Armed with a machete and a gun, armed with a system, they fled the famine.

He exuded a powerful aura, his eyes were deep and his whole body radiated a chilling ruthlessness.

This is a man who makes a living by slaughtering pigs year-round.

Even the usually thick-skinned Aunt Zhong was frightened by his ruthless aura. Her lips trembled as she hurriedly left the butcher shop with her bamboo basket in her arms.

"Humph!"

The man snorted coldly, feeling extremely pleased.

That old hag comes to his place every day to freeload. Today she'll steal a big bone, tomorrow she'll take a piece of pig offal.

He's a butcher, not some benevolent person giving her meat as a handout.

He let it go once, not wanting to argue with an old woman over trivial matters.

Unexpectedly, that person thought he was easy to talk to?

She comes to his place every day lately, staying for the whole morning, and won't leave unless she takes something.

Today he finally showed that old hag what he was capable of.

If she dares to come again tomorrow, he'll threaten her with a knife.

……

Weixian County is a large town, and theoretically there should be quite a few rural people selling vegetables there. However, Zhao Yan and Yang Sanlang searched the area for a long time but didn't see a single vegetable seller.

This inevitably made her fall into deep thought.

Could it be because of the five taels of silver for the city entrance fee?

But isn't this only targeting migrant workers like them?

She glanced at Yang Sanlang and asked, "Sanlang, where did you buy the firewood? Why is there no one selling vegetables here?"

With no other vegetables available, they have been eating dried wild vegetables that they had prepared earlier.

Yang Sanlang moved closer to her, looked down at her, and explained, "The old man who sells firewood told me that the magistrate issued a notice today saying that everyone has to pay an entrance fee and an exit fee, otherwise they will not be allowed to enter or leave the city at will."

“I think the villagers can’t afford the five taels of silver to travel to the city, which is why you don’t see the old farmers selling vegetables in the county town.”

"You have to pay extra to leave the city?"

What the hell is this?

Zhao Yan narrowed her eyes and cursed inwardly.

His uncle's!

That lousy magistrate has some nerve, daring to arbitrarily charge the people fees?!

Ha ha.

I'll make him penniless in a second!

After a moment of silence, Zhao Yan had already decided on the important thing she was going to do next.

If we can't buy vegetables, we'll just have to make do with wild vegetables for now.

Glancing ahead, Zhao Yan suddenly spotted a dried goods shop.

"Let's go and take a look ahead."

Her eyes lit up, she raised her hand to Yang Sanlang, and took the lead in walking forward.

The dried goods store is not big, only about ten square meters.

The display case is filled with various dried fruits, dried vegetables, dried mushrooms and other snacks, and there is even a basket of dried wood ear fungus on the north side.

"Boss, what's this called? How much does it cost? Do you know how to eat it?"

The man behind the counter had a goatee and looked to be in his forties.

Hearing Zhao Yan's barrage of questions, he remained unperturbed and calmly explained, "That's called Black Ears, it costs thirty coins a pound."

"If you want to eat it, you need to soak it in water first and clean the surface. It's very fragrant when stir-fried with eggs."

This is just stir-fried wood ear mushrooms with eggs, not much different from modern cooking methods.

Zhao Yan said happily, "How many are in this basket? I want them all."

Like dried wild vegetables, dried wood ear mushrooms can be stored away if you can't finish them, and you can easily make a dish whenever you want to eat them.

Yang Sanlang's lips twitched violently for a moment. Seeing that his wife rarely saw someone she liked, he stood by with a blank face and said nothing.

The man was surprised that Zhao Yan would buy the whole basket of black fungus. He said in astonishment, "Young lady, don't underestimate these small black fungus. They're dried. Once you soak them, they'll grow many times larger."

He glanced at the large bamboo basket filled with black fungus and said responsibly, "There's quite a lot of black fungus in this basket, about thirty pounds. If you take it all, I'm afraid you won't be able to finish it even if you eat it until next year."

Zhao Yan smiled and said nonchalantly, "It's okay, I have a lot of people in my family, we can finish it."

She was worried that there wouldn't be enough to eat, and that she would definitely go to the mountains to look for some when she had the chance.

Since the buyer was willing to buy, the man had no reason to refuse.

"Okay, I'll pack it up for you."

"Ah."

Zhao Yan responded softly and turned to look for other good things.

To be honest, this dried goods store has a fairly complete selection.

If fresh vegetables are unavailable, dried vegetables can be used as a temporary solution.

"Boss, give me ten pounds of each of these dried vegetables first."

Her gaze shifted and she spotted a dozen seaweeds in the corner. Excitedly, she rushed over and grabbed them.

"Boss, how much is this? I'll take it."

Uh……

The shopkeeper hurriedly looked up and saw what Zhao Yan was holding. He waved his hand and said, "That's called seaweed, it's something from the sea. But nobody around Wei County is used to eating this stuff, so I just left it somewhere. If you like it, consider it a bonus."

Zhao Yan had no reason to refuse something given away for free, so she gladly accepted it, saying, "Thank you, boss."

"Hehe, you're too kind, young lady."

After looking around and not finding the eggs she wanted, Zhao Yan asked the shop owner.

"Boss, do you know where I can buy eggs? I'd like to buy some more."

“Eggs…” the man thought for a moment, then said, “How many do you want? I can share some with you.”

The day before the lockdown, he went to the countryside to buy a batch of eggs.

He originally planned to sell the eggs in the shop, but as more and more refugees came from the south, he quietly removed the remaining eggs and kept them for his own family to eat slowly.

After accounting for the eggs consumed during this period, there are still about 20 kilograms of eggs left at home.

Zhao Yan guessed that the shopkeeper might have some eggs on hand. Her eyes flickered, and she carefully suggested a number: "How about five catties?"

Her intuition told her that the boss definitely had at least ten pounds of eggs.

Sure enough, the man readily agreed when he heard that she wanted five jin.

"Okay, I'll pack the dried vegetables for you first, and then I'll get you the eggs later."

Great, I have stir-fried wood ear mushrooms and eggs for dinner.

Zhao Yan couldn't help but smile and nodded demurely.

"Okay, you can arrange it."

After the boss weighed and packaged all the dried goods, he went to the backyard to pack eggs for Zhao Yan.

Eggs cost one coin each, and five catties of eggs would yield approximately fifty to eighty eggs.

The eggs in the men's magazine varied in size, and Zhao Yan roughly counted about sixty of them.

It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

Zhao Yan paid and left in a good mood.

Yang Sanlang silently took the basket from his wife and carried it on his back, then followed her back to the butcher shop.

The butcher had already divided everything up and calculated the money.

"Young lady, pork fat is 12 coins per catty, pork belly is 28 coins per catty, hind leg meat is 25 coins per catty, and pork ribs are 20 coins per catty, totaling 1,700 coins."

Fearing that Zhao Yan might misunderstand, he hurriedly explained, "Young lady, you may not know this, but food is scarce right now, and all food in the county has gone up in price. I hope you can understand."

Zhao Yan had already anticipated this. Upon hearing this, she smiled gently and said to the man, "Help me cut some more pork belly to make up two taels of silver."