Seeing that most people were on his side, the old village chief felt somewhat relieved.
He had been working himself to the bone for everyone, and the last thing he wanted was to end up being blamed by the very people he was trying to help.
“Alright, then it’s settled.”
“But you can all rest assured. Everyone has a fairly substantial amount of supplies this time. We’ll definitely do what we can to help you get through this difficult period.”
The families who had failed to get what they wanted continued making a huge fuss, crying and demanding their share.
But the villagers pushed them all the way to the back, refusing to let them interfere with the village chief’s continued distribution of supplies.
Shen Shuli and Su Yunhai had received the largest share of the spoils this time.
Most notably, they had been given a total of 4,000 jin of fresh meat.
All that meat had to be dealt with as quickly as possible, or it would spoil.
The agreed departure time was tomorrow morning, meaning they only had one day to deal with everything.
If they did not handle it properly, the meat could easily go moldy and rot.
### The Su Family
No one had expected the Su family to receive so many things!
What excited them the most was the sixteen head of livestock they had received!
These were valuable things that money could hardly buy!
For farmers who made their living from the land, what could make them happier than having plenty of farmland and livestock?
“Second son, you’ve really made our old Su family proud! You brought home so much livestock, six hundred taels of silver, and four thousand jin of meat in one go!”
“Quick, take out the silver. Your mother will keep it safe for you.”
Old Madam Su first went around admiring each of the animals, then walked up to Su Yunhai and held out her hand for the money.
Su Yunhai slapped her hand away and gave his greedy mother a sidelong glance.
“You want the silver? Sure. Next time the mountain bandits come, you can go risk your life fighting them too. Why are you eyeing the money my daughter and I earned with our lives?”
“As for the meat, I can give you some. If you help us salt and preserve it, I can give each of your families 100 jin.”
Su Yunhai was still being quite generous.
Old Master Su, Old Madam Su, and the other two branches of the family were all stunned.
What did he mean?
So none of the livestock, meat, or silver belonged to them?
And they had to work for him before they could get 100 jin of meat?
They were all still one family. They hadn’t even separated their households yet!
His eldest sister-in-law, Cui Yuhong, could not hold herself back any longer and stepped forward.
“Second Brother, that’s not right! How can you expect Mother to go out front and kill bandits? Do you even know how old she is?”
“Besides, we haven’t separated the family yet. You can’t possibly use all these supplies yourself. Wouldn’t it be better to let Mother distribute everything fairly? How can you be so unfilial? And you’re still a scholar! How can you act so irresponsibly?”
Su Yunhai had no intention of arguing with these people. He merely stared coldly at Cui Yuhong.
“What? I kicked you just two days ago, and you’ve already forgotten?”
“When did my household become yours to manage?”
Cui Yuhong still felt pain in her chest from that kick.
But seeing how much good stuff the family had suddenly acquired, she had gotten so excited that she had completely forgotten about it…
Her expression turned ugly as she tugged at her mother-in-law’s sleeve, silently asking her to speak up.
And Cui Yuhong was not the only one thinking this way.
Everyone in the Su family felt the same. They all glared at Su Yunhai resentfully, grinding their teeth in frustration.
There were so many good things!
What would it hurt to give them a little?
Even if he was unwilling to part with the silver, there was so much livestock, so many carts, and so much fresh meat. Why not give them a larger share?
Wouldn’t that also reduce the burden on his own branch of the family?
He really didn’t know how to appreciate kindness!
But they did not dare say any of this aloud.
They could only grumble about him in their hearts.
Old Master Su’s face darkened as he looked at Su Yunhai unhappily.
“Second son, your father isn’t dead yet! Who are you acting like the master in front of?”
“Just do as your mother said. Keep 100 taels of silver for yourself. Hand the rest over to your mother and let her distribute it fairly.”
“As for the livestock, your branch doesn’t have anyone farming anyway. Just give them to the eldest and third sons. They have more farmland, so they can put them to good use.”
“And the meat—you can’t possibly eat all of it yourselves. Everyone can help you process it, then we’ll divide it equally. That way it won’t spoil and go to waste.”
Su Yunhai looked at his shameless father and could not help rolling his eyes.
They really had some nerve.
What a generous way of “distributing” things!
His father’s favoritism toward the other two branches was practically impossible to miss.
“Dad, did you forget that I’m taking my whole family away to flee the famine tomorrow morning?”
“These livestock won’t even be enough to haul all our belongings. You don’t need to worry about them.”
“Oh, and those two oxen and one mule at home were also bought with money I earned. Since you’re my family, I’ll be generous and let you keep them.”
“I’ve finally figured it out. You people don’t want to help me, do you? Fine. Then I won’t leave you even a single jin. I’ll find someone else to help me. You can stay here and keep dreaming.”
After an entire night of chaos, dawn had already arrived.
Su Yunhai was utterly exhausted. He felt as though he had lost several taels of his excess weight from all the running around.
But he still could not rest.
He completely ignored the expressions on the Su family members’ faces and immediately had his sons take the livestock and carts to the village threshing ground.
All the meat was still piled on the carts.
Shen Shuli had not expected the old Su family to be so shamelessly greedy, openly reaching out and demanding a share.
Given her father’s personality, if they had not acted so shamelessly and brazenly, he would probably have given his brothers some of the supplies.
Unfortunately, the thing her father hated most was when people demanded things despite having no justification, acting as though they were entitled to them.
The old couple wanted these supplies because they wanted to favor their other two sons.
Her father simply could not swallow that kind of humiliation.
More importantly—
Half of these supplies belonged to her.
The Su family refused to acknowledge her as one of their own, yet they still wanted to take her share?
What a beautiful dream!
When they arrived at the threshing ground, Su Yunhai immediately assigned tasks to his three sons.
“Eldest, Second Son, have your wives and children go home and rest. The three of you go around asking who has time to help us preserve the meat. For every 100 jin of meat they process, give them one jin as payment. On top of that, everyone gets an additional 20 jin of meat as a guaranteed reward.”
Su Chang’an and his two brothers were also worried that all this meat would spoil.
Even though they were already exhausted, they immediately ran off to find people to help.
Once they were alone, Shen Shuli looked at her parents’ dark circles and exhausted faces and immediately brought them each a cup of spiritual spring water.
“Dad, Mom, drink this quickly. We still have a lot to do today,” Shen Shuli urged.
The couple did not hesitate. They quickly finished their cups in several large gulps.
“I’m feeling alive again,” Su Yunhai said, wiping his mouth before handing the cup back to his daughter.
After putting the cup away, Shen Shuli looked at her parents.
“Dad, Mom, we’re not really going to take all this livestock and all these carts and haul all this meat with us on the road, are we?”
“Ah, I even went out of my way to buy two mules and some carts this time. Who would’ve thought we’d suddenly end up with so many more?”
“Sure enough, the fastest way to get rich is to fight and live off the spoils.”
Su Yunhai sighed. He still had no idea how they were going to deal with all this livestock.
But one thing was certain—they absolutely could not let those ungrateful Su family members benefit from it.
“While no one’s around, put some of the meat into your space. It would be such a waste to turn all this fresh beef, donkey meat, and horse meat into dried or cured meat.”
Shen Shuli happened to like all three kinds of meat, so she did not hesitate.
She first put all the beef—the most valuable and difficult-to-obtain meat—into her spatial storage.
She also stored some donkey meat and horse meat, taking a total of about 1,000 jin.
Fortunately, the meat was spread across ten handcarts, with a little less on each one, so no one could tell anything was missing.