Reborn before the famine, kicking away the scumbag's family and living a carefree life.

80. Hitchhiking

These children have blank expressions and chilling eyes; where is the innocence that children should have?

Thinking of my son, he was soft, chubby, and warm, with clear, bright eyes and lively, expressive face. Unlike these children in front of me, who are so lifeless.

They were all hungry.

Without the support of a material foundation, spiritual things will inevitably collapse. Just like in front of Su Jinru, because of the material gap, his dignity is nothing but a fart.

Thinking of this, Qi Zhengyang felt annoyed!

Both of them were reborn, and they had prepared food in advance, but he was just unlucky and his food was stolen.

"Second Uncle, I'm hungry!" the fifth brother said, and he came right over.

Qi Zhengyang came to his senses.

He scooped a spoonful of rice porridge and fed it to the fifth son.

The other children also gathered around him, and Qi Zhengyang personally fed each of them a bite.

The bowl of porridge was emptied in an instant.

Li Meili also came over.

"A-Yang, do you still have any food at home? Was it not all looted? Is there any food hidden elsewhere?"

Qi Zhengyang said helplessly, "It's all gone. They've all been taken away. Not a single grain of rice is left."

"Where did you get all this rice porridge?"

Qi Zhengyang looked at Li Meili's chapped lips.

He handed over the empty bowl: "Rinse the bowl with hot water and drink it!"

Li Meili snatched the bowl, licked it all over with her tongue, then poured water over it and drank it.

Each of the children only ate a mouthful of porridge, which was far from enough. They looked at Qi Zhengyang with longing eyes.

"Second Uncle, I'm still hungry," said the youngest niece, Lao Liu.

"That's all. I've been starving for days. I finally managed to get a bowl of porridge, and I gave it all to you."

Qi Zhengyang said this to dispel Li Meili's illusions.

She thought he still had food hidden in his house.

However, after tasting a mouthful of porridge, his nephews and nieces set their sights on Qi Zhengyang, and they often came to his house to knock on the door.

Looking at the meager amount of food, Qi Zhengyang felt like there were too many wolves and not enough meat, and that the wolves were eyeing him covetously.

Qi Zhengyang couldn't bear to let his nephews and nieces starve to death, so he cooked porridge once a day with a small handful of rice and a lot of water, making the porridge as clear as rice water.

Although I wasn't hungry, at least I had some quality food in my stomach every day, which was better than drinking water.

But even with the utmost frugality, the food supply was quickly depleted.

At first, Du Mei was particularly annoyed by Qi Zhengyang's nephews coming to watch over them every day.

"Qi Zhengyang, we don't even have enough food for ourselves, how can we feed so many people?"

"They come knocking on the door every day, we can't just ignore it, can we?"

"I shouldn't have brought that bowl of porridge over in the first place. See? I've brought so many wolves into my life."

"Why are you saying such awful things? The two children are starving to death, how can I just stand by and do nothing?"

"What are you going to do with it? How many days will your little bit of food last? They'll survive, but we'll starve to death."

Although Du Mei was telling the truth, Qi Zhengyang still felt a little uncomfortable.

At this time in her previous life, her elder brother and sister-in-law had already starved to death. Her elder brother's family was separated from theirs by only one wall, so they simply merged the two families into one. All six children of her elder brother's family lived with them, and Su Jinru never complained.

In his previous life, Qi Zhengyang also experienced hunger, but he never worried about food like this.

Even if the family ran out of food for two days, he wasn't worried about starving to death, because Su Jinru went out to find food every day. Even if she couldn't find food for a day or two, she would eventually find something to eat.

He didn't think much of any of this, since most of the time, the food she brought back was practically inedible.

She often told the children, "No matter how bad the food is, it's better than starving to death. As long as there's something in your stomach, you won't starve."

The children had witnessed their relatives starve to death, so they knew what starvation was like and that Su Jinru's words were not an exaggeration, so they forced themselves to eat.

But now, he can't even find something that's so hard to swallow.

Faced with this situation, Qi Zhengyang realized for the first time that in the face of hunger, being educated but lacking the ability to survive is utterly useless.

Qi Zhengyang was startled by his own thought. Wasn't this what Su Jinru had said to him?

No, he can't let her lead him astray.

The famine only lasted three years. After three years, everything gradually returned to normal. The educated people were definitely better off than the uneducated people. If we could just get through these three miserable years—oh no, a year has already passed—and endure two more years, everything would be alright.

This winter is the hardest to get through. Once we get through it, spring will come and things will improve.

The small bag of rice was quickly finished.

Qi Zhengyang planned to ask Su Jinru for some more food.

He'd already lost face in front of her once, so what did it matter if he lost face again?

Compared to saving one's life, what does losing face matter?

However, Qi Zhengyang spent an entire day staking out near Su Jinru's house, but he didn't see her come out to fetch water.

She usually came out to fetch water around noon, but Qi Zhengyang waited for her from morning till night and never saw her come out.

Qi Zhengyang didn't dare to knock on the door, afraid that others would see him and point fingers.

Hungry, tired, and cold, Qi Zhengyang almost fainted and had to go home empty-handed.

Every time Su Jinru went to fetch water, she would hear about things happening in the village.

She heard that Jin Gui had learned to drive. Normally, someone of his rank wouldn't be entitled to a car. The entire county government only had one small jeep, which was specially assigned to the county head, and he was also given a driver.

Jin Gui is quick-witted, intelligent, and eager to learn; he learned to drive from the driver.

Jingui's home is close to the county town, only ten kilometers away, and he often rides his bicycle home.

Occasionally, Jin Gui would drive home.

I ran into Dingxiang on the village road that day.

Su Jinru: "Sister-in-law Dingxiang, I'd like to go into the city in the next few days, but it's not safe on the road. If Brother Jingui drives back in the next few days, could I hitch a ride with him into the city?"

"Sure! But what are you going into the city for? If you need anything, just have Jin Gui take it for you. Things aren't safe out there right now."

"Sister-in-law, I know things aren't safe out there right now, so I wanted to hitch a ride with Brother Jingui to get into the city. There are police in the city, so nothing will happen."

Sure enough, that evening, Dingxiang knocked on Su Jinru's door and told her that Jin Gui had driven back that day and that she could ride in Jin Gui's car into the city the next day.

The next morning, Su Jinru left her two children with her parents because she wasn't sure if she would be able to come back that night.

In the car.

Su Jinru said, "Brother Jingui, my experimental field is a success. Sweet potatoes and potatoes can be grown in two months."

By combining space and reality, Su Jinru finally succeeded in developing high-yield, early-maturing sweet potatoes and potatoes, and then planted the research results in space to quickly cultivate them in large quantities.