Quick Wear: Men Farming and Women Weaving

The next day at noon, a long line of refugees began to line up at the city gate to get porridge.

While queuing, Song Yiyue seemed to see Old Man Song and Mrs. Liu in another line, with an old woman who was even older than them, pouring the porridge they had received into her bowl.

In another team, Old Man Song took his wife and Baoer to the corner and drank porridge slowly.

When they found Bao'er, they could hardly recognize him. He was lying silently under the roots of a tree, covered in tattered clothes and emitting a sour smell.

They could tell at a glance that the person in front of them was Baoer due to years of favoritism. Granny Liu felt very sorry for what happened to Baoer.

Old Man Song was also very sad. He had not taken good care of Baoer, and he would never give up on Baoer.

Song Yiyue was also very envious of Song Baoer. She was usually willful and vicious, but she had a pair of parents who doted on her very much and would look for her at the city gate every day.

At this time, the city gate opened, and a group of soldiers walked out to greet an official inside.

"The Emperor has issued an imperial decree that due to the drought in the south this year, taxes will be reduced for three years, and work will be provided as disaster relief during the drought period until the spring plowing season next year."

The notice was posted at the city gate and a literate scholar read it out, and the people heard it and talked about it.

There were also officials at the city gates who explained that the refugees were required to participate in this year's corvée labor and maintain canal embankments and other buildings. They were provided with two meals a day until the drought ended and they could be repatriated to their hometowns.

The three men of the Song family signed up for corvée labor to dig the canal, and every night they could bring back one or two pieces of dry food, such as steamed buns. Sometimes they would give the steamed buns to Old Man Song and his family.

Now the Song family is like a split family, each taking care of their own business. Old Man Song also knows that his three sons are dissatisfied with his favoritism towards Bao'er. Bao'er is a daughter he had when he was nearly middle-aged, and he cannot bear to ignore her. No matter what Bao'er becomes, it is impossible for him to let her live alone.

The couple has already agreed that they will live a good life with Baoer in the future, and ask their sons to send some gifts every year to maintain their relationship. After they are old and pass away, they can take care of their sister a little more.

During the day, each family would bring their children to the city gate to see if there were any nobles setting up stalls to give out porridge. Occasionally, some women from officials' families would distribute steamed buns or porridge here.

During the day, Song Yiyue took Eryue and Song Hai to the mountains to look for wild vegetables or fruits. If they didn't find any, they would bring back branches and firewood.

When February had nothing to do, he would play in the jungle with his younger brother, and occasionally he would bring back some bird eggs.

Time passed by little by little.

Until the arrival of autumn, the drought was not as severe as before, and there was occasional light rain.

The refugees looked at the rain and ran into it, cheering and laughing.

The nearby forests and plants have regained some vitality, and the weeds are madly absorbing water and growing rapidly.

Finally, there was a heavy rain, and the river water in all the disaster-stricken areas in the south gradually recovered, and the underground rivers began to rise again.

The prefect of Tongzhou also formally notified the victims to return to their hometowns to prepare for the spring plowing next year.

Everyone in the refugee camp began to pack up and prepare to return to their hometowns to grow short-term vegetables and food to last until the next spring.

The Song family rarely gathered together and returned to their hometown. The whole family was shocked when they saw Song Baoer behind his grandparents.

Looking at Song Baoer like this, Song Yiyue didn't expect the formula to be so powerful that it would not harm her lifespan but directly change her appearance and figure.

Song Baoer is now in a state of closed consciousness and feels drowsy every day. She needs Liu Pozi to take care of her, feed her, and dress her.

The group slowly followed the group of disaster victims back to their hometown, and they met villagers from the same village and walked together.

After several days of trekking through mountains and rivers, we returned to a village near Nanning County.

I also met the village chief and his family, and Hunter Zhou returned to the village safely.

When the whole village fled the famine, only half of them came back.

The Song family returned to their own yard. The gate was open and the house inside was deserted, with many things missing.

The women felt very sad because the missing things were their own possessions that they had spent a lot of money to buy.

Niu took her sisters-in-law to clean up some things and sorted them out. Everyone had a good lunch at noon.

“We decided to live with Baoer”

"In order not to burden you, I decided to move out."

Old Man Song said a few words at the dinner table after everyone finished their meal.

The three brothers all tried to stop their parents from moving out.

Finally, it was agreed that the second and third sons of the Song family would move out and hand over 100 kilograms of grain every year, while the eldest son of the Song family would support his parents in their old age.

Old man Song and his wife decided to eat separately from their eldest son, and also hand over grain to their two younger sons every year. The two old men were still able to farm and support Baoer.

The family's ten acres of land were all divided among his three sons, leaving only one acre for himself to grow crops.

Song Yiyue watched Song Baoer being held by the hand by Mrs. Liu in a daze, and the anger in her heart dissipated.

The three brothers of the Song family plan to reclaim wasteland during the spring plowing season next year. There are many people in their family, including a son.

In the past two years, Song Yiyue and Song Eryue followed Li to learn embroidery and make handkerchief purses. They improved rapidly and the county embroidery shop would also accept the finished products.

Li arranged a marriage for her. It was the request of Zhou Tietou, the youngest son of Zhou the Hunter, who was willing to wait a few more years for Song Yiyue to reach the age of 15.

Song Yiyue originally wanted to refuse to get married, but Li told her that if she did not marry when she reached the age, the county would forcibly arrange a candidate for her. In order to encourage the people to have more children, widows were encouraged to remarry.

Zhou Tietou would often come to her house to bring food, but when he saw her he would blush and lower his head, not daring to look at her.

He has a handsome appearance, is tall, and has a lot of strength from hunting with his father.

There is nothing wrong with marrying him. In the future, I can go to the mountains to pick medicinal herbs or wild vegetables and hunt game anytime.

Marrying a hunter is more liberating than marrying a farmer.

When she was 16 years old, the Zhou family formally proposed to marry her. Zhou Tietou had already separated from his brother and sister-in-law. He allocated a piece of land at the foot of the mountain and built a courtyard with the money he earned from hunting.

Life after marriage was more comfortable than at her parents' home. She was the one in charge of the household. A year later, she gave birth to a son who was naughty and mischievous and always made her angry.

Song Baoer's consciousness returned to normal after her parents passed away. She regretted that she shouldn't have disobeyed her mother, been deceived by Mr. Wang, and been bullied by those stinky men. God was really unfair. Why did he treat her like this?

Now she has nothing, and her parents who loved her the most are gone.

I listened to my niece's great-granddaughter saying that Aunt Song Yiyue's life now is more comfortable than theirs. She doesn't have to work in the fields and has been spoiled by the man in the family for decades.

She felt jealous. She thought Song Yiyue's life was not like this and should be even more miserable than her.

Song Baoer, lying on the bed, looked relaxed, as if she saw the scene she most wanted to see, with a slight smile on her lips.

"Grandma..."