Chapter 38 – Focus on the Present

Zhou Yu asked Qin Ying, “Right now there are only two kinds of mushrooms— is it because other varieties are hard to cultivate?”

“It’s because we’ve only just begun experimenting with planting,” Qin Ying quickly explained. “I didn’t dare try too many at once. I’ll attempt to grow two more types later on.”

Zhou Yu gave her some encouragement before leaving.

After sending him off, the Zhao family closed their doors to talk in private.

Auntie Zhao said, “Tell me, how long do you think Lord Zhou will stay in our village? Doesn’t he need to return to the government office to handle affairs?”

Although Zhou Yu visited other villages, he still spent the most time in Tongshu Village.

“Maybe there’s not much going on at the yamen lately?” Qin Ying guessed, but she quickly reconsidered. “But then again, he governs all of Qinxian County—there should be official matters to deal with every single day.

“Unless… there’s some reason he must stay here.”

Auntie Zhao began to feel uneasy and asked nervously, “And what reason would that be? He’s a government official—what business could he possibly have in a little mountain village like ours?”

“Mother, you’re being silly!” Zhao Hu couldn’t help but laugh. “Did you forget why Lord Zhou came here in the first place?

“Didn’t he want to borrow our good fortune to dig wells?

“And we actually helped him dig up three wells! Let me think—how many people did we help save… It must be at least twenty or thirty villages, right?

“Assuming each village has a hundred people, that’s two to three thousand… My heavens! That’s so many people!”

Auntie Zhao smacked him on the head. “You and your nonsense, all day long! What do you mean we helped? Was it really us who helped?

“What did we even do? If this gets out, what’ll it sound like? Can you keep that big mouth of yours shut?”

Zhao Hu clutched his head and pouted, not daring to speak again.

Qin Ying quickly intervened, “Mom, don’t be angry. Huzi is still young!”

Auntie Zhao sighed and looked at little An’an rolling around on the kang bed, worry creeping into her expression. “Yingzi… do you think we can really protect An’an?”

“We can!” Qin Ying replied firmly. “We absolutely can!”

Zhao Hu added softly, “Mom, I promise I won’t ever say anything like that again—no matter where I am!”

Auntie Zhao rubbed his head, eyes turning slightly red. “Son, it’s not that I hit you too hard… it’s just that we have to protect An’an’s secret!”

“I know,” Zhao Hu rubbed his big head against his mother’s palm and said gloomily, “I’ll make sure to control this mouth of mine!”

Qin Ying blinked, forcing back the tears in her eyes. She sniffled and said, “Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore.

“I’ve been paying attention around the village lately. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s saying anything bad about our Anbao.

“Actually, Grandma Wang often tells people that our family is going through a lucky streak. She even says that anyone could hit a lucky break, and if you befriend someone who’s lucky, it can bring great benefits to yourself too.”

As she said this, she chuckled. “It seems like the people in our village really believe in that stuff.”

“That’s true,” Auntie Zhao laughed too. “That means things will only get easier for our family from now on. Your Grandma Wang really is a good person!

“Speaking of which, Lord Zhou’s luck isn’t bad either—how else would he run into you two as soon as he came into the mountains?”

“Lord Zhou is a good official!” Zhao Hu declared loudly. “If it weren’t for him, we might not have even been able to save this year’s crops!

“Mom, Sis, did you know? Lord Zhou sent people to wipe out several bandit hideouts!

“There won’t be any more bandit troubles in Qinxian County!”

The mother and daughter both looked at him.

Zhao Hu elaborated, “I’ve gotten pretty close to Brother Xu, who works with Lord Zhou. That’s how I heard about it.

“Lord Zhou knew those bandits had done all kinds of evil. How could he allow them to keep committing crimes?

“He didn’t just send people to destroy their dens—when distributing food, he brought the heads of those bandit leaders with him!”

Auntie Zhao and Qin Ying both gasped. Only now did they truly realize that Zhou Yu wielded life-and-death authority.

Zhao Hu’s eyes lit up as he continued, “Brother Xu told me that in our Qinxian County, there were quite a few villages entirely made up of bandits. Once the famine hit, they threw all morality out the window.

“At first, they avoided eating their own family members—would swap with others instead. But in the end, even their own weren’t spared!

“A husband and wife might sleep under the same blanket one night, and the next day, the wife could end up in the stew pot…”

Auntie Zhao frowned and quickly scolded him, “That’s enough! Stop talking about that!” She turned to look at An’an, afraid that something so cruel would frighten the child.

But An’an had already fallen asleep.

Qin Ying smoothed out the goosebumps on her arms, climbed onto the kang, tucked the child in, and warned Zhao Hu to speak more quietly. “Stories like that aren’t good for children to hear.”

Zhao Hu lowered his voice and said, “Alright, I won’t go into detail. But anyway, a lot of those village folk weren’t good people—most of them had blood on their hands.

“But Lord Zhou couldn’t just kill all of them. After all, it was the natural disasters that drove them to such extremes.

“So he showed them what happens when you become a bandit—scared them straight—then gave them food. That way, they wouldn’t dare to misbehave again.”

Auntie Zhao asked curiously, “Did you ask where all that food came from? He distributed it across the entire county—that’s a massive amount!”

Qin Ying couldn’t help but laugh. “Mom, our Great Zhou Empire is huge! When my birth mother and I came here back then, it took us almost half a year just to make the journey.

“There are even more places we haven’t been to. Even if our area is hit by disaster, other regions might not be. Those places produce grain.”

Auntie Zhao shook her head and sighed, “But isn’t there still a war going on?”

Thinking of her biological father who died in the chaos of war, Qin Ying’s mood turned gloomy. After a long pause, she replied, “They’re not fighting every day.

“After they split up the territories, there’s mostly just bickering now. Haven’t heard of any major battles these past two years, have we?”

Auntie Zhao slapped her thigh. “Bah! Why are we even talking about this! Folks like us—little commoners—can’t worry about what the big shots do!

“All we can do is live well in the present.

“This disaster made it clear to me—people like us, in the eyes of Heaven, are like ants. One flick of the wrist, and we’re crushed.

“If we don’t live properly, who knows when the next disaster or misfortune might strike and take our lives?

“No point thinking too much about the future—it’s useless!”

Qin Ying didn’t agree, but she didn’t argue either. Seeing that it was getting late, she urged everyone to go to bed.

The next day, Xu the warrior brought two people to collect mushroom spores and asked Qin Ying to explain the cultivation process again in detail.

Qin Ying held nothing back. Just to be safe, she even offered to let Zhao Hu accompany them—he had been helping her with the mushrooms every day and knew all the techniques.

Spores from other villagers were also gathered, and then Zhou Yu led his people to the other villages.

The preliminary preparations were already complete—everything was ready, just waiting for the mushroom spores.

This round of work took several days, and soon, it was the end of the year.

In the center of Tongshu Village, there was a large millstone where everyone ground their flour.

Auntie Zhao and Qin Ying waited in line to grind their cornmeal. After returning home, they used a small stone mill to grind it a second time. After sifting, the fine flour was saved to mix with wheat flour for dumplings, while the coarse flour was reserved for making porridge.