The night was very dark.
The chirping of insects was incessant.
When Cheng Loanloan first arrived here, she couldn't sleep no matter what, but after a few days, she had gotten used to it. She peacefully fell asleep and woke up as soon as dawn broke the next day.
Early in the morning, Li Zheng had summoned everyone in the village. Except for the elderly, children, and pregnant women, everyone else had to gather under the large pagoda tree in the center of the village.
Many well-informed people already knew the reason why.
"I heard they found food deep in the mountains."
"It seems to be not much different from sweet potatoes, called 'jade bamboo shoots' or something. It can fill your stomach."
"I went up the mountain three times a day, how come I didn't discover this treasure?"
Li Zheng stood on the open ground and cleared his throat. Everyone present automatically fell silent. Matters related to food were of utmost importance.
"It's not raining, and there's no work in the fields. Today, everyone, temporarily put aside your work on the land and come up the mountain with me!" Li Zheng said loudly, "Bring whatever food containers you have at home. All able-bodied people will go together. We must dig out the food in the shortest possible time!"
Someone opened their mouth to ask, "How will the dug-up food be divided?"
"You get as much as you dig," Li Zheng said seriously, "But all of us in Dahe Village are one family. There are elderly, women, and children in the village who are not able-bodied, and we cannot just watch them starve to death. All those who participate in digging jade bamboo shoots, each household will contribute ten catties, totaling two hundred catties to be distributed."
Everyone was eager upon hearing this.
Li Zheng was the fairest. If he said each household should contribute ten catties, it meant that each household could dig a hundred catties.
In this era, a hundred catties of food could save lives. A family, by tightening their belts and eating a little less, could last for a month.
All the villagers slowly followed Li Zheng up the mountain.
As they walked straight up, the elder aunts and sisters-in-law couldn't help but chat with each other, and some rumors spread.
"I heard that these jade bamboo shoots were discovered by Old Zhao's family. As soon as Old Zhao discovered them, he quickly told Li Zheng."
"But their family has that damned stirring stick for manure. Sun Shi, Zhao Youcai's wife, secretly sent her daughter yesterday to Guihua Village to tell her maternal family about the jade bamboo shoots on the mountain."
"When Li Zheng and Old Zhao went up the mountain together, more than ten mouths from the Sun family were also going up the mountain to dig for some jade bamboo shoots. That's the peak of our Dahe Village. By what right do they let people from Guihua Village take them?"
"How was it finally handled? Did they get the jade bamboo shoots back?"
"Our Li Zheng is kind. Seeing that the Sun family's grandchildren were starving, just skin and bones, he let them take more than ten catties of jade bamboo shoots back. It was also because Sun Shi leaked the news that Li Zheng suddenly summoned all the villagers to the mountain to dig for jade bamboo shoots. One step slower, and people from Guihua Village would have taken them."
"The people from Guihua Village are truly hateful. They once set traps on the mountain, and now they dare to come and steal food."
"..."
The crowd, with their words flying back and forth, made Sun Shi's face turn angry.
The jade bamboo shoots on the mountain were discovered by her daughter. What was wrong with letting her maternal family dig some?
If it weren't for her Chunhua going along, would her sister-in-law, with her temperament, have told Li Zheng? Did these people even have the right to go up the mountain to dig for jade bamboo shoots? A bunch of shameless white-eyed wolves, benefiting from their Zhao family's light and still scolding her!
Madam Sun opened her mouth to retort, but everyone lived in the same village. They would inevitably run into each other, and if she soured their relationship, the Old Madam would scold her.
She lifted her head and fiercely pinched her youngest daughter, Dong Hua. The little girl, only eight years old, was pinched and cried until her eyes welled up with tears.