Chapter 610 - 604_1
Lin Yue had her reasons for not distributing food to aid disaster victims. For one, she truly lacked the saintly compassion, believing that relief efforts were the government’s responsibility. What business did she have interfering? The grains were hard-earned by her family, and Zhao Hu had even risked danger by venturing to barbaric overseas nations to accumulate more wealth. She simply couldn’t squander their fortune that way.
Secondly, the previously mentioned concern was also very real: no matter how much grain they had, if all the disaster victims came upon hearing the news, their storage would be emptied. What would they do then? Lin Yue didn’t expect the troubles to end once the flood passed; with the weather so abnormal, who knew what disasters might follow? Without preparation, who would come to their family’s aid when calamity struck? As evidenced by earlier when the elders wanted to push their family forward, she knew that in hard times, one could only rely on oneself; others’ assistance was unreliable. In the face of disaster, everyone’s first thought was their own benefit.
Lin Yue ordered the servants to keep the doors tightly closed, neither to leave nor to allow anyone in. She had no idea what the outside world had come to, yet within her home, she was leisurely engaged in her embroidery when a flustered Aunt Chunhua hurried in.
"Oh? Someone wishes to see me and even negotiate terms on behalf of the refugees outside? I must have heard wrong!"
"Madam, you heard right. That’s what the person told this old servant. They said if you don’t agree, they will force their way in." Aunt Chunhua wouldn’t have come to report in such panic if it weren’t so. The refugees were audacious and arrogant. Though she was outraged, Aunt Chunhua knew the matter couldn’t be delayed. If the refugees really broke in, what then? She had heard that many households had already been robbed and the village was in chaos.
Just last night, the servants caught two refugees trying to scale the wall. These two had previous experience with petty theft, which is why they could overcome even Lin Yue’s high walls. However, they had a fall, ended up eating dirt, and were caught by patrolling servants; they were now tied up in the woodshed. Although they had been captured without causing harm to the family, since Lin Yue didn’t intend to starve them, she still had to provide them with food. Ironically, this benefited the two rascals since being locked in the kitchen was far better than starving outside.
Lin Yue thought to herself that the walls clearly weren’t high enough; she decided they must be heightened after this incident, and also incorporate some defensive mechanisms. Only then would her family’s safety be more secure.