Chapter 203: Misgivings

Chapter 203: Misgivings

The villagers stared, dumbfounded.

Were they truly fleeing for their lives? How could they have brought even tea canisters?

Besides the staple food and bedding that every household carried when escaping, the Lin Laoer family had also brought a cleaver, a cutting board, and several seasoning jars—salt, rock sugar, granulated sugar, dried green Sichuan peppercorns, dried perilla leaves, dried Chinese prickly ash berries, as well as kudzu flower tea, pine needle tea, bamboo leaf tea, and houttuynia cordata tea with ginger shreds.

They hadn't brought the bulky jars of pickled and salted vegetables, but they had filled some bamboo containers with them.

A few jars of unfinished Termitomyces sauce were also not left behind; Termitomyces sauce was excellent with plain rice and noodles.

Fragile ceramic bowls and plates were omitted, but a handful of bamboo and wooden spoons and bamboo chopsticks were taken, along with two wooden buckets, a wooden basin, and a winnowing basket…

Villagers: This really doesn't look like people fleeing for their lives!

Compared to the rest of the family, Lin Dashan, usually the busiest, had become the most idle.

Lin Dashan scratched his head, feeling rather awkward.

In the fields, he was always busy, but away from farm work, he realized he knew nothing.

Since his daughter hadn't assigned him any tasks, he helped organize the various items they had brought from home.

He accidentally made eye contact with Old Grandpa Wang from the neighboring Li Chunmiao household, and Lin Dashan let out a dry chuckle.

While Lin Shu was busy, Li Chunmiao and Zhang Qiaohua's families followed suit, getting busy themselves.

Drying bedding and clothes was indeed important; they just needed a moment to adjust. Normally, no one would need to remind them of such things.

By the time Lin Shu was nearly finished and the back baskets were empty, she and Zhou Ye each took an empty basket and headed down the mountain.

The villagers were puzzled. Someone asked curiously, "Are A Shu and A Ye going down the mountain? The foothills are still flooded. What are they going down there for?"

As Lin Shu and Zhou Ye had already walked some distance, He Guixiang replied on their behalf, "They said they're going to check on their home. If the thatched cottage hasn't been too badly damaged by the flood, they might salvage some usable items from inside. They also plan to look around the village to see if there's anything useful to bring back."

Hearing this, the villagers felt a pang of envy.

Before, they had called Lin Laoer's eldest daughter delicate, but now she showed no trace of delicacy. When there was work to be done, she tackled it head-on, without hesitation.

"Sister He, your Lin Shu is truly capable. She looks so frail, but I see she has quite a bit of strength!"

"Yes, and your youngest, Little Pu, is also capable. All your children are capable!"

He Guixiang politely returned a few words, saying their children were also good, and so on, but the smile never left her face.

Suddenly, one person exclaimed with emotion, "I used to think your Lin Shu wasn't as capable as Lin Yao, but now, Lin Shu is more capable than anyone in our Sweetwater Village!"

No sooner had the woman spoken than someone else quickly tugged her arm.

Why bring up Lin Yao? Talk about hitting a sore spot!

Just as everyone expected He Guixiang's face to darken at the mention of Lin Yao, her expression didn't even flicker.

In the first year after Lin Yao left, whenever someone mentioned that name, she felt as if a piece of her heart had been torn out. But now, she had let it go.

At home, Lin Shu never shied away from Lin Yao's name and occasionally brought it up herself, chatting with He Guixiang about the Marquis and Marquise of the marquisate. After many such conversations, He Guixiang had moved from initial awkwardness to feeling completely unperturbed when anyone mentioned Lin Yao or the marquisate. She could even engage in a conversation about it herself.

She smiled faintly and said to the woman who still remembered Lin Yao, "A Yao's capabilities weren't meant for our Sweetwater Village. That child was strong-willed from a young age. I don't know if she'll temper that after going to the capital. I always worry she won't adapt to life there, that her personality might cause her trouble. But A Shu told me that A Yao adapted very quickly after arriving in the capital. Both the Marquis and Marquise are fond of her. Before A Shu left, A Yao was even engaged to the heir of a ducal house in the capital. By now, she might already be the Duchess. Knowing she's doing well puts my mind at ease."

The villagers were astonished to hear this.

"Sister-in-law He, your A Shu actually talks to you about Lin Yao?"

He Guixiang's eyebrows lifted joyfully as she smiled and said, "Indeed. When A Shu mentions A Yao, she's full of praise. It seems the two girls have a very good relationship. After learning that A Yao is doing well, I worried that A Shu might be getting the short end of the stick. But as you've seen, A Shu is also doing well here in Sweetwater Village. She even said she was born to be a part of Sweetwater Village, and the first time she saw you uncles and aunties in the village, she felt a sense of familiarity…"

After He Guixiang chatted with the villagers for a while, they were all amazed and full of praise.

Ping Er from the Lin Laoer family didn't socialize much with other families in the village, so they hadn't exchanged much small talk. They only knew that Lin Laoer's daughter was pretty, shy, and sweetly charming when she smiled. Though she looked delicate, she wasn't aloof and never put on any airs of a young lady.

Later, when rumors spread that Lin Shu had health issues and needed expensive medicinal herbs and foods, they began to see her as a burden, sympathizing with the Lin Laoer family for their misfortune in having to support such a load.

But now, hearing He Guixiang's words, they realized this girl not only had a good temperament and was generous but also acknowledged her roots—a truly rare character.

"Sister-in-law He, ahem, I hope you don't mind me asking, but I heard your Lin Shu needs to consume medicinal ingredients like ginseng and deer antler to maintain her health, and also eats things like bird's nest and white fungus?" One person couldn't help but ask, taking advantage of the fact that everyone was present and He Guixiang was in a talkative mood, to voice a rumor everyone in the village had heard.

He Guixiang tidied the stray hairs behind her ear unhurriedly and said, "That's true, but expensive medicinal ingredients aren't needed all the time—just two or three times a year. It is true that she needs nourishing foods to supplement her health, but it doesn't necessarily have to be bird's nest or white fungus. Any nourishing food will do, such as eggs, fermented rice, chicken, duck, fish, and meat. Otherwise, our family wouldn't have dug a large fish pond—isn't fish meat cheap and nourishing? A Ye occasionally hunts a few pheasants or wild rabbits from the mountains, and from now on, we won't sell them in town but keep them for A Shu to eat."

What she didn't mention was that besides these meat dishes, the bamboo fungus and Termitomyces that A Shu spoke of were also mountain delicacies, very nourishing.

But when A Shu said at breakfast that bamboo fungus was edible, few people went to pick it, so they would gather and store it themselves.

It might not seem obvious now, but later, when every household’s stored food runs out, anything edible will become precious. Even wild vegetables will be eagerly dug up. So A Shu said that any wild vegetables that can be dried should be dug up, dried, and stored.

While He Guixiang chatted with the villagers, openly and subtly praising Lin Shu, Lin Shu and Zhou Ye began their busy task of searching for supplies.

"After today, the water level will drop significantly, and this bamboo raft won't be usable anymore. So on this trip, we should take whatever we can," Lin Shu estimated the depth of the floodwaters and said to Zhou Ye.

Zhou Ye’s gaze shifted from her skilled hands holding the bamboo pole, and he replied, "Every household has taken what they could. What's left are things that are hard to carry, like ceramic pots, earthen basins, and vegetable jars. However, several families left in a hurry and didn't bring their kitchen knives or farming tools. Some also left behind bedding and clothes."

Before Zhou Ye could finish, Lin Shu suddenly laughed. "Why take those? They all have owners. Should we take them back to the villagers and have them thank us? If they were easy to carry, we might, but the thatched cottages have been destroyed by the flood. Anything inside can't be retrieved without first clearing away the collapsed cottages. That's something the village head will organize the villagers to do after the flood recedes."

Zhou Ye was puzzled.

Then what could they gather? Isn't everything in the village owned by someone?

But before long, Zhou Ye found out, and after learning, he felt somewhat amused.

The things Lin Shu gathered couldn't exactly be called unowned, but even if she took them, no one would say anything. She took two bundles of straw that had floated out from someone's yard, dismantled a few clotheslines that hadn't been taken down in time, and casually picked up a few winnowing baskets and bamboo sieves that had drifted out. Most bamboo tools used by the villagers were made by Grandpa Gao from the Gao family. These items looked identical in every household, and unless marked specifically, it was hard to say which family they belonged to.

Then there were a few chickens, ducks, and geese that had survived, hiding who knows where in the rafters of which houses—A Shu caught them all.

"A Shu, these might be…"

Lin Shu met Zhou Ye’s gaze and explained mischievously, "I'll take them back to the village head. If he can determine which family they belong to, we'll return them. If not, these poultry will be considered public property, and every household can share a bowl of meat soup. That wouldn't be bad."

Zhou Ye nodded, his gaze lingering on Lin Shu as she energetically searched for things everywhere.

Hesitating for a moment, he asked, "A Shu, have you ever gone hungry before?"

Lin Shu replied without blinking, "Yes, wasn't there a time when a 'skeletal beauty' trend was popular among noblewomen in the capital? I followed the trend and dieted, so I got to experience the feeling of hunger quite intensely."

Hearing this clearly rehearsed answer, Zhou Ye fell silent and didn't press further.

Perhaps A Shu herself hadn't realized it, but she had an unusual obsession with hoarding things, especially food.

For example, at home, even though fresh mushrooms and various wild vegetables were readily available in the mountains, A Shu would always pick as much as possible. Whatever couldn't be eaten immediately was dried and preserved. It was only when they were packing their stored food during this flood that he realized A Shu had unknowingly accumulated so many dried goods and food supplies at home.

Dried mushrooms like bamboo fungus and green russula alone filled a large basket. There was also half a sack of dried purslane, several bundles of dried taro stems, a large basket of dried creeping fig fruits with their shells, and dried leaves of mugwort, dried leaves of Vitex negundo, dried branches of cypress, dried flowers and leaves of Polygonum hydropiper, dried leaves of Chinese mugwort, and so on.

Then there were two small jars of dried river shrimp, a large pottery jar of prickly pear jam, several bamboo containers of Termitomyces sauce, not to mention the floral and herbal teas prepared by A Shu, as well as spices like dried peppercorns and dried perilla leaves.

Leaving aside other items, just the dried mushrooms, wild vegetables, and taro stems alone would be enough to feed the family for a long time, even if there were no grains at home.

If the season were suitable, Zhou Ye had no doubt that A Shu would have made plenty of preserved foods like salted fish, preserved meats, sausages, smoked chicken, and smoked duck to stockpile.

A Shu had a hard-to-understand compulsion to stockpile food—or more precisely, anything edible.

But Zhou Ye seemed to understand.

A Shu, somewhere he didn't know about, had likely experienced severe hunger.

"A Shu," Zhou Ye called out to her suddenly, his expression serious, "As long as I'm here, I won't let you go hungry."

This wasn’t the first time he had said this, but he always felt A Shu didn’t take it seriously.

Sure enough, Lin Shu raised an eyebrow at him. "A Ye, you not going hungry is all because of me. I don’t want you starving yourself just to keep me fed. We both have big appetites now—let’s work together. I rely on you for meat, you rely on me for vegetables. We may not be able to eat until we’re 80% full like before, but getting 60-70% full should still work."

Zhou Ye sighed helplessly. He had indeed thought about going hungry himself to ensure A Shu didn’t.

But A Shu might not know that if he really tried, he'd never come back empty-handed.

He could hunt game in the mountains every day, though some wild animals might not taste as good, and many people wouldn’t dare eat them.

But he felt certain, somehow, that A Shu would.