Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside
Chapter 65 - 065 Tianfu County

Chapter 65: Chapter 065 Tianfu County

The clerk’s expression turned colder as he heard this. After registering the information on the household registration paper, he handed him a bamboo card with numbers on it and waved his hand saying, "Go to the side to collect items, next!"

Gu Dashan hurriedly took the card, retrieved his household registration paper, severance document, and the invitation from Qi Mansion, and tucked all these items into his inner jacket pocket before taking Gu Jin’an to the side to collect items.

The government official at the adjacent table checked their bamboo card and gave them half a pound of food and an old quilt: "The clothes have all been given out, only quilts are left. Take it if you want, or leave it. You can collect half a pound of food daily."

"Ah, understood, thank you Brother Official," Gu Dashan said. He secured the food for Gu Jin’an and, carrying the old quilt, pushed through the crowd to wait for Third Grandpa and the others in the distance.

Although half a pound of food was little, being able to collect it daily was already satisfying for Gu Dashan.

Yet, many disaster victims were angry, confronting the distributing official with their half pound of food: "Our family has twenty-three members, and you only give half a pound of food, how are we supposed to survive?!"

In ancient times, parents would not separate from their children, and many households consisted of three generations living together. Tens of people in a family had only half a pound of grain to eat in a day, which was utterly insufficient.

The officials did not care; seeing the victims causing a commotion, they called over patrolling guard soldiers, dragging away those who did not comply and beating them severely.

After beating several dozen unyielding disaster victims, the other victims quieted down, no longer daring to complain.

A quarter-hour later, Third Grandpa and the others also received their food and old quilts, squeezing out of the queue.

Gu Dashan, taking Gu Jin’an along, greeted them: "Third Uncle, Brother Luo Er, everyone has collected their items."

People in Gu Family Village addressed Father Luo as Uncle Luo or Brother Luo. Only Gu Dashan knew that Father Luo had an older brother back in his hometown, but Father Luo had a strained relationship with his hometown relatives and hadn’t returned for many years. He didn’t correct others when they called him Brother Luo or Uncle Luo; over the years, everyone just adopted these terms.

Third Grandpa and Father Luo nodded: "We’ve collected everything, let’s go back."

The women from several families were still waiting in grass huts on the outskirts. Nowadays, with disaster victims everywhere and human traffickers roaming the outskirts, many harbored malicious intentions. Having been out for several hours, they were very worried about their families.

Qin San Lang did not go back with them but stayed behind to continue gathering information.

Qin San Lang was skilled in martial arts, and during the disaster, he had been the one to independently gather information, so the families were no longer worried about his safety and did not stop him. Instead, they helped Elder Qin carry the items back to the grass huts in the outskirts.

An hour later, they returned to the outskirts.

Now, the outskirts were filled with low grass huts made by tying together tree branches and talahib grass, only about a half-person tall, requiring one to bend over to enter.

The families’ huts were located behind a large expanse of other huts, and they circled around this mass to get back to their own huts.

Qin Er Lang, armed with a machete, guarded their hut with several children, keeping other disaster victims at bay. Seeing them return, all the children rushed up excitedly.

"Dad, what food did you get?"

"We got a quilt too, so we won’t be woken up by the cold at night anymore."

It was now mid-December, and the weather was very cold. Every night, they would be woken up by the cold, needing to run a few laps to warm up before they could continue sleeping.

The adults handed over the collected items to the children, delighting them for quite a while.

The women of the families, seeing that no cold-weather clothing had been brought back, were somewhat disappointed, but getting an old quilt and a daily half pound of food was already quite good.

Third Grandma opened the bag filled with grains and smiled upon seeing the contents: "It’s beans mixed with old rice."

Mrs. Chen, however, was not satisfied: "These officials from He’an Prefecture are too stingy, only giving us this little bit of grain mixed with beans. Beans weigh heavy, a few handfuls make half a pound, why not give us all rice?"

Ms. Chu said: "Rice is precious, and with so many disaster victims, how could the government afford to give us rice for disaster relief? Be secretly happy that we’re even getting beans and old rice."

Gu Jinli handed over the grains brought back by Gu Dashan to Mrs. Cui and said to Third Grandma, "Third Grandma, let’s pick out the beans and wash the old rice with salt, then cook a pot of rice porridge to drink. We’ve been fleeing famine all the way here, and our stomachs are ruined. Drinking more rice porridge can nourish our stomachs."

Mrs. Chen exclaimed, "Salt is so precious, are we really going to use it to wash rice?" Mrs. Chen felt that Gu Jinli was being wasteful and pitied her future in-laws, thinking that whoever married Gu Xiaoyu would have their wealth squandered.

Gu Jinli looked at her and said, "This old rice is a bit moldy; if we don’t wash it with salt, it could be poisonous."

Mrs. Chen, who was most afraid of death, immediately shut her mouth.

That evening, the families drank a serving of thin and overly cooked old rice porridge.

After finishing the porridge, Qin San Lang shared the news he had gathered: "The government will soon find a place to settle us. Today, while distributing food and blankets, the clerk took quite some time to register us. This was to count the number of disaster victims to make arrangements properly."

"Government Officials said that the county magistrates of the eight counties under He’an Prefecture will come to the Prefecture tonight. At that time, Master Magistrate will divide the disaster victims among the eight counties for the magistrates to settle."

Hearing this, everyone felt both joy and panic. They were happy that after fleeing famine for so long, they were finally going to settle down; but anxious about where they might end up.

Mrs. Chen, always restless, immediately asked: "Brother Qin, did you find out where we might be placed? Could we be sent to a prosperous county? What if we’re sent to a poor and remote area?"

Gu Dagui said, "Having a place to resettle is already good enough, be content with that."

How many state governments have shut their gates and had soldiers drive them away? Now that they could settle down, should they still be so picky? Was suffering not enough?

Besides, Master Magistrate wouldn’t let them choose. If every disaster victim got to pick their place, it would cause chaos.

Qin San Lang shook his head: "I don’t know, that’s what the Government Official said. He only mentioned that Master Magistrate is worried that so many disaster victims gathering outside the Prefecture might cause trouble, and wants to move a group out before the New Year."

Thus, they would be able to settle down before the New Year.

Upon hearing this, Third Grandma and Old Mrs. Yan immediately bowed outside the straw hut: "God bless us, if we can settle down before the New Year, there will be nothing to worry about."

Elder Qin was also pleased to hear this news. If they could be settled before the New Year, then the government office, rushing to seal off for the New Year, wouldn’t inspect them too closely.

Because of the disaster victims’ situation, Master Magistrate was so anxious he couldn’t sleep. Once the county magistrates of the eight counties under his jurisdiction arrived, they discussed through the night, assigning the disaster victims registered during the day in batches, ordering them to take the assigned disaster victims away within three days.

Being able to send a batch away was a relief; otherwise, being surrounded by tens of thousands of disaster victims, he wouldn’t dare sleep.

Therefore, the next afternoon, a large group of Government Officials came to the straw huts in the suburbs, informing the disaster victims one hut at a time.

By the time they reached the straw huts of the Qin, Gu, and Luo families, it was already dark.

The men from the families hurried to greet them, smiling as they asked: "Brother Officials, what brings you?"

The leading Government Official didn’t waste words with them, and only asked for the bamboo cards the clerk had given them when they received the food. After checking the numbers on the bamboo cards, he told them: "Numbers 5043, 5044, 5045, 5046, 5047, 5048, 5049, your families are allocated to Tianfu County under He’an Prefecture. People from Tianfu County will come to take you in the next two days. Get ready, don’t make them wait."

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