My best friend is living a famine-stricken life; you're going crazy, I'm farming.

As dawn breaks, the rooster crows at sunrise.

The weather is dry; there wasn't even dew in the early morning.

Yang Fenglan tore off a few old leaves, crawled into the outhouse, and groaned contentedly.

Looking at the leaf in my hand, a sudden wave of sorrow washed over me.

This era of inconvenient living is truly inconvenient.

During a woman's menstrual period, she can only sew her own menstrual belt, which is just a few pieces of cloth filled with wood ash.

It needs to be cleaned after use.

Just thinking about it made Yang Fenglan shudder.

Leaves can also cut your buttocks, but they're more comfortable to use than repeatedly used toilet sticks.

During the time it took Yang Fenglan to use the restroom, she strengthened her resolve to make money.

She wanted to work hard to earn money so that she could afford soft fabrics and cotton, and use the best sanitary napkins of the time.

Not only that, she also wanted to live a life where she could afford to use Xuan paper to wipe her bottom.

Just do it.

Yang Fenglan pulled up her pants, washed her hands, and started a fire to cook.

Cooking with firewood is a bit of a hassle, and she really didn't want to do it. She didn't dare to ask Shen Yu to do it either, because if she offended the female lead, and Shen Yu just ran away without a care in the world, she would be in big trouble.

I washed the jars and toon sprouts yesterday, but Wang and her mother-in-law delayed it, so I couldn't pickle them.

While the rice was steaming, Yang Fenglan started pickling vegetables.

There were no seasonings at home, only coarse salt. Yang Fenglan crushed the coarse salt into a fine powder, spread the toon sprouts at the bottom of the jar, sprinkled a layer of salt, then a layer of vegetables, and then another layer of salt.

A whole jar was filled with pickled vegetables.

Pour some water around the mouth of the jar, seal the lid, and you're done.

After steaming the rice, Yang Fenglan threw the remaining handful of pickled toon sprouts into the pot to blanch them, then scooped them into a large bowl and soaked them in cold water for a while before eating.

Unfortunately, there was no chili, no soy sauce, and not even fermented black beans!

Otherwise, with such a fragrant dipping sauce, I wouldn't dare say how delicious the toon would be!

"Xiaoyu, time to eat." Yang Fenglan knocked on the door of the west room.

Shen Yu always got up early and developed a habit of not doing chores at the Zhou family home. She rarely left her room after getting up in the morning.

She only went out after hearing Yang Fenglan call her.

Today we ate rice again, but this time it was mixed with some millet, giving it a white-yellow hue, which looked quite appealing.

The dish consisted of toon sprouts and a little bit of leftover chicken soup from yesterday.

Yang Fenglan first soaked a bowl of rice in chicken soup, then added some toon leaves and sent it to Zhou Jingyi, placing it on his bedside table.

Zhou Jingyi opened his eyes, which were covered in sleep, and said, "Mother, how am I supposed to eat like this? Where's Xiaoyu? I'll have to wait for her to feed me."

"Didn't you eat by yourself last night?"

"It's inconvenient, Mom. Why don't you ask Xiaoyu to feed me instead..."

“We can’t feed them all. We still need to go into the mountains to find wild vegetables. If you can eat them, then eat them. If you can’t, then leave them here.” Yang Fenglan walked away heartlessly.

Zhou Jingyi was left standing there, bewildered in the wind.

What happened?

My mother has changed; she doesn't love me anymore...

Zhou Jingyi propped himself up and slowly sat up. He picked up the bowl himself, tears mingling with the chicken soup, and the more he ate, the more choked he felt.

"Xiaoyu, shall we continue into the mountains today?" Yang Fenglan asked at the dinner table.

Shen Yu said expressionlessly, "I'm too tired, I don't want to go."

"Then you stay home and take care of Jingyi, and listen to his nagging..."

"Shall we go back the way we went yesterday?" Shen Yu asked without hesitation.

"Sure, you can go wherever you want."

Yang Fenglan remained the same mother-in-law who always obeyed her daughter-in-law's orders.

Shen Yu couldn't help but wonder if her slight change of opinion about her yesterday was too much of a preconceived notion.

Her mother-in-law was still that same spineless coward who greeted people with a smile to their face but talked behind their backs.