The end of natural disasters: the daily life of child brides in ancient times

Upon hearing this, the stall owner smiled and replied:

"Okay, okay, you two take a seat first, it'll be ready soon!"

As he spoke, he began to cook wontons with swift hands and feet.

Soon, two large bowls full of wontons were served on the table, accompanied by a fresh and fragrant aroma.

In the bowl, wontons with thin skin and large fillings float on the clear chicken soup. The wonton skin is as thin as crepe, revealing the tender meat filling inside.

The wontons are topped with emerald green onions and coriander, which looks particularly appetizing.

Lu Qingqing and Qin Lang were used to eating the wontons from this restaurant, so when they were served, they blew on the hot steam and started eating with a spoon.

From the first bite of the delicious flavor that burns the tongue to the satisfaction after finishing all the soup and wontons.

After they finished eating all the shrimp skin at the bottom of the bowl, they let out a sigh of satisfaction.

At this time, the stall owner had already packed the uncooked wontons.

After Lu Qingqing paid, she handed the packaged wontons to Qin Lang.

After thinking for a while, he asked the wonton stall owner:

“Uncle, I see that the food store over there is limiting the amount of food, and each person can only buy two kilograms a day.

I'm afraid your stall uses more than two kilograms of noodles a day.

I'm thinking of buying some food, and I'm wondering if you have any connections."

When the stall owner heard Lu Qingqing's question, he thought about the wontons she had bought in the past few months and hesitated for a moment.

After looking around to see if there was anyone around, he spoke:

"Sir, you have explained it clearly, so I will not hide it from you.

However, the county government now sets a maximum price for each type of grain and does not allow excessively high grain prices.

The way I told you, the price of grain is higher than the price outside.

If you are willing, I will tell you my way."

After listening to the shopkeeper, Lu Qingqing carefully wrote down the address, thanked him and left.

The two continued to shop inside, and as expected, all the food prices had increased.

Among them, the price increase was the highest, more than doubling.

However, this did not stop the two from shopping. From the beginning to the end of the street, they bought meat-stuffed pancakes, fried stinky tofu, ice cream, crushed ice plum juice, etc.

However, many stalls are closed today.

Among them, Qin Lang’s favorite hawthorn cake shop was closed today.

Seeing Qin Lang looking at the original location of the hawthorn cake stall again and again, Lu Qingqing had to comfort him that there were still some left from what he bought before, and there would be more next time he came.

When they reached the end of the street, they saw that there were no more snacks, so they went to the restaurant they usually went to and packed up two tables of their favorite dishes.

When leaving the city, they happened to meet soldiers escorting a large number of refugees.

Lu Qingqing looked over from the carriage and saw a huge crowd of refugees that stretched as far as the eye could see.

On the way back, I didn't encounter any robbery again.

After Lu Qingqing returned to Baoshan Town, she first went to find the old village chief and Lu Tianli.

I spoke to them about the current situation of the refugees in the city, as well as the highway robberies and food purchase restrictions in the city.

After hearing this, both of them looked a little solemn.

Long before fleeing the famine, they had experienced the drought in Lujia Village.

The scene today is so similar to that time.

The old village chief asked Lu Qingqing about the details, and finally looked at Lu Tianli and said:

“Tianli, I think we need to buy some more food this time.

Although the corn in the field is about to be harvested, who knows what will happen next.

We have all experienced years of disaster. Sometimes, just one more bite of food can help people survive.

We not only have to buy this food, but we have to buy it quickly!"

Lu Tianli also agreed with this.

He thought of what Lu Qingqing had just said about the limited quantity and said:

"If it doesn't work, we can go and queue up tonight so that we can buy it tomorrow morning.

If you want to buy more, you’ll have to go to different shops and queue up to buy.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Qingqing hurriedly told him about the high price of grain.

After hearing this, Lu Tianli showed some joy on his face.

"Daya, it still has to be you.

Otherwise, if we enter the city and have no other options, we will have to rely on crude methods.

I was just thinking, if each person buys two pounds a day, we'll have to stay in the city for several days to buy enough."

The old village chief also smiled and nodded, his face full of approval.

After the discussion, Lu Tianli called a meeting of all the villagers, and the location was set under the shade of the trees at the foot of the mountain.

When the villagers received the news, they didn't know what had happened.

In particular, in the village at the foot of the mountain, many villagers looked at the scorching sun outside and were reluctant to come out at the thought of climbing to the foot of the mountain.

Lu Tianli saw the agreed time, roughly counted the people, and made sure that 90% of them had arrived, then cleared his throat and said:

"The reason I called everyone here today is not official business.

It’s because the city has now received a large number of refugees, and judging from the situation, there is still a steady stream of refugees pouring in.

Today, Daya went to the county and saw that people in the city had started snatching and limiting food.

If you want to buy food in the store, you have to queue up early with your household registration, and each person is limited to the amount of food they can buy per day.

Although the crops in our fields are about to be harvested, everyone knows the situation this year.

The output will be affected by the weather and will not be too high.

Although King Huai was compassionate and reduced taxes a lot, people still had to pay a part of it.

Therefore, I would like to remind everyone here.

If you feel that there is not enough food, it is best to buy some.

Make sure that after the grain is harvested, the stored grain, although not too much, can at least last for a year.

At the very least, we should be able to eat until next spring."

As Lu Tianli spoke, he thought of what Lu Qingqing said about the high price of grain and continued:

“If you want to buy a small amount of food, you need to go there early and find a shop to queue up.

If anyone wants to buy more food, please come to me later."

Under the shade of the trees, a group of villagers listened to these words that contained a lot of information. After being surprised, they began to think carefully.

Among them, the villagers at the foot of the mountain basically have the same attitude.

Buy, you must buy food.

They were really scared of hunger during the more than a year they fled from famine.

However, the villagers at the foot of the mountain showed a variety of attitudes.

Among them, most people are hesitant about whether to buy food.

Although they also moved here, the place where they lived before the disaster was not too far from here.

The biggest difficulty in the entire process of fleeing famine is not food and water, but the problem of choosing where to settle down.

People always make different choices because of their different experiences.

This was verified again at this moment.

At this moment, the villagers at the foot of the mountain hesitated for a while, and many of them decided to wait and see.

After harvesting the grain from their own fields and paying the grain tax, they would see how much was short and make appropriate provision.

In addition to this group of people, a small number of people decided to buy less food.

These people often don't have much food stored at home.

They knew very well that even if they waited to harvest the grain and pay the grain tax, it would not be enough to eat.

Lu Tianli stood on top, looking at the villagers below who were engaged in discussion, and was also thinking about how much food he should buy this time.