At home, there was now another small bed, a new set of drying racks, and several new winnowing baskets. There was also a half-finished bamboo mat that Madam Li had woven.
Even the vegetable patch in front of the house had been expanded, and they had planted the red berries and wild ginger she needed.
The wild mint, however, wasn’t planted in the garden. Madam Li said that stuff could grow anywhere without taking up space in the plot.
Fortunately, early that morning, she had taken Erhe along to spear five or six fat fish. The Mengs and the Yangs each received one, the Zhou family was given two, and they kept two for their own lunch and supper.
The fish and the seeds of agrimony, she had directly told Daniu to carry home first, and then come back again to help.
Since the fish they speared were already dead, keeping them too long would spoil them. Better to bring them home quickly—whether for lunch or dinner, they could still be eaten fresh.
The Zhou family received two because they had contributed the most. Going into town to hire a carpenter to build a bed required spending money.
Madam Li still had some silver, but Uncle Zhou refused payment. He only said, “The wood is all from your own family. I only put in some labor—how could I take money for that?”
So they gave him two fish instead, and Uncle Zhou couldn’t refuse any further.
What Yu Qiu hadn’t expected was that when the fish were brought back to the village, someone saw them.
Not long after, over a dozen households in the village knew: if you went to help out at the Wei household, you not only got two meals, but you’d also be given a fat fish to take home.
The very next morning after the news spread, quite a few people came to the Wei family’s thatched hut.
They were all children, the oldest about twelve or thirteen, the youngest only eight or nine—about the same age as Erhe and Sanya.
Madam Li wasn’t exactly pleased, since she knew most of them had come for the meals.
Still, fine—extra hands were still extra help.
Yu Qiu looked at the group of children and was momentarily speechless.
At least it wasn’t too blatant—none of the households had sent over children too small to work.
There were seven children in total, from the Liu, Qian, and Chen families. Three from the Lius, and two from each of the other two families.
Madam Li had told her before: old Madam Zhao of the Liu family loved taking petty advantages and wasn’t easy to deal with. But her daughters-in-law weren’t bad, while old man Liu was too wooden—he just worked, never meddled in anything.
Since they had already come, and although her family provided food, it wasn’t truly free.
So Yu Qiu told Erhe to assign them tasks, and quietly instructed him to tell the other kids: if they didn’t work well, they wouldn’t get any food.
Erhe’s eyes lit up as he looked at her. Only when she waved her hand did he finally let loose the grin tugging at his lips and call all the kids over.
It wasn’t that she was stingy—every household’s food was precious these days. With seven half-grown kids showing up at once, how much grain would they eat in one meal? And could children that age really handle heavy work?
If they had truly come to help, she wouldn’t mind.
But if they were just here freeloading, she wasn’t about to play the good Samaritan.
Whether it was one way or the other—it all depended on how well they worked.
That day Uncle Zhou also came. Looking at the group of children, the deep lines of his face showed a trace of complex emotion.
In the end, he only shook his head and picked up his tools to continue making the bed.
Seeing that Meng Ping, Guzi, Daniu, and Sanhua hadn’t yet arrived, she didn’t wait. After greeting Uncle Zhou, she slung her basket over her back, took Sanya, and headed to the back mountain.
Their grain was running low, and the herbs had only just begun drying. Even the simplest processing—removing dead leaves and impurities, washing, moistening, slicing thick, and sun-drying—would take three to five days in good weather.
In the meantime, they’d still need to ration their food.
Before leaving, she told Madam Li that she would bring Sanya along to catch some small fish today, so they wouldn’t need to use grain for the day’s meals.
The basket was meant to serve as a fish trap. Big fish were hard to catch, but she could still manage plenty of small ones.
She planned to catch as many as possible, dig some wild greens, and scrape by with that for today’s meals.
Sanya was put in charge of digging wild vegetables, while she went spearfishing.
Today she tried another stretch of stream, heading upstream. The downstream pools had already been fished several times, and the fish there were scattered and wary.
After spearing two big fish, she cleaned them on the spot. The innards soon lured other fish to swarm and feed, and she seized the chance to dunk her basket in, netting quite a few more at once.
She dumped the fish into the grass, moved to another spot, gutted another fish, repeated the process, and gained another good haul.
There were no big ones this time, but she ended up with thirty or forty palm-sized fish. Together with the two larger ones, it was enough for the day.
She sent Sanya back home with the fish, then made another trip to the mountain to pick mutated bayberries. These she brought back as dessert for the children—at least that way the little workers wouldn’t feel shortchanged.
From afar, she could already see Erhe earnestly leading three of the older boys in weaving winnowing baskets. The younger ones were digging behind the house with rocks.
Surprisingly, they had even managed to clear a small patch of land.
But one child was missing.
When Erhe spotted his sister-in-law, he smiled and called out, “Sister-in-law!”
The other children followed suit, chorusing after him.
Noticing where her gaze wandered, Erhe quickly explained before she asked: “Grandma Liu’s precious grandson, Liu Dabao, is crying in the front yard.”
Yu Qiu froze. “What happened?”
Erhe pursed his lips and glanced at the others working. “He said he hadn’t had breakfast. His grandma told him if he came here he’d get to eat meat. But when he didn’t get any, he’s been crying nonstop ever since.”
The other kids all hung their heads, squatting silently without daring to look up.
Especially Liu Dabao’s cousin and younger sister—they wished they could bury their heads in the dirt.
Understanding now, Yu Qiu deliberately raised her voice: “Which household can afford to feed outsiders meat these days? We’re in the right here, no need to worry.” She glanced at the two other Liu children, whose basket weaving was actually decent work, and chose not to push further.
“Mm, I know, Sister-in-law. I’ve learned how to make drying racks. This afternoon I’ll get them to build one with me. Sister-in-law, go rest—we’ll come over when it’s time to eat.”
“Good work, Erhe. Then later I’ll call you all for the meal.”
Back in the front yard, Liu Dabao was nowhere to be seen. She only found Madam Li cooking and Uncle Zhou carving wood under the tree’s shade.
Meng Ping and the others hadn’t shown up either—likely worried the Wei family’s food wouldn’t last.
“Mother, where’s Sanya?”
“She took Liu Dabao to cut white grass.”
Madam Li was helpless—thankfully Sanya had managed to coax him.
Otherwise, if the child went home with swollen eyes, she’d have to waste more words explaining.
Yu Qiu nodded. At least someone could keep him in line.
Liu Dabao was said to be eight, but in truth he was only six years old. What work could a child like that do?
“Since the stove’s usable now, today we’ll cook fish stew in the iron pot.” Madam Li shifted the subject while keeping her hands busy.
Hearing that they could stew fish in the iron pot, Yu Qiu felt her mood lift.
Finally, they’d get to eat something proper.
Oh.
She had spoken too soon.
There was no oil, no seasoning. The iron pot stew was really just fish soup—without the clay pot’s fragrance and richness.
She had thought too optimistically.
Still, for the children who hadn’t eaten meat in a long time, even this was a treasure. Each was given a fish, and they gnawed so hungrily they seemed ready to swallow the bones. Unfortunately, they didn’t have Meng Ping’s strong teeth.
Afterward, each child clutched a big bayberry, squatting obediently by the wall with narrowed eyes as they nibbled away.
Even Liu Dabao made no fuss—he didn’t seem so annoying at the moment.
Once lunch was over, she began processing the herbs.
Processing, in truth, meant nothing more than sun-drying the honeysuckle and wolfberries.
For the other herbs too, she used the simplest methods—quicker that way. With so many people in the house these days, other methods weren’t practical.
Different herbs needed different treatments to preserve their medicinal properties as much as possible.
She was counting on this work to earn a bit of silver. If others saw, it could still bring trouble.
But once she found another livelihood in the future, she wouldn’t need to hide anymore.