Gianna decided to take the children to visit Old Man Liu tomorrow.
She didn't have a good impression of most people in the village, but she thought Old Man Liu was okay.
The next day.
Gianna had breakfast, then went with Floyd and the children to Old Man Liu's house.
Old Man Liu's house was simply tidied up.
When they returned to the village yesterday, it was quite late, and they didn't walk around the village.
This morning, they made a special effort to walk around the village, and found that all the other houses had been looted, except for theirs. When they left, it was like that, and when they returned, it was still the same.
Old Man Liu wasn't stupid. He knew everything was related to Floyd and Gianna.
When Old Man Liu saw Floyd's family arrive, he hurriedly invited them into the yard and asked his wife to boil water.
Gianna looked around the yard and said, "You've already tidied up after just one night? I was planning to come help today!"
Old Man Liu was a smart person and knew how to be grateful. He thanked them, "Thank you for watching over our yard. If it weren't for you, our losses would have been severe."
Although the furniture in their home wasn't valuable, everything was useful.
If it had been stolen, it would still be heartbreaking.
Moreover, they didn't have extra money to buy new furniture.
Gianna and Floyd exchanged glances.
They accepted Old Man Liu's gratitude.
Floyd explained, "The people from Qingtian Village came by. You know, any village that had people leave during the famine got looted. Everyone wants to find something useful. I told them not to come to your yard, so yours is the only one left untouched."
Floyd didn't say a word about the other families in the village. They were all ungrateful, so there was no need to say anything about them.
Jill had thought about Floyd's situation again last night.
The more he thought, the more he realized he hadn't been a good person before.
He brought Floyd a bowl of hot water and gathered the courage to apologize, "Floyd, I was wrong for what I did with the villagers before. Please forgive me."
Floyd didn't expect Jill to apologize, especially for what happened before.
He was a little surprised.
"Jill, there's no need to be so formal. I've never been angry with you."
That was the truth. Even though Jill had been distant, he had never caused trouble for Floyd.
Besides, Floyd wouldn't hold grudges against him for Old Man Liu's sake.
Gianna didn't speak, just silently watched the scene.
Jill immediately called his children over.
Old Man Liu only had one son, and Jill had five children. The oldest was already twelve years old.
Jill asked his children to apologize to Floyd as well.
Dennis, Nori, and Xeno had been sitting in front of Gianna since they entered, looking especially well-behaved.
At that moment, Jill's five children came over to invite Dennis and his brothers to play.
The three children were excited and tempted to join, but they didn't agree.
Instead, they simultaneously looked at Gianna and Floyd.
Gianna's eyes were full of affection. "If you want to play, go ahead, but no fighting or arguing!"
Jill also reminded the children to take good care of Dennis and his brothers.
The children went to play in the yard.
Jill sat down.
Gianna, curious about what had happened outside, asked, "Old Man Liu, where did you go during the famine?"
Lao slowly told them what happened after they left, and Gianna found out that after Lao and his family left, they went to Lizhou City. However, they didn't live well there. They had to beg for food every day.
When Gianna heard about begging, she felt a little unbelievable.
When they left the village, didn't Lao's family take food with them?
Why did they end up begging?
Lao sighed deeply, with helplessness and anger in his voice, "Our family of nine, the food didn't last until we reached Lizhou City. Fortunately, we found an empty yard, and after cleaning it, we started begging. On a good day, we could beg for one or two buns, but on bad days, we had to search through the scraps in the restaurants' garbage bins to eat."
Gianna didn't expect that Lao's family lived such a hard life outside.
She sighed, "After you left, the well finally had water."
Lao was shocked.
"Really?" If that's true, it must be fate.
Because the night before they left, he had specifically checked the well to see if there was water, but it was still dry at that time.
Floyd honestly talked about what happened back then.
Then he said, "Maybe it's because we were lucky, or perhaps Heaven had pity on us. Our family survived thanks to the well water. By the way, the spring planting season is about to start. How do you plan to handle it?"
Lao had sold his land, and there was almost no land left in his family.
But with a family of nine, the land was not enough to plant.
After hesitating for a moment, he asked shyly, "Floyd, your family has more than thirty acres of land. Could you rent me one or two acres? I'll pay the rent."
Floyd gave a look to Gianna, actually asking her to make the decision.
Gianna didn't hesitate and immediately agreed, "How about I rent you three acres of land? As for the rent, I'll charge you whatever the outside price is."
Lao and Jill repeatedly thanked her.
After leaving Lao's family, Gianna kept thinking about renting out some of their land.
She held Dennis with one hand and Nori with the other.
Floyd, meanwhile, carried Xeno in his arms.
The five of them walked slowly back home.
Floyd said, "If someone wants to rent land, I think it would be fine to rent out a little."
Gianna just happened to have the same idea.
She nodded and agreed, "It's true, we can't possibly plant all thirty acres. But right now, it's too early to discuss this."
The next day, Floyd went directly to the county town before dawn.
Since he wasn't taking the children, he was able to move much faster.
Gianna stayed at home to prepare some delicious food for the children.
In the pot was chopped fat meat; she was preparing to make some lard.
The children smelled the meat aroma and gathered in the kitchen.
Nori was helping to light the fire behind the stove.
Dennis stood curiously by the stove, trying to learn.
"Mom, when the lard is ready, can we eat the oil dregs?" he remembered making it before.
He had been thinking about the oil dregs for a long time.
Gianna scooped some fried oil dregs into a bowl, sprinkled a bit of salt on top, and handed it to Dennis, saying, "Share it with your brothers!"
Dennis held the bowl, picked out the first piece, and fed it directly into Gianna's mouth.
"Mom, you worked hard. You eat first."
After seeing Gianna eat, Dennis then fed Xeno and Nori, and finally, he had some for himself.