usband's vacation is almost over and he's returning to Changning City tomorrow.""Well, there's nothing we can do about it. It's hard work for men to provide for their families and earn money for milk...Ripple lowered her voice, glancing at the bedroom before motioning for Song Dachuan to come closer. Then, she reached into her bosom and pulled out a wrapped package, handing it to him.
Song Dachuan didn't suspect anything, thinking it was his daughter who had dug up something edible on the mountain and left it for him. However, when he held the package in his hand, he felt its weight, realizing something was amiss. Upon unwrapping the small parcel and seeing the gold bar inside, he gasped in surprise.
Song Dachuan quickly rewrapped the gold bars and shoved them back into Lian Yi's hands, his voice trembling slightly as he said:
"Hide quickly!"
Ripple found it amusing, but still obediently tucked the ingot back into her bosom.
Song Dachuan drained the water from the bamboo cup in one gulp, finally suppressing the frantic beating of his heart. He spoke in a low voice:
"Ripple, where did you find this"
"Mount WanKou."
"Have you gone deep into Wànkǒu Mountain"
"Well, there wasn't much edible stuff outside. So I went inside and dug around. The cold dandelion salad you had for dinner was from the inner circle that I found. The bag of gold is buried under that patch of dandelions."
Luckily, no one was around me at the time. After I dug up the hard object, I thought it was a stone. When I opened it, it turned out to be gold. I didn't make a sound and pressed it under the basket before bringing it back.
"Dad, with this gold, we'll have the confidence to stand firm. When we get to Huangzhou, we can settle down completely."
Liàn Yī immediately told Sòng Dàchān the carefully prepared statement.
At this time, Song Dachuan was also very excited. Hearing his daughter's words, he felt even more confident about this escape trip.
"Let's not tell your mother about this for now. She can't keep a secret, and it's not that I don't trust the Yue family. After all, the more people there are, the more minds there are, and we can't be sure someone won't leak our secret about having gold. Then, trouble would find us."
Song Dachuan still trusts his daughter very much.
"Father, you are right, that's why I deliberately avoided telling Mother about this."
As the saying goes, "Don't flaunt your wealth." With this gold, our lives will certainly be better. In the future, my younger brother will have the confidence to study, so on this journey of fleeing, I will only use it when absolutely necessary. I will also hide the gold in different places, ensuring that if anything goes wrong, it won't all be lost at once.
Ripples immediately added.
"Well, you're observant. You handle this, I trust you!"
With the gold bars as a foundation, Song Dachuan felt much more confident and his previous gloominess disappeared.
“Father, while you have injuries on your face, tomorrow you should wear this to Songjia Village. The reason will be readily available. Just say that the remaining silver we had was used to buy half a bag of rice mixed with sand, and it was robbed by disaster victims. Now there is no rice to cook, so we only ask for help from our grandparents.”
Ripples whispered softly.
Song Dachuan listened to his daughter's words and knew that going tomorrow was indeed suitable. He also wanted to see what extent his parents and siblings could achieve.
Seeing Song Dachuan's change in expression, Lian Ri immediately soothed him and said:
"Father, filial piety comes from a father's love. You've done enough, and no one can say a bad word about you. Some things can't be forced, so don't be too attached. You still have your mother, me, and your younger brother. We are the closest to you."
"Dad knows!"
After hearing her daughter's words, Song Dachuan felt much better in his heart and went to rest early.
The next day, when the sun rose, Song Daca went to Songjia Village with a face of green and purple. Hui Niang also took Lian Yi and Hu Zi to her parents' home. On the way, when someone asked them, Lian Yi quickly answered:
Yesterday, my father took the remaining copper coins at home to the county to buy grain. As a result, before he reached Wanshan Town, he was robbed by disaster victims. There is no rice in our house, and my father went to Songjiacun early this morning to borrow grain from his mother-in-law.
"My two sisters and I were thinking about going to our maternal grandfather's house for some food. My mother and I can go hungry, but Tiger can't stand being hungry. He has such a good physique now, we can't have anything happen to him!"
Hui Niang also cooperated and reddened her eyes. Hu Zi, this sly little fox, directly burrowed into Lian Yi's arms and remained silent, looking weak.
"Oh! Every household is the same."
The person asking the questions is also in a similar situation at home, but they still have some food reserves, enough to last for a while. They know that Song Dachuan's family was devastated last winter when his own brother dragged them into financial ruin to help their parents and siblings. That's why they couldn't hold on any longer.
After a hasty farewell, Hui's family of three arrived at Lao Zhang's house.
The atmosphere at Lao Zhang's house was also a bit somber. Old Zhang, rarely, called all his family members together, including the grandchildren. Then he explained the current situation, including the news that the eldest and youngest had picked up in the county yesterday, and asked everyone to decide whether to stay or leave.
Everyone looked at Zhang Zhong and Zhang Shi, whose cheeks were swollen after a night. Their faces were indeed not good-looking. Especially Liu shi, who was pregnant, she clung tightly to Zhang Shi, as if that was how she felt safe.
Ripples glanced at her and knew that her sister-in-law was about to give birth, probably within these few days. She didn't say much, as everyone likely had a sense of it already.
What do you think
"Father, we all listen to you. You say what to do, and we'll do it."
Zhang Chen spoke first.
He is the youngest son in his family, and like his name, he is an honest person. He does whatever his parents say and never complains. However, his wife, Chen, is a shrewd woman. Facing such a major decision, as a daughter-in-law, she finds it inappropriate to speak up.
"Things aren't at their worst yet. If we leave now, we can get a head start and run into fewer refugees on the way. If we wait until there's a large mass of people fleeing, we probably won't have a choice but to leave anyway."
Zhang Zhongshi speaks his truth plainly.
"But our family is going alone. If we encounter a large group of people, we'll still be unable to protect ourselves!"
As the second son in the family, Zhang Jun is also very important to Lao Zhangtou. And what he said was true, he wasn't just against everything.
"So we need to prepare well and, if we can follow the main group, we should. If we can't keep up, we should try to stick to some safe little paths as much as possible."
Chang Shih immediately said.
"Our family has many sons. As long as we don't encounter those who have lost their minds, we should still be able to cope."
Old Zhang glanced at the younger generations present and said.
Old Zhang is truly fertile. After giving birth to Hui, she had four more sons. It's really a case of blooming late.
After all four sons got married, they also had children. The eldest son, Zhang Zhong, had two sons and a daughter. The second son, Zhang Jun, had two sons. The third son, Zhang Cheng, had one son and one daughter. The youngest son, Zhang Shi's wife was about to give birth.
When Hui's mother first married into the Song family, it was because Old Song valued the Zhang family's ability to give birth to sons, so he inevitably favored Hui's mother more. This made Old Lady Song very displeased with this daughter-in-law, especially since Hui's first child was a girl, which gave Old Lady Song an excuse to start pressuring her by saying she couldn't give birth to a son.
Fortunately, Hui Niang finally got pregnant, and this time it was twins. As a result, because Lao Song deliberately made trouble and made Hui Niang wash clothes in the cold winter, she fell and miscarried prematurely, which led to a series of events afterwards.around her, and Mèi Zhī kept glancing at Liàn Yī from the corner of her eye, her expression unreadable."Madam, the Hou's residence has sent someone to deliver a gift and asked the old slave to return...