Someone in the crowd had muttered to themselves, and the people around who heard them immediately shot daggers at Aunt Kang. They were so furious that they would have sliced off a piece of her flesh if they could!
"Chief, let's not discuss this first. Let's hurry and organize everyone to seek shelter under Jiuyue's treehouse. It's not a good idea to stay here in the rain."
The Junior Officer suggested.
After he had returned home yesterday, his wife told him that An Jiuyue had stopped by to look for him. He hurriedly organized people to transport food onto the mountain.
He recalled that his wife had also mentioned that An Jiuyue had also gone to the Chief's house but was chased away by Aunt Kang. Regardless of how much Aunt Kang detested An Jiuyue, he thought that she would still inform the Chief about it. Hence, he did not go to the Chief about this matter.
Instead, Aunt Kang implicated everyone and almost had everyone killed. She did not even apologize!
No wonder the Chief was furious.
Of course, when he went to organize people to transport food, many did not believe him and chose to go about with their day.
He did not concern himself with them and only organized hardworking people to transport food onto the mountains for storage. He had planned to persuade those who did not believe him the next day.
However, the flood came before he could do so.
"What? We're going to that b*tch's house? I'm not going!" Aunt Kang was unhappy when she heard that they were going to An Jiuyue's house.
That little b*tch makes me so mad! She'll definitely gloat if she sees all the hypercritical looks these people are giving me. Why should I give her the opportunity to make a joke out of me?
She would rather die than go to An Jiuyue's place.
"Even if you want to go, I won't let you!" The Chief glared at her fiercely.
Although An Jiuyue's treehouse sat on a huge tree, the space was still limited. There were many people here. There would not be enough space for everyone.
Hence, he wanted to split everyone into two groups. One group would stay in the cave, while another would go over to An Jiuyue's house.
"How about we assign the women and children to An Jiuyue's house while the rest hides in the mountain cave? It's not a good idea to have everyone go to An Jiuyue's place. What do you think, Junior Officer?"
Since many of the men were discontent with the way An Jiuyue rescued the women and children first, he did not want to cause trouble for her.
"That… wouldn't be a good idea?"
The village's Junior Officer looked at everyone, not wanting them to go to the cave.
Although they could seek shelter from the flood in the cave, there were more wild beasts around the cave than around An Jiuyue's house. In the past, when Old Tu was still alive and guarded the area, not many wild beasts dared to go there.
Those who went there never returned.
"Junior Officer, come here. Let me talk to you."
The Chief saw that the village's Junior Officer disagreed with him, so he pulled him aside to discuss quietly.
"Look at those people. They all look unhappy with Jiuyue. If we send them to her house, aren't they going to cause trouble?
"Let's follow my idea. We'll only assign those who are nice to Jiuyue to her place.
"The others are not happy to see Jiuyue anyway. We'll send them to starve and freeze a little in the cave as punishment for acting so self-important and scornful after she so kindly helped them!"
When the Junior Officer heard that, he felt that it was reasonable and nodded.
"Then the two of us…"
"You go to Jiuyue's house, I'll go to the cave. Someone has to keep watch over these people," the Chief immediately replied.
The village's Junior Officer could not subdue some of the troublemakers in the village. They would only be afraid of him if he threatened them with the genealogy book. Hence, the Chief had to be the one to watch over them.
Moreover, he was worried about his wife. She was always going against An Jiuyue, but he did not know why.
"Alright then…"
The Junior Officer thought for a moment, then nodded.
With that, all the people were split into two groups. The men grumbled and complained as they headed up the mountain.
…
When An Jiuyue returned home, the two little children had already washed the vegetables.
They had also cooked some porridge and were waiting for their mother to return home and stir-fry the vegetables so that they could eat.
"Mother, where have you been? It's already getting dark."
Zheng'er hurriedly asked when he saw his mother. She had been gone since dawn, and it was already dusk. They had been waiting worriedly for very long.
"There's a flood at the foot of the mountain. I went to rescue people."
An Jiuyue did not intend to hide the truth from them.
"Flood?" Rong'er blinked.
They were still young and did not understand what a flood meant, so they weren't too worried.
"Yes."
An Jiuyue replied and caressed their faces.
"Are you hungry? I will cook two dishes for you."
She began cooking hurriedly. She wanted to make sure that her two little ones ate their fill first before making plans for the others that were coming to her house to seek refuge.
"I'll light a fire for you," Rong'er immediately said.
"Okay."
An Jiuyue responded.
…
After she and her children had dinner, she rushed them back to their room before carrying a stove with burning charcoal downstairs.
There was a small straw shed next to the big tree. It was sheltered from the rain and was built by her father. There was another stove and a large pot inside the straw shed.
That was the pot her father used to remove the fur from his prey after he returned from hunting. It was indeed a very large pot.
She took out some rice from her space, washed it, and poured it into the big pot. She also poured some water. After transferring the burning charcoal to the stove underneath the pot, she started cooking porridge.
She had just started cooking when she heard footsteps in the rain.
"Jiuyue, it's already so late. Why are you still downstairs? Where are Zheng'er and Rong'er?" the village's Junior Officer asked awkwardly when he saw An Jiuyue starting a fire in the straw shed.
After all, the young woman had already rescued them before, and so many of them were seeking refuge at her place and disturbing her. It was a little inappropriate.
However, they had no other choice. If everyone had gone to the cave instead, they would have starved and froze to their deaths.
"They're upstairs. I'm cooking some porridge for everyone. There's not much rice in the house so I've only got enough to make some porridge. I hope everyone doesn't mind."
"No, no, we don't mind. Even just having a sip would be enough. How can we… Jiuyue, we're so sorry to trouble you," Aunt Ju said with a smile.
She was shivering from the cold, but she had no choice.
It was early spring, and they had been immersed in water. Their clothes were all wet, so it was natural that everyone was cold. But even if they were cold, it was still better than being swept away by the flood.
"Aunt Ju, I just brought some firewood down. Some of you can separate the firewood into a few piles and light a fire. Let's dry your clothes first," An Jiuyue suggested. She scanned the people that were coming and noticed they many were women and children.
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