During famine years, I had a divination slip in hand, and my whole family ate chicken, duck, fish, a

"What are you yelling about? What's the point of yelling at me? Do you think I can conjure up food?"

The village head, his face dark and sullen, suddenly saw Ye Qingqing's carriage pass by his door. His eyes darted around, and he called out in a sarcastic tone,

"Oh, Er Yatou is back? Did you go to town to buy grain today?"

Look at that second daughter of mine, she's so lucky! She dared to buy grain before prices went up, tsk tsk...

This is clearly a deliberate attempt to target her!

A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime. The more severe the famine, the more people envy, are jealous of, and hate those who have grain in their hands.

Li Chunyan understood the village head's meaning, and her heart skipped a beat. She quickly said...

"What? I don't have any at home either..."

"Is everyone here?"

Ye Qingqing grabbed her and secretly gave her a wink, saying with a forced smile,

"We just came back from town. The whole family is exhausted and hasn't eaten yet, so we went back first."

"We're almost home, what's the rush?"

The village headman approached the carriage with ill intent, his eyes darting around furtively at the contents.

"Second Girl, have you heard the news in town? Grain prices have suddenly increased several times over, which is making everyone very worried!"

These days, your family is practically the only one in our village who doesn't have to worry about food and clothing. If you ask me, we should help each other out. We're all fellow villagers; your family can't just think of itself, can it?

"The village head is right!"

Ye Qingqing nodded with a forced smile. "We're all from the same village. Are you planning to open the granary and distribute grain to help us get through this difficult time?"

"That's true. After all, in our village, Uncle Lizheng's family has the most land, and every year their granaries are full of grain. Who can compare?"

"What are you saying, Second Girl?"

The village head was taken aback by her retort and quickly waved his hand.

"After two years of drought, how much grain can anyone harvest from their fields? Your family is different. You don't rely on the meager harvest from farming. You eat chicken, duck, fish, and meat every day. Everyone is counting on you now, don't you all agree?"

As soon as she finished speaking, everyone in the village turned their eyes to Ye Qingqing.

Li Chunyan felt a lump in her throat, and sweat beaded on her forehead from nervousness.

It's all over, it's all over!

If the villagers knew that her family had bought a large amount of grain, they would be lining up to borrow it from her!

"Uncle Village Head is joking. If I had that ability, would our Kaoshantun village even be able to accommodate me?"

Ye Qingqing sighed dramatically, then, in front of everyone, turned around, pulled back the straw covering the carriage, took out a sesame seed cake, and handed it to the village head.

"These are sesame seed cakes from Zhang's sesame seed cake shop in town. Uncle, please try them."

As soon as the straw was lifted, everyone's expectant faces froze instantly.

The carriage was completely empty, except for cotton cloth, a few packets of snacks, a food box, and not even a bag of grain.

See you in the picture!

The more you think my family has bought a lot of grain, the more I'll show you where the grain is.

Everyone looked at each other, their hearts skipping a beat, and they started chattering away.

"Second Girl, didn't you hear anything when you went to town? Didn't you... didn't you hurry up and buy some cheap food?"

"That can't be! The Sun family came back late last night and said the town is in complete chaos, with people everywhere looting food!"

"Second daughter, you're such a shrewd person, didn't you hear a thing?"

……

"Ugh, don't even mention it!"

Ye Qingqing waved her hand with a "frustrated" look on her face. "My family was going to town to buy grain today, but when we got there we found that all the grain shops were closed!"

What, didn't Sister-in-law Sun tell you? The old master of the Sun family grain shop is celebrating his 80th birthday today. The shop is decorated with auspicious characters, closed all day, and they've even hired a grand opera to celebrate…

'

"Absolutely!"

Sun's wife, who was watching the commotion from the crowd, quickly chimed in, "The Sun family's grain shop was closed for a day to host a big opera performance; I even went to take a peek."

Ye Qingqing spread her hands and shrugged innocently.

"Sister-in-law, you went to the theater too? I didn't see you... I don't know if you heard about the rising grain prices beforehand, but all the grain shops in town are closed. What can I do?"

Suddenly, everyone in the village looked at each other and fell into a deathly silence.

"Alright, my family and I are cold and hungry, so I'm not going to chat with you anymore."

Ye Qingqing raised an eyebrow and said, "My dad is still waiting at home, let's hurry home."

The carriage slowly drove away amidst despairing gazes and whispers.

"Even Er Ya's family couldn't buy any food, what are we going to do?"

"Are we really going to have to flee the famine?"

"Run away my ass! Without food, where can you run to? Fleeing the famine is just another death sentence!"

"Forget it, let's just hold on for as long as we can. Anyway, Kaoshantun is doomed..."

……

"Bang!"

As soon as she entered the house, Li Chunyan closed the door tightly, then leaned against the door panel, panting heavily, with one hand covering her chest.

Ye Youliang was startled. "What's wrong, Huanhuan's mother? What are you doing leaning against the door? Come inside and warm up..."

Li Chunyan said, trembling.

"It's nothing, Dad. It's just that the whole village was staring at our cart just now, thinking we bought grain!"

That gave me quite a fright! Luckily, we got away with it. If the villagers knew we bought so much grain, they'd all come running to borrow it!

"Sister-in-law, do you think that just because we couldn't buy any grain, no one will come to borrow from us?"

Ye Qingqing sat on the warm kang (heated brick bed), tucked her frozen hands under the mattress, and let out a soft sigh, "So warm..."

"Huh? The whole village saw that our carriage was empty, and you still want to borrow it?"

Li Chunyan rushed over in a panic, looking at her anxiously.

Ye Qingqing chuckled softly.

"Not being able to buy grain doesn't mean we're starving. Everyone in the village knows how we're doing these days."

When the last bite of food is gone, those who still have some left are like a lifeline to others. If you lend them money to save their lives, everything is negotiable; if you don't, what won't a starving person do?

Li Chunyan's lips twitched. "You've said this over and over again. What does it mean?"

Didn't you not tell the villagers that we bought over a thousand catties of grain? Second daughter, what are you up to now?

"Take away the young master?"

Ye Youliang nearly dropped his jaw in astonishment, his eyes fixed on Ye Qingqing. "Second girl, how much did you buy?"

"1,500 catties, or 700 or 800 catties of coarse grains."

Ye Qingqing smiled at her father, "Father, I heard the news a long time ago, so I broke into the Sun family's grain shop to buy the grain."

The extra coarse grains we bought were to prevent people from borrowing our food. Otherwise, if people really starve to death, our family would become a thorn in the side of everyone in the village.

However, I don't plan to lend it out. I'll buy and sell at the original price; I won't do anything that puts me at a loss.

"Good, good, Second Sister, you're so thoughtful."

Ye Youliang's heart was pounding wildly; the anxiety that had been hanging over him all night finally subsided.

He was worried about this as soon as the news of rising food prices came out.

The villagers will definitely come to borrow grain, but they themselves don't have enough grain to support the whole village.

If we don't lend it, when people are really starving, they become wolves and dogs, and they're capable of anything.