Disaster Apocalypse: Farming, Family, and My Hidden Secret Space-Chapter 204: Before the Storm

On this day, the brothers Hua Yunao took a break from farming because tomorrow was the official day of the autumn harvest.

Hua Jin gazed at the sky where the sun shone brightly, squinting at the glaring sunlight through the gaps in her fingers.

The discomfort in her eyes and the increasing urgency in her heart were both telling her that time was running out.

On this day, Hua Jin silently climbed Qinggu Mountain behind the village, reaching the summit for the first time to overlook the entire Shanggu Town, even the distant New Moon City a hundred miles away, though she couldn’t see anything.

Hua Jin hesitated, should she really do nothing?

But... no one would believe her.

With a sigh, Hua Jin quickly descended the mountain, telling herself she couldn’t afford to get lost in her thoughts with such a busy day ahead.

If nothing else worked, after the farming season she would take a day to visit the city, write down what was about to happen and toss it into the government office; this was the only safe way she could think of to warn them.

Even if she went blatantly, no one would believe her.

"Where have you been?"

As soon as she got home, Mrs. Qi caught her daughter to ask, busy with preparing food for the past few days, she really didn’t know the child went out.

Originally thought she was just out for a while, but never saw her all morning. If not for knowing her daughter’s capability, she would’ve sent her son to find her.

"Just went out for a walk, then entered the blessed land, got busy inside and lost track of time." Glancing at her brothers in the yard, Hua Jin spoke softly, avoiding telling her mother she had climbed the mountain.

"Let me know next time." Mrs. Qi tapped her daughter’s forehead with little patience.

Although she knew there wouldn’t be any danger, her not coming back was quite worrying.

"Mmm-hmm," Hua Jin nodded obediently as she should.

This little episode quickly passed. After a meal, the family, who should’ve been taking a nap, didn’t rest but continued preparing for the last rush of farm work.

They laid out all the sacks and oiled cloths to air out, sharpened the sickles further, and so on, busy until Hua Chengtian, who lived in the fields, and Old Man Hua returned home for supper.

That night, they still had to guard. The first half of the year saw a poor harvest; with empty stomachs, some might resort to desperate measures. Even though the Hua Village folks were notoriously difficult to deal with, one couldn’t be too cautious.

It didn’t require too many people—one from each family. In Hua Village, where the mostly adjacent fields needed guarding, a hundred and eighty strong men were quite a deterrent.

After dinner, they rested briefly at home before Hua Chengtian took his water pouch and defensive machete to the fields again with Hua Meng and the others who came to call him.

Fortunately, the night passed uneventfully. Although a few shadows flitted by in the night, they disappeared almost as soon as they appeared.

The autumn harvest officially began.

The whole family, including Hua Jin, went to work, taking three days to harvest wheat from their seven acres. Then several more days passed in the tense process of sun-drying and threshing.

On the fourth day, sisters Hua Fen and Hua Fang brought family members to help for two days until all the grain was stored away before leaving.

Even as they left, Old Man Hua couldn’t rest easy, repeating to his two sons-in-law not to sell their grain, only letting them go after seeing their serious nods.

This time compared to the first half of the year was truly a bumper harvest; each acre yielded one or two more dou than usual, bringing joy to the farmers and relief to many.

Next came paying the grain tax. According to Old Man Hua’s intentions, they actually wanted to pay in Silver Coin directly, but it was hard to implement and even harder to explain the reasons.

They couldn’t possibly tell them a great disaster was coming soon and that these were life-saving grains to keep at hand.

But... still, nobody believed!

Even after handing over the grain tax, Old Man Hua still prevented the villagers from selling their grain.

Everyone didn’t want to offend the village chief, but knowing his conscientious character, they understood there was a reason.

Their village chief always had the villagers’ best interests at heart. Besides, they weren’t short of Silver now, so not selling was fine; eating it themselves wasn’t a loss either.

In less than half a month, they’d be busy again with sweet potatoes, potatoes, and cotton, the anti-freeze crop, maturing, and they weren’t short of grain at home, so there was truly no rush.

So after the farming rush, when others started resting, the folks from Hua Village, and the village where sisters Hua Fen resided, along with other forward-thinking families willing to spend money on seeds, began hustling again.

Taking three days to dig up all the sweet potatoes, potatoes, and cotton in the field, looking at the piles of bountiful produce, everyone in Hua Village besides being excited had nothing but happiness, just transporting it home took half a day’s time.

After two days of sun-drying, the sweet potatoes and potatoes were stored, and while everyone was delighted, only then did they truly breathe a sigh of relief.

The joy of the harvest clouded everyone’s awareness that the weather at the end of September was no different from the start of the month.

Hua Jin ultimately couldn’t hold back; regardless of whether the events in her dream would occur, she decided to go to the city and give them a heads-up, if for nothing else than peace of mind.

Taking advantage of her family being asleep, Hua Jin went to the town’s official residence, climbed a tree, and shot a crossbow arrow with a note into it.

She then drove overnight to New Moon City, but looking at the tightly closed gates and high walls dispelled her planned idea, copying her method with another homemade crossbow arrow, embedding it into the city gate.

"Who’s there?"

With a loud shout, Hua Jin quickly left, vanishing into the night.

When she returned home, she saw her grandfather and father sitting in the courtyard.

Her return clearly relieved them both. Seeing the child was unharmed, they said nothing, leaving only, "Hurry and get some sleep," before returning to their rooms.

In the time that followed, Old Man Hua and Hua Chengtian kept busy, puzzling Old Lady Qi with their constant organizing of everything in their home, grouping things together wherever possible, and even the backyard vegetables weren’t spared, half were plucked and placed into storage.

Meanwhile, Hua Jin didn’t idle, doing what she could, including swindling a few close girlfriends.

So she hitched up a carriage with some close friends and frequently visited the town, coaxing them into exchanging all their Silver Coin for various foods, even salt and sugar, essential items, were purchased in significant amounts under her prompting.

Originally, these funds were earned by Hua Jin with their help, and though they felt a pinch spending the money, the girls were too shy to refuse and ended up buying quite a bit following Hua Jin’s suggestion.

If Hua Jin hadn’t learned some new and pretty knot patterns from town, shared without holding back, and helped them sell these to the town’s embroidery shop, selling to the hawker wouldn’t have yielded enough copper coin to save any Silver Coin, but even so most of what they earned was added to their family expenses. Only after the family life improved around the festival did they start being able to save from the profits of weaving knots.

Thinking that buying would make Hua Jin happy was enough, Hua Jin felt sorry they were too thin and wanted to ensure they were well-nourished, it was done out of pure goodwill.

Besides, it wouldn’t take a few months for their Silver Coin reserves to recover, and it wasn’t considered wasteful either, since what was bought and used went into their bellies.

Without much prompting from Hua Jin, the girls found their own reasons and reassured themselves.

...

As days passed, Hua Jin’s birthday arrived.

Old Man Hua and his son’s nerves were frayed, having upset Old Lady Qi, happy in her preparations for their granddaughter’s birthday, several times in this short period.

"What’s wrong? Absent-minded? Did you become unhappy because someone told you to do work?" Looking at the old man lost even when lighting a fire, Old Lady Qi was truly exasperated.

Approaching noon, and with their daughter and son-in-law also about to arrive, this old man made only trouble.

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