Chapter 250: Chapter 250 Locust Plague
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“What are they complaining about?” Zhou Ying asked after being stunned for a moment.
“They say there’s sand and grit in it.” Fang Qing hesitated and continued, “If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have provided them with such good food. We should have just made them soup instead. That would save them the trouble of picking on us.”
Zhou Ying was not surprised. It was inevitable that dried vegetables would contain sand, especially when there was no extra water to wash them with.
She looked at them and saw that they weren’t injured, letting out a sigh of relief. “What about now? What’s the situation there?”
“The soldiers suppressed their riots.
“Oh right, the organizer has invited all the restaurant owners to the Tian Mansion for a gathering. It should be to talk about the porridge stands.”
“Alright. Just do what you have to do.” After Zhou Ying finished speaking, she got up and washed her hands. She then returned to her room and changed her clothes before going out.
…..
However, she didn’t go directly to the Tian Mansion. She instead went to Hongyun Restaurant in search of Manager Liu.
It just happened that he was about to leave, so the two of them walked toward the Tian residence.
“Uncle Liu, what do you think of this?” Zhou Ying asked on the way.
Manager Liu paused for a moment. “It’s not going to be easy. If the porridge stand can’t continue, it’ll be chaos all over.”
“Can’t we just drive them away?”
“Drive them away?” Manager Liu looked at her in surprise.
He had always known she was kind; he didn’t expect her to say such heartless words.
However, this was just what he wanted. It was good to be kind, but never too much, or it would be stupid.
“That’s right. Our situation isn’t looking too good cither. We didn’t harvest much last year, so most people have limited food reserves.
“Besides, the water supply here is shrinking. Do you think we can support so many more people?”
“You’ve hit the nail on the head. To be honest, I’m planning to close the restaurant in three days.”
“Seriously?”
“It’s true. Our food reserves are limited. The military camp needs more food, so most of the food and meat have been provided to them.”
“Is there a shortage of food at the military camp?”
“That’s right. Last year, the Dongyang Residence didn’t collect taxes, so military provisions entirely depended on the imperial court.
“However…
“Now, half of the country is suffering from a drought. The five prefectures in the south and north of Kaiyang had recently encountered a locust plague. There’s not a single crop left to harvest.
“We assumed there was still food there, but apparently, they aren’t in a better state than us…”
“Locust plague?” Zhou Ying exclaimed.
Although she had never seen it before, she had heard of it in her previous life and had also seen it on TV. After a locust plague, it was mentioned that a thousand miles of land would be barren, with even children getting killed after getting bitten to death.
Thinking of this, she recalled her dream when he was living in Mother God’s Temple; there was a scene of a thousand miles of barren land.
If it was a prophecy, would there be a flood after this?
When she thought of this, she couldn’t help but feel scared.
“Indeed, where we are is already considered relatively well off.” When Manager Liu said this, he gave her a detailed explanation of the situation in those places.
“So, save some food for yourself and live a simple life at home,” he said.
“You’re also planning to stop at the porridge stand?”
“I’m not afraid of you laughing at me, but Hongyun Restaurant only has less than a thousand pounds of rice and four hundred pounds of white flour left.”
“It’s almost the same as mine, so we must work together.”
“Yup, but we can’t be the first to say this. I don’t think we need to, so let’s see how it goes.” Manager Liu said, smiling.
Zhou Ying was stunned, but she remembered what Fang Qing had said. Some porridge stalls had porridge so thin that it could reflect a person’s shadow.
There were indeed others more anxious than them..