flstandardbreds Chapter 384 Mobilizing Villagers to Buy Grain (2)
Chapter 384 Mobilizing Villagers to Buy Grain (2)
Without waiting for the village chief to say anything more, he quickly pulled the person out the door.
Nowadays, where else in the market can you buy grain for Zhang Youtie, except from Xia Yu?
Since receiving the news from Shen Jingheng, Xia Yu has started frantically growing food in her space again.
However, this time she mainly planted corn, and her cellar was already completely full. Then she thought of the other people in the village. If there really was no food left, she couldn't just watch them starve to death. But she also couldn't just give the food away for free. Finally, the family came up with a solution: they would go out to buy grain under the pretext of money, and everyone would pay with their own money.
She'd borrow a few boats from Captain Ding and use the same method as last time to transport the grain back. However, Xia Yu had already decided that this time it would all be corn cobs, and she didn't have time to thresh them in her spatial dimension. She'd let them thresh them themselves once they were back, and she'd charge them a lower price.
The village chief and Zhang Youtie had been running around all morning, and they ate lunch at Zhang Youtie's house when they returned. Besides the village chief, several other enthusiastic young people from the village were also there.
They were initially hesitant to stay for a meal, as food was scarce and precious these days. However, since the men had helped out for so long, Zhang Youtie couldn't let them leave hungry. He had his men make noodles from a mixture of two types of dough, and each of them ate a small bowl of cold noodles with pickled garlic.
"Ah, this feels so good. It's been so long since I've dared to eat noodles like this. These days, my family eats vegetable dumplings every day, and I'm so clean that there's not a drop of oil in my intestines."
"It's the same for everyone, my family too. A while ago, my wife could still cook some vegetable porridge, but now we're completely out of flour, so we're just waiting to use it when there are no vegetables left in winter."
Everyone chatted away, while Zhang Youtie sat in his chair listening, silently calculating in his mind who wanted how much and who didn't want any.
After resting for about half an hour, the group went out again under the blazing sun. They had only managed to visit a small portion of the village this morning due to time constraints; they hadn't yet visited most of the houses.
When they returned, it was already 9 PM.
As soon as he entered, Zhang Youtie said to Liu Shi...
"Mom, quickly get us some food and drink. We haven't finished eating yet."
Seeing how hungry they were, Madam Liu quickly ordered the maid to bring them food and poured them water as well.
"Have some herbal tea first. I noticed you weren't back when we were eating, so I asked the kitchen to steam some meat buns for you. They're keeping warm on the steamer right now and will be here soon."
After saying that, he turned to Zhang Youtiedao
"You too, when it's time to eat, come back and eat first. It's not too late to go after you've eaten. Look how hungry you are!"
“Auntie, don’t blame Uncle. These days everyone goes to bed early. If it’s any later, everyone will probably be asleep.” One of the young men gulped down a bowl of tea, wiped his mouth, and said to Liu with a smile.
Liu was truly unaware of this, as she was currently preoccupied with many family matters. With such a large house, no one visited anymore, except for her two sisters-in-law from the old house and her niece-in-law who would occasionally come by. No other women in the village came to chat with her anymore. She was genuinely unaware that everyone in the village went to bed early these days.
Seeing her confusion, the young man smiled and explained.
"Most people eat vegetable dumplings for dinner. Those make you hungry quickly, and if you go to bed late, you'll be too hungry to sleep. So now, everyone goes to bed right after dinner, and once you're asleep, you don't feel hungry anymore."
The young man spoke lightly, but Liu felt a pang of sorrow in her heart. She knew what it was like to go hungry; it was unbearable.
Soon, three maids came up carrying baskets filled with cornmeal buns with meat filling. These were called meat buns, but they were really just diced eggplant and minced meat. Two old women followed behind carrying a bowl of cornmeal porridge.
After all the food was laid out, Zhang Youtie noticed that the young men were a bit reserved, so he quickly waved to the three maids and said, "You can all go out first. We'll clean up after we've finished eating."
"Yes," they all said in unison, then bowed and left.
After everyone had left, Zhang Youtie smiled at the young men and said...
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and eat! Aren't you hungry now?" As she spoke, she took a meat bun from the basket and took a big bite.
Seeing that he had started eating, the others couldn't resist and picked up their buns to eat in large bites.
"It smells so good, so delicious."
"Mmm, delicious. It's been a long time since I've had noodles."
"You didn't eat the noodles you had for lunch? Did they go into a dog's stomach?!" The person sitting next to him couldn't help but curse when he heard this.
As soon as he finished speaking, the other people in the room choked on their steamed buns, and one by one they were looking for water or pounding their chests, making quite a scene.
Zhang Youtie finally managed to swish the steamed bun down his throat with water, then pointed at the man who had just spoken and cursed.
“You silly boy, I’ll talk to your dad about it tomorrow and see if you can go to school for a few days.”
"Third Uncle, what's wrong with me?" The man was confused. He had only said one sentence, so what was wrong with them? Why were they making him go to school?
Zhang Youtie was both annoyed and amused by his innocent look. He couldn't help but curse.
"Eat up, and get out of here after you're full!"