Chapter 212 Beggars
"Learn more characters from Jinbao. You are so grown up, but you can't even write your own name. You will become a laughing stock if you tell others about it." Liu Ji took the opportunity to educate Qiao while blowing the ink off the letter.
Seeing Liu Fei was stunned and frightened, he rolled on the ground with laughter in his heart, but he continued to say seriously:
"I am your third brother who has passed the preliminary examination. Although the two families are separated, who in the village doesn't regard us as one family? From now on, we can be regarded as a family of scholars. It doesn't matter if we can't write."
Liu Fei said "oh" with a bit of inferiority complex, but he always felt that there was something strange about what his third brother said.
Are they a family of scholars?
Are they worthy?
Forget it, don't ask about scholars' affairs, so as not to expose your own nature as a peasant who knows nothing.
The spring rain fell slowly.
A hazy veil covered the entire Liujia Village.
In the fields, there are farmers wearing straw hats and working hard.
Qin Yao, who was discussing the production capacity of the magic bookcase with Carpenter Liu in the factory shed, suddenly heard a voice from outside: "Aunt San! There's a letter for you!"
Letter?
This is a rare thing in Liujia Village.
There are not many people in the village who can write. Qin Yao guessed that it might have been sent by the purchaser Liu Ji.
I put down the work in my hands and walked out. Liu Qi, who had just bought more than 500 kilograms of brown rice from outside, was standing under the archway, pulling his ox cart.
When he saw Qin Yao, he immediately handed the letter in his hand to her and said, "I just met a driver from Xiahe Village on the road. He said that this letter was sent back by my third uncle from the southern county town. He met me and asked me to bring it back to the village."
Qin Yao thanked him and took the envelope.
Liu Qi was busy taking the purchased food back to distribute to the poorest families in the village, so Xiaoxiao left first.
Qin Yao opened the envelope and looked at it. She quickly scanned the few lines of text and showed a speechless expression.
The letter was indeed from Liu Ji. He cried bitterly in the letter, saying how hard and difficult his journey had been, but he lived up to the trust and bought more than 10,000 kilograms of wheat at a low price.
But now he had spent all his money, and if he asked for help, the best they could do was to send him and the food to a post station fifty miles away from Kaiyang County and ask her to come and pick him up.
At the end, he also expressed how afraid he was of being robbed and raped if he traveled alone without her by his side, which made Qin Yao so disgusted that her brows were tightly furrowed, and she was speechless.
Carpenter Liu didn't hear any movement outside the door for a long time, so he asked curiously, "Madam Qin, what's wrong?"
"It's okay, I'll go home first." Qin Yao responded, motioning him not to worry, and took the letter back to the village to find help.
The villagers have started to cultivate the fields.
This year, everyone has discussed that they should reserve the best fields and work with Qin Yao to cultivate and till the land, so now they are rushing to roughly cultivate and sow the distant and thin land.
Qin Yao still wanted to borrow a car, but since everyone wanted to use it, it was obviously impossible to borrow one.
I could only go to the old house to call Liu Bo and Liu Zhong together, rent a car in the town and go to the post house outside the city to meet them.
Qin Yao arrived a quarter of an hour early. A quarter of an hour later, Liu Ji showed up within the time agreed upon in the letter, which made Qin Yao, who wanted to beat him up, less angry.
When doing things, one has to leave some tails. Liu Ji felt a little uneasy, but he was confident because there were so many people around him. He was sure that as long as he didn't make any big mistakes, Qin Yao would not do anything.
Besides, even if he has made no contribution, he has worked hard on this trip, so we should be polite to him.
The total fare for both ends was one tael and two cents of silver.
When taking out the money, Qin Yao didn't want to see Liu Ji's face, for fear that she would not be able to resist the urge to punch him.
"Let's settle the accounts carefully when we get home!" Pointing at Liu Ji's nose, Qin Yao called the drivers to transfer the grain to the carts she brought.
Liu Ji came forward and said, "Don't worry, my lady. I have kept all the accounts, and Lao Si is also watching them. There won't be any mistakes."
Liu Fei, who was fooled by Liu Ji all the way, said to Qin Yao very seriously: "Don't worry, sister-in-law, I'm watching my brother, and he won't be able to take a penny."
Qin Yao looked at the naive young man in front of her with sympathy, patted him on the shoulder, and continued to move the grain.
Liu Ji stood aside and watched Qin Yao carry five or six bags of grain by herself, and praised: "My wife, I'm lucky to have you, otherwise I wouldn't dare to walk on the way back."
"Since we entered Kaiyang County, passers-by have been eyeing our grain covetously."
Qin Yao frowned slightly, but did not complain about his poor use of idioms. She asked in confusion, "You are not exaggerating?"
Liu Ji raised his hand and swore, "Not at all, I swear!"
He pointed at Liu Fei again and said, "If you don't believe me, ask him."
This time, Liu Fei did not contradict Liu Ji. He indeed felt the fiery gazes of the crowd when they saw the food.
Most farmers already don't have enough food to eat, so any unexpected event would put them in a starvation situation.
Whenever the spring plowing season comes, people who have survived the winter will come out to do odd jobs to earn a living, and many of them even beg.
Qin Yao had seen beggars several times in Liujia Village, mostly during the period after spring plowing and before autumn harvest. Families with surplus food would give them half a bowl of brown rice or a few sips of water.
The people in Liujia Village have always been highly vigilant against outsiders.
Because there are often people who disguise themselves as beggars and come into the village to inquire about the children and women, and if you are not careful, they can be abducted.
However, in the past two or three years, the country has been stable and beggars are rarely seen on the streets.
But after hearing what Liu Ji and Liu Fei said, Qin Yao paid special attention on the way back and found that there were indeed more people begging.
They all travel in groups of three or five, as family units.
Some of them numbered as many as twenty people, and they were almost all from the same village.
When he saw the grain cart, his originally dim eyes brightened up and he wanted to go forward and beg for food.
Qin Yao glanced over with a pair of cold eyes, and grasped the hilt of the knife. A powerful and terrifying aura enveloped the whole place, and the beggars trembled in their hearts.
He wanted to take a step forward, but his foot retracted under the instinct of survival. He only dared to retreat to the edge of the road, staring at the bags of food, not daring to get closer.
After arriving at Xiahe Village, these small groups of beggars with entire families disappeared.
Liu Ji shook the grass he picked from the roadside and smiled proudly at Qin Yao. Look, how foresighted he was. Otherwise, how could he deal with these groups of beggars?
Qin Yao glanced at him and raised the corner of her mouth slightly, saying, "You're a smart guy."
Ten trucks carrying 11,000 kilograms of grain drove into Liujia Village, causing a small stir.
I didn't expect that Qin Yao said she wanted to stock up on food, and she actually stocked up so much.
But when I think about her appetite, I can understand it.
However, when the villagers of Liujia Village saw so much grain for the first time, they were still a little shocked.
The villagers, who had originally wanted to stock up on food but had not yet taken action, were suddenly stimulated and began to follow suit.
Qin Yao felt relieved when she saw this scene.
It's good to follow the trend so that every family has surplus food and everyone is safe.