Chapter 46 End of the Watch

The villagers responsible for fetching the food made two trips back and forth before delivering all the noodles to the patrol point.

The women who came to help the Qin family finished cleaning up and carried their pots and pans back home. As they were about to leave, Qin Ruo called out to them.

She brought out a pot of extra noodles from the kitchen and divided them among the women, asking them to take the noodles home to eat.

Each of the helpers received a small bowl.

Although it wasn’t much, everyone was satisfied.

The helpers were overjoyed and thanked Qin Ruo and Old Lady Qin repeatedly.

This year’s harvest was poor, and every household had limited food reserves, all hoping for a better harvest next year.

Every family had a fixed amount of food for each meal.

Even coarse rice, rough noodles, and wild vegetables were eaten sparingly.

The noodles made with white flour and meat that the Qin family served tonight were considered the best food for the villagers.

Qin Ruo deliberately set aside a pot for them because she knew that the helpers all had families with children and elderly people.

If they ate here, they wouldn’t be at ease.

It was better to let them take it home and share it with their families.

Even those who were sent to the patrol point were reluctant to eat their own share.

They would eventually take it home for their children and elders.

Qin Ruo was a person who clearly distinguished between right and wrong, and because this was a misunderstanding she had caused.

She didn’t have any resistance towards those who showed kindness to her and the Qin family.

On the contrary, she accepted it quickly and reciprocated with kindness.

Night had fallen, and all was quiet.

The patrol point in Changhe Village, however, was lit by flickering flames.

The villagers and constables responsible for patrolling took turns guarding their assigned posts.

They were all on high alert, not daring to relax for a moment.

In the cold winter night, drinking the noodle soup provided by the Qin family, their bodies warmed up instantly.

The long night didn’t seem so unbearable anymore.

The villagers’ opinion of the Qin family had quietly changed overnight.

Old Lady Qin, like most of the villagers, didn’t sleep well all night.

Before going to bed, she had repeatedly asked Qin Ruo if the wolves would come down from the mountain.

Qin Ruo simply told her that it wasn’t up to her whether they came down or not.

But if the wolves were going to come down, they should have already done so.

Old Lady Qin couldn’t understand the meaning behind Qin Ruo’s words, and she couldn’t sleep even more.

When she woke up the next day, her eyelids were dark with fatigue.

The main focus of the wolf prevention was at night, as the chances of wolves coming down during the day were very low.

At dawn the next day, Constable Yu left some constables behind in Changhe Village as a precaution.

He returned to the county office to report the situation from the previous night.

When he entered the village again in the evening, Constable Yu brought a batch of food directly to the Qin family.

The food Constable Yu brought this time included oil, rice, and flour.

He explained to Qin Ruo that it was an arrangement from the county magistrate. Magistrate Jiang expressed his gratitude for the Qin family’s noble act.

In these times, with the poor harvest, the people were already struggling, and they couldn’t afford to spend money.

Therefore, the county magistrate ordered him to return the food that the Qin family had provided yesterday.

Besides returning the food to the Qin family, the rest was used for the needs of the defense operation.

Bringing the food to the Qin family was to ask them to help arrange meals for the next few days.

He also informed the villagers that each villager participating in the patrol would receive a daily allowance of 20 copper coins.

20 copper coins didn’t seem like much, but the villagers of Changhe Village were very happy.

Villagers who went out to find work usually earned only a few dozen copper coins a day.

For a while, more and more villagers came forward to sign up for the patrol team with Constable Yu.

Old Lady Qin was the happiest of all. Yesterday, she had been overjoyed and then disappointed because of the dozens of pounds of white flour and meat.

Tonight, the county magistrate’s compensation had arrived.

And such a major task was entrusted to her Qin family, it was a blessing for the Qin family.

It was the county magistrate’s trust in her family, Old Lady Qin exclaimed, “Thank heavens!”

She was convinced that this was a blessing brought by Qin Ruo.

After a moment of daydreaming, Old Lady Qin felt proud and worked even harder.

The same group of women who had helped the Qin family prepare food the day before came again.

After a few days of getting to know each other, everyone had lost the awkwardness they felt on their first visit.

Constable Yu returned the rice and grain to them, and Qin Ruo couldn’t refuse, so she had to accept it.

Qin Ruo arranged the small task entrusted to her by the county office perfectly.

Every day, she continued to prepare food for the helpers to take home, using her own grain, of course.

The village women were initially hesitant to take it, but knowing that Qin Ruo didn’t like to push back and forth, they relaxed.

They were grateful and worked even harder.

The county constables and villagers stayed in Changhe Village for five days.

“Sister, are you just going to watch them busy themselves for nothing? When will this ever end?”

Qin Tiaotiao, through the space, watched everything that had happened over the past few days and was more anxious than Qin Ruo.

“It’s almost over, maybe in the next two days.”

Qin Ruo hadn’t considered letting Constable Yu and his men end their pointless watch early.

She just hadn’t found the right time yet.

Two days later, Qin Ruo, with a hint of guilt, went to see Constable Yu.

Using the excuse that she was familiar with Humpback Mountain, she offered to lead the way and persuade Constable Yu to organize a group to go back to Humpback Mountain.

She told Constable Yu that this constant watch was having a huge impact on the villagers’ lives.

If they could figure out the situation sooner, the villagers could resume their normal lives sooner.

Constable Yu was convinced.

The next day, led by Qin Ruo, they went back to Humpback Mountain.

They didn’t see a single wolf, not even a wild chicken or rabbit.

The most obvious thing was the rows of wolf footprints and droppings that snaked towards the other side of the forest.

They followed the tracks, but they disappeared into the deeper woods.

Constable Yu and the hunters he had recruited all agreed that the wolf pack had suddenly disappeared because the wild animal resources on Humpback Mountain had dwindled.

The wolf pack had no choice but to migrate to a new territory to find food.

As for whether they would return, it was hard to say.

But at least they wouldn’t be back for a while.

The county office was already short-staffed, and they couldn’t just focus on Changhe Village and exhaust all their manpower here.

After confirming the situation, Constable Yu led his men out of Changhe Village that day.

After the county office personnel left, the villagers’ hearts finally settled.

They gradually resumed their normal lives, and more and more people began working in the fields.

Of course, no one dared to go near Humpback Mountain for the time being.

Changhe Village wasn’t just one mountain, they could just go further away.

The wolf threat was temporarily over, but the matter of Wang Lizheng’s family was brought back into the villagers’ attention.

Since the incident at the Wang family, only Old Lady Wang, Wang Laoer’s wife, and Chen Shi were left.

Wang Lizheng was taken away, and the county office had yet to announce the results.

The Wang family was practically walking on eggshells, not even daring to leave their house.

Even during the wolf prevention efforts, no one from the Wang family had shown their faces.

No one expected that just two days ago, the entire Wang family was taken away by the county office personnel.

Several of the Wang family’s relatives were also taken away.

Previously, Zhu Shi had told everyone and Constable Yu that Wang Lizheng had oppressed the people and had committed murder.

She didn’t reveal the specifics in public.

Now that the Wang family members were being taken away one after another, some of the Wang family’s past sins were gradually surfacing.