Forced to marry a disabled man in the countryside? I'll repay you tenfold!

Wei Guoliang slammed the cornbread into the bowl.

"Damn it! What kind of time is this to be doing this? What kind of big shot is this, putting on such airs? Didn't you tell him how busy I am here? All three counties are cut off, and more than a million people are stuck in the ruins waiting for food and warm clothes! Do you know how many hairs I've turned white from worry these past two days?"

"You can do whatever ceremony or show you want, I'm not going! Pah! Even a dog wouldn't go; if I did, I'd be a dog!"

Zhao Mingyi, the county party committee director who rushed over, grabbed his arm. "Old Wei, let me finish! A large batch of supplies arrived this morning, and the people who donated them are among them—this is an order personally signed by the marshal; they brought a lot of grain!"

Wei Guoliang's eyes widened, but his tone hardened even more: "A lot of grain? You believe that? It's probably just some overseas capitalist who donated some coarse rice and corn and wants to come back and gain a good reputation. Do you know how much grain our three counties, with over a million people, consume every day? Does he think grain falls from the sky? People like that should stay obediently in the capital. What are they doing causing trouble in this pile of ruins!"

Knowing this stubborn mule's temper, Zhao Mingyi didn't argue with him. "Bring the jeep over. If he won't go, I will."

Wei Guoliang grumbled as he stuffed the cornbread into his mouth and followed after them.

The jeep bumped along the makeshift road for nearly an hour before finally reaching the landing point on the riverbank.

The two jumped out of the car, but before they could even stand up, they were frozen in place by the sight before them.

On the riverbank, one super-large aircraft after another was landing. Soldiers and volunteers formed a human chain, passing sealed packages out of the cargo hold. Small mountains of supplies rose up on the open ground.

Everyone's face was filled with barely suppressed excitement. Some people, carrying bags, grinned and shouted, "We have food! The disaster area is saved!"

At this moment, a battalion commander broke open a rice ball the size of a washbasin, jogged over, and stuffed a bowl-sized portion of rice ball into each of their hands:

"Commanders, this is the disaster relief cooked food allocated from above! It's all high-quality, without a single grain mixed in, and it even includes meat floss and eggs!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Guoliang jumped up and started cursing: "These spendthrifts! At a time like this, they still bring out such expensive food? The disaster area needs enough coarse grains and mixed grains to fill people up. How many people can this refined rice and white flour save? What can such a tiny bit of expensive stuff do? Take it away, I dare not eat it!"

The battalion commander, however, pointed with a strange expression to the overwhelming mountain of supplies behind him: "Take a closer look, this is all that came this time, nothing else. Those piles up like mountains, that's all of it."

"What? All of them? That's so wasteful!" Wei Guoliang was stunned. After hesitating for a moment, he still lowered his head and took a bite of the rice ball in his hand.

After chewing for only a couple of times, I felt completely frozen in place—damn, this is so delicious!!

He broke the rice ball open and looked closely: the rice was white and fluffy, the meat floss was golden and golden, and a whole, glistening braised egg was wrapped in the middle.

He had lived for over fifty years and had never seen such luxurious food.

"Is it all like this? Pure white rice and flour without any adulteration? So many of these were transported by plane, all of them? How many of these are there?" His voice rose eight octaves.

The battalion commander nodded vigorously: "A rough estimate is that it's already over ten thousand tons, all being unloaded and loaded onto trucks, not a single grain of coarse grain! There's also a kind of large meat-filled naan bread, even more fragrant than this, inside it's all mutton, glistening with oil!"

Wei Guoliang stuffed the rice ball in his hand into his mouth in a few bites and immediately ordered, "Hurry up, this grain is too precious. Have someone mix some coarse grains into it and cook it into porridge so it can last longer..."

The battalion commander quickly interrupted, "The orders from above are that not a single grain can be mixed in, and we're not allowed to cook porridge. The key point is that this disaster relief ration contains absolutely no grains! Moreover, all the disaster victims and rescue workers, including us, are eating this together—it's all-you-can-eat! They also said this is just the first batch; there will be a second and a third batch!"

Wei Guoliang felt a surge of heat rushing to his forehead.

He originally thought the other party was just an overseas capitalist who donated some fine rice and flour and then came to show off. He never expected that the other party would donate such good things as rice and meat, and that the donation was tens of thousands of tons, with plenty to eat.

He grabbed the battalion commander's arm, his lips trembling uncontrollably: "Full? Enough to go around? We'll all eat together? Good heavens, how much food is going to be wasted? This is just too wasteful! Are you sure this was donated to us? We can't afford to buy this... Who is it?"

The battalion commander pointed to the largest plane not far away: "That's Comrade Su Wanqing, who arrived with this batch of supplies—she donated all this grain free of charge, refusing a single penny from the country! She said it's to ensure everyone has enough to eat! The higher-ups said we must treat her with the highest level of hospitality; even if she wanted the stars in the sky, we'd find a way to pluck them down from the sky!"

Wei Guoliang shuddered and took off running in the direction the battalion commander pointed: "What? How can we let our benefactor wait in the cold wind? Take me there quickly—I want to kowtow to this Comrade Su a few times!" He had just been cursing that he wouldn't even go if he were a dog, but now he was running faster than the communications officer, and even the jeep seemed too slow.

Zhao Mingyi chased after him, shaking his head all the way—this old Wei, one minute he was saying that capitalists wanted to show off after donating some things, the next he was practically begging on the ground to kowtow to them, his mood changed faster than flipping through a book.

"Hey, wait a minute! Why don't you wait for me to bring the car over? Now you're in a rush!"

"They're donating so much food to the disaster area for free, what do they want in return? Is it too much for me to kowtow a few times? They're not asking for money, so we have to make sure their good reputation is well-known!"

……

……

Yanshan Mining Area No. 1 Refuge.

After the landslide, the mine urgently set up temporary resettlement sites on relatively stable flat ground on the hillside. The makeshift sheds made of scrap wood and tarpaulins were crammed together, housing hundreds of thousands of miners and their families who had been evacuated from the collapse area.

It was the fourth day after the disaster. All the food that could be salvaged was completely gone. Dozens of large pots used for cooking porridge were scraped clean, and even the scorched bits at the bottom of the pots were licked clean. The grass roots and insects around them were also cleaned up.

Lei Dabiao, the chief commander of the miners, a veteran who had worked in the mine for thirty years, was writing a report when his deputy, Lao Sun, jogged over.

"Commander Lei, the last batch of grain is all gone. Before, each person could get half a bowl of mixed grain soup, but now we can't even cook soup. Also—the third mining team and the fifth tunneling team reported that more than 3,000 veteran miners are on a hunger strike. They refuse to touch any food, only drinking a few sips of water to hold on, saying they want to leave their rations for the able-bodied young men who can still work."