Chapter 70: Chapter 70
Chapter 70
If another woman had spoken, Yueqian might have sneered and looked at her with an expression she used when seeing a fool. But since Liu Sun was the one who spoke, Yueqian pretended to submit and walked away, leaving the heroine with a role of fully trust the hero.
Yueqian walked away. Once she was out of sight, she told her husband to talk to the village leader about separating the villagers for treatment. Although the three physicians were ordered to take care of everyone, they would ultimately prioritize the soldiers. If soldiers died, the responsibility would be far greater than if villagers did.
In a situation with over 1,000 injured, three physicians couldn’t possibly brew medicine fast enough. Yueqian believed the 20 affected villagers might be the first to be left to die.
"Husband, I have enough medicine to treat those villagers. It would be best to separate the 20 villagers and treat them ourselves," Yueqian said after some thought.
She shouldn’t involve herself with the villagers; it might make her seem overly kind-hearted. However, she couldn’t bear to watch those 20 people die easily when she had enough medicine to save them. So, she decided to give them a chance to survive.
After this, her husband probably wouldn’t want her to stay in this village for the rest of her life. Soon, she would be dealing with the Qin family and preparing to move to another kingdom. In the end, her connections here would cease. Therefore..., using her resources to help them wasn’t a big deal.
After all, the villagers were still people.
"But that’s your medicine. Are you sure it’s okay to use it this way?"
"It’s fine. Besides..., these 20 people come from only 4-5 families. In the future, if we help save their entire families, their gratitude towards us will be immense. When we need to use them for crossing borders to trade with the Art Institute, they can act as our eyes and ears. I’m sure they’ll be willing to help."
Since these five families were impoverished, they had brought their parents, children, and grandchildren to rely on the people from the capital. When they were affected, even the little children lay vomiting.
Yueqian still planned to trade with the Art Institute. She planned to build something in the current house of Mu Heng, to facilitate easier transportation. She planned to build a warehouse, and she would have these five families help guard it. Even though she wouldn’t tell them what was inside, she would let them take turns keeping watch to prevent others from meddling.
She intended to give them a small wage to help them survive.
Furthermore, Yueqian knew that people of this era were different. Even the selfish Mu family changed their perspective after she became a teacher to their children. People in this era valued gratitude highly. As she had become a teacher, she was already considered a benefactor to the Mu family. In this case, saving their lives without asking for anything in return would likely make them willing to devote their lives to her.
Thus, Yueqian had built connections and laid a foundation in this small village. In the future, these five families would form a trading group, supported by the people from the Art Institute due to their excellent performance. They would no longer live in poverty and would become wealthy members of the village.
Of course, all of this would be after they had fully recovered from their illnesses.
"Mmm, I will speak with the village leader about it. As for the treatment, they should keep it a secret as well," Mu Heng said. He thought about Yueqian’s plan and agreed with her thought.
If they intended to trade with this kingdom, they would need to rely on the locals as well. This would prevent suspicion. If they handled the business themselves or left the house abandoned but filled with goods, just thinking about it, one could notice that it would look strange. By having villagers pretend to live and work there while they were in fact guarding the warehouse for them, it would no longer seem suspicious.
"Thank you, Husband, for understanding. After this, we can let the five struggling families move to the houses around ours later on. Anyway, their homes probably won’t survive next winter.”
"Sure, whatever you decide." Since they planned to move away, it would be better to prevent any incident by pretending to have the five families settle around their small house, preventing easy access.
Around their house was empty land. Allowing these families to stay there would not only help them but also get the home of some house guardians.
Instead of leaving the land vacant for others to occupy, it was better to let these families live there and work for them. However, there were many details that needed to be discussed further.
After coming to an agreement, Mu Heng changed his route from his vegetable plot to the village leader’s house. The old man was also worried about the situation. Even though he had seen the authorities bring physicians, he knew in his heart that caring for soldiers and villagers was different. Soldiers had honor and duties, unlike the five villagers families that whether they survive or not, it wouldn’t mean anything.
These five families were extremely poor. Every year, someone in their households died. The previous year it was a grandfather, and the next year a grandmother. The elderly were gradually dying off, leaving only children and the parents’ generation. This year, the whole family might not survive.
But there was nothing he could do. He had gone to see the situation in the morning and saw how bad it was. Even strong soldiers looked like they wouldn’t make it, so how could the undernourished villagers survive? In the end, the old man like him secretly gave money to the physicians, asking them to check on the five families. However, the physicians refused the money, shaking their heads, knowing death was inevitable.
This left the old man deeply saddened, causing him to sit with a gloomy face.
"Village leader," Mu Heng called out upon seeing the old man sitting lost in thought, as if there was something in his mind.
"Oh, it’s you, Mu Heng? And Yueqian... You’ve come too? And the children as well? This is quite unusual. Aren’t you practicing writing at home?" The old man greeted them as he snapped out of his daze.
He looked at Mu Heng’s family with surprise. He had heard that Mu Heng’s younger siblings were starting to learn how to read and write and would soon prepare to become scholars in the city. So, he had encouraged them to focus on their studies. Previously, he had not seen them coming out and helping their older brother with farming, it was unexpected to see them all out this day.
"Yes, we were on our way to the vegetable plot but encountered the sick villagers along the way.”
"Sigh, those poor people truly have bad karma. It’s a pity. We still don’t know how they fell ill.”
"Hmm? You don’t know how they got sick?" Xiao Long exclaimed. Just a moment ago, his sister-in-law had known that it was due to food poisoning. How could the city physicians, after examining them, still not know the cause?
The little boy looked at his sister-in-law in confusion, and Huan’er did the same. Seeing the children’s reaction, even the old man turned his gaze to Yueqian.
"It’s not that the physicians don’t know the cause. They just don’t dare to say it was from the food distributed yesterday evening. Otherwise, they might be punished by the people from the capital," Yueqian explained. Upon hearing this, the village leader was taken aback.
It seemed he had realized the truth too, and his expression grew even more sorrowful.
"Humans, oh humans, impoverished and desperate, forsaking pride to beg for food, only for the gods to spare them no mercy. Before death, they must experience suffering," the village leader wiped his small tears, looking up at the sky in despair. He was the village leader, yet he couldn’t do anything to help.
The youngest child among the five families was just four years old, the adorable age. Who knows how talented they might become as they grow up? It’s truly a pity that they may not get the chance to become good adults.
It’s a disappointing fate.
"Um... Village leader, my wife can help with this, but she only has enough medicine for 20 villagers. So, they need to be separated from the soldiers. Can you help with this?" Mu Heng said, noticing the village leader’s gentle demeanor, as if his heart was also touched.
If Yueqian weren’t here today, would their lives be truly over?
Looking at his surviving younger siblings, now gaining more weight because of sufficient food, he glanced at Yueqian with gratitude once more. Yueqian could only laugh softly.
She knew what Mu Heng was thinking. His gratitude was overwhelming. Every day, Yueqian knew Mu Heng felt indebted to her. That was why no matter how tired he was, he always claimed he wasn’t. This man just wanted to return her kindness so he never complained, doing everything himself.
Well, life is long. She didn’t want him to force himself to repay her so quickly. Just having him around, making her feel at ease, was enough for her to think that everything she had done was nothing compared to that.
He probably didn’t know how rare it was to find “someone who made you feel at ease”. She hadn’t found that in her previous life. In this life, despite her initial doubts, she was lucky Mu Heng turned out to be that person for her.
"Yueqian, do you... do you have a way to help them?" The village leader, who had been lamenting fate, asked Yueqian urgently upon hearing Mu Heng’s words. If Mu Heng hadn’t blocked his way, the old man might have rushed over and shaken the delicate woman.
"Yes, but it has to be done secretly," Yueqian playfully winked as she didn’t want them to be so stress. Seeing this, the village leader slapped his knee in delight.
"Excellent, excellent! Hahaha!" He laughed loudly, the old man’s body was shaking.
Just thinking about saving the lives of those 20 people simply because his village had a daughter-in-law from the capital, just recalling that many villagers’ lives improved because Yueqian from the capital had brought ample resources and kindly rented them out, giving people hope for being financially comfortable, just thinking about how many children, even if it was just the Mu children, had a chance to become scholars because of the teachings of this woman, who had a reputation worse than a demon, gave him chills.
Since he was born till he was old, he had never believed in miracles in this dark world, but today he believed. Qin Yueqian was a miracle for this village!
"Um, Grandpa Village Leader, Huan’er thinks you should hurry and take care of things. Just now, I saw someone faint. Huan’er afraid they might not survive if we keep waiting," the little girl stammered, trying to inform the village leader to make him stop laughing. Surprisingly, the girl’s words made the village leader laugh even louder, prompting Huan’er to look to her sister-in-law for an idea.
