Chapter 406 - Rebuilding the Residence (1/2)
Zhu Junyang’s explanation was that when the troops were fighting with the pirates, they weren’t careful and ended up damaging the residence.
Bah! Nonsense! Who would believe that? Were you driving a bulldozer around when you were fighting the pirates? Yu Xiaocao didn’t believe a single word of his lie. This fellow must have done this on purpose! But why would he do such a thing? He destroyed the residence that her whole family lived in and they were now homeless, yet he wanted her to be grateful. They didn't even have a gate left standing!
“What should we do now? Do we have to live in town now?” Yu Xiaocao glared at Zhu Junyang as she fretted over this. Although their residence in town wasn’t large, it was spacious enough that the main wing could house her immediate family. But what about her Oldest Aunt’s family? And her Eldest Granduncle’s family? Were they…supposed to be like the other villagers and raise a temporary awning to live in?
Xiaolian came over, puffing with anger, as she furiously exclaimed, “Our family’s piggery hasn’t been destroyed and we still have around a hundred pigs left in there! Those bastard pirates only concerned themselves with taking food and didn’t even feed them. Other than the ones they slaughtered, there are still a decent number of pigs that died from sickness and starvation. The remaining pigs are so hungry that they’re staggering when they walk!”
Senior Servant Yang, who was in charge of the piggery, was quite distressed, “Those evil bastards! We had three hundred pigs and the pirates only left us with this many! Miss Xiaolian, is there still pig fodder and feed in the piggery? We can’t have anything else happen to the remaining a hundred so pigs...Old Man, let’s go. Come with me to take a look!”
“I’m going along too!” Xiaolian was quite concerned about the pigs they raised. Luckily, most of the pigs that died of starvation or sickness were the smaller pigs that had just been caught this past spring. The pirates had killed a few of the older ones and half-grown ones to eat. The rest of the pigs only became thinner.
The piggery was the building that had been preserved the most out of all of the village. It was able to house around twenty some workers and had storerooms filled with wheat bran and rice bran. None of the feed had been touched. The remaining pigs in the piggery all squealed weakly. Senior Servant Yang and her husband immediately lit up the stoves in the piggery and started to make pig feed. Perhaps the pigs were able to smell the scent of food but all of them started to cry and squeal in hunger.
Zhu Junyang watched as Yu Xiaocao conversed with Zhuang Xiaomo and the rest of his village, “The dead from your village have already been buried. That place isn’t suitable for human habitation anymore. What are your plans?”
The village chief of Dongshan Village thought for a bit and then proposed, “If you guys don’t mind, you’re all welcome to live in Dongshan Village ah! I’ll divvy out some land for all of you and then you can start building your homes…”
Zhuang Xiaomo didn’t really care. He was fine as long as he had enough to eat and a place to live. That being said, if he could now live in Dongshan Village, he’d be even closer to Xiaolian. What problem would he have with that?
The remaining six families first discussed this amongst themselves and then decided to become a part of Dongshan Village. Their reasoning was simple. Dongshan Village was one of the most famous villages in the area for being prosperous and the village had Yu Hai’s farming business that was doing very well. The Yu Family often gave the villagers opportunities to make more money. Furthermore, Dongshan Village was the closest village to their old village, so those who didn’t want to be too far away from their old home thought that this was the best solution. Furthermore, if they settled down here, Royal Prince Yang wouldn’t discriminate against them and would also give them thirty taels a family to build a new house!
Right then and there, the village head divvied up some plots of land for Zhuang Xiaomo and the other families. Zhuang Xiaomo had been given an area close to the West Mountain and was only about two to three hundred meters away from the Yu Family’s old residence. The tanned youth was quite pleased with this arrangement.
After mourning for a bit, all of the villagers started bustling about again. The men started to cut trees to build temporary shelters with their women helping them. The elderly took the children to scrounge about the remains of their old homes to see if they could find anything usable. Although the royal prince was willing to subsidize them, they had gotten used to scrimping and saving. The more they could save the better!
Yu Xiaocao’s Oldest Aunt’s family and Eldest Granduncle’s family were all planning on building temporary shelters in the vicinity of their homes. That way it would be easier for them to keep an eye on things when the houses were being built. The Yu Family was also concerned about their businesses in the village and didn’t really want to move into town. Zhu Junyang warmly invited them to go live in the mountain villa but had been resolutely refused by Yu XIaocao. He glared at her sulkily after that.
Fang Zizhen was still concerned about the harbor. When he saw that his daughter was fine, he headed back to the docks. Before he left, he gave the key to the Zhao Family’s residence to Xiaocao and said, “I already took a look and my martial uncle’s home hasn’t been touched. If you guys don’t want to go into town, you can live there instead!”
It looked like there were no better options available. Yu Xiaocao took the key and then spoke to her Oldest Aunt and Eldest Granduncle, “The worker rooms in the piggery are still empty. Oldest Aunt, Eldest Granduncle, if you guys don’t mind the odor of the piggery, you all can live there for now.”
Summer was about to come and the rainy season was imminent. Temporary shacks naturally weren’t as comfortable as living in the piggery, which had been sturdily built with bricks and had a tiled roof. Yu Caifeng thought for a bit and said, “I need to go back to the prefectural city’s braised food shop to oversee some things. Yaner and Junping are still young so I’m not sure they can handle everything. How about...we let your Oldest Uncle handle the house getting rebuilt here and I take Fangping back to the prefectural city to check on things?”