During Lin Guihua’s postpartum confinement period, all the household chores once again fell onto Zhou Qingling’s shoulders. On top of that, she had to take care of a pregnant woman and two children, making the already heavy workload even worse.
The worst part was that she still was not allowed to eat enough. In the past, she could at least eat to about fifty percent full, but now she could not even reach thirty percent. Even a body made of iron could not withstand such conditions.
Looking at the pigs in the pen, Zhou Qingling could not help but sigh inwardly. Human beings were not even living as well as pigs; at least the pigs were fed until they were full every day.
She wanted to escape this situation, and the simplest and most effective method she could think of was to find a crowded place and faint.
If one were to ask where the most people in the village gathered, it would undoubtedly be by the small river.
First, there were many people there. Second, they were all women. Third, it was safe.
After choosing the location, on that day Zhou Qingling carried a basin of dirty clothes, selected the best spot to lie down, and then dramatically fainted.
As expected, she did not disappoint herself. A group of women immediately put down their work and went forward to check on her condition.
Zhou Qingling kept her eyes tightly closed, but weak sounds came from her mouth.
“Hungry… hungry…”
In order to act out this performance, she had not secretly eaten anything the previous night. The thin vegetable porridge she had in the morning was completely useless, and at this moment her weakness was entirely genuine.
Several women nearby heard Zhou Qingling’s voice and showed expressions of pity.
“Ah! This girl Ling has fainted from hunger.”
Another woman said: “Which family nowadays is not tightening their belts? There is nothing that can be done.”
The group kindly carried Zhou Qingling back home.
Mother Zhou’s expression turned very unpleasant upon seeing this. She was not distressed for Zhou Qingling, but rather did not want outsiders to gossip about their family. There were no secrets in the village, especially under so many watching eyes. Even the smallest matter could be exaggerated many times over, and no one wanted their household to become the subject of public discussion.
Mother Zhou had a strong sense of pride and did not want to become a laughingstock.
After that, the vegetable porridge in Zhou Qingling’s bowl became noticeably thicker. In the days that followed, whenever the workload increased slightly, Zhou Qingling would begin to sway as if she were about to faint.
This method proved extremely effective, and she was not afraid of being exposed.
During this period, although she managed to eat quite a few extra meals, the body had suffered too much damage and she did not gain any weight.
Moreover, she deliberately controlled her food intake and did not dare to eat too much. Everyone in the village was already pale and thin; if she alone appeared rosy and well-fed, even if others did not know the reason, her family members who ate from the same pot every day would certainly notice. It would clearly be unreasonable.
Zhou Qingling did not dare to be careless. Many transmigrators were exposed precisely because of such details.
If she had been in a kind family, it would have been fine, but with the Zhou Family, she had to remain extremely vigilant.
In the past few days, the wind had dried the land quite a bit, and the villagers had begun heading into the mountains again in search of food.
A new batch of wild vegetables had grown again—purslane and goosefoot greens, which were commonly eaten by villagers.
Zhou Qingling also carried a basket and went up the mountain. Suddenly, she felt the storage space tremble. She looked around, then walked deeper into the mountain before squatting in a patch of grass. Even if someone accidentally saw her, they would only assume she was relieving herself.
Zhou Qingling eagerly entered the storage space. It had expanded significantly, now about one hundred square meters in size. A new spring had also appeared, but no water was flowing out.
Only the surrounding ground was damp. Zhou Qingling placed an empty bowl beside the spring to see whether water would accumulate.
After walking around the storage space, she found nothing else. Since she was already inside, she ate a meat bun before leaving.
At present, food was scarce, and everyone placed their hopes on the mountains. As a result, wild vegetables had become increasingly difficult to find.
Zhou Qingling spent a long time digging but only managed to gather less than half a basket. In the afternoon, after returning home, she helped Father Zhou make adobe bricks.
She also wanted to quickly build the kitchen so she could sleep separately from Father Zhou and Mother Zhou. Sharing the same room was very inconvenient.
She was an adult, not a real child. When the couple might do things in the middle of the night, she felt extremely awkward. It was better to move out as soon as possible.
That night, Zhou Qingling did not have the opportunity to enter the storage space. The next day, when she went up the mountain again to dig wild vegetables and re-entered the storage space, she saw that the bowl near the spring now contained about half a bowl of water—roughly a single sip’s worth.
She carefully picked up the bowl and took a sip, smacking her lips. There was no special taste at all, just like ordinary mountain spring water.
After swallowing it for a while, her body showed no abnormal reaction. Zhou Qingling thought inwardly: it was probably not some mystical spiritual spring, just an ordinary spring. She had expected as much; she was not so fortunate.
That year was a famine year, with excessive rainfall.
Spring had already suffered disasters, and people had hoped for a good autumn harvest. Unexpectedly, the yield was even worse than in spring.
Households that could eat enough were already few, and now things had become even worse.
Since the autumn harvest, Father Zhou and Mother Zhou had not stopped worrying.
Mother Zhou took back the responsibility of cooking again, for no other reason than fear that Zhou Qingling and Lin Guihua might secretly eat extra food.
Food was life now. The price of coarse rice in town had been rising continuously, increasing several times over, and fine rice and white flour were even more unthinkable.
Although the Zhou Family still had some stored grain, no one knew how long this abnormal weather would continue. If next year also suffered disasters, they had to leave themselves some backup.
For dinner, Zhou Qingling received a flatbread about the size of a donkey dung pellet in her hands.
“…It was truly pitifully small.”
Could that even be two bites? It was sour and foul-smelling, filled entirely with residue. How could such an unappetizing flatbread exist?
It was a mixed-grain flatbread. Mixed flour referred to powder made from wheat bran, wheat husks, corn cobs, and corn leaves. After eating it, one could not relieve oneself for days, and the stomach felt bloated and uncomfortable. Even so, one still could not eat freely.
At this time, wheat bran itself had already become a good thing, let alone grain.
Zhou Qingling took a bite and quickly swallowed it down with vegetable soup. Fortunately, her portion was small.
In the past, villagers often greeted each other with the phrase “Have you eaten?”
Now, the same question had become a longing for simply having enough food.
In disaster years, everything edible was considered a treasure. At this time, it was already late autumn, and wild vegetables in the mountains could no longer be found. Villagers turned their attention to tree bark and roots instead.
In particular, elm bark was broken into small pieces and ground in a millstone. The black-yellow bark gradually turned into powder, which was far better than eating grass roots.
These were all foods used to fill the stomach.
At this moment, Zhou Qingling and Mother Zhou also gathered a lot of elm bark into their basket.
However, as she suddenly stood up, her vision went completely black for an instant. Zhou Qingling knew it was low blood sugar.
During these two months, Zhou Qingling had not dared to fake fainting anymore, because several families in the village had started selling people.
Of course, they were selling girls. Although she had not been here for many years, she often met them while gathering wild vegetables in the mountains and had even traveled together with them.
Suddenly, these girls who were similar to her age, and even younger ones, were dragged away by human traffickers. Watching their desperate cries as they begged their parents not to sell them, Zhou Qingling felt a sense of tragic helplessness.
It was a disaster year, yet taxes had not been reduced. After a year of hard labor, farmers not only failed to earn enough after taxation but even had to pay extra money. It was heard that there was war in the north, and most of the grain from the past two years had been transported there by the Imperial Court.
As a result, families without savings could only sell their sons and daughters.