Yo, grandpa is here

Chapter 14 Only One Big Kang Room Left

Man Shan first exchanged greetings with Yu Buli, asked if the journey was going well, chatted for a while, then suddenly got up and knelt on the ground, crying bitterly:
"Grandpa Niu, you have to decide for us! Our whole family will not survive!"

As soon as he knelt, the others in the room also knelt down.

There used to be more than 30 households in Yujiagou, with more than 150 people, old and young. This scale is not large in this area, but it is not particularly small.

A whole village guarded this small remote place, and their days are passable.

There have been wars in the past few years. Although the country has been established now, the remnants of the previous dynasty are still there, and they often harass the border.

The treasury of the new court is empty, and it has to defend against the remnants of the previous dynasty. It can only exploit the people and conscript troops to pay for food.

A group of men from the Yu clan have been arrested. They have been away for three years and have not heard from them until now. Their lives and deaths are uncertain. There are more than 20 old, weak, women and children left, and only five grown-up boys. They still need to be recruited. When I went to the mountain to hide, I was not found.

The hemp rope was broken at the thinnest place, and the house leaked when it rained all night. The strong labor force was not enough, and the harvest was not good due to the drought. The day before yesterday, the government came to collect food, and only gave them five days. A few men were arrested and served in corvee, working to pay their bills.

Man Shan is now the acting patriarch, and he has pulled together the entire clan's food plan, but it still can't meet the above standards.

Seeing that there are only three days left, if these men are really arrested, the Yu clan will lose their incense and completely die out.

Man Shan cried and told the story, there was a lot of crying, and everyone was wiping their tears.

The grain harvest is not good, so it is very difficult to survive the winter, and now such a catastrophe has happened, and I don't know what to do.

Chen Qingqing listened with a heavy heart.

Faced with the suffering, as an outsider, although it is difficult for her to empathize 100%, the despair of the young and old in this room made her feel the helpless reality of the little people under the influence of the times.

"Then what do you want me to do for you?" Yu Buli asked.

"We are looking forward to your coming these days, Grandpa Niu. You are a scholar, so you are exempt from corvee. As long as you are still here, our Yu family's incense will not be broken."

Man Shan wiped away his tears, and asked someone to carry a burden, which contained some supplies raised by the whole clan, including food, and some scattered copper plates.

The sum is not as much as the six taels of silver in the hands of Chen Qingqing and Yu Buli.

"We went to serve corvée, and we don't know if we can come back alive. Grandpa Niu, please take over the position of patriarch, and lead the remaining women of our Yu clan to live a good life. The roots of Lao Yu's family cannot be broken. Here we are."

This request was beyond Chen Qingqing's expectation.

She thought that these people were living such a hard life, and hoped that Yu Buli could use some money to help them.

Unexpectedly, not only did they not ask for money, but they also took out the last bit of money and food. There was only such a simple request, hoping that Yu Buli would live well and have more children.

Chen Qingqing's eyes swept over the young girls in the room, maybe the whole mountain was ready for Yu Buli's wife.

I don't ask for your splendor, I don't ask for your wealth, as long as your tadpoles are so touching.

Yu Buli glanced at Chen Qingqing, seeing her staring at those girls, her eyes sank.

"I'm not ready." Yu Buli expressed his position in a hurry.

"Grandpa Niu, we won't get up if you don't accept the position of patriarch!" Man Shan insisted.

Others echoed: "Grandpa Niu, please accept the position of patriarch!"

The concept of clan is difficult for a modern person like Chen Qingqing to understand, but she knows that if Yu Buli refuses to agree, these people will really be able to kneel to death, so she pushes Yu Buli.

She is really not used to asking older people to kneel.

Yu Buli glanced at Chen Qingqing meaningfully.

"You take the things back, and the matter of paying the food will be discussed tomorrow after I discuss it with your grandma. As for the branches and leaves." He shifted his gaze to Chen Qingqing's stomach, and tugged at the corners of his mouth helplessly, "Always It will take time."

Yu Buli's answer was very skillful, he didn't say whether he would pick up the patriarch, but he gave these people hope and didn't say anything to death.

Yu Manshan led everyone to kowtow, thinking that he agreed, these simple mountain people could not have imagined that this guy had 180 minds, but Chen Qingqing could understand his maturity.

It's just that she doesn't quite understand, why does this guy sigh at her stomach?

Yu Manshan asked the family members to prepare meals to entertain the new patriarch. Chen Qingqing went to the kitchen to see if there was anything she could do to help.

The women's relatives have invited her out, how can grandma work?
Chen Qingqing was embarrassed to eat free food, so she took out the eggs that Yu Buli exchanged and asked these people to add food.

The two of them were so hungry and physically exhausted on the way, they finally had a warm meal, but they couldn't eat it.

The reason is very simple, a group of people swallowed their saliva around, only watching Yu Buli and Chen Qingqing eating, no matter how Chen Qingqing greeted them, they refused to sit down.

The meals are simple hard noodles and stir-fried wild vegetables. Boiling an egg is considered meaty. The wife of Manshan even took out the noodles that have been preserved for a year and baked two cakes.

Chen Qingqing didn't eat a single mouthful, it wasn't because she was high-spirited, it was because she couldn't bear to eat. When kneading the noodles, she could see with her own eyes that there were worms in the noodles and they were still wriggling.

Except for her, no one found it difficult to swallow. The worms in the noodles are called granulation. Chen Qingqing even heard Manshan's daughter-in-law talking about it. It smells delicious after being baked into cakes.

I can't eat meat all year round, and eating worms is like an extra meal. Anyway, whoever loves fragrance, Chen Qingqing and Yu Buli are both "spicy" and won't go in.

Although the two of them are in ancient times, they haven't changed their minds and concepts. It's probably because they have only been hungry for a day and their stomachs are not short of oil and water. They can't eat meat bud cakes. If you eat hard noodles, you will eat your dinner.

After dinner, Man Shan led the two of them out and took them to Yu Xiucai's ancestral house. He received a letter in advance, knowing that Yu Niuzi was coming back, and sent someone to clean up in advance. Yu Buli and Chen Qingqing ate at Man Shan's house. At that time, Manshan's daughter-in-law had already asked several young daughter-in-laws to come over to give birth to the kang and boil water.

Chen Qingqing recognized it at a glance, the wooden basin on the ground filled with hot water for scalding their feet was just at Man Shan's house for making noodles.

Seeing that the two of them were exhausted, Man Shan didn't stay long, and asked the two to settle down early, so that they could talk tomorrow if they had something to say.

It was a coincidence that Chen Qingqing wandered around the front and back of the house.

Yu Xiucai's ancestral house was the most dilapidated courtyard when she and Yu Buli passed by. The adobe roof was cracked, and she felt that the house would collapse if she stepped on it.

There are two rooms that can accommodate people, and Chen Qingqing decided that she and Yu would share one room and sleep well at night. Just as she was thinking, there was a loud noise in the room.

She hurried to see it.

Yu Buli stood on the collapsed kang with a dull expression, the expression on his face can only be described in one sentence: weak, helpless and pitiful

"I wanted to clean up the kang for you, but I didn't expect it to be so weak!"

There are two rooms in total, and two kang beds. Now that one kang bed has collapsed, there is only one big kang room left!
　Yu Buli: Guess, did I do it on purpose?Hey, my feet hurt a little, but the kang is quite strong, and it took me a long time to kick it before it collapsed!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)