The Daily Life of Farming and Raising Children in Ancient Mountain Residences

Chapter 147: Notification

Sang Luo, with two children, has always eaten purchased grains. Especially since the first time she collected grains, the grains bought in large quantities by Xu the shopkeeper were all packaged in large bags from the grain shop. So, the family actually saved quite a few empty grain bags.

Grain bags are useful items. In the Daqian Dynasty where even cloth can be used as currency, for those who can’t afford clothes, a grain bag can be easily turned into a half-body garment for modesty and warmth. Moreover, Sang Luo, who relies on the mountains for food and often ventures into the mountains, needs various containers for carrying things. Therefore, she has always treasured the empty grain bags and brought them all out when escaping into the mountains this time.

A few days ago, after suspecting that the grains might have been tampered with, while other families were patching up their grain bags, Sang Luo was more cautious. She directly exchanged empty bags for the torn ones, folding the torn bags neatly without mending them.

At this moment, the torn bag was handed over to Mrs. Chen as it was.

In rural households, from the beginning to the end of the year, the most important thing to guard against is mice. The traces of mouse bites are so familiar that there is no need for comparison; with just a few flips, one can see clearly.

Mrs. Chen burst into laughter at a glance.

“Exactly!”

Old man Chen, Chen Youtian, Qin Fangniang, and Chen Dashan had also followed Shen Lie in by now. Upon hearing Mrs. Chen’s words, Old man Chen looked at the grain bag in his wife’s hand.

Initially puzzled, when Mrs. Chen handed him the grain bag to pass around for everyone to see, Old man Chen finally realized, “This grain bag was not bitten by mice?”

Mrs. Chen sneered, “Some people who can’t do things openly and honestly resort to the sneaky ways of mice.”

Qin Fangniang looked at the torn grain bag passed to her, her face full of disbelief. Her first reaction was – how foolish must someone be to do such a thing?

How many families are there in the valley? If they are all fleeing together, who doesn’t know each other? The Xu’s, Shen’s, and Zhou’s are relatively well-off in terms of grains.

Let’s not even mention Sang Luo; apart from being the victim of the lost grains, even if she wasn’t, her background and character would not allow her to do such a thing. The Xu’s, in particular, have the most grains in the valley, all of high quality, with a variety of beans and other rich categories. The Zhou’s, although not extremely wealthy, are the number one family in the village, well-mannered and respectable. Even if there are two daughters-in-law in the family, they are well-off. The Zhou’s have more grains stored at home than other families in the valley, and they have not bought less recently. The Zhou’s are not short of grains.

The Shi’s, Chens, and Lus are quite similar. The Chens, following Sang Luo in business early on and later having the supply business from Dongfu Restaurant arranged by Sang Luo, have accumulated a bit more. The Shi’s and Lu’s, the Shi’s having fewer members and the Lu’s having more, with the Lu’s having a separate branch, are slightly inferior in the valley. The main branch of the Lu’s is relatively disadvantaged due to having too many children, but when Old man Lu and Mrs. Lu separated, they also took care of the distribution of grains, so the main branch of the Lu’s was not too embarrassed. This slight disadvantage is in comparison to other families in the valley, and then there is Lu Erlang’s hunting skills, which only slightly widen this gap.

But it’s only a slight difference.

Qin Fangniang, upon seeing the bag, combined with what her mother-in-law had just said, the first person that came to mind was Wang Chunniang.

Why?

Because she is the poorest?

Not really.

In terms of lacking grains, if we consider the long term, there might be some families lacking, but who is lacking grains now? They have stored grains early on, and they even avoided the recent tax collection, so they are much better off than most people outside.

The first reaction was to focus on Wang Chunniang, and that’s because of her character.

Family background is just one aspect of the analysis; character and the understanding between families are what make everyone quickly think of Wang Chunniang. Oh, and thanks to her leaking the information about the grain storage of each family to her family.

Let’s put it this way, Wang Chunniang was originally the only one in this group who was not trusted, and it was a combination of various factors that led to her being included and guarded against causing trouble.

Didn’t the Lu family members tie her up in the house to prevent any mishaps during the New Year?

And who lost the grains? It was Sang Luo. Anyone with a brain can figure out that in the valley with six families, five families have received kindness from Shen Lie and Sang Luo, and they wouldn’t touch Shen Lie and Sang Luo’s grains without a second thought. Who else could do such a thing besides Wang Chunniang, who has a history of such actions?

So, in this case of lost grains, in the valley, apart from the Xu family members who are not well-informed about past events, any family would first think of Wang Chunniang. How can someone dare to do such a thing so blatantly? Qin Fangniang was dumbfounded by the stupidity of it all.

Chen Dashan bit his lower lip. No wonder Shen Lie suddenly made this move this morning. They had put in money and effort, taking risks to transport everyone’s household grains as emergency rations in the woods. Starting from finding this Yun Valley, it was already the end of March, and most of the time was spent in the deep mountains and old forests.

This is good, just got back yesterday and heard that our grains at home were stolen under the guise of mice.

Ha.

It’s not like you’re my father, mother, or ancestor; why should I worry about how you eat, drink, and relieve yourself.

Old man Chen also frowned and asked Sang Luo, “Are these two bags the only ones deliberately torn?”

Sang Luo nodded, saying, “In my house, it’s these two. Next door at Xu’s, there are three, but the old lady there is not too familiar with the signs of rodent bites, so she probably hasn’t noticed anything wrong yet. Since it wasn’t caught in the act, this situation is quite distressing. I didn’t tell the old lady about it first; I’ll wait for Shen Lie to come back.”

Mrs. Chen remembered something, “When you moved the grains back home before, did you come over to my side to look at my grain bags? Did you check the others too?”

Sang Luo smiled, “Can’t hide from you. I checked all of them. Only my house and Xu’s grain bags were deliberately torn.”

Qin Fangniang looked puzzled and murmured, “Why would they still accuse you two families of stealing?”

Mrs. Chen’s mouth twitched, “Envy plus greed. Sang Luo and Xu’s high-quality grains are the most, and in our few families, just because she didn’t tear our bags doesn’t mean she didn’t steal grains. It’s just that in our few families, most of the torn bags had beans, and she might be even greedier for the finer grains.”

“Thinking about it, I used to blame mountain rats for the missing grains. Now, I’m not sure if it’s the mountain rats eating more or people taking more.”

Old man Chen looked at Sang Luo and then at Shen Lie, asking, “Have you thought about how to handle this?”

Shen Lie glanced at Sang Luo before saying, “Originally, when our families were found out about storing grains and it was leaked to the Wang family, we were worried that Mrs. Lu from the Lu family would be troublesome because we couldn’t predict what she would do next. Considering the other members of the Lu family and the fact that they are now involved, it wouldn’t be right to single her out or leave out the main branch of the Lu family. At the time, I discussed with Sang Luo and agreed that after transporting the grains, all the medicines in our possession should be retrieved by our two families. Without saying much, Mrs. Lu can’t easily leave this valley.”

Old man Chen nodded. Indeed, there are some people whose actions you can’t predict. Like this grain theft, who would do such a thing?

You can’t just kill her, restricting her from causing trouble for everyone is the best way to handle it.

Shen Lie continued, “That was the original plan. But now, I don’t want to take anyone from the Lu main branch out of Yun Valley.”

He looked at Old man Chen and the others, saying, “I think it’s very likely that Mrs. Lu from the main branch of the Lu family did this on her own. Hu Zi and the others are decent, Uncle Lu and Shuanzhu are out working outside the mountain every day, only coming back last night. I believe they are unaware of this. But this matter is too disturbing. If we don’t give her a harsh lesson, I won’t feel satisfied. Since she stole these few mouthfuls, she can watch others eat on an empty stomach.”

Old man Chen nodded. Wang Chunniang has a short memory; how long has it been since the last incident? In any case, she won’t starve without being able to farm.

He asked Shen Lie, “What else? Should we let the Lu family know about this? We don’t know how long we’ll be staying in the mountains, and it’s better for the Lu family to keep an eye on things themselves.”

Pointing to the two bags in his son and daughter-in-law’s hands, he said, “Since there was no catch in the act, you are the younger generation, and it’s not appropriate for you as a young couple to intervene. Just give us these two bags for now. I’ll have the little girl call the old Lu couple over. There’s no need to spell it out; they should understand when they see the items.”

Shen Lie and Sang Luo exchanged a glance, and Sang Luo nodded.

Shen Lie said, “Alright, thank you, grandfather and grandmother.”

Old man Chen smiled and didn’t linger. He let Shen Lie and Sang Luo handle it themselves and led his family out of the cave.

Shen An and Shen Ning, along with Chen Ershan and Chen Xiaoya, were outside the Chen family cave. Mrs. Chen called out, “Xiaoya, come here.”

Chen Xiaoya ran over, “Grandma, what’s up?”

“Yeah.” Mrs. Chen responded, “Go to your grandma Lu’s house and tell her I want to make a jar of soybeans and ask her to come help. Also, ask your grandpa Lu to come over; your father needs to discuss something about the fields with him.”

Chen Xiaoya didn’t think much and promptly agreed before running off to call them.

Shen An was observing the adults’ expressions, with a hint of contemplation in his eyes.

The Lu family members hadn’t gone far at this point; they hadn’t even returned to their cave, just turning around the inner side of the valley.

Lu Dalang, Wang Chunniang, Shuanzhu, and Hu Zi came out today.

The family of four looked a bit dejected. Wang Chunniang wanted to say something along the way but was glared at by Lu Dalang several times. Fearing the threat of being divorced as mentioned by her mother-in-law last time, she obediently kept quiet.

Shuanzhu, on the other hand, tried to negotiate with Old Man Lu and Mrs. Lu, “Father, mother, I don’t need to switch with San Shu; I can go out on my own. I think I can handle it. I’ll practice archery more diligently. I’ve also fought off wolves before.”

Though most of the time, he relied on his second uncle and Shen Lie’s group to support him, there were a few occasions when he had injured wolves.

The family couldn’t just sit idle without finding food; what if things got chaotic for a long time?

Shuanzhu believed that with enough practice, he could handle it, and there were also ways to leave home. So, he tried to negotiate further.

Wang Chunniang listened intently.

She was still afraid of her son getting hurt. She had gone into the mountains early and had encountered wolves a few times. She had also seen Chen Youtian and the others get injured. Now, she still thought those creatures were too fierce, especially when the arrows were poisoned. Without Shen Lie’s poisoned arrows, how easy would it be to kill the wolves? It would be even more terrifying.

But at this moment, she also wanted to hear her mother-in-law’s attitude again, to see if there was any room for maneuvering. She thought that if Shuanzhu went out, and if there was danger, wouldn’t his second uncle, third uncle, Shen Lie, Chen Dashan, and Shi Dalang, these men, take care of a half-grown child? If there was only Shuanzhu, a half-grown child in the group, everyone would take care of him, just like they did with the women and children before. When in danger, they would climb trees and come down after it was resolved. If that was the case… the danger seemed much less.

In just a short while, Wang Chunniang’s mental abacus was already clanging loudly.

Just as it was ringing, Old Man Lu interrupted her thoughts with a furrowed brow.

“Wait until you’ve honed your skills. If you go out now and encounter danger, will others save you or not? Won’t you just be a burden?”

If it was his eldest son going out, he wouldn’t have much to say, but for his grandson who hadn’t even come of age, it was clearly taking advantage, as he glanced at Lu Dalang.

Shuanzhu hesitated for a moment, realizing a few beats later what his father’s unfinished words meant, and his face flushed, “Father, I’m not trying to take advantage.”

He quickly corrected himself, “I’ll practice first, get good at it, and then go out with everyone.”

Lu Dalang didn’t even notice the look his old man gave him, advising his son, “Actually, farming is also good. Taking care of the crops well, it’s quite peaceful in this valley. I think growing vegetables is a good idea. Let’s plant more, save on food, whether we go out or not doesn’t matter much.”

Even if they didn’t eat meat, Lu Dalang believed safety was more important.

Shuanzhu glanced at his father, recalling his uncle’s question earlier, and thinking about how intense his mother’s reaction was that year, leading to his uncle enlisting in the military. Feeling a bit embarrassed, he said, “I’ll practice first.”

Hu Zi chimed in, “Brother, I’ll practice with you too.”

Mrs. Lu coldly watched Wang Chunniang’s expression, not saying anything yet, when she heard her being called by the little girl behind her.

The family stopped in their tracks, turning to wait for Chen Xiaoya.

Chen Xiaoya ran up and smiled, “Aunt Lu, my mother said she wants to make soybeans now and asked you to come over and have a look.”

Mrs. Lu’s face lit up upon hearing it was about making soybeans. She was good at it, so she agreed with a smile, “Sure.”

She then turned to Old Man Lu, “I’ll go over there for a bit.”

But before they could leave, Chen Xiaoya added with a smile, “Aunt Lu, I haven’t finished yet. My father is also looking for Uncle Lu to discuss something about the fields.”

Mrs. Lu paused, “Why didn’t you say that before?”

Chen Xiaoya shrugged, scratching her head, “Maybe I just remembered now?”

“Alright, let’s go then.”

The elderly couple didn’t go back, just instructed Lu Erlang and the others to mind their own business and then turned to walk back with Chen Xiaoya.