My happy life in a courtyard house with triplets.

Chapter 172: Distributing Grain

Soon, led by Ye Shouhe, another group of people gathered in the village. Just as Zhang Lei and the others were preparing to head up the mountain, someone suddenly pointed to the distant firelight and shouted, "They're back! Jianjun and the others are back!"

Upon hearing the shouts, everyone rushed forward nervously. But upon closer inspection, the atmosphere was unusually heavy.

Ye Shouhe strode forward, looked at Ye Jianjun, and asked in a deep voice, "Jianjun, what's wrong? Why are you so late?"

Ye Jianjun lowered his head, his voice hoarse: "Dad... Xiao Chuan is dead."

Ye Shouhe's heart skipped a beat: "What?!" He grabbed Ye Jianjun by the collar, "What happened? There are so many of you, how could Xiao Chuanzi be in trouble?"

Ye Jianjun and the people behind him all lowered their heads, and no one dared to speak.

Seeing the disappointed expressions on everyone's faces, Zhang Lei stepped forward and said, "Dad, let's go home first. It's not appropriate for us to be out here right now."

Ye Shouhe took a deep breath and nodded: "Everyone, go home first."

Zhang Lei noticed that some of the people in the group were injured, and some had their clothes torn and tattered. They hadn't brought back much prey: a few rabbits, pheasants, a wild boar, a goat, and some herbs.

Back at Ye Shouhe's house, everyone finally couldn't help but start talking all at once.

From their fragmented accounts, Zhang Lei finally understood what had happened—

It turned out that they couldn't find prey on the outskirts of the mountain, so they ventured deeper into the mountains. At first, they managed to catch quite a few things, but the further they went, the fewer prey they had. Just as they continued their search, they suddenly heard the roar of a tiger.

It was too late to run. Ye Jianjun and his men decided to fight back on the spot, but the tiger was exceptionally ferocious, and they were no match for it.

During the escape, in order to buy time for everyone, Xiao Chuanzi rushed forward alone to block the tiger, but was eventually killed by the tiger and his body was never found.

Hearing this, everyone was filled with grief.

At this moment, Zhang Lei didn't know how to comfort everyone. After all, the more you try to comfort someone, the more upset they become. He could only stand silently to the side, watching everyone, unable to do anything.

Ye Zhenshan looked at the grieving crowd, patted Ye Shouhe on the shoulder, and said, "Shouhe, you're the village chief, you have to take responsibility for this. At least let Xiaochuanzi's family know the truth, and send them more of the game we caught today."

Ye Shouhe nodded, understanding that this was the only way. After all, everyone knew the dangers of going up the mountain, and no one wanted this to happen.

Before Ye Shouhe could speak, Ye Jianjun stood up and said, "Dad, I'll go."

Ye Shouhe looked at his eldest son and nodded: "Alright, I'll go with you."

Zhang Lei also stepped forward, took out a wad of cash from his pocket, and said, "Dad, I can't help much, but this money is a small token of my appreciation for Xiao Chuanzi's family."

Ye Shouhe looked at the money in his hand, still wanting to refuse.

Zhang Lei said directly, "Dad, death is a serious matter, so please don't refuse."

Ye Shouhe looked at Zhang Lei and nodded: "I will talk to Xiao Chuanzi's family."

In the evening, everyone was in a bad mood, and hardly anyone ate anything.

Zhang Lei led the three sisters, Ye Shuqin, Ye Shuqi, and Ye Shuhua, back to the backyard.

Ye Shuqin looked at Zhang Lei and gently comforted him, "Honey, don't be sad. There's nothing we can do about these things. Even when things were better in the past, accidents still happened quite often when we went up the mountain."

Ye Shuqi also stepped forward and said, "Yes, sir, there are inherent dangers on the mountain, and they had already made such preparations before going up the mountain."

Although Zhang Lei understood these principles, he still felt a pang of sadness when he thought about how a cheerful person from the daytime was gone by night.

Zhang Lei looked at the three sisters, put his arms around them, and said, "Don't worry, I can take this kind of thing in stride. It's just that it happened so suddenly, so it's a little upsetting."

After thinking about it, Zhang Lei felt that since God had allowed him to travel to this world and given him a system for living a good life, he should help more people in need.

Zhang Lei lay in bed at night, looking at his three sisters who were already fast asleep, but he couldn't fall asleep no matter what he did.

He used the system to sense that Ye Shouhe and Ye Jianjun had only returned in the middle of the night.

Zhang Lei could already picture the scene of Xiao Chuanzi's family hearing the news—the kind of scene where white-haired people send off their black-haired children. Just thinking about it made him feel sad and heartbroken.

If he were to face it directly, he estimated he wouldn't be able to accept it, let alone Ogawa's family.

Soon, it was the evening of the day after tomorrow.

Zhang Lei arrived ahead of time at a grove of trees about a mile from Yejia Village.

He looked around and used the system to sense that there was indeed no one nearby.

Then, with a wave of his hand, he released all the resources in the space, keeping only a small portion that he needed.

Zhang Lei stood in the grove smoking for half an hour before Ye Shouhe finally came over with the young men from the village, pushing a cart and pulling a rope.

When everyone was holding torches and saw so many supplies in front of them, they were all taken aback.

Ye Shouhe walked up to Zhang Lei, glanced at him, and said, "Zhang Lei, didn't you say there were only grains and vegetables? How come there's meat too?"

Zhang Lei thought for a moment and said, "When they brought it over, I saw it and kept it immediately, thinking that if there was more, the people of Yejiacun could hold on for a little longer."

Ye Shouhe looked at Zhang Lei, too excited to know what to say.

Seeing this, Zhang Lei said, "Dad, hurry up and get people to move them. We can talk about distributing these supplies when we get back to the village."

Ye Shouhe nodded: "Okay!"

Everyone immediately started moving things.

The group of people were so excited that they seemed to have inexhaustible energy. They made several trips back and forth before finally finishing moving everything.

On a flat piece of land, everyone was excited as they looked at the supplies that were as big as a small mountain.

Ye Shouhe, along with the village accountant, began to inventory the supplies.

Ye Shouhe instructed Ye Jianjun to lead men to maintain order, and for each household to come and collect their grain.

Soon, everyone excitedly took their own belongings and began packing food and distributing meat.

Meanwhile, Zhang Lei had already returned to the Ye family's backyard.

Ye Shuqin carried a foot basin and washed Zhang Lei's feet, saying, "Husband, you're amazing! So much food, enough to feed everyone in Ye Family Village for a long time."

Zhang Lei looked at Ye Shuqin and said with a smile, "I can only solve this immediate problem. As for the future, they will have to rely on themselves."

Ye Shuqin smiled and said, "Honey, we know what you're saying. It's already very good that it can solve our immediate problem. Besides, honey, you've been good enough to our family. There are nine people in our family who are employed right now, which is much better than other families."

Zhang Lei looked at Ye Shuqin and said with a smile, "If your dad weren't the village chief, I really would like to bring them all to live in the city together, so that you three sisters wouldn't have to worry about them every day."

Hearing Zhang Lei's words, Ye Shuqin was stunned for a moment and said, "Honey, you know everything?"

Zhang Lei looked at Ye Shuqin and said, "How could I not know what you're thinking? Although you haven't said it out loud, I can guess what you're thinking."