Yang Qiuchiqi said, "It's so far away, why don't you escape to De'an Mansion nearby? Why are you here so far from Wuchang?"

Aloe vera sobbed and said slowly, "We went to De'an Prefecture to escape the famine. Last year, the locust plague in our hometown, and a grain of food was confiscated. The disaster occurred for hundreds of miles in the square garden. All the food could be eaten, and even the bark and grass roots were almost eaten. Some villages still eat people. There is no way out. After the Chinese New Year, my parents took my brother and I to De'an Prefecture to escape the famine."

"I only realized that the food had been distributed long ago when I arrived in De'an Mansion. Some kind-hearted wealthy families opened porridge factories to save their lives. At this time, I heard that the court was going to transport disaster relief grain to Wuchang to distribute, so we begged all the way to Wuchang. Unexpectedly, my parents and the others still starved to death. Woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo w

Yuechan looked at Yang Qiuchi and said softly to Aloe: "Don't cry for now, the young master has something to ask you."

Aloe vera wiped her tears and nodded.

Yang Qiuchi praised Yuechan, the little girl, for being very understanding, so he continued to ask Aloe: "Then have you received the food?"

Aloe shook her head: "No, at that time, there were disaster victims everywhere in Wuchang City. They all came to Wuchang when they heard that Wuchang wanted to release grain. When we arrived in Wuchang, we heard that the food from the court had arrived long ago and we were sent to it after counting it. But that night, the granary of the yamen was caught in the fire. It was so big that half of the Wuchang City was red." Speaking of this, Aloe seemed to be still frightened by the fire.

"The fire broke out in the granary of the yamen?" Yang Qiuchi frowned, "What a coincidence?"

"Yes, I heard that the officials guarding the granary were burning fire to keep warm at night, but accidentally caught fire, which caused the fire." Aloe Vera looked sad: "Everyone said that even God did not help us poor people. We can't live this day."

When Yang Qiuchi heard her desperate words, his heart trembled. He asked again: "Has the court not continued to transport grain to provide disaster relief?"

"It's been transported, and it's all piled up in the granary of the magistrate of Wuchang Prefecture."

Wuchang is the capital of Huguang Province, and there are two levels of governments at the prefect and the governor’s yamen. It is equivalent to the municipal government and provincial government of the current provincial capital city.

"Why don't you release food?" Song Yuner asked strangely.

"The government said that the grain had to be counted before it was distributed. It had been a few days and had not been counted yet. Someone asked, and the officers and soldiers were beaten out with a whip."

Yang Qiuchi frowned even more: "Do you know what hungry people rob food land?"

"That's so hungry that I can't help it. Those people say that starving to death is death, and beheading their heads is death. It's better to have a happy time."

"How many robbers of grain have been executed by the government?"

Aloe shaking her head: "I don't know. My parents said they couldn't do that even if they starve to death."

Yang Qiuchi walked back and forth in the room, suddenly stopped and said, "Let's go to the Wuchang Prefectural Office to see why he has not released food to provide disaster relief for a long time, what's going on!"

Master Jin had already guessed Yang Qiuchi’s thoughts and leaned forward and whispered: “Sir, do everything with caution, these people can’t afford to offend them.”

Yang Qiuchi nodded: "I have a sense of responsibility. Let's go."

As he walked out, Song Yuner said anxiously: "Brother, wait. What should I do if the aloe vera?"

Yang Qiuchi was stunned. He saved her life and could not care about her for the rest of her life. He took out a ingot of silver from his arms and said, "You have recovered now. I will give you this little silver. There are some dishes and rice on the table. I will ask the shopkeeper to prepare some dry food for you. After the yamen has released the food, you can go back to your hometown."

Aloe Vera was very well-behaved. She knelt down at a loss and kowtowed to Yang Qiuchi repeatedly, "Master, Master. Please accept me as a maid, I can endure hardships. I can do anything, I have no relatives in my hometown, my parents and brother are dead, and I will starve to death sooner or later when I go back. Please, save me and accept me as a maid. I don't want money, just give me some food. Please." After that, he kept kowtowing on the ground with tears in his eyes.

Yang Qiuchi thought to himself that what the little girl said was the truth. She was so young, she couldn't plow the fields and the land would not be enough. She would not get a lot of food for disaster relief, and she would starve to death sooner or later. Seeing Mrs. Bai Sumei looking at the child with great care, Yang Qiuchi had an idea in her mind and said, "Okay, if you sign the contract for sale, just be my little girl."

Aloe Vera was very happy and kowtowed to thank her.

At that time, the restaurant shopkeeper helped her to write a contract, and Aloe Vera put a handprint and wrote a note, which was to sell herself to Yang Qiuchi as a maid. Although Aloe Vera said she didn't have any money, Yang Qiuchi still gave her twenty taels of silver.

After the procedures were completed, Yang Qiuchi pulled her to Mrs. Bai and her daughter, handed the contract to Mrs. Bai, and said, "Mrs. Bai, you gave me Maid Yuechan. Now I will also give you the little girl Aloe Vera. As a maid. Please do not refuse."

Mrs. Bai didn't expect that Yang Qiuchi bought this little maid for her and said, "Mr. Yang, this is not possible. Both of us are... all prisoners. How can we have a little maid?"

"Whoever says that prisoners cannot be served by maids and servants. Besides, before leaving the ground, the prefect Gu of Yingtian Prefecture has already arranged it. I will find a way to redeem you for hard labor. As long as you don't leave Yunnan, you will live like a normal person. I will make arrangements for you."

It turns out that in the system of serving sentences, wealthy families are sentenced to popular sentences. When they arrive at the station, they can spend money to receive redemption, that is, they spend money to ask others to serve their labor. In this way, they just need to report to a regular time. Except that they cannot leave the jurisdiction of the station, they are no different from the free people. This is called redemption and exemption.

Mrs. Bai and Bai Sumei were overjoyed when they heard this. Yingying gave Yang Qiuchi a blessing and expressed her gratitude. Then she took over the contract of selling aloe vera and left the little maid Aloe vera. Bai Sumei changed the name of Aloe vera Huier.

After eating Wuchang fish, it tasted very good. I also received a new little maid and gave it to Mrs. Bai and her daughter. They were taken care of. But when Yang Qiuchi looked at the hungry people all over the street, she couldn't be happy at all.

Yang Qiuchi and others left the restaurant and went to the prefect's office.

On the way, I passed by a high-walled courtyard and saw many people who looked like disaster victims surrounded there, and I didn’t know what they were doing. Yang Qiuchi asked his little maid Yuechan to go over and ask, and then I realized that this was a rice shop outside the rice shop of the rich businessman in Wuchang Prefecture, and was selling grain.

There were very few people who went up to buy rice. Yang Qiuchi was a little surprised. An old woman squeezed out of the crowd, holding a bowl of white rice in her hand, and walked a few steps with her hands trembling. She looked at the rice with tears in her eyes. When her hands were loose, she clanged, and a bowl of rice fell to the ground, and white rice was scattered all over the floor.

The old woman ignored the rice and sat on the ground and burst into tears.

The hungry people around him were about to pull the white rice on the ground when they came up. The old woman didn't stop her, but just kept crying with her sadness.

Song Yuner shouted, "What are you doing! Do you want to steal the old man's things in broad daylight?" He rushed over and grabbed the hungry people on the ground and threw them out. Seeing that Song Yuner was very skilled, there was a large group of men and women behind him, obviously in a group, and was ashamed of Song Yuner's words, no one dared to come up again.

Song Yuner cut the white rice on the ground into a pile. Seeing that the porcelain bowl had broken, she asked the old woman: "Old man, do you still have a pocket or something to pack rice? I'll fill it for you."

The old woman cried and said, "Don't pretend anymore, don't want to live anymore, I don't want to live anymore~!"

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Song Yuner was very surprised. She picked up a handful of white rice and handed it to the old woman, "Hey! This is white rice, why don't you want it?"

"In the past, I bought a bowl of rice for more than ten cents, but now, I sold my biological daughter to a brothel. The money I received was enough to buy this little rice. How many days can I eat? I was hurting my daughter, so why would I live? Woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo w

Song Yuner was furious when she heard this: "You~! You~! You actually sold your biological daughter to a brothel! You are still not a human being! Humph!" Song Yuner threw the white rice in her hand heavily to the ground. Crystal white rice scattered on the ground like pearls.

Yang Qiuchi exclaimed, squatted down, grabbed a handful of white rice on the ground and looked at it, turned to Master Long and said, "Mr. Long, come and see, is this white rice new or Chen Mi?"

Master Long is the land of the county magistrate Song for many years. He is responsible for the matter of money and grain collection, taxation and other money and grain. He knows the new and old things about rice. He squatted down and grabbed a handful of rice, twisted it in his hand, took it under his nose and smelled it, and said with certainty: "This is new rice, it should be the new rice that has been harvested shortly after the autumn harvest."

Yang Qiuchi said to himself: "This is strange. There is a locust plague in this radius of hundreds of miles, and the crops are not harvested. How could there be new rice for sale in this rice shop?"

Master Long said: "Maybe it was bought from long-distance trafficking in other places and sold at a high price."

Yang Qiuchi nodded and asked the old woman: "How much money did your daughter sell?"

"One or two." The old woman said crying.

"One or two?" Yang Qiuchi and others were shocked.

Master Long said: "On weekdays, it costs at least 10 to 20 taels to sell a daughter as a maid and servant. If it is sold to a brothel, it will be even higher. Why did you sell one tael of silver?"

The little maid Huier said behind her, "Young Master, now there are hungry people who flee the famine in Wuchang City. There are so many people selling their children and daughters. It would be great to find a good family to have a meal. Can you still expect to sell it at a good price?"

Yes, it’s really a poor person.

Yang Qiuchi weighed the white rice in his hand: "In the past, a bowl of rice costs more than ten cents, but now it costs one or two silver taels. A poor family sells a daughter to a bowl of rice. I don't know if the rice price is too dark or the people's hearts are too dark."
Chapter completed!