“Mother, how is it eggplant again…” A young girl dressed in coarse linen looked at the bowl of dark pickled vegetables and Water Boiled Eggplant on the table, a pained expression on her face.
The woman glared at the girl and placed the Sweet Potato Porridge in her hands on the table.
“In times like these, you’re lucky to have anything to eat at all, yet you’re still being picky. Hurry up and take the food on the stove to your grandparents in the fields.”
The girl pouted, feeling reluctant. That, combined with her gnawing hunger, made her movements sluggish. She didn’t move for a long while.
Just as the woman was about to give the girl a harsh slap to teach her a lesson, a slightly younger, delicate-featured girl walked out of the room.
“Mother, Fourth Sister, I’ll take the meal to Grandpa and Grandma,” the girl said obediently.
However, the woman refused without a second thought.
“How can you? You’ve only just recovered from your cold…”
Seeing this, the other girl said reluctantly and listlessly, “That’s right, Fifth Sister. You just got better. I should go…”
“You’ve all worked hard all day, just let me go. Besides, I’m already well. I haven’t even coughed since this morning.”
Perhaps seeing that her youngest daughter truly seemed no different from a healthy person, and considering that her fourth daughter had indeed been up since the crack of dawn helping the family harvest rice and was quite tired, Chen Shi didn’t stop her any longer.
“Then wear a straw hat so you don’t get sunburned. The sun is vicious today.”
Hearing this, Su Li smiled and nodded. “I know, Mother.”
With that, Su Li went to the kitchen, picked up the packed Sweet Potato Porridge and vegetables, then grabbed a straw hat she had woven in her idle days from by the door, and headed out towards the fields.
The July sun was indeed scorching. The moment Su Li stepped outside, she was enveloped by the blistering sunlight. After just a few steps, sweat beaded on her forehead and upper lip.
Thinking of the two elders who had been toiling in the fields all day without a meal, Su Li couldn’t help but pull the brim of her hat lower and quicken her pace.
The Su family’s fields were at the foot of the back mountain. One had to climb several slopes and turn down a few small paths to get there; it was truly quite remote.
Su Li walked for about ten minutes before reaching the small patch of paddy fields. Upon arrival, she first placed the food in the shade of a tree before calling out to the two elders still busy in the field:
“Grandpa, Grandma, time to eat.”
The two elders were still bent over, vigorously cutting rice stalks in the field. They only noticed their granddaughter’s arrival when they heard her voice.
While cutting rice, Su Laotou said to the old woman beside him who was holding a basket, “It sounds like Fifth Lass has brought us our meal. You go eat first. I’ll come over after I finish this section.”
Wu Laopozi looked back and saw that it was indeed her youngest granddaughter who had brought the food. A thought seemed to cross her mind, and she frowned, washed her hands, and laboriously walked back.
“Didn’t I tell your fourth sister to bring the food? Why is it you?”
Wu Laopozi’s tone wasn’t very pleasant, and at first listen, one might think she was very fierce. But having been with her for these past few days, Su Li knew that her bark was worse than her bite. She was just expressing her concern for Su Li’s health. She smiled and handed the bowl over.
“Grandma, I’m all better now.”
Wu Laopozi took the bowl and averted her eyes, saying dismissively, “After spending so much of the family’s money, you’d better be.”
This time, it was Su Li who didn’t know what to say.
After all, her illness could be said to have exhausted all the family’s savings. The money originally intended for her second brother Su Qingshan’s betrothal was all spent, so it was no wonder Grandma Wu was unhappy.
But even though Grandma Wu said this, Su Li knew that if she hadn’t agreed, her mother, Chen Shi, would never have been able to take out so much money to hire a doctor for her.
Sure enough, in the next second, Wu Laopozi said awkwardly:
“Alright, you can go back now. Just leave the bowl and chopsticks here. Your grandpa can bring them home later.”
Hearing this, for some reason, a warm current surged through Su Li’s heart.
It had been nearly half a month since she transmigrated to Da Wei, and this was not the first time Su Li had felt the Su family’s love and care for her. At times like these, Su Li’s heart would be filled with a special kind of happiness.
In her previous life, Su Li was born into a family of two teachers. Her parents were both cultured people, and to outsiders, her life should have been very happy. But Su Li had never felt what love was.
Because their marriage had been arranged by elders and they had both entered it with their own selfish motives, Su Li’s parents schemed against and hurt each other. The only thing missing was a trace of genuine affection.
And as the product of a loveless union, Su Li naturally became a sacrifice of their marriage.
High-pressure education, frequent beatings, scoldings, being forced to stand in a corner, and being denied food—this state of affairs ran through almost Su Li’s entire life.
It wasn’t until Su Li was diagnosed with stomach cancer that she experienced what was almost her happiest time.
Because her parents, seeming to realize she was going to die, finally showed her a sliver of concern. But it was only a momentary concern, and then they began to shift blame and criticize her.
So much so that when she learned she had transmigrated to a dynasty called Wei, which had never appeared in history, Su Li’s first reaction was a sense of relief, a feeling of final liberation.
Although the Su family she had transmigrated into was at the very bottom of the social ladder in Da Wei, a Junhu household despised by the world, the family members cared for and loved one another. Though their days were poor, their hearts were not weary.
Sometimes, life doesn’t need too much sweetness. Just a tiny bit is enough to give us the courage to live bravely in this desolate and overgrown world.
“Are you in a daze? What are you standing there for? Hurry back, aren’t you hot?”
Wu Laopozi finished the porridge in her bowl in a few quick gulps. Seeing her little granddaughter Su Li still standing there, she couldn’t help but urge her on.
Su Li heard her and said, “It’s fine, Grandma. The sun doesn’t reach here.” After speaking, Su Li deliberately moved a little further into the shade.
“Suit yourself.” Seeing this, Wu Laopozi couldn’t be bothered to say more.
At this moment, Su Laotou, having finished cutting the rice, finally came ashore. He washed his hands and feet, and a smile appeared on his face when he saw Su Li. “Has Fifth Lass eaten?”
“I’ve eaten,” Su Li replied. She wasn’t lying. Because of her illness, Su Li had been given special, smaller meals that she ate earlier.
She had pretty much recovered yesterday, but this morning, her mother Chen Shi had still made her a “nutritious meal” ahead of time (which was really just an extra steamed egg).
“Good.” Su Laotou said no more, took the food, and began to eat.
In the quiet mountains and fields, the only sounds were the clinking of the bowl and chopsticks and the chirping of cicadas in the distance.
While the two of them were eating, Su Li slowly made her way to the edge of the water. Besides delivering the meal to her grandparents, she had come out this time to see if there were any fish, river snails, or the like in the paddy field.
If there were, she could take them back to either sell for money or to supplement their meals, which would be great.
Because of her treatment, the family had spent a full five taels of silver, using up almost all the money the Su family had saved over the past two years. As a result, even during the busy farming season, the whole family could only eat pickled vegetables and plain food.
In such hot weather, with not a single scrap of meat, even the able-bodied laborers couldn’t stand it, let alone the Su family with its old and young members. How could they endure?
Su Li had no other skills; the only thing she could do was see if she could make some delicious food to replenish everyone’s strength.
However, when she reached the edge of the field, Su Li was a little disappointed. Apart from swimming tadpoles and finger-sized small fish, river snails were pitifully scarce.
That made sense. In this era, everyone was barely getting enough to eat. Fish and the like would have been caught long ago. But why there were no river snails, Su Li couldn’t figure out.
Su Li’s eyes showed a hint of disappointment, and she was about to head back when she suddenly stepped on something slippery and hard. Su Li looked closely and saw it was a river clam larger than her foot.
!!!
Such a big river clam!! It must have a lot of meat! The first thing that came to Su Li’s mind was a hundred ways to cook a river clam.
In her previous life, Su Li had lived with her maternal grandmother in the countryside for a while and had eaten her grandmother’s stir-fried river clams with chili peppers and river clam soup. Su Li still remembered the taste to this day.
Later, after Su Li grew up and graduated, she became a food blogger and even filmed an episode on how to make delicious dishes with river clams.
This was great! Although there were no fish or river snails, there were river clams. This trip wasn’t in vain.
Moreover, Su Li looked and saw that there wasn’t just one in the grass by the bank, but at least ten or so. They must have been deliberately tossed there by her grandparents while harvesting rice to avoid cutting their feet.
From her memory, people in Da Wei didn’t particularly like to eat river clams because they had a rather fishy smell. The current cooking methods were still generally limited to steaming and boiling; stir-frying was still rare, and spices were mostly used as medicine. Therefore, it was difficult to remove the fishy smell from things, and naturally, many delicious foods had not yet been unlocked.
Su Li immediately decided to take the river clams back and make spicy stir-fried river clams. It would definitely go well with rice. These days, drinking porridge every day had made her mouth feel bland. Occasionally, Chen Shi would cook some dishes, but the taste was truly a bit hard to swallow.
“Fifth Lass, what are you picking up those river clams for?” Su Laotou, seeing his granddaughter picking up river clams from the corner of his eye, was a little puzzled.
“Grandpa, I’m taking them back to eat,” Su Li replied.
Hearing this, Su Laotou quickly put down the coarse porcelain bowl in his hand. “Eat?”
“Aiyo, my dear granddaughter, put those down quickly. Those river clams stink so bad, even dogs won’t eat them.” Su Laotou’s face changed with fright.
“They don’t, Grandpa. They’re delicious when cooked right,” Su Li continued to pick up the clams.
“You, just listen to Grandpa and throw them away quickly.” As Su Laotou spoke, he came over, preparing to kick Su Li’s clams back into the water.
“Grandpa, don’t! They’re really delicious.” Su Li quickly stopped him, not letting her grandpa throw away her clams.
As the two were at a stalemate, Wu Laopozi, who was off to the side, suddenly spoke up: “Forget it. If she wants to eat them, let her pick them. It won’t kill her.”
Only then did Su Laotou stop. “You child, you won’t listen. Don’t blame me for not reminding you when your hands stink later.”
Su Laotou wasn’t just saying that. He had eaten them before during a famine. River clams had a strong fishy smell, especially if you were unlucky enough to open a dead one. The stench would linger on your hands for days and couldn’t be washed off; the smell alone made you want to vomit.
But while Su Laotou’s words were harsh, his body was very honest. He picked up a river clam from the ground. “Forget it, I’ll open them for you before you take them back.”
Su Li hadn’t expected her grandpa to be so nice. The river clams were big and heavy, and she had been worrying about how to carry them back.
“Thank you, Grandpa.”