nycdaug Chapter 186: Changing Mushrooms Again
Chapter 186: Changing Mushrooms Again
In addition to prohibiting the consumption of dead livestock and poultry and food soaked in water, the village chief also required everyone to boil the water before drinking it. Otherwise, once discovered, they would be driven out of the village.
In fact, the reason why the village chief acted like this was that he remembered an experience his father told him when he was a child.
At that time, the village was hit by a plague that broke out after a flood, and many people died.
The source of the plague was that people ate drowned poultry and drank raw water, which led to the spread of germs.
According to the village chief's father, his grandparents died in that plague, which made him deeply aware of the harm of those strange poultry and raw water.
When everyone heard what the village chief said, although they didn't understand, they all did as he said. After all, sometimes, in the hearts of these villagers, village rules are more useful than laws. After all, isn't a county magistrate as good as a county manager?
Now everyone has come out of the mountains, and they have started making adobe bricks for their homes, but food has become a problem again. It’s good that the houses haven’t collapsed, and the food at home is stored in a high place and has not been soaked in water, so it can barely last for some time.
But the families who were flooded by the rain had no rice to eat, so they thought of going to the town to buy some. Besides, it had just rained, and there were mushrooms and wild vegetables everywhere on the mountain. They thought that eating them together would help them survive for a while.
The village chief's own family didn't have much food left, and now everyone was making adobe bricks or building stoves, so the village chief decided to borrow Han Yi's family's mule cart to go to town and buy food for everyone.
Han Yiyi and Yun Xiao resisted the urge to kill the mule and eat its meat, and finally cleaned up the mule dung in the yard. When Yun Xiao heard that the village chief was going to town, he became a little worried about the Yunlai Restaurant, so he went with him.
The next morning, before daybreak, the two set out, but when they arrived at the door of the grain store, they found that the door was already surrounded by people.
Yun Xiao was worried about Yunlai Restaurant, so he asked the village chief to buy it first and he would come back to pick him up.
The village chief had to work very hard to squeeze in, but when he saw the price of grain, he was completely dumbfounded. The price had increased by more than five times.
Even the price of black noodles has increased from eight cents per pound to thirty-five cents per pound. At this price, not only the villagers can't afford it, but even their family can't afford it.
When I arrived, I knew that the price of food would definitely rise, but I didn't expect it to rise so much.
But thinking that some families in the village had no food to eat, the village chief gritted his teeth and spent 350 coins to buy ten kilograms of black flour. He thought that if someone wanted it, he would take it, and if no one wanted it, he would keep it for his family. There was no other way, he couldn't just starve.
However, as soon as the village chief paid the silver, the waiter from the grain shop started to drive people away.
"Okay, okay, we have no food left today. We won't sell any more. If you want to buy, please come early tomorrow..."
After hearing what the waiter said, the village chief looked at the food piled on the side with confusion in his eyes. At this time, a middle-aged man next to him sighed and spoke.
"They are planning to raise the price again tomorrow. It was just like that yesterday. Yesterday the black noodles were only 30 wen per catty, but today it has risen to 35 wen. Moreover, each person is limited to buying only 10 catties. Alas! This is killing us ordinary people..."
When the village chief heard what this man said, he also sighed deeply. When a disaster occurs, the common people are the ones who have the hardest time.
The village chief left the grain shop, but Yun Xiao had not returned yet. He looked at the people passing by, who kept looking at his black bag. He couldn't help but hold the bag tighter.
On the other side, Yun Xiao looked at the closed door of Yunlai Restaurant and frowned slightly, but did not think much about it. After all, the flood had just passed, and how many people would come to the restaurant to eat? Through the crack in the door, he saw that the things inside were still intact. Worried that the village chief was waiting anxiously, he turned and left.
Seeing that the village chief was holding the bag tightly in his hand and looked worried, he couldn't help but ask.
"What? No food..."
"Oh! No, it's just too expensive..."
When the village chief heard Yun's words, he felt it inconvenient to tell him what had just happened in the grain shop. When he heard that even Heimian's salary had increased to thirty-five cents, his brows furrowed deeply. He understood that these unscrupulous grain shops were making money from the national disaster, but he was just an ordinary person and could do nothing.
The two of them returned to Zhushan Village in silence. When everyone saw the village chief coming back, they hurried forward to ask him.
"Village chief, how is it? Can we buy grain now? How much is one pound..."
Facing everyone's questions, a trace of sadness flashed in the village chief's eyes. When they heard that even black noodles cost thirty-five cents and the price changed every day, everyone's faces were full of disbelief. Some women even sat down on the ground and cried.
"Oh my God, you don't want to give me a way to live..."
In the end, the ten kilograms of black flour that the village chief brought back had no choice but to be bought by everyone in half a kilogram each.
At this time, Han Yiyi was shocked when she heard Yun Xiao talk about the current grain prices. I can help them, but you have to cover for me.
While everyone here was still worrying about the future, they heard that Han Yi's family could exchange mushrooms for rice again, because the Yunlai Restaurant in Kyoto needed wild mushrooms.
No one cared who wanted the mushrooms; they only knew that if they could exchange them for rice, it would be equivalent to having food to eat.
So in just a moment, everyone ran to Han Yi's house, talking in a flurry, asking whether the story was true.
Seeing this, Han Yiyi couldn't help but wink at Yun Xiao. After a while, Yun Xiao took a step forward, pressed his hand, and then coughed lightly and spoke.
"Everyone, be quiet and listen to me. You all know the current situation. The price of grain outside is so much per pound. You can bring mushrooms to me to exchange for rice. But there is one thing that cannot be spread outside the village. My Yun family is doing this to help everyone get through this difficult time. It's not that we have too much rice and have no place to store it. If the truth is spread by one person, my Yun family will not accept mushrooms from the entire village..."
When everyone heard that it was really possible to change, they all agreed and quickly made the promise.
"Mr. Yun, don't worry. We all remember what you have done for our Zhushan Village. If anyone dares to spread this, I will definitely drive him out of the village..."
Upon hearing this, the village chief also hurriedly assured that he knew the situation in the grain store better than anyone else. He was very grateful that Yun Xiao could help the villagers, and hurriedly gave instructions to everyone.
Seeing everyone making promises, Yun Xiao continued speaking.
"Everyone knows the current price of grain, so now we can't exchange mushrooms for one pound of rice. We need three pounds of mushrooms to exchange for one pound of rice..."