Fields of gold

Chapter 286- 290

Chapter 286 – Delivering Grain

The imperial court had sent the relief in a timely manner. Although the people in the disaster area had to go through some hard times, they were able to maintain their daily lifestyles. There didn't seem to be people leaving their homes to flee the calamity. The common people were very grateful to the imperial court, and many people set up longevity plaques for the emperor.

Yu Xiaocao's maternal grandfather's family lived on the west side of the West Mountain, which was separated from Dongshan Village by the West Mountain. There was a rugged path in the mountain that led directly to Xishan Village. Although the path was about half as long as the official road, it was difficult to travel on the mountain road, and occasionally there would be wild animals hurting people.

The Yu Family had enough food to eat until the beginning of spring when the crops were ready to be reaped, so they weren't worried about not having enough to eat. Madam Liu finally felt relieved, but now she was concerned about whether the fifteen members of her maternal family had enough to eat and if they would starve.

After Madam Liu mentioned for the nth time about her concern for her maternal family, Yu Hai decided, "Since you're so worried, let's send some grain over then! As children and grandchildren, it's not right for us to eat lavishly while our parents and siblings starve!"

They couldn't grow grain because of the locust plague. Except for Liu Hu, who went to work as a stevedore at the docks, most of the family just idled at home. Old Yu took several of the children to gather seafood at the beach and Yu Xiaolian sold starch jelly at the docks. The ingredient for making starch jelly was the dried red marine algae that they hoarded last year. Due to the high price of grain, they couldn't sell cold noodles!

The reason was very simple. A bowl of cold noodles usually cost five copper coins, but the price of grain had soared to the sky-high price of thirty or fifty times more than usual. If they set a low price for cold noodles, then they wouldn't be able to make any profit. If they raised the price, who could afford to eat it? Fortunately, they still had a lot of the red marine algae that they collected last year. They should have enough to sell for two to three months. However, they needed to slightly raise the price for starch jelly, which cost five copper coins a bowl now. The business at the docks wasn't as good as last year's, but there was still some profit every day. Thus, Yu Xiaolian naturally wouldn't give up on it.

Now, the busiest members of the family were Yu Xiaolian and Yu Hang. They both had their own businesses to take care of. Everyone else was just idling at home and tending the several mu of garden in the yard.

Madam Liu handed the task of spraying pesticide on the vegetable garden to her older sister-in-law, Yu Caifeng. Yu Hai loaded ten sacks of grain onto the horse carriage, and each sack contained around fifty catties of grain. Madam Liu was very moved when she saw this. Her maternal nephews and nieces were all grown and ate the same amount as adults. With just the food from the disaster relief, it would be considered pretty good if they were half full! She didn't know when the average-priced grain that the officials mentioned would arrive, so she couldn't just watch her maternal family starve without doing anything ah!

No matter how much food they had at home, it was food that the Yu Family earned with their own capabilities. No one would say anything even if they didn't give the Liu Family any. After all, food was the most important during famine. She had only briefly mentioned, but her husband had gotten a cart full of grain for her to take back to her maternal family. How could Madam Liu not be moved within her heart?

"Mother, I have never been to Maternal Grandfather's house ah. Can you take me along so I can see which house it is?" Before Yu Xiaocao transmigrated over, she was bedridden every day and couldn't go anywhere. After splitting from the main family, for one reason or another, she had never gone to Xishan Village. She had been very bored at home these past two days. When she heard that there was a chance to go out, she quickly asked to go along.