Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

Huang said, "These are meant for the chickens. What else can they eat? They can't eat grain. We don't even have enough grain. Chop them up and add some wheat bran to them. Then feed them some water."

He pointed at the tied chickens on the ground and said, "Let them eat and drink enough to stay healthy. They will wilt in such a hot sun. They should live one day at a time."

Everyone nodded.

Zhou Guo was busy digging wild vegetables. She was worried. Judging from today's situation, there would probably be more and more refugees in the future. After walking for a day, all they met were poor people like them, and they didn't meet a single rich person.

She returned to the camp carrying a basket of wild vegetables. When she looked up, she met the eyes of the adults in the family. They all stared at her intently, with probing looks in their eyes.

She put down the basket slowly, brushed the dirt off her hands, walked over and sat down next to her mother, deliberately leaning closer to her mother.

Just this small action made Li's eyes red immediately. The child hadn't spoken much since he woke up, nor did he come close to her, and he didn't even call her mother. Although she didn't say it, she couldn't help feeling disappointed.

How could she bear it when the child leaned on her? She pulled Zhou Guo to her side and said to everyone, "Dad, Mom, this child has been stupid since she was born. She was probably frightened yesterday. Now she is better. She hasn't spoken much since she woke up. She doesn't know many things. She doesn't even recognize everyone in the family. It will probably take some time for her to recover completely."

Old man Zhou was very happy. His granddaughter was much better now than when she was suffering from dementia. He was also fleeing at the right time. He sighed, "It's good that she's well. For so many years, I have been looking forward to her recovery. In these uneasy times, if she recovers, we will have another chance to survive."

Everyone fell silent after hearing these words.

Zhou Guo was also silent. In her previous life, she was born in the prosperous and peaceful New China. In the 21st century, she had never even gone hungry, so how could she have experienced such chaotic times.

Eight years ago, she was born from her mother's womb. When she opened her eyes, she saw this different world. She couldn't accept that she had traveled through time and space and left her family from her previous life behind. She has been living in a daze for the past eight years, her consciousness has been unclear and she has been drifting.

To be honest, she was almost the same as when she had just traveled here. There were many things that she didn't know as well as her little sister Zhou Tao at home. In order to avoid making a fool of herself, it was better for her to keep quiet.

Huang looked around and said, "Okay, it's getting late. Everyone is tired after traveling all day. Let's eat and then go to sleep. We have to travel early tomorrow morning. The longer we can rest, the better. I think traveling is more tiring than working in the fields."

When it comes to eating, Zhou Suli and Zhou Tao are the happiest, and the key thing is that there will be chicken in the evening.

There was not much chicken, so Huang counted the people and cooked a piece for each of them. Although the weather was hot and the meat was easy to spoil, it was fried with heavy salt and it would be of the utmost use. They couldn't eat it all in one meal. No one would waste food like this. If they saved it this way, they could have it for several meals.

Things at home have been getting worse and worse these years. The harvests have been poor for years, and we have to pay all kinds of taxes throughout the year. It is difficult to even fill our stomachs, let alone meat. Sometimes there is no meat even during the New Year.

The children happily took their own piece and put it in the bowl first.

Zhou Su was sitting next to Zhou Guo. She watched him look at the meat after taking a bite of vegetable, and look at the meat after taking a bite of rice. She couldn't help laughing. After hesitating for a moment, she gave him the piece of meat in her bowl. Then she comforted herself that she didn't know how much meat she had eaten in her previous life, but the number of times this child had eaten meat since he was born could probably be counted on both hands. As the older sister, she had to take care of this child.

A piece of meat fell from the sky, and Zhou Su's eyes widened.

Zhou Guo smiled and was about to eat when she saw an extra piece of meat in her bowl. She looked up and saw her mother smiling with relief and distress, with tears in her eyes, "Our Guoguo now knows how to take care of others. Come, mother will give you this piece of meat. Your body is not well yet, and you are still young and growing, so you need to eat meat too."

Zhou Mai pursed his lips and gave the meat in his bowl to Li, "Mom, come, you eat mine. Dad is not here now. I am the oldest man in our family. I have to take care of you."

Mrs. Li's eyes were red. The children had become much more sensible since their father was not around. If he saw this, he would be so happy. "Mom doesn't want to eat, so you guys eat. Mom is so old now. She ate too much in the early years, and now she doesn't like to eat at all. You guys eat, you are still growing."

He took the piece of meat back and said, "You are the man of our family. You need to eat well, sleep well and stay healthy so that you can better take care of your brothers and sisters, mother, grandparents, don't push it, eat it."

Zhou Su rolled his eyes, took a piece of meat out of the bowl, stood up and put it into Li's bowl, and said with a simple smile: "Mom, my sister gave me a piece of meat, I give you this piece of meat, so that we can both eat meat."

Huang said, "That's enough. Why are you passing the meat around? It's supposed to be a piece for everyone. Everyone should have a share and eat. The hard times have just begun."

Lee sighed and started eating.

Zhou Guo breathed a sigh of relief. She was not used to seeing a piece of meat being passed around like this.

The whole family enjoyed the black flour steamed buns with chicken and stewed vegetables with relish.

Even Zhou Guo ate it with relish. Although the steamed buns were sore on the throat, the chicken was really delicious, and the dishes stewed with the chicken were also tasty.

After finishing the meal, Li looked at the wild vegetables piled on the ground and felt troubled. The chickens couldn't eat so much. It seemed useless to keep them, but she couldn't bear to throw them away. After all, it was the child's fault.

Seeing this, Xu said, "Oh, what are you doing with these old leaves? You can't find such wild vegetables anywhere along the way. Just throw them away."

Zhou Guo's eyes widened, and she quickly stepped forward to stop her mother. Are you kidding? These were the vegetables she had worked so hard to dig for so long, how could she just throw them away? If they were dried, they would still be a dish. It would be better than having nothing to eat later. "No, no, mother, we can't throw them away. These can all be eaten. If we put them in a sack, it won't take up much space, and it's not heavy."

This is probably the most common sentence she has said in the past two days.

Before Li could say anything, Huang saw this and waved her hands, saying, "Don't throw it away. No one is throwing it away. These wild vegetables can be dried and stored like beans for a long time. It has come to this. Who cares about these things? It's good enough to have something to eat."

Well, just take the child with you. It took a lot of effort to get the child back. Don’t let the stimulation cause him to go back.

Old Man Zhou nodded and said, "Yes, we don't know what the situation will be like along the way. We should save as much food as possible at this time. We should take it all with us. When we stop later, we will go to dig wild vegetables."

Now that the two heads of the family have said so, who would object?

Huang and her two daughters-in-law put all the wild vegetables that Zhou Guo had dug up into a pot and blanched them. Then they took them out and spread them on the rocks nearby to dry. They went to bed only after they had finished all this.

Zhou Guo fell asleep as soon as he lay down. After all, he was still young and could not hold on after running around for so long during the day.

The next day, at daybreak, the village head began to shout, "Get up, get up, everyone, get up quickly, hurry up, hurry up, don't sleep any more."