thenovelthief #270 - Can’t buy it? If you can’t buy it, just grab it!
#270 - Can’t buy it? If you can’t buy it, just grab it!
"How can there be no grain?"
Before Song Dayou could speak, Liu Dagen from the neighboring Liu Family Village couldn't help but shout, "Master Zhang, how can your family be out of grain?"
"That's right! Master Zhang's family's grain, I'm afraid several lifetimes wouldn't be enough to use up!"
"Master Zhang, a wealthy household like yours, out of grain?"
"You have several granaries!"
As soon as Liu Dagen spoke, the other village elders also chimed in.
Their area was located at the border between two countries, usually ignored by the government, who didn't even come to collect taxes or grain.
Therefore, these village elders were all clan elders elected from the most populous clan in each village.
The villages and clans had long run out of grain, and the descendants were relying on building a temple for the White Maiden to get some grain from the Zhang family to eat.
Now that Master Zhang said there was no grain, how could they not be anxious?
"Master Zhang, we are building a temple for the Maiden!"
"If people starve to death, won't the Maiden blame us?"
No one believed that the Zhang family was truly out of grain; they all thought Master Zhang was unwilling to take out more grain.
Before they could say a few words, they began to hint at Master Zhang.
"It's not that I don't want to take out grain, it's that it's really all gone," Master Zhang frowned.
"How is that possible?"
Everyone refused to believe it.
"I've always known that a wealthy family like yours has granaries!"
"Yes, I don't know how much grain you have stored in those granaries."
"Only a few days have passed? And it's all gone?"
"Don't try to deceive us ignorant people!"
"Alas!" Master Zhang sighed upon seeing this and gave the steward a look.
"Bah! Deceive you for being ignorant? Do you even know you're ignorant?" Receiving the master's hint, the steward immediately glared and raised his eyebrows, scolding, "Don't you know how many people from your own families are here freeloading?"
With a roar, he suppressed the scene and began to call out names.
"Wang Dacai, I ask you, how many of your teenage grandchildren have come!"
"Why do you ask how many have come? They're just children, how much can they eat…"
"How much can they eat! They can eat a lot!" The steward sneered before he could finish, "Just children? A half-grown child can eat his father to death, haven't you heard that? Your grandson's appetite is almost catching up to the Feifei I used to raise!"
Feifei was a pig.
"This, this." Wang Dacai didn't get angry when his grandson was compared to Feifei, but shamefully said 'this' twice without giving a definite answer.
In the past few days, his grandchildren had really been eating their fill.
Two large bowls of porridge in the morning, a pot of mixed grain rice at noon, and then another large pancake.
Before going back in the evening, they would also drink porridge before leaving.
Three meals a day!
The poison disaster had been resolved, and the wild vegetables on the mountain could be eaten, so a lot of vegetable leaves and roots were mixed into the morning and evening meals.
But even so, thinking about it, his family had probably eaten several hundred catties of rice and flour from the Zhang family in the past half month.
Everyone looked at each other.
The seven villages present had at least thirty or forty people, and some had more than a hundred.
Hiss ~
They didn't know until they calculated it.
After calculating, the Zhang family's stored grain could last them half a month at this rate, which was quite a lot.
Then, several people looked at Song Dayou from Song Family Village.
Song Family Village had the most people; they usually brought the whole village to eat.
Four or five hundred people, wouldn't they eat tens of thousands of catties of grain?
"What are you looking at me for?" Song Dayou glared and said fiercely, "The grain we eat is borrowed from Master Zhang and has to be repaid. Are you also repaying it?"
The other village elders fell silent.
How could they repay it?
They couldn't afford to repay it!
Of course, Master Zhang and Song Dayou didn't expect them to repay it.
The White Maiden's temple could be built so quickly thanks to the efforts of these villages.
In addition to the people from Song Family Village, who took out the best materials from their homes, even the elderly contributed their coffin boards, and the surrounding villagers were also generous.
In these years, those with a little wealth would prepare their coffins early.
They were also next to a mountainous area, so there was no shortage of wood.
But there was a shortage of good wood.
The large timbers inside had already been decided.
And there was also the stone.
Villagers would save wood and stone materials for one or two generations before building houses.
So, in a hurry, it was impossible to get everything ready.
If everyone hadn't worked together to build the temple, it wouldn't have been easy.
Moreover, it could be done so quickly.
There were also brick kilns.
Firing large blue bricks was a laborious task.
It was impossible to do it with few people.
At this time, the three large timbers used for the main hall's beams, in addition to the one Master Zhang had prepared for his own coffin, one from Song Dayou and Zhang Yun'er, and the remaining one was taken from Liu Dagen's ancestral hall.
Of course, in exchange, Liu's ancestral tablets would be moved to the White Maiden Temple's side hall in the future.
So, he quickly said, "The Maiden's temple cannot be stopped."
Otherwise, there would be no place for his family's ancestral tablets!
"That's natural." Master Zhang immediately interjected, "The reason I called you all here is to ask if you can gather some grain."
Everyone didn't need to look at each other this time.
They all showed bitter faces.
A farmer's grain is never enough to eat.
It would be good if their own grain could last through the winter.
This was thanks to the fact that they didn't have to pay taxes.
"If it were in the past, there might still be a little left," Sun Dazui shouted, "But didn't we encounter the poison disaster?"
The poison disaster, although it didn't kill them all, was still deadly!
Normally, as soon as spring began, there would be wild vegetables to pick in the fields, which could be eaten together to save a lot of grain.
But this year, the poison disaster came as early as the beginning of January, just after the snow melted.
The water could no longer be eaten raw.
Drinking raw water would soon cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
As the saying goes, even a strong man can't withstand three rounds of diarrhea.
Those with weak bodies, after a bout, could directly faint if it was serious.
Old people in each village had died because they couldn't withstand it.
Now everyone knew that there was poison in the water, but people couldn't not drink water, right?
Later, they discovered that it was okay to drink the water after boiling it, but before they could rejoice, they discovered that everything in this area nourished by the water veins could not be eaten.
Nothing could be planted.
The water used to irrigate the grain and vegetables in the fields couldn't be boiled before irrigating!
Strangely enough, the grass and trees in the fields and forests were still lush, and the birds, insects, and fish were not affected at all.
But if people ate them, something would happen.
Even cooked, it wouldn't work.
Even the livestock at home could no longer be raised.
Now, they had to rely entirely on the grain and the dried vegetables that were dried last autumn and stored in the cellar for the winter.
"In this situation, who still has grain at home?"
Liu Dagen said, unable to help but look at Master Zhang.
"Only a wealthy household like Master Zhang can build granaries and have stored grain."
The houses these farmers lived in were all made of yellow mud, how could they have the ability to build granaries?
Granaries had to be able to prevent moisture, fire, and water, as well as insects, rodents, and theft.
Besides, their own little grain was barely enough to get through the winter, so why would they need to build granaries?
… …
"These words are sour. It can be seen that Old Liu has a deep love for granaries." Xu Chengxian sat in the house, gnawing on a peach, watching the conversation in the front yard through the water basin, and couldn't help but complain.
Xu Xiaobai, perched on the side, asked curiously, "Dad, what will they do if they run out of grain?"
"Buy it." Xu Chengxian had already thought about it.
"Can they buy it?" Da Hei asked, feeling skeptical.
"Can't buy it? It would be even better if they can't buy it." Xu Chengxian smiled.
If they can't buy it, then they'll rob it!
And while they're at it, rob some other things.
"What we're eating now is all produced from our turtle grandpa's back." He said seriously with a straight face, "What's this called? This is called sitting and eating the mountain empty!"
Sitting and eating the mountain empty is a very serious wasteful behavior!
"If this continues, I won't be able to help but feel anxious about it, and my Dao heart will be unstable."
So, it must not be allowed to continue!
"… … Dad." Xu Xiaobai blinked his eyes, "Didn't you just say that you wanted to eat some fresh spiritual objects from the human race? You also said you wanted to taste the taste of other sects' elixirs."
"… … Cough! By the way, by the way, have a taste. This doesn't conflict, right, Da Hei?"
Da Hei: "… …" I believe you, my foot!