On the West Mountain, the Wu family found a remote place to dig a grave according to Zhou Yu’s instructions. The snow had been cleared and the sealed coffin was put down. It was not easy to bury the soil. One can imagine the difficulty the Wu family had when digging the grave.

The blisters on Zhou Yu’s hands were burning with pain, but it didn’t hurt as much as he felt in his heart. He had no choice but to bury his father, and he felt sorry for his father.

Zhou Yu and his group came back and picked up some firewood. Yang Xi had already cooked rice porridge and was waiting for them.

None of the women from the Wu family came, obviously Wu Shan had reminded them of this.

Yang Xi waited until Zhou Yu had put away the firewood before speaking, “The porridge is ready, let’s eat first.”

Zhou Yu and Zhou Xiaodi remained silent. They ate breakfast in silence. The breakfast was tasteless porridge. The youngest Ziheng did not complain. The incident made the child grow up quickly and become sensible.

After breakfast, Ye Shi broke the silence, “Boss, tell me about your plan.”

Zhou Yu, “Let’s stay here for a few days. There are people out there looking for us. I’ll make some preparations during these few days.”

Ye Shi was born into a farming family. Life was hard now, and what she cared about most was food. “Prepare more food.”

Yang Xi took out the handkerchief wrapped with earrings, “We can’t let our wealth show to others. The Wu family knows how much silver our family has. It’s not easy to take jade pendants and other things. We can’t test people’s nature. It’s reasonable to hide the earrings. Take a pair first.”

A small amount of money was not worth violating the moral bottom line, but once the amount exceeded the limit, there was a reason to take risks, because they looked like an easy family to bully.

Zhou Yu took a pair of inconspicuous ones and said, “This pair is enough.”

Yang Xi advised: “Don’t forget to buy salt. You can’t go without salt for a long time.”

Zhou Yuji mentally signaled Zhou Xiaodi to stand up, “Take off your cotton coat and boots.”

When Yang Xi heard this, she said, “Let’s pawn my and my little sister’s cotton-padded jackets together.”

Zhou Yu didn’t want to, his wife was pregnant, “It’s so cold outside.”

Yang Xi insisted, “Our cotton-padded clothes are too conspicuous among the refugees, so we should pawn them all for money. This will let the Wu family know that we really don’t have much money.”

Ye Shi also spoke up, “You also pawn my cotton coat.”

Yang Xi and the other man looked at each other, and finally Wu Shan pawned all the family’s belongings except Ziheng’s cotton-padded clothes.

Now the Xu family must be leaving the city to look for them. The heavy snow has covered all traces, so it is still safe for the Wu family to go to the pawnshop.

At noon, Wu Shan came back. The man looked embarrassed and said, “The pawnshop cheated me. I didn’t get much money back.”

Zhou Yu had expected this, “I’ve already troubled you, big brother.”

Wu Shan brought back two more packages of things. One package was full of cotton clothes and cotton shoes, and the most eye-catching one was a quilt. The other package was food, salt, etc. He pawned them for a total of more than three taels of silver, spent more than one tael, and had more than two taels left.

Yang Xi thought that the pawnshop was really shady. The whole family’s cotton-padded clothes were all newly made with the best materials, and her humble earrings were worth five or six taels.

Wu Shan felt really embarrassed. He knew that the Zhou family was short of money, and no matter how well he dressed up, he would still be easy to take advantage of in the eyes of the pawnshop.

Yang Xi handed the remaining snacks from yesterday to Wu Shan, “I should have treated you to a good meal to thank you, but there was a funeral at home and it was really chaotic, so you should give the snacks to the children to sweeten their mouths.”

Wu Shan waved his hands hurriedly, “I already took the money yesterday. It would be too greedy to take more snacks.”

Zhou Yu forced it in. “I’ll have many requests for help from you in the future. How can I ask for it if you don’t accept me?”

Wu Shan then accepted the snacks. He had never been willing to buy even the cheapest snacks. “Thank you.”

Zhou Yu took the opportunity to say, “It’s not easy for me to go down the mountain. Big brother, can you help me go to the nearby village to exchange some food and eggs tomorrow?”

There were so many people in the family who needed nutritional supplements. His mother was in poor health, his wife was pregnant, and his son was still young. Zhou Yu felt that the burden on him was even heavier.

Wu Shan was also worried about the Zhou family. He was even more worried when he calculated the money the Zhou family had. The price of grain was changing every day, and it would rise sharply in winter. “Okay, I will also exchange some grain tomorrow.”

After Wu Shan left, Zhou Yu brought in a few long wooden boards, took out the hidden dagger, and pointed it at the boards.

Yang Xi packed up all the things. Now was not the time to complain. She changed into her old cotton-padded clothes and came over. “What are you going to do?”

(End of this chapter)

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