
However, when she thought of the little paper figure that Lin Wanyue had taken out from the village head's house a few days ago, she immediately felt much more at ease.
He even keeps a wicked ghost in his house that can create illusions and traps!
Lin Wanyue said that the ghost that chops firewood for her family every day is the female ghost that sucks men's yang energy, and it's really fierce!
After the autumn harvest, the women stayed at home and dried the harvested rice in the sun.
The men went up the mountain together to chop firewood.
They outnumbered the bandits and were all armed with axes. Even if the bandits were bold enough, they could take the opportunity to rid the people of this menace.
Within a few days, half of the front of the Lin family's newly built house was drying grain, while the other half was piled high with firewood.
The little pink butterfly looked at the firewood in the house, and the axe in its hand fell to the ground.
"This...this...is this supposed to be my way of chopping wood? This is going to kill me!" Little Pink Butterfly looked up at the log that was much taller than herself and protested, holding up her axe.
Lin Wanyue chuckled somewhat sheepishly, "Aren't you afraid of heavy snow in winter?"
"But that's too much! I'm not doing this anymore, my arms are about to break from all the chopping!" Little Pink Butterfly waved her strong arms.
Lin Wanyue glanced at the arm that resembled Chun-Li's strong physique, silently looked away, and took out several delicate and slender anime-style pictures from her bosom.
Little Pink Butterfly reached out and snatched the paper figures, her face still a bit sour. She bargained with Lin Wanyue, saying, "With so much firewood, I can only chop it slowly."
"Yes, I do." Lin Wanyue nodded quickly.
It's already very kind of the little pink butterfly to offer its help.
It's much better than Laifu, who only eats candy all day and sunbathes on the roof.
"Hmph!" Lai Fu said shamelessly, not taking it to heart at all. "Who said I have nothing to do all day? Haven't I been going around the village every day? I guess we can't count on the constables in the county town. We'll have to rely on me! If any bandits come, I'm definitely much better than this ugly guy."
"You dare call me ugly again?" Little Pink Butterfly gritted her teeth, her axe already aimed at Laifu.
This axe was originally obtained by the Lin family at the market. It was made by a blacksmith shop in a neighboring village, and its price and quality were both quite average.
But now that it has been in Little Pink Butterfly's hands for a long time, it has become somewhat different from an ordinary axe. Not only does it no longer need to be sharpened, but it has also become extremely sharp, and it can even injure the ghost's body when it hits.
Lin Wanyue watched Little Pink Butterfly and Laifu fighting back and forth, and she was also a little worried about the bandits.
In fact, she knew that Lai Fu was right. They probably couldn't rely on the people in the county town. If bandits came, the villagers would have to rely on themselves.
Without knives, guns, or clubs, they could only use pots, pans, and hoes from the fields to fight back.
…
In the blink of an eye, an autumn rain fell, and a cold wind brought the chill of autumn.
The local officials also brought news of tax collection.
"I'm speechless!" The villagers grumbled as they packed their best grain, the result of a year's hard work, into bags. "They were never late when it came to collecting grain and taxes, but when we asked them to send people to deal with the bandits, it was like they had donkey hair stuffed in their ears—they couldn't hear a thing!"
They cursed and complained, but they still had to load the grain onto the oxen's backs and lead the oxen to the county town.
With so much grain to deliver and the added worry of bandits, most of the village's able-bodied men were sent out.
In previous years, many men and women would go together.
They could sell some grain while paying taxes, even though the grain prices at rice shops were quite low at the time, but they had no choice.
Only after selling their grain could they have some extra money to buy their children a couple of candied hawthorns, or a few feet of cotton cloth to make clothes for the New Year.
In short, this is their harvest for the year, and their only chance to earn some money.
The Lin family now has some savings and does not need to rely on selling grain.
Lin Weiming only took the grain he needed to pay taxes with him and went to the county town with the men from the village.
After paying the taxes, I returned in the afternoon.
Only Wang Dazhu said he was going to visit his relatives, stay overnight, and return the next day.
“These days the world is so turbulent, even we villagers are afraid of bandits. You still dare to go alone? Aren’t you afraid of being robbed by bandits?” The villagers laughed at him.
“I’m not afraid! I’m not going up the mountain, and I don’t walk at night. Do you think those bandits would dare to rob someone in broad daylight? You guys go back first. It’s the end of the year, and I have to go see my aunt and bring her some things,” Wang Dazhu said.
Seeing his insistence, the villagers didn't say anything more, only telling him to be careful.
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