“Da Lang, Er Niang, You Niang, come eat!” Xu Da called the children, not wanting to say more to Wang Shi.
Those who walk different paths cannot make plans together. As long as his life wasn’t threatened, why should he worry so much?
Did they really think he had nothing better to do? He hadn’t eaten all morning and had just been in a group fight – he was so hungry his chest was sticking to his back.
“Ah~” Xu Da couldn’t help but sigh. When would these hard times finally end!
Wang Shi took out the remaining bran cakes from her basket, giving one to each person. Paired with the pot of watery porridge that Xu Da had snatched – so thin you could count the rice grains – the family of five managed to fill their stomachs.
With full bellies and strength restored, Wang Shi looked at the dense forest around them and picked up her homemade bow, preparing to explore the woods.
“You stay and watch the children. There are plenty of grass stems around – figure out how to make some straw sandals for replacements.”
Wang Shi naturally assigned tasks to her cheap husband, her tone full of disdain.
Xu Da glared, pointing at Tong Shi and others nursing their children nearby, and growled in a low voice:
“Wang Shi, don’t go too far. Have you ever seen any real man staying behind to watch children and make straw sandals?”
Wang Shi “oh-ed” and glanced at him, “Can you hunt?”
“I—” Xu Da choked up. He could kill spirit beasts, could even detail the characteristics and weaknesses of every type of spirit beast.
But these ordinary animals – he hadn’t seen a single one!
But he figured they were all beasts, probably similar enough.
Just as Xu Da was about to say he could do it too, Wang Shi had already walked off. From afar came a teasing remark:
“With your small frame, you can’t even chase down a pheasant. Better save your energy to make me some straw sandals. With me around, you won’t starve.”
Listen to that talk! As if he depended entirely on her for food. Wasn’t that pot of porridge just now obtained by him?
Xu Da’s chest heaved violently, unsure whether from shame or anger, his face flushed red – a redness visible even through his dark skin.
Especially when he felt the strange looks from Wang Dayou and others, Xu Da wished he could chase after Wang Shi and cut her down with one strike.
All the impressive image he had painstakingly built among the villagers was completely gone!
However, after the recent fight with refugees from another village, everyone in Great King Village knew that Xu Da’s wife was fierce. Even if they wanted to laugh, they held back.
It was just that their sympathetic gazes always paid special attention to Xu Da.
Xu Yue slurped down her last mouthful of porridge, put the bowl in the clay pot, and not daring to provoke her cheap father who was radiating cold energy, quietly called her sister. The two sisters took the pots and bowls to the pond to wash.
Xu Dalan followed closely behind, protecting his sisters’ safety.
When the people of Great King Village saw Wang Shi enter the mountains, they gradually followed suit, probably wanting to find some filling food in the forest too.
Even if they couldn’t catch game, having a few handfuls of tender leaves or a bunch of wild fruit would be good.
The clearing was suddenly left with only women and children. Tong Shi led her daughter while carrying her son on her back, searching through the grass for something – probably hoping to find some wild duck eggs or similar for the children to eat.
Her less-than-one-year-old son had only drunk half a small bowl of thin porridge earlier and wasn’t full yet, crying continuously from hunger.
The sound was like a kitten’s meow, soft and faint, but unceasing.
Tong Shi’s heart ached, so she had to take him off her back, lift her clothes, and breastfeed him.
As for those tedious rules of propriety and moral boundaries, they were the last concern for desperate people like them who couldn’t even get enough to eat.
With something to suck on, the little one immediately stopped crying and began sucking vigorously.
However, due to long-term malnutrition, Tong Shi had long since run out of breast milk. When the infant couldn’t get any milk, it soon started whimpering again.
One child’s crying triggered a chain reaction, and the baby in Qiu Shi’s arms began crying too.
It was all because of hunger.
While adults could endure it, children didn’t understand endurance—especially infants who couldn’t even speak, leaving crying as their only way to express needs.
Xu Da felt his head swelling with frustration, suddenly feeling that his own three children were quite endearing in comparison.
Just as he picked up his sickle, preparing to search for usable grass stems based on his residual memories from this body, he turned around and found a little girl standing behind him.
Apparently startled by his sudden movement, the girl stumbled back half a step.
Xu Da recognized her—she was the eldest daughter of Wang Dayou’s family, a very sensible child who had never been seen crying or making trouble during their journey.
The small girl had a disproportionately large head and thin body, barefooted, draped in an ill-fitting adult’s old garment. Her large eyes stared fixedly at him… and the basket containing food hidden near his feet.
When Xu Yue and her siblings returned after washing the pots and bowls, they saw their father locked in a staring contest with a little girl.
Spotting Xu Yue and the others, Xu Da seemed to find his saviors. Being awkward with children, he quickly signaled Xu Yue with his eyes before decisively picking up his sickle, bypassing Wang Jia Danniang to cut grass.
Xu Erniang nudged Xu Yue’s shoulder with her elbow, gesturing for her to go ask what the little girl wanted.
After setting down the pots and bowls and first reassuring Xu Dalan—her “personal bodyguard”—Xu Yue approached Wang Jia Danniang.
Perhaps because they were both children, Wang Jia Danniang grew bolder and took two steps forward.
Before Xu Yue could ask, the girl reached into her clothes.
Was she about to draw a gun?
Xu Yue couldn’t help but laugh at her own fleeting thought—she’d watched too many police dramas, and the side effects were severe.
In this backward ancient era of Daqing, guns couldn’t possibly exist. What the girl pulled out was a white stone.
About the size of a baby’s fist, it was smooth and glossy, clearly having been handled frequently by its owner.
Xu Yue initially thought it might be jade, but then remembered that Dawang Village was similar to her own—no one could afford such luxuries.
Taking two steps forward and seeing no objection from Wang Jia Danniang, Xu Yue took the stone into her hand, examining it against the light.
It was just an ordinary white stone, more accurately called White Flint. Containing silicon, it could produce sparks when struck at high speed, hence also called flint.
But it wasn’t the same variety as ancient flints.
Because of its attractive appearance—white with crystalline inclusions—Xu Yue remembered how she and other village children used to collect similar stones for hopscotch games at her grandmother’s countryside home.
Clearly though, Wang Jia Danniang treated this as a treasure.
She whispered, “My brother keeps crying from hunger. Can I trade this for food? It’s my only treasure.”
It was evident she was reluctant to part with her treasure, but thinking of her starving brother, she’d decided to make the sacrifice.
Xu Yue felt this girl—even thinner and smaller than herself—was different from the other hollow-eyed children around them. Her eyes shone brightly.
Most importantly, she already understood the concept of equivalent exchange, so she chose to trade her treasures for food.
However, Xu Yue couldn’t make decisions about food matters herself – she still had to rely on her mother for meals.