The snowstorm had subsided.
The sky remained the color of leaden gray, pressing down until it felt suffocating.
Several frozen, twisted human shapes now lay in the relay station’s open space. Wrapped in filthy rags, they resembled bundles of firewood carelessly discarded.
A few guards dragged the corpses by their ankles with expressionless faces, leaving long trails across the frozen snow while cursing under their breath: “Goddamn ill luck! Better drag ’em out to feed the wild beasts in the woods than let ’em rot and stink here!”
Death in this place was more common than a passing breeze. The sight sent chills creeping from the depths of one’s soul.
The six members of the Shen family crawled out wretchedly from their earthen hovel, all coated in ice chips and mud, their faces bluish and lips purple. But at least their eyes were open, their limbs still movable.
Having huddled together through the night, they’d relied on shared body heat to withstand the previous night’s violent snowstorm.
“Everyone… everyone’s alive…” He Shi trembled as she grasped Shen Taotao’s hand, laughing and crying simultaneously, the frozen tears carving gullies through the mud on her face.
Just then, a guard with a knife-blade face approached carrying a tattered sack. With a loud clatter, he threw the sack to the ground, sending up a spray of snow powder.
“Any still alive, listen up!” His voice rasped like a broken gong as he pointed at the sack. “One ‘Divine Grain’ each. Make it last—there won’t be more.” Having spoken, he turned and left without a single glance toward the freshly dragged corpses.
The so-called “Divine Grain” were grayish-black lumps, smaller than fists, compressed from coarse bran and wild vegetables.
People crawling out from nearby hovels pounced on them like starving wolves, scrambling and fighting with hands and feet.
Only when the Divine Grain in their hands became stained with warm, fresh blood did they stop, swallowing large mouthfuls with vacant, numb eyes that held only an instinctual greed for food.
Shen Taotao warily scanned the scrambling crowd but didn’t approach, instead telling her eldest brother: “Get six.”
Shen Dashan’s burly frame moved forward with intimidating presence, causing others to step back.
He bent down and picked six of the most intact lumps from the edge of the tattered sack, avoiding the struggle.
He Shi instinctively hid her portion inside her clothes upon receiving it.
Shen Ersao kept her eyes fixed on her husband Shen Xiaochuan. The moment he took his portion, his fingers stiff with cold, she quickly shoved her own lump into his hands, whispering rapidly: “Xiaochuan, you eat it. I’m not hungry…”
Shen Xiaochuan stared blankly, looking down at the hard lump thrust at him, then at Shen Ersao’s frost-cracked face. A sudden rage flared up inside him!
“Are you stupid!” Shen Xiaochuan roared, his voice hoarse as a broken bellows and trembling with frustrated anger. “Why give it to me? Don’t you remember how you shivered all last night? Eat it yourself!”
He shoved the frozen lump back into Shen Ersao’s hands with such force she nearly stumbled.
Shen Ersao’s eyes reddened instantly from his shouting. Clenching her chapped lower lip, she gripped the icy lump until her knuckles turned white. Tears welled in her bloodshot eyes but stubbornly refused to fall, her expression caught between hurt and confusion.
Shen Taotao immediately rushed over, placing herself squarely in front of Shen Ersao. Her small frame stood straight as she glared fiercely at Shen Xiaochuan: “Second Brother! Who are you yelling at? Is Second Sister-in-law wrong for caring about you?”
She snatched the other bun from Shen Xiaochuan’s hand and shoved it at Shen Ersao. “Sister-in-law, take this one too. Eat! Don’t mind him, let him be ungrateful.”
Shen Ersao clutched the two cold buns, tears finally bursting forth, falling in large drops that pitted the hardened surfaces.
The atmosphere instantly froze.
Shen Dashan, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke in a muffled voice: “Xiaochuan, your wife cares about you. Don’t take your anger out on her.”
The words weren’t harsh, but they stabbed sharply into Shen Xiaochuan’s heart.
He remembered his eldest brother’s wife who had divorced and left—also a daughter of an official family. The moment the Shen family fell into hardship, she immediately packed her belongings and left without even a final glance at her husband…
An indescribable mix of guilt and chill surged within him.
Looking at his wife before him—shivering from cold yet giving him her food, reduced to tears by his shouting—and then at his younger sister’s protective, fight-ready stance, the frozen resentment and bitterness in his chest suddenly deflated.
His lips twitched, the muscles on his dark-red face tightening. After a long pause, he extended his blue-tinged hand—not to take the bun, but to clasp Shen Ersao’s hand that held the buns, cold and stiff.
“I… I didn’t mean it that way…” Shen Xiaochuan’s voice dropped, carrying a barely detectable shame and urgency. “…I just lost my temper. You’re frail, frozen all night… I… I was just afraid you’d starve.” After struggling for words, he suddenly lifted his head, eyes bloodshot, and almost swore in a low roar: “Wait! I, Shen Xiaochuan, swear! From now on, I’ll make sure you… you eat well!”
Shen Ersao stared at him blankly, tears flowing more fiercely, yet the grievance in her eyes gradually melted away.
“Enough! Stop showing off your affection here!” Shen Taotao irritably interrupted the lovey-dovey scene, turning to the whole family with a glare fierce enough to bite. “Now! Immediately! Chew up those hard lumps in your hands and swallow them. Not a single crumb left! If I see anyone hiding or saving theirs for others—whether for parents, wives, husbands, or sisters-in-law!”
Her gaze swept fiercely over Shen Dashan, Shen Xiaochuan, and He Shi: “—I’ll never acknowledge them as part of the Shen family again!”
Without another word, Shen Dashan picked up his bun and shoved it into his mouth, the frozen lump nearly cracking his molars as he lowered his head and chewed vigorously.
Shen Xiaochuan squeezed Shen Ersao’s hand, signaling her to eat.
He Shi hesitated, glanced at her daughter’s murderous expression, and quickly began nibbling small bites.
Shen Taotao also chewed her own hardened bun fiercely, mixing it with the complex flavors of cold, hunger, and post-survival relief accumulated in her stomach since last night, swallowing it all down.
The cold food slid into her equally cold stomach, a burning sensation growing as strength clumsily gathered.
Only with full bellies would they have energy to work, to stubbornly endure this wretched place!
With some food in her stomach, though it still burned uncomfortably, at least a faint warmth began pushing through her limbs.
Shen Taotao wiped the crumbs from her mouth, her eyes measuring the shabby, dilapidated surroundings of the relay station once more.
“Time for work!” The guard banged his gong, shouting as if summoning livestock.
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