Chapter 277 - Three Gone (2/2)
What was to be done? In the future, these villagers were all facing the endless suffering from lack of food and debt. Yu Xiaocao looked at their expressions full of despair and couldn’t help but shout, “Locusts can also be eaten! Catch as much as you can and you can use salt to pickle them. That way you’ll have something to eat!!”
All of the villagers suddenly realized that everyone in their childhoods had roasted grasshoppers to eat. When they were roasted to a golden color, the grasshoppers were quite savory and delicious. Locusts were the same ah! Thus, the entire village mobilized. Some used bamboo baskets, some used burlap sacks, and some used fishing nets to hold all of the insects they could catch.
Yu Xiaocao’s family’s courtyard still had some half-rotten vegetable leaves in the fields, so they had attracted quite a bit of locusts over. Countless locusts crawled on the ground as the vegetable leaves disappeared at an astonishing speed.
Liu Fangping was so wrapped up under clothing that only his two eyes peeped out. He courageously stepped out and caught a locust in each hand. He stuffed them into the sack his older brother held. Everyone else in the Yu Family also started moving. They all had a sack in one hand as they swiftly caught the insects and stuffed them in.
The ground crawled with them and the sky buzzed with activity. There were too many locusts in the area. If there was anyone who had claustrophobia, he or she would have long fainted over. Yu Xiaocao, who had more courage than the usual person, had goosebumps all over her body at the sight of the numerous locusts.
When Madam Liu saw that her youngest daughter’s hairs were all standing up straight on her arms, she thought that she was frightened and said, “Cao’er, if you’re afraid, then stay in the room. Our family doesn’t need to catch the locusts to add to our rations.”
The Yu Family had stockpiled a lot of grain and food, so why were they still catching the insects? Old Yu had seen just how many insects were congregated in the area. After calculating, he had a hunch that the disaster wouldn’t go by that quickly. Even if the vast majority of insects left, there would still be a large number of locusts left in the village. It was possible that for a long period of time, no one would be able to plant any more crops. Since the locusts could be eaten, why not capture some more and relieve the burden on their stored grain!
When the Yu Family heard Old Yu’s thoughts, all of them expressed their approval and started to work hard to catch locusts. Yu Xiaocao took out a fishing net and started swinging it through the areas that were concentrated with insects. In one pass, she was able to catch more than a dozen locusts in the net. She shook her catch into a sack that Xiaolian was holding open and then continued to swing the net. Although she didn’t have to physically touch the insects, she still caught locusts at about the same speed as everyone else. With the both of them cooperating together, they quickly managed to fill a whole bag of locusts. After tying the bag closed, Xiaolian picked up another burlap sack that was about as long as half an adult’s height and the two of them started working together again.
After pretty much all of the vegetation in the vicinity of Dongshan Village was devoured clean, the vast majority of locusts flew up and towards the north. All of the villagers could finally see the sky after a day had passed. Although there were fewer locusts flying around, there were still a decent amount of them still crawling on the ground.
The villagers came out of their homes and solemnly looked at the devastation in front of them. All greenery had been stripped throughout the village and the West Mountain looked bald and barren now. The people who had lost all of their crops and vegetables in the swarm kneeled on the ground and wailed in sorrow. However, what was the point in crying? No one had a surplus of grain lying around. With an uncertain future in front of them, who knew how long the disaster would last? No one would give out food, which could be the difference between life and death for their own family, to help others now.
At this point, the village chief stood up and looked at the villagers who were crying bitterly. He sighed deeply and said, “Don’t be too sad! Our Dongshan Village is supported by the ocean. As long as you work hard, it’s unlikely that you’ll starve! You should all quickly go into town and see if you can buy any grain to bring home. I’m afraid that the price of grain will only go up and not down in the future!”
All of the wailing villagers immediately stopped crying and took out every last bit of copper they had saved up at home. The Yu Family selflessly took out their donkey and horse carts to help their fellow villagers get to town.
However, the vast majority of grain stores were closed by the time they got to town. Although the Zhou Family’s two grain stores were still open, their prices were quite excessively high, about five times the price as it was a few days ago. This wasn’t considered the most excessive price hike. There were some blackhearted merchants who had raised their prices to up to ten times the price of before.
This was nothing more than hitting someone when they were already down. The villagers, who already had a shortage of grain at home, now couldn’t buy as much grain because the prices had gone up a lot. Some people wanted to wait and come back in a few days to buy food. However, with the village chief reminding them, they didn’t have any choice but to grit their teeth and exchange their money for grain.
The village chief said, “Who knows when this locust swarm will finally disappear and we can plant crops in the ground again. The grain prices will only rise in the next half year and not go down.”
The villagers had a good amount of faith in the village chief. Thus, in front of the Zhou Family’s grain store, there was a long line of people waiting. The villagers from Dongshan Village dispiritedly lined up at the end. All of the people in line had depressed expressions and it was dead silent. The atmosphere was stifling.
By the time the Dongshan villagers got to the end of the line, a smartly-dressed servant muttered something into the store’s shopkeeper’s ear. The shopkeeper frowned and then hollered at the remaining line, “There’s no more grain left. Everyone should leave now and go somewhere else to buy, okay? We don’t have any grain left!”