An orphan girl from a farming family: Everyday farming in the mountains during natural disasters

"What Mr. Qian and Miss Qian?" Li Weisheng looked confused.

Xia Qingyue stared in the direction where the woman in yellow left, as if thinking about something.

A stall owner asked in shock: "Those two people just now, you, you really don't know who they are?"

"Yes, it's Miss Qian who serves porridge every day and bandages the wounds of patients in refugee camps."

Li Benfu and others shook their heads and said they didn't know.

"Are they related to Lord Qian?" Xia Qingyue asked tentatively.

"Hush, keep your voice down. Lord Qian is out for inspection again today. Look, he'll be here soon." The fish stall owner pointed in the direction of the entrance.

Xia Qingyue and the others looked over in confusion, and saw a fat white official walking towards them, escorted by soldiers.

"Mr. Qian and Miss Qian are the children of that gentleman. Miss Qian is a living Bodhisattva and a good person.

When our family heard the news, we rushed to Datong Town and queued up for food. My little daughter fainted from hunger, and there was a very long queue ahead of us. When Miss Qian learned about it, she personally brought us a bowl of porridge.

If it weren’t for that bowl of life-saving porridge, I…”

The hunter's eyes were red and his voice was choked.

The stall owners talked one after another, all mentioning the good deeds done by Miss Qian, and everyone respected her.

"What about Mr. Qian?"

Li Weisheng's sudden question left the stall owners speechless, with their expressions intriguing.

Seeing that Mr. Qian was about to come over, the stall owners ran back to their stalls.

Mr. Qian was surrounded by people and walked over. On the way, he smiled and asked the stall owners how their business was and what difficulties they had.

His friendly attitude made people think that he was an acquaintance of everyone.

At this moment, an old man suddenly crawled out from under the soldier, rushed out, and knelt down in front of Lord Qian, crying and complaining that his family members had been ill for a long time and had no medical treatment, and begged him to save his family.

Lord Qian personally helped the old man up, spoke softly to comfort him, and said that a clinic would be set up in the refugee camp soon to provide free medical treatment to everyone.

As soon as these words were spoken, the whole audience cheered and the atmosphere was excited. The shouts of "Mr. Qian" came like a wave.

There were more and more people, and it was almost impossible to move. Xia Qingyue and her companions squeezed out with great effort and went to the grocery store to buy things.

When the shop owner saw Xia Qingyue and Chen Yuzhen, he warmly entertained them personally. The two of them had bought a lot of things in his shop before.

Considering that there were a lot of things to buy, Xia Qingyue decided to buy some first.

"Shopkeeper, give me five dou of each of brown rice, white flour, glutinous rice, millet, soybeans, peas, and sesame. Thirty jin of lamp oil, fifty jin of sesame oil. Do you have oilcloth? If you have, buy me five pieces.

Bring 20 catties of ginger and garlic, 15 catties of coarse salt, and 10 catties of dried chilies, right? ”

When she learned that there was rice bran for sale, she decisively bought a stone.

The shopkeeper told her that the millet was sold out and there was no glutinous rice.

"Okay, forget about the ones that are sold out and out of stock, and pack up the rest that are available."

It cost them more than fourteen taels of silver to buy them. Strictly speaking, they didn't buy enough things, but they couldn't take them away if they bought more, so they thought of carrying the things back to the mountain in the afternoon and coming down to buy more tomorrow.

The shopkeeper packed up all the things Xia Qingyue wanted. Li Weikang, Chen Dawei and others just came back and carried their things back to the village.

At the same time, in a deserted alley near the market.

Qian Zhongsheng quickly took off his official uniform, held it in his hands and wiped it vigorously. His fat hands, which had touched countless people and had been touched by the tears and snot of the old man seeking medical treatment, he wiped them again and again with a look of disgust on his face.

Master Liu, who was following behind him, bent down slightly and glanced up quietly, with a hint of sarcasm in his eyes.

"They are a bunch of useless good-for-nothings who can't even stop an old man. Next time, we won't allow a situation like today to happen again!"

Qian Zhongsheng became more and more angry as he wiped it. His fat face turned red. He turned around and threw the dirty official uniform into the hands of Master Liu.

"Liu Yi, I heard that there have been heavy rains in the border areas of Dong'an County and Huai'an County in recent days. I wonder what the situation is with the batch of disaster relief grain. Has anyone sent a letter to explain?"

Dong'an County and Huai'an County are neighboring counties of Datong Town, and the relief grain transported from the state capital has to pass through these two places.

Liu Yi bowed his head and answered respectfully: "I just received a letter saying that this batch of relief grain will pass through there and will not be affected by the rain."

"That's good."

Qian Zhongsheng narrowed his eyes.

I have just been promoted to a higher position and have won the favor of the King of Yue. The relief grain is the hope of the people. If something goes wrong, it will be a big trouble...

-

On the way back to the village, Chen Yuzhen said, "The prices have risen too high. We are spending money like water."

"That's right. In the past, ten taels of silver could buy a lot of things, enough for a family to spend for several years." Li Weikang muttered.

Chen Yuzhen remembered something and looked at Li Benfu and asked, "Hey, what happened at the market just now? I saw you guys. Do you know that Mr. Qian?"

"Hmph!" Li Weisheng said with a cold face how Master Qian had blocked them yesterday and what the other party had done.

After hearing this, how could Chen Yuzhen not understand that Young Master Qian was coming for Xia Qingyue? She was extremely worried, "Let's stay away from him from now on. I noticed that the stall owners had strange expressions when they mentioned Young Master Qian. I'm afraid there's something wrong with his style."

"It's obvious that the guy is not a good person. And his sister, who ran out for no apparent reason, is probably a hypocrite as well." Li Weisheng said angrily.

After the incident with Tan Xiaozhu, the Li family became much more cautious in dealing with people. Once bitten by a snake, one becomes afraid of ropes for ten years.

After a moment of silence, Xia Qingyue, who had been unable to get a word in, said, "I'll avoid those people when I see them next time."

After returning to the Li family, Chen Yuzhen, her mother and her two sons put down their things and went to the kitchen to prepare lunch.

Xia Qingyue and the others put together the things they bought.

Li Benfu: "Qingyue, we will go up the mountain with you this afternoon. You can take as much stuff as you can. It will be too tiring for you to run alone."

Originally, Xia Qingyue planned to go to the market to see if there were any mules, donkeys or horses available for rent. However, when Li Benfu went to ask around in the morning, he was told that these poultry were not available.

Many people starved to death due to the natural disasters last year. People could not even get enough to eat, let alone poultry. This led to a situation where poultry and fresh pork were not available on the market.

Considering her own abilities, Xia Qingyue did not try to show off. "Thank you, uncle. Thanks for your trouble. Let's go up the mountain together this afternoon!"

"What's the trouble? We're family, so we shouldn't have different opinions." Li Benfu said with a smile.

The lunch was very sumptuous, with a big pot of fragrant rice, fried eggs with wild onions, two braised fish, a big bowl of vegetable soup, and chicken stewed with bamboo shoots.

Everyone enjoyed the lunch and had some food left over, so they didn’t have to worry about having no food to eat in the short term.

After taking a short rest after lunch, the five men of the Li family, as well as Xia Qingyue, took the things she bought and went up the mountain, stopping twice on the way.

When they reached the tiankeng stream, Xia Qingyue asked them to stop and said that she could carry the things back by herself.

Li Benfu: "Okay, then you should be careful, we still need to go shopping tomorrow, let's rest in the mountains for one night and see if we can hunt some prey.

We'll meet at our usual place tomorrow morning."

After they parted, Xia Qingyue hid some of the things in a dark place and carried them back one trip at a time.

After reciting it four times, I finally finished it.

After coming back from the last trip, she collapsed to the ground exhausted, gasping for breath.

"I'm so tired!"