It rained heavily and gloomyly for several days. In the air, there is moist water vapor everywhere. The entire Fengshou Town, as if submerged in water, was covered with a layer of gray color.
Three days of heavy rain made the rice fields, which were in the harvest season, extremely muddy. A lot of heavy rice was knocked down by the heavy rain and fell to the ground. After being scoured by the heavy rain and covered by the muddy land, the rice is basically about to rot in the ground.
You know, this year was originally the best harvest year in Fengshou Town. People in the town are counting on this to have a good year.
But today's non-stop heavy rain has completely ruined the dream of the people in the small town for a good harvest.
Although some townspeople have to go out to harvest rice despite the heavy rain. The rice that can be recovered is all wet rice. If the sun is not seen for a long time, if it is dried well and exposed to the sun, the harvested rice will sooner or later become moldy and unpalatable.
The townspeople are really miserable about this. I just hope that this gloomy heavy rain can end sooner and recover a little more damage.
Of course, the villagers in the town were not the only ones affected by the heavy rain.
Because of the cold autumn rain, Li He has not had a good life in the past few days. Especially where his right leg was injured, it was always as uncomfortable as a needle prick. The cold moisture is like going deep into the bone marrow, and the pain is unspeakable.
And the symptoms of rheumatism and cold can only be slightly improved by burning charcoal with dry wood for heating. It's a pity that the firewood and charcoal fire at home will soon be used up. And he, because of his leg injury, couldn't go to the mountain to chop firewood. In order to save some for later use in the winter, Li He did not dare to squander it so casually now.
However, compared to the pain in his leg, he was more worried about Bai Ling.
In the past few days, it has been raining so much. Bai Ling has been running around outside without stopping at all. In order to be able to earn enough money, heal his leg, and support his family, it can be described as hard work day and night. Even the originally good-looking face, unknowingly, has a lot of tiredness, which is very distressing.
But what made Li He most uncomfortable was that every time Bai Ling came home, he always put on a pretended optimistic expression and told him with a smile that everything would be fine. Then silently serve him tea and water, wash and cook for him.
Li He saw all these, but he couldn't do anything about it. If you want to blame, you can only blame this leg injury, it's so unfortunate that it happened at this time.
If he made a little more money, it would be enough for them to live comfortably for a period of time without doing anything, Bai Ling wouldn't have to work so hard.
After all, after all, I am useless...
Li He sighed, lowered his head, looking at the rain outside the window, feeling inexplicably unhappy.
At the beginning, it was obviously he himself who said that he wanted to take good care of Bai Ling and prevent him from suffering. Even if Bai Ling doesn't have the intention to like him, he will always take care of him like an elder brother until he really meets someone he likes.
But now, Bai Ling is working hard for him, day and night. As for himself, he could only lie comfortably on the bed, and he couldn't go there either. Even taking a sip of tea and trying to pour a glass of water seemed extremely difficult. It's just like a useless person, useless.
Thinking of this, Li He couldn't help being a little annoyed, and even a little irritable with his mood.
But how did he know that in Bai Ling's heart, everything Li He did far surpassed what Bai Ling was doing now. In his impression, Li He was the one who saved his life twice. And no matter what, he treated Bai Ling very well. These favors may be difficult for Bai Ling to repay in his life.
Besides, the reason why Li He was injured was all because of Bai Ling.
Now, Bai Ling is only taking on a small responsibility for him, the responsibility of supporting his family. Compared with what Li He did, it was much, much worse.
...
Huge raindrops fell on the land without stopping for a moment. The gloomy dark clouds, like a thick quilt, covered the clear sky tightly, leaving no gaps.
In the entire Harvest Town, almost no one was seen walking around. Shops, large and small, are all closed.
At this moment, Bai Ling persistently knocked on the door of another family.
"Uncle Zhang! Open the door! I'm Bai Ling!" Bai Ling was holding the oil-paper umbrella that had started to leak, and his ordinary clothes were covered with rainwater blown by the wind. Even the few strands of black hair on the forehead were also stained with rainwater, making them look a bit embarrassed.
Bai Ling looked at the people in the room, but there was no response for a long time, so she couldn't help holding the handle of the umbrella nervously, her fingers turned white. The lips that were originally rosy are now a little dry and have lost their blood.
Finally, after waiting for a while, there was movement from the people in the room.
This is the twentieth house that Bai Ling knocked on today. In fact, Bai Ling also knocked on the doors of many family members a few days ago. At the beginning, everyone was very enthusiastic about asking him what was the matter. But later, when everyone knew that his brother had broken his leg and came to ask them to borrow money to make a turnaround, almost everyone had no money.
Not only that, some people even closed the door immediately when they heard that they wanted to borrow money. By the way, two door bolts were added, and he was very indifferent to Bai Ling.
But some people are also very enthusiastic and kind. For example, before, Aunt Zhang, who often chatted with Bai Ling, was very concerned.
Knowing that Li He's leg was injured, he gave Bai Ling eggs, cucumbers and vegetables, and even two bottles of medicinal wine for bruises and sprains. However, the former is exactly what Bai Ling needs. The latter is really useless.
After all, Li He's injury was not an ordinary fall or sprain. It's a bit of a waste to hold medicinal wine.
However, Bai Ling also got some news from Aunt Zhang.
Originally, this year should be a very auspicious year with a good harvest. Every household should be able to live a very prosperous year. But this heavy rain that never stopped, completely cut off the only vitality of Fengshou Town.
If it is just because of the weirdness of the heavy rain that the people in the town can't harvest the rice and can only rot in the ground, they can barely hold on. After all, before the heavy rain, the people in the town more or less harvested some mature rice. As long as it can be sold off, this day is not too bad.
But the most unfortunate thing is that the continuous heavy rain caused landslides on the entire mountain, resulting in huge mudslides, which blocked the entire official road leading to Fengshou Town.
And the sealing of the entire official road means that the food in the town cannot be transported out, and the merchants and imperial convoys cannot enter.
Originally, Fengshou Town was a special town dedicated to providing food to the imperial court. Most of the food grown by the townspeople is purchased by the imperial court. But now that the road is blocked, the imperial convoy cannot come in to buy food, so they can only buy food from other places.
After all, this road cannot be repaired in a short while. At the very least, it won't be completed until the next year.
But even though the townspeople in Fengshou Town could wait, the imperial court couldn't. The entire army guarding the frontier of the Northern Territory couldn't wait, they were all waiting for the white rice and steaming steamed buns to be put into the pot.
If the army's food is not delivered in time, and there is a famine in the army, it will inevitably be a turmoil in the army. At that time, if the Xiongnu in the Northern Territory took advantage of the situation and entered, the entire defense line guarding the Northern Territory would naturally fall. And after losing such an important border fortress, there is a flat river behind, directly reaching the emperor's capital.
Such an important thing must not be sloppy at all.
Therefore, even if the grain and grass in Fengshou Town could not be purchased, the imperial court would naturally purchase grain from other places to quickly fill the gap. And the ones who will suffer at that time will naturally be the townspeople in Fengshou Town. After all, even if other caravans came to buy grain, they would not ask for so much, and the price would naturally not be as high as the imperial court.
And after autumn, it will be winter soon. If the accumulated grain is not well preserved, it will become moldy immediately when it sees moisture. Even if they are well preserved, they can only wait until tomorrow's autumn to sell these things.
And because of this, most of the townspeople in Fengshou Town this year are also struggling. I don't even know if I can support my own family, let alone help others. After all, this person can't just eat rice every day without eating anything. It always needs to be paired with some vegetables and radishes, so that it is good for dinner.
But now the money for the food, but I don't know where it comes from. I can only silently gnaw at my previous legacy to barely make ends meet.
But Bai Ling, who wanted to die, rushed to such a juncture.
In a situation like this, it would be strange if someone was willing to borrow money!
But even so, Bai Ling still didn't give up, but stubbornly knocked on the door of Old Uncle Zhang's house.