Chapter 211: Well Done

Chapter 211: Well Done

In Sweetwater Village, every household was burdened by the soaring grain prices.

Just then, Eldest Zhang, from the village chief’s family, struck a gong in the village, announcing that the affluent Qian family in town would likely distribute porridge outside the palisade gates early the next morning. Any family in the village unable to afford food could go early to queue.

Upon hearing this, the villagers rejoiced.

Their village had prepared in advance, safeguarding their stored grain, unlike other villages where floods had swept away all food supplies, leaving residents truly struggling to eat. However, with no harvest from the fields, their reserves wouldn't last long. With a generous benefactor willing to offer porridge, they naturally wanted to claim their share.

Eldest Zhang, however, cautioned, "My father's advice is that families with ample leftover grain should not join the crowd. If any of you have relatives in other villages who are starving and unable to eat, you might consider informing them to go and queue early."

The villagers grumbled amongst themselves, thinking it foolish to pass up a good opportunity. Such good fortune should, of course, prioritize their own villagers; why tell others? Their village was already at a disadvantage, being so far from town.

When everyone has enough to eat, people are hospitable and genuinely kind. But when personal interests are at stake, self-preservation always comes first.

Selfishness and greed are among humanity's most common traits.

However, this news could not be kept secret. Someone would inevitably sneak the information to other villages, and from there, it would spread like wildfire until almost everyone knew.

When Zhou Ye learned of the Qian family's porridge distribution, he paused for a moment, then praised, "The Qian family is truly righteous."

After the flood, the government should have immediately established relief soup kitchens. But given Taiping County's mountainous terrain and treacherous roads, it would take several days for the county magistrate to allocate grain and transport it to various locations. Distant water cannot quench a nearby fire. The Qian family's timely establishment of porridge stations could alleviate the immediate suffering of many people.

Lin Dashan scratched his head and said, "Our family isn't short on grain right now. Let's not go and compete with others tomorrow."

He Guixiang shot him a sharp glance. "If you don't want to go, then don't, but don't make decisions for everyone else."

Lin Dashan immediately fell silent. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he felt his wife was becoming increasingly formidable. Still, since the flood, his wife, son-in-law, and daughter had been busy with everything, while he had done nothing. He truly ought to listen to them.

Although He Guixiang spoke this way, the entire family had no intention of going. Lin Zhaodi and Zhao Laosan also decided against it.

Supplies were limited. Those who temporarily had food would not compete with struggling households from other villages for a bowl of porridge.

Their most urgent task now was to rebuild their homes. Although the weather had been clear since the flood, there was no guarantee another heavy rain wouldn't strike, leaving them without shelter.

The men from several households got to work immediately.

The grain was hidden behind the woodshed, guarded by the women, while Zhou Ye, Zhao Laosan, and the other men went to the mountains to cut timber and bamboo.

Wood, being the strongest material, would be used for load-bearing beams. For other parts, as Lin Shu suggested, double-layered bamboo would form the walls, with a layer of yellow mud mixed with straw and thatch in between. This would not only make them sturdier but also provide better insulation in winter.

However, before Zhou Ye could work for long, Eldest Zhang from the village chief's family arrived with several strong men.

A few villagers were desperately short of grain and wanted to retrieve what they had stored in the mountain cave. They needed Zhou Ye to guide them to bring back the stored grain for distribution.

Zhou Ye nodded and put down his tools.

On the way to retrieve the grain, some villagers, feeling uneasy, insisted on coming along, and Zhou Ye did not stop them.

The cave was hidden deep within the mountains, a place villagers rarely dared to venture. Even if they followed today, they wouldn't remember the path, and the cave could still be used by them in the future.

Baskets and containers full of grain were carried out of the cave by several strong men. The mountain path was difficult, and it took a great deal of effort to transport them back to the village.

Before Eldest Zhang of the village chief's family could distribute the grain household by household, the villagers had already swarmed around.

"Are they distributing grain? Is this the grain we stored together before the flood? Heavens, my family only contributed a small jar of rice. How did other families manage to store so much?"

"Don't look at me, my family didn't contribute much either, just a clay pot of flour. It's been stored in the cave for so many days, I wonder if it got damp."

The villagers gathered, and even those who had already collected their grain lingered, wanting to see which families had stored the most.

It was no surprise that the village chief's family had a lot of grain, but several inconspicuous families also had stored a surprising amount.

"Old Man Li, your family actually stored a whole basket of grain! That must be seven or eight dou, right?!"

Old Man Li quickly explained, "It's all old rice from years ago, mixed with a lot of husks. It just *looks* like a lot."

At this critical time, any family with grain would hide it, not wanting others to know they had plenty.

When it was the Wang family's turn, the two full baskets of grain made the villagers' eyes red with envy.

Li Chunmiao deliberately let her hand slip while lifting a basket, causing it to tilt and spill its contents—revealing only dried mushrooms and vegetables.

"Sister Li, why did your family store these dried goods?" someone asked.

Li Chunmiao explained, "Oh, well, we had a lot of dried goods at home. If the flood came, these dried goods would be ruined if soaked. At the time, we couldn't bear to contribute too much grain, so we contributed these dried goods to store. Who would have thought, alas... My family originally had a lot of grain, but we lacked strong laborers. When the flood came, we couldn't move it all. All the grain we couldn't move was submerged by the flood!" As she spoke, Li Chunmiao's eyes welled up with tears.

It was true. Every time she thought of the grain they couldn't move in time, her heart ached.

That grain hadn't been swept far by the flood, but it had been soaked in rainwater for days, had spoiled, and was no longer edible.

The villagers remembered that the Wang family indeed had few members and couldn't help but sigh.

It seemed having plenty of grain was useless if there wasn't enough manpower to move it. Unlike them, who had many able-bodied men at home, they had managed to move all their grain during the flood.

After dealing with the villagers, Li Chunmiao's heart was still pounding.

Fortunately, A Shu had warned her, and fortunately, A Shu and Zhou Ye had helped her family exchange their grain. Otherwise, if other villagers knew how much grain her family had, especially with those gossipy women spreading rumors, her family would surely be envied.

This time, when Old Man Liao brought grain for the villagers, she didn't take any because her family had plenty. But she overheard Old Man Liao mention that the grain on the oxcart had almost been stolen on the way back!

Sweetwater Village had no such petty thieves, but other villages did. If word got out that her family had a lot of grain, it was hard to guarantee that idle men from other villages wouldn't come knocking, trying to steal their grain.

After the grain distribution, the village chief, while the crowd was still gathered, began organizing villagers to rebuild their thatched houses.

Following the principle of proximity, every three or four households formed a group to build thatched houses. To prevent disputes, the village chief even assigned the order in which families would start building.

Old Man Liao took the opportunity to state that he no longer wished to live in his original thatched house. He would leave that plot for other villagers to build on and instead find a piece of land at the end of the village to build his house.

A family living at the end of the village heard this and immediately swapped plots with Old Man Liao. The end of the village was inconvenient for everything, and many wanted to move closer to the village head.

With Old Man Liao's exchange, being grouped with Lin Laoer's family would no longer be conspicuous.

Lin Dashui was also Lin Dashan's brother, and with Zhao Laosan living nearby, the families could conveniently work together.

And so, under the village chief's leadership, while other villages were still worrying about their next meal, the villagers of Sweetwater Village were already diligently building new homes.

After a day of hard work, smoke rose from every household's chimneys. To be alive after the disaster, and even to have a hot bowl of rice porridge to eat, the villagers were already very content.

Since the new houses were not yet built, every family slept outdoors in their courtyards, where any sound from one household could be heard clearly by others. The next morning, at the first hint of dawn, several poor families got up early and rushed to town.

Lin Laoer, Zhao Laosan, and their families did not go; they were not short of food. Besides, Jingxi Town was far away, and the time spent on a round trip could be used to do a lot of work.

"Breakfast is ready!" He Guixiang called out to the men who were working.

The men, who had long smelled the aroma of food, quickly washed their hands and hurried to the dining table.

While other households only had a bowl of rice porridge for breakfast, Lin Laoer's family ate brown rice. As Lin Shu put it, you need to eat enough to work properly—the fuller the stomach, the more energy for labor.

The grains were shared among several families, distributed according to portion sizes. Lin Shu also cooked a few wild dishes: stir-fried bamboo shoots with lard, cold-tossed bamboo fungus, and a savory Termitomyces soup. Though it couldn't compare to meals before the flood, having two dishes, a soup, and unlimited brown rice was already quite luxurious in the aftermath of the disaster.

After breakfast, Old Man Liao and Zhou Ye drove the oxcart to town, while the other well-fed men continued working.

The rough rural paths were no longer as muddy as the day before and much easier to traverse. Before the oxcart even reached the town, Zhou Ye and Old Man Liao spotted a long queue of people.

The line was filled with villagers from nearby areas, each holding either earthen bowls or bamboo containers, clearly waiting to receive rice porridge at the gate.

As the oxcart slowly approached the gate, Zhou Ye saw a simple porridge station where a man was ladling porridge from a pot. The porridge was neither thick nor overly thin, but the pot was nearly empty.

Shortly after passing through the gate, the two heard cries of dismay from behind.

"What? It’s all gone? No more? I’ve been waiting here for a full hour, and it’s almost my turn—how can it be finished?"

"Our family’s grain was washed away by the flood. We’ve been living on wild vegetables and mushroom soup these days. With seven mouths to feed, we’re all lightheaded from hunger. We came as soon as we heard the news—can’t you spare a little more porridge?"

"Please, Master Qian, show some compassion! Can't you spare more porridge? Our family hasn’t had a warm meal in days!"

"Please, Master Qian, spare some more porridge!"

"…"

The pleas of the villagers faded into the distance. Old Man Liao sighed. "Our village is lucky to have you and A Shu. Otherwise, we’d be…ah."

There were plenty of wild vegetables, fruits, and mushrooms in the mountains, but they couldn’t fill stomachs—at most, it kept starvation at bay.

Zhou Ye remained silent.

The early days of a disaster were tough, but if one could hold out until government relief distributions arrived, life could go on. It wasn't like the locust plague in his hometown, where the relief supplies were insufficient, and people had nothing—not even tree roots or grass to chew on—to eat. To survive, they had to sell their children, land, and homes. When there was nothing left to sell, they had no choice but to become refugees and flee their homes.

When the two arrived at the grain shop, they found no chaotic crowds outside. Instead, people were in an orderly line, much like those waiting for porridge at the gate.

Upon asking around, they learned that several grain shops in town had stabilized the price of rice at 140 wen per dou. Buyers had to register their household registration and could purchase at most one dou per day, with no further purchases allowed for three days. If someone wanted to buy more than one dou, they could, but every extra dou beyond that cost thirty wen more!

Those who did the math were shocked.

My God! Buying one dan (≈133 lb) of grain would cost 2,750 wen!

Before the flood, one dan of brown rice cost only 700 wen!

Whoever came up with this purchase limit rationing method, it effectively calmed the panicked crowds who had been hoarding grain out of fear of shortages.

At 140 wen per dou, the price was already high enough. Only a fool would pay extra for more grain. As for the wealthy, even with that kind of money to spare, they had no desire to be swindled. With that kind of money, they could simply send people to other regions to transport grain back—it would just take more time.

"A Ye, are you still going to queue for grain?" Old Man Liao asked.

His family had little money left, so he didn’t plan to buy any grain on this trip.

Zhou Ye was about to say, "It’s too crowded now—let’s come another day," but after a moment’s thought, he changed his mind. "Since we’re already here, I'll buy one dou anyway. Old Man Liao, mind holding my place in line? I’ll take a walk around other shops in town and come back later."

Old Man Liao assumed he wanted to check out other shops and replied, "No problem."

After the flood, aside from the grain shops, other businesses were mostly struggling. Several restaurants had raised their prices due to the high cost of grain, making meals unaffordable for most people.

Old Man Liao expected Zhou Ye to return quickly, but as he waited in line and the crowd gradually thinned, it took a long time before he finally saw Zhou Ye again.

Zhou Ye looked no different from before, but Old Man Liao noticed a trace of lingering fierceness in his expression. The cuffs of his sleeves were stained with what looked like blood spatter, as if fresh blood had accidentally splashed and smeared on them. Old Man Liao’s heart sank.

"A Ye, what did you do?"

Zhou Ye hadn’t planned to mention it, but since Old Man Liao asked, he explained, "I saw some suspicious-looking people following others. I trailed them and found out they were planning to rob others of their grain. I gave them a beating, but I hit harder than I meant to—and some blood ended up on my sleeves."

Old Man Liao’s jaw dropped, then slowly closed. He stammered, "Just grain thieves? Well... you did good."