Chapter 44: Consideration
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“It all thanks to Zhou Lan that we manage to find this plot of land that can provide us with the food we need. Zhou Lan, your family did not interact much with us in the past. But in the future, you can always come to me!” The village chief’s wife spoke first.
“Yes! In the past, we only ever interacted with Old Jiang and did not know your family was such good people. You should definitely visit us more often.”
Zhou Lan’s face showed a smile when she heard what her neighbors had to say.
“Mom, are you happy?”
Zhou Lan glanced at her without saying a word only showing her smile.
After digging for nearly an hour, more than half of the wild vegetables were in everyone’s basket.
Jiang Xia saw that they almost all of their baskets were full and said, “Aunties, the wild vegetables will go bad if we dig too much. Why don’t we dig up enough to last us three to four days and come back then?”
…..
Everyone stopped digging as they agreed with Jiang Xia’s theory and rested on the spot. As most of them came to the harvest on empty stomachs, one by one they started taking out some cornbread and started eating.
Jiang Xia was trying to figure out a way to stop these people from spreading the news on this plot of land before the village chief’s wife clapped her hand and said, “Everyone come here, I have something to say.”
The village chief’s wife holds certain status when it comes to Tong Shan Village, especially among the women. After all, there were topics where it was inconvenient for men to speak up, and she was always there to help out.
Everyone walked over and surrounded the chief’s wife.
“We all know what the current situation is like. After such a long drought, the food we have is decreasing bit by bit. If the other villagers find out about this space, how long do you think we can all last with this amount of wild vegetables?”
Upon hearing the village head’s wife’s question, the few people who were previously excited to show off their harvest lowered their heads.
“Yeah! We cannot last long if people find out!”
“Think about it again. This is a treasure land discovered by Zhou Lan. They brought us here to dig because we helped build the house. If you tell everyone the location, they would all end up being really greedy. What if they are determined to dig everything away?” The village chief’s wife went straight to the point again.
This mountain belonged to everyone. If the news spread, people from all over the village will start digging everything up.
Indeed if they were to tell their relatives about this good location, they would get a good reputation. But the end result only meant lesser vegetables for themselves.
“But what I’m most afraid of is that some local ruffians will hear about this and take this place for themselves.”
The words of the village head’s wife were the truth. There were no signs of exaggeration. It was not that people did not want to be good people, but they could not afford to be. Between themselves and strangers, they would naturally choose themselves first.
It was the same as how a child will be willing to share if he had hundreds of pieces of candies, but he would not if he only had one piece.
The current situation was similar. Everyone only manage to get what was needed for a few days, they were not willing to share it.
Jiang Xia was really surprised to hear the village chief’s wife say this and it was what she had in mind.
Originally, she thought that no one would listen to her, but now, with the village chief’s wife’s speech, there should be lesser news spreading around.”
Everyone seems to have come to a conclusion themselves. Not only did they want to seal their mouths, but they also wanted everyone else to do the same. Seeing that she had achieved her goal, the village chief’s wife waved her hand and let everyone proceed with what they were doing.
After that, she sat down beside Zhou Lan and Jiang Xia and said with a smile, “Were you two worried about this?”