The village was no longer peaceful, just as Grandma Qin had predicted.
The next day, after Qin Junyao had stored the Hou family's belongings in her spatial artifact and descended the mountain, she heard the sounds of arguments and children being spanked throughout the village.
Some were returning to their parents' homes, others were going to the county. The military families in their area had already driven their carts to find relatives in the salt lake and the Eight Provinces.
The Zhao family's courtyard gate had been tightly shut since yesterday. Their home and the Suozi family's were the only two households whose grain had not been confiscated. Even the village chief's home hadn't been spared by the Northwest Army.
Qin Junyao returned home to find her mother preparing to steam potatoes. She paused with one foot in the kitchen and then retreated, walking around the courtyard. She re-entered the kitchen carrying a basket.
"Mom, let's steam these all together," Qin Junyao said, taking out the yams, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and eggplants from the basket one by one.
Seeing the ingredients, Qin's mother put down the potatoes she was washing and came over to Qin Junyao. "I'll do it, I'll do it. Don't put them on the floor, there's too much."
"If there's too much, we can send some to Grandpa Hou's. Mom, aren't you going to the stall today? Will second uncle's food be enough?"
"It's enough. Tomorrow is the day they return. Your second aunt just made a cotton-padded jacket and quilt for your second uncle. I don't know if he can take them to the salt harvesting place."
Qin Junyao picked up the pumpkin from the bottom of the basket and placed it on the chopping board. She turned to help her mother with the yams. "Can we use some old cloth to patch up second uncle's quilt? That should work, right?"
"Your second aunt didn't use good cloth anyway. The quilt was just too thick. She's taking it apart inside now."
Qin Junyao poured some hot water from the pot and mixed it with cold water to make lukewarm water. She was about to wash the eggplants when her mother pushed her away. "You go peel garlic, I'll wash."
The mother and daughter chatted as they prepared breakfast. When the ingredients were washed and placed in the pot, Grandma Qin came into the kitchen. "Eldest daughter-in-law, steam more potatoes. Take them to Yan County so you don't starve. Oh? Yao Yao brought these."
"Yes," Qin Junyao replied, chopping the pumpkin, while answering Grandma Qin.
"Then this is enough. Did you go down first, or did Grandpa Hou go down first?" Grandma Qin asked, picking up an eggplant, washing it in the water, and breaking off a piece to chew. It was delicious.
Qin Junyao was momentarily stunned by Grandma Qin's action and said, "I went down the mountain first. They still had to push the cart."
"Grandma, are we going to Yan County today?"
"Yes, if there's grain, we'll buy grain. If there's no grain, we'll buy some old cloth to remake the cotton clothes at home."
.
After breakfast, Grandma Qin, along with Qin Daniu and Qin Junyao, drove the donkey cart to the Hou family's home. After picking up Hou Gan and his wife, the five of them headed towards Yan County.
"Old sister, old sister, wait for me, give me a ride," Li Pozi, the gossip, called out to Grandma Qin as they rounded a bend.
"What a coincidence, old sister, where are you going so early?" Li Pozi asked Grandma Qin, her eyes scanning the clothes of the people on the donkey cart.
Qin Junyao and the others were wearing single layers of clothing, draped with straw mats to shield them from the cold wind.
Grandma Qin tightened the straw mat around her shoulders and said with a hint of dejection, "We're going to Yan County. There are always villagers selling things there, and our two families want to buy some potatoes."
Li Pozi said mysteriously, "Old sister, you don't know yet, do you? Your families' cellars had the most potatoes taken. Some people's cellars weren't discovered at all."
"Someone told those soldiers that you bought a lot of potatoes, set up stalls to earn money, and always went to the county."
Hou Si Shen lifted her straw mat, turned, and linked arms with Li Pozi. "Auntie, do you know who it was? We've always been honest and law-abiding since we came here. Who did we offend?"
"First, we encountered a severe drought and harvested nothing from the fields. Then, we survived the plague. We finally managed to escape here completely intact, and before we could even settle down, sob~~" Hou Si Shen's voice became choked with tears at the end.
Li Pozi felt bad too. She patted Hou Si Shen's hand and sighed, feeling the coldness of her hand. "Don't say I told you, okay? I just feel a connection with you, old sister."
She lowered her voice. "It was Village Chief Hao's wife."
Village Chief Hao's wife?
The Qin and Hou families knew Village Chief Hao. When they first arrived, they had forgotten to register with Village Chief Hao, and he had come to find them himself.
Qin's father had said that Village Chief Hao was a reasonable person. After receiving the gifted cloth, Village Chief Hao's wife had also said many polite words.
What was going on?
Grandma Qin took a still-warm sweet potato from her well-wrapped basket and placed it in Li Pozi's hand. "Sister, it's cold on the road. Eat this to warm your stomach. Tell old sister about this village chief's wife."
"Oh, I didn't eat this morning and I'm hungry. When you see Village Chief Hao's wife, you must call her Madam Village Chief. She likes people to call her that."
"Village Chief's wife's surname is Shao. She's very arrogant. She not only told them about your family but also about several other families who have large fields and plenty of grain. I don't know why."
Grandma Qin and Hou Si Shen exchanged glances. Hou Si Shen tentatively asked, "Wasn't the village chief's family's grain also confiscated?"
"The village chief's family voluntarily surrendered it. They didn't search inside. His neighbor said that the cellar dug in their yard was full of grain. Just you wait, there will be trouble in the village later."
"Old sister, is there more? Give me another one."
Li Pozi ate the sweet potato, her mouth busy. She talked about whose silver had been taken, whose dowry's silver ornaments had disappeared, whose sheep had been captured, and so on.
The Qin and Hou families on the cart echoed her sentiments, but their hearts sank. It seemed Village Chief Hao was not necessarily a good village chief.
Although the village chief did not have great prestige, he was still a local official, and the common people most feared getting involved with officials.
Li Pozi got off the cart midway. She had eaten half a basket of sweet potatoes, but it was worth it to learn from her who they had offended.
As they neared Yan County, Qin Junyao was frozen stiff. She jumped off the donkey cart and ran alongside it to warm herself up.
After a few steps, she noticed many eyes on her. She looked around and saw that there were more people on the road than usual.
.
Upon arriving in Yan County, the streets were so crowded that the donkey cart couldn't get through.
"Daniu, watch the cart here. We'll go buy things. Yao Yao, come here, I'll draw on your face," Grandma Qin said, making a quick decision as she looked at the unusually bustling crowd.
Qin Junyao was going to the Qu Bing Tang, as agreed upon at home. She walked into the crowd with a very safe-looking face.
She noticed that most of these people were heading to various grain stores, and some grain stores even had "sold out" signs for certain grains.
The common people who used to set up stalls to sell grains, radishes, and potatoes were almost gone. The popular pork stalls, however, had few customers.
Qin Junyao saw that the pork at one stall was particularly fatty, so she bought a quarter of the pork, as well as the pig's heart and liver.
She remembered her mother saying that these offal dishes were especially delicious and cheaper than the meat. If she saw them, she should buy some.
Every time Qin Junyao returned to Yan County, these offal items were always sold out. Now that she encountered them, she bought them all. The butcher even gave her two baskets to pack the meat and offal.
Leaving the meat with the butcher, Qin Junyao carried her basket and headed straight for Qu Bing Tang. By the time she reached the entrance of Qu Bing Tang, her basket contained a bag of millet.