“What are we eating tonight?”
“Wild Vegetable and Bird Egg Soup and Mixed Grain Flatbread.”
Mei Qian, who was cooking, answered her aunt without turning her head.
“Um… Qian girl, when can we make some Steamed Cornbread Buns?”
Hearing Han Shi’s words, Mei Qian knew her aunt had developed a taste for steamed buns after eating them at the Han family earlier.
“Were the Han family’s steamed buns that good?”
Facing Mei Qian’s half-smiling gaze, Han Shi inexplicably felt a chill run down her spine.
“Of course they weren’t as delicious as the ones you make, Qian girl!”
Han Shi immediately beamed at Mei Qian, only to receive the response: “Auntie, you should keep scowling at me these next couple of days. It wouldn’t look good if they came looking for you and saw you smiling.”
The bait had been cast today, and the Han family likely wanted more information.
“Oh, right.” Han Shi’s smile faded. Then she heard Mei Qian add: “You’ll eat half a flatbread less tonight.”
Instantly, not only did her smile vanish completely, but Han Shi’s face took on an expression as if she’d been struck by lightning. This startled Madam Jiang and Mei Erhu, who had just returned from visiting another family.
“What’s going on here?”
Seeing Han Shi’s unpleasant expression, Madam Jiang couldn’t help but ask.
“It’s nothing, just a joke. I’m telling Auntie to keep up her acting skills~”
Mei Qian couldn’t help but laugh as she explained what had just happened, earning an even more resentful look from Han Shi and causing Madam Jiang to cover her mouth, chuckling.
“By the way, how did it go when you and Mother went out to talk?”
Mei Qian remembered she had asked Mei Erhu to accompany Madam Jiang around the area today, specifically to discuss the Han family matter.
“Hmm, two families also looked very troubled when they heard about it,” Madam Jiang replied softly to Mei Qian’s question.
The husband-and-wife duo of Mei Erhu and Madam Jiang had surprisingly worked well together.
Madam Jiang chatted casually about recent events, while Mei Erhu seized the opportunity to mention the chaos outside.
Although Mei Erhu didn’t directly accuse the Han family of ulterior motives, the similar cases he mentioned did make some people catch on.
Some even spoke up, urging the Mei family to be very careful of the Han family.
However, such people were few. Most who understood kept quiet, let alone offered help.
Mei Erhu, however, skillfully guided the conversation, saying their family already had some suspicions and needed to investigate first. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be terrifying to have a group of people eyeing them menacingly from outside?
…
And wasn’t it terrifying indeed?
As soon as Mei Erhu and his wife left, Blacksmith Yang’s wife, Madam Zhang, started discussing the matter with her husband.
“Is it really as serious as Sixth Child’s mother said? The Mei family themselves haven’t even noticed anything. Sixth Child’s mother insisted the Han family is problematic and that the Mei family should be on guard. Hearing it made me a bit scared.”
Breaking the flatbread heated over the fire into several pieces, Madam Zhang gave the largest piece to her husband, distributed other similarly sized pieces to her son and daughter and her father-in-law, Old Man Yang, and finally took the smallest piece for herself.
“If it’s really like that, this method has probably been used several times already?”
Blacksmith Yang was also somewhat worried. Earlier, Mei Erhu had lamented that his family only had two men, with the rest being womenfolk. Wasn’t his own family in a similar situation?
“This matter… later on, go out and inquire whether what Mei Erhu said is really that alarming. I suspect he probably wants to deal with his own in-laws, but since that family has many sons and he can’t beat them, he’s saying all this to rally some help.”
Old Man Yang listened to his son and daughter-in-law’s conversation. Although he felt anxious and apprehensive inside, being older, he naturally had more caution.
“Alright, I understand.”
…
This matter wasn’t limited to Blacksmith Yang’s family. Scholar Yan, who had always disliked the Mei family’s recent commotion, was also discussing this with his mother and elder brother.
“If there really are malicious intentions, our family of three might also be targeted.”
Neither Scholar Yan nor his elder brother were particularly robust. If it weren’t for his elder brother working as an accountant at a restaurant owned by the Chen family, and himself having studied some books, they probably wouldn’t have been under the Chen family’s protection.
Although their family still had a black-canopied carriage, their belongings inside were pitifully few. As for food… recently, Old Madam Yan had also started imitating those outside by digging for wild vegetables and searching for wild fruits.
Occasionally, she even got into disputes with others over digging up the same wild vegetable. And because she wasn’t as fierce as others, with no one to help speak up, she almost got beaten before even finding anything to eat.
If they were really schemed against and abandoned by the Chen family, their family would have no way to survive.
“Ah, but even so, we’re not enough to fill their teeth. Even if we wanted to help others, we couldn’t.”
Scholar Yan’s elder brother sighed. They had initially just listened to the commotion, never expecting the fire to spread to their own home. The key point was, even if they had the intention, their family was quite powerless.
…
That night, because of Mei Erhu and his wife’s words, many people couldn’t sleep.
However, the Lao Mei Family, at the center of the storm of public opinion, calmly finished their dinner, each going about their tasks or resting as usual.
Mei Qian and Mei Shitou, who were practicing swordplay nearby, even saw some people sneak out and then return later.
It seemed like they had gone to gather information.
Mei Qian didn’t pay further attention to these matters. Tonight, before placing the wild vegetable egg soup on the Exchange Platform, she specifically explored other functions.
Nutrient Solution was a good thing, but she couldn’t stand the cilantro flavor.
Mei Qian used this month’s only Precise Positioning Filter method.
She filtered out all the Exchanger information that exchanged using Nutrient Solution and selected the only Exchanger who only used various flavors of Low-Grade Nutrient Solution.
Xiao Mei had previously reminded Mei Qian.
If she wanted to exchange for intermediate or higher-quality, more valuable delicacies, she also needed to offer corresponding quality food.
As things stood for her now, to put it bluntly, she shouldn’t consider those mid to High-Grade Nutrient Solutions for the time being.
The delicacies that the Exchanger wanted to eat were something Mei Qian couldn’t provide at the moment, so it was better not to waste the opportunity.
Mei Qian looked at the Exchanger who exchanged with various Low-Grade Nutrient Solutions and their requirements for the food—barbecue, strong flavor, high protein, fragrant.
These eight words didn’t form a complete sentence, but one thing was certain: the wild vegetable egg soup she made tonight wouldn’t attract them.
Thinking this, Mei Qian paused her sword practice slightly and checked what she had received in exchange for the previously submitted wild vegetable egg soup.
As expected, it was once again exchanged by that post-apocalyptic Exchanger who liked wild vegetables.
But this time, what they used for exchange wasn’t Compressed Biscuit.
[What exactly are these #two packets of High-Energy Milk Tea Powder#?]
The item displayed in Mei Qian’s System looked like two handfuls of dirt, making it hard to imagine what it might taste like.
[The flavor should, at the very least, be on par with X Piaopiao, right?]
Mei Qian asked Xiao Mei, and Xiao Mei confirmed it was indeed so.
[Yes, don’t let its unappealing appearance fool you—it actually tastes quite good. Although it isn’t as filling as Compressed Biscuit, it’s high in energy and easily absorbed. It can quickly restore the strength of someone who is critically ill, anemic, or lacking energy in a short time. It’s a good item, Host!]
Xiao Mei’s description certainly gave Mei Qian a better impression of this milk tea powder, but she had one question:
[Do you think it would be too out of place if I mixed this milk tea powder into flour?]
Xiao Mei: [Yes, it would. I recommend simply mixing it with water to drink.]
Mei Qian: […]