The mountain the Lao Mei Family had entered earlier wasn’t particularly large, and after a journey of just two days, the entire family had already emerged from its depths.
If it weren’t for the howling of wolves they heard in the mountains at night, they could have lingered for another two days, given their leisurely pace of foraging for wild vegetables and hunting along the way.
However, during those few days in the mountains, Mei Qian had found no opportunity to exchange for delicious food again.
The authority over cooking and the allocation of food in their household rested entirely in her grandmother’s hands.
And the wild vegetable soup her grandmother made was consistently and remarkably unpalatable—not a single meal met the minimum exchange standard set by Xiao Mei.
“Grandma, let me help with the cooking tonight?”
As soon as they emerged from the mountains, Mei Qian sidled up to Grandma Mei, volunteering to take charge of the household’s cooking.
“Let’s wait until we’ve settled down.”
Gazing across the plains bathed in the evening sun, Grandma Mei didn’t immediately refuse Mei Qian.
Her eyes fixed on the distant horizon, she pointed at the undulating black dots and said, “Let’s head where there are more people. It seems the number of people fleeing south is growing.”
“But if we gather in large numbers, won’t we become too conspicuous if Xirong soldiers spot us?”
Mei Qian thought of the chaos of war and felt uneasy.
Grandma Mei glanced at her granddaughter and slowly explained:
“As long as we don’t actively approach the cities under attack by Xirong, the only ones we might encounter are those out wild hunting.
If there are too few of us, wherever we run, they’ll spot us. Can two legs outrun four?
But with more people, there are more targets. Some will manage to escape, and if not, fighting together might just give us a chance to survive.”
Although Mei Erhu and Mei Shitou, uncle and nephew, were tall and sturdy, skilled in hunting and martial arts, Grandma Mei believed that if trouble arose, it was best to flee rather than confront the mounted, blade-wielding Xirong soldiers.
Moreover, their family included many women. If disaster struck, it was unlikely any of them would survive.
This, Grandma Mei didn’t say aloud, but Mei Qian had already begun to grasp it.
“Besides, even if we don’t encounter wild hunters, among the fleeing crowds, there are all kinds of people, including bad ones.
Our family is small, with only your father and Shitou as the men.
If we’re targeted by bad people, they’ll hesitate to act openly when they see so many others around us.”
In Grandma Mei’s plan for their family’s escape, the first priority was to flee alongside a large group.
And by “large group,” Grandma Mei specifically meant—“We’ll follow behind the fleeing procession of wealthy families.”
Grandma Mei also emphasized that when fleeing, it wasn’t just about numbers but also about sticking close to wealthy households.
The processions of wealthy families were more organized than those of ordinary common people, and they had servants and attendants for protection, offering a greater sense of security.
Even if they encountered wild hunters, the wealthy families would be more conspicuous targets, buying time for smaller families like theirs to escape.
If they were lucky enough to encounter an aristocratic family with formidable strength and private armies, their safety would be even more assured!
Mei Qian had initially marveled at the wisdom of the ancients, but when they finally found a procession that met these conditions, she realized that many others had the same idea!
The throngs of refugees trailing behind the fleeing processions of wealthy households were too numerous to count.
…
They had already been fleeing for two or three days, following the groups of several wealthy families—or rather, several aristocratic families.
Mei Qian was currently carrying a jar of stream water back to where her family was resting.
“Why did it take you so long just to fetch water, girl?”
Han Shi, her eldest aunt, who was watching over their bundles and tending the fire with Mei Qian’s mother, couldn’t help but remark when she saw Mei Qian return. “It must have been nearly two quarters of an hour, right?”
After saying this, Han Shi craned her neck to look at the nearby stream and added, “It’s so close, yet you were gone so long we couldn’t even see your shadow. Where did you go? Your mother was worried for quite a while!”
Of her eldest aunt’s long string of complaints, only the last sentence was worth hearing.
Mei Qian glanced at her mother, who was standing nearby, looking worried but unable to speak because Han Shi had taken over the conversation. Softening her tone, she explained:
“There were too many people by the stream nearby, and they were doing all sorts of things in the water. I didn’t want to drink water someone had washed their feet in, so I walked a bit farther upstream.”
At Mei Qian’s words, everyone present fell silent.
Mei Qian poured the water from the clay jar into a pot, placed it over the newly kindled fire, and began boiling it.
When Han Shi had first seen Mei Qian do this a few days earlier, she had called it unnecessary fuss.
Mei Qian knew it would be difficult to explain bacteria and parasites to people of this era, so at the time, she simply said she had heard from an old doctor in their village that drinking boiled water was less likely to cause stomachaches.
This explanation had won Grandma Mei’s support. With so few people in their family, they couldn’t afford any losses on the road.
Since then, Han Shi had stopped bringing up the matter.
“By the way, where are Grandma and Father?”
As soon as Mei Qian returned, she saw her eldest brother, Mei Shitou, not far away, chopping and splitting the dry branches they had gathered earlier with a hatchet, while also intimidating the people who occasionally “passed by” nearby. However, her grandmother and father were nowhere to be seen.
“Second Uncle and Mother went to gather information. We haven’t had a chance to ask anyone who knows what exactly has been happening these past few days.”
As luck would have it, a few days earlier, they had come across the wealthy families—or rather, the aristocratic families her grandmother had mentioned, who kept private soldiers.
Just in the past few days, the private soldiers of these families had clashed with Xirong soldiers who were out wild hunting.
For the last two days, everyone had been as jumpy as startled birds, fleeing at the slightest disturbance.
Late last night, Mei Qian had been dragged out of a deep sleep and forced to hurry on their way. It wasn’t until dawn that they were finally able to rest.
This rest had lasted an entire day.
The break was unusually long, suggesting either a change in circumstances or that the situation had eased somewhat.
That was why her grandmother had taken her father to scout around and gather news nearby.
As Mei Qian listened, she poured the boiled water into the bamboo cups and flasks she had asked Mei Shitou to make while they were resting earlier.
After pouring, she left a small amount of boiling water in the pot.
She then added the wild vegetables her mother had picked and prepared for her, blanching them briefly.
This helped remove much of the earthy bitterness from the wild greens.
Han Shi was no longer surprised by Mei Qian’s methods.
After all, Mei Qian had been cooking this way for the past two days.
Ever since they had descended the mountain that day, Mei Qian had volunteered to take charge of the cooking, and Grandma Mei had finally given her a chance.
With just one dinner, Mei Qian had completely won over the entire family.
It wasn’t because Mei Qian’s cooking skills were particularly outstanding, but rather because the culinary abilities of the other members of the Lao Mei Family were truly abysmal.
Everyone was like Grandma Mei,
Everyone could only make bitter vegetable soup! (：3”∠)
Otherwise, how could someone who could barely manage to cook for herself before transmigrating win the whole family’s admiration with just bland vegetable soup?
Don’t be too Mary Sue~
After blanching the wild vegetables, Mei Qian stood up and walked toward their family’s donkey.
Han Shi and Madam Jiang’s eyes lit up at the sight.
They watched as Mei Qian took out a small bowl of flour from a small bag nearby.
The grain in this small bag was also something Mei Qian had negotiated with Grandma Mei to obtain.
This month’s dry rations for the whole family were in this ten-jin small bag.
Mei Qian pretended to scoop whole wheat flour from the bag, but only she herself knew what she had done with that small bag.
【Xiao Mei, tear open the two packs of compressed biscuits exchanged from my last “Forest Flavor Light Salad” and mix them into this bag of mine.】
A simple dish of wild onions mixed with wild vegetables, a food uploaded right at the System’s threshold, and because Mei Qian had chosen a good name, she successfully “exchanged” for two packs of compressed biscuits from a sucker from the Apocalypse Plane.
What others saw Mei Qian take out was two liang of “flour,” but in reality, it was two packs of crushed compressed biscuit powder mixed with a tiny bit of wheat flour.
Xiao Mei had said that these two packs of compressed biscuits, in the apocalypse, would be enough to feed an adult for a week.
Mei Qian mixed the compressed biscuit powder with the flour, not hoping to make it last for several more meals.
She only wanted more nutrition and to feel full.
During the intense journey of the past two days, if Mei Qian hadn’t mixed some nutrient solution into her mother Madam Jiang’s wild vegetable soup, Madam Jiang would have miscarried long ago.
Given the current conditions and Madam Jiang’s five- or six-month pregnancy, a miscarriage would likely have meant two lives lost.
Therefore, Mei Qian now cherished every exchange opportunity even more.
She hoped to exchange for nutrient solution again this time!
When Grandma Mei and Mei Erhu returned, they saw Mei Qian cooking a large pot of wild vegetable dough drop soup.
“Oh my, my grain!”
Seeing the full pot of food, Grandma Mei immediately felt her vision darken.
Without time to scold Mei Qian for wasting, Grandma Mei hurried to check the grain bag carried by her precious donkey.
Fortunately, it hadn’t changed.
Thinking this, she glanced at Mei Qian’s small bag and found it hadn’t changed as much as she had imagined either.
But even so, Grandma Mei still felt Mei Qian had made too much tonight, so she immediately turned and walked toward Mei Qian, who had already started serving the wild vegetable dough drop soup to everyone, intending to say something.
However, as soon as she reached Mei Qian, she was hit in the face with the aroma of grains and vegetables from a bowl Mei Qian handed her.
“Grandma, want some?”
“…Yes!”
Though countless words had been on the tip of her tongue, what came out in the end was still so honest.
【Congratulations, Host. “Fusion Dish: Vegetable and Dough Medley” has been exchanged. The exchanger is still that one from the Apocalypse Plane. This time, the food exchanged by the other party: four packs of compressed biscuits~】
Mei Qian, who had been longing to exchange for nutrient solution: “…”