Chapter 7: It doesn’t have to be so cruel!

Zhou Jin and his sister naturally didn't know that their cheap mother had upgraded from a steamed bun to a puffer fish, and was going to stab anyone who provoked her. The brother and sister were happily looking for snails in the weeds!

There were quite a few snails in this area, and they were not small. Many of them were as big as coins. In order to improve efficiency, the two of them discarded the small ones and only picked up the big ones.

While picking up the loaches, Zhou Jin was quick-eyed and quick-handed enough to catch a lot of loaches in the mud.

The large leaves he picked could not hold the fish, so Zhou Jin took off his coat and made a large bag to hold them. The loaches were too slippery for the bag to hold, so he smashed their heads with stones before putting them in the bag.

The brother and sister were both very quick with their hands. In a short while, they had picked up half a bag of large snails and loaches. By the time the other people in the exile team had finished their meal and noticed the commotion here, they also came over to scramble for the bag. By then, they had already found a full bag and had accomplished their mission!

The two men walked upstream of the river and found a secluded place. They smashed the snail shells with stones and took out the meat. They also killed the loaches with sharp stones and washed them clean. Then they went back with a bag of snail meat and loaches.

Seeing that they had found so many snails and loaches, Zheng was overjoyed. These snails, along with the pancakes and porridge, would be enough for her and her mother to eat for several days. Having food in the granary was no big deal. Seeing so much snail meat and loach, Zheng generously grabbed a handful and a few loaches and put them in the stone pot beside her, along with the pancakes and porridge, and began to cook. The two little ones, who had been woken by Zheng to wait for their meal, were so greedy that their mouths watered.

Zheng planned to put the remaining snail meat and loach on the rocks next to the fire to dry, otherwise they would become smelly if left overnight in this hot weather.

"Mom, you just need to dry the snail meat, and save the loaches for me, I need them." Zhou Jin was exhausted after working for half a day. He was about to take the bamboo tube handed to him by his younger brother to drink water, but when he saw Zheng was about to roast the loach meat, he hurriedly stopped her.

"Okay," Zheng agreed without even asking what he was going to do with the loach meat. In her mind, a woman should obey her husband after marriage and her son after death. Now that her son had grown up and had his own ideas, she was overjoyed and just listened.

Zhou Jin...felt that it was such a fucking good feeling to be trusted!

Although Zhou Jin felt good about Zheng's unconditional trust without even asking, he still felt he needed to tell Zheng about his plans. After all, their family was now composed entirely of women and children (Grandpa Zhou's family was automatically considered outsiders by Zhou Jin), and there was still a nearly three thousand miles of exile ahead of them. As the only adult in the family, Zheng would need to step in on some matters.

"Mother, our family is in trouble now. I heard from the officials that Liaodong, where we are being exiled, is more than 3,000 miles away from the capital. Even if we walk 50 miles a day, it will take more than two months to get there. My brothers and sisters are still young, so the journey will be very difficult. Now it is obvious that grandparents will not help us. We have to take care of ourselves. If we don't think carefully, I am afraid our family will have a hard time reaching Liaodong."

Zhou Jin first laid out the difficulties encountered along the way.

Although Zheng had rarely been out of the house, she was an adult after all. When she was in Kyoto, she heard people talk about how miserable those families who committed crimes and were exiled were. After a disaster, it was considered lucky if only one or two out of ten people survived!

Now her family has also suffered a disaster. This is what she has been worrying about all the time, day and night, these days. She is afraid that the children are still young and one or two of them will inevitably die on the road!

That's why she thought of boiling the hard pancakes until they were soft. Every day, no matter how tired she was, she would try her best to boil some water, let it cool, and pour it into bamboo tubes for the children to drink on the way, for fear that the children would get sick on the way.

But she also knew in her heart that these alone would not be enough to protect the children. They had been short of food and clothing along the way, and it would be difficult for the children to reach Liaodong safely on her own. She just didn't want to think about these things too much.

"Ajin, don't worry. Even if it costs me my own life, I will definitely protect you! I know you must have been scared today, so don't worry too much..."

Zheng thought Zhou Jin was as worried as she was, so she tried to comfort him in a dry voice.

Zhou Jin...thought to himself: I guess it's useless even if you risk your life...

"Mom, what my brother means is that this journey is difficult and dangerous, and we should discuss everything together. As the saying goes, there is strength in numbers. If we work together, we will definitely be able to overcome the difficulties!" Zhou Yu, who was standing aside, saw that Zheng had misunderstood her brother's meaning, and hurriedly spoke for her brother.

"Yes, that's what I mean! Mom, our son has grown up now, and our elder sister is smart. In the future, when you encounter problems, don't just think about handling them by yourself. Don't keep it in your heart and think about it by yourself. Tell us and we can think of a solution together. It's always better than thinking alone." Zhou Jin hurriedly followed.

In the original body's memory, Zheng has been in extreme anxiety these days. She is so tired from taking care of them during the day, and often can't sleep for half the night. If this continues, she will fall down first if no one else does.

"Yes, mother, we can't just worry about our family for you, we can also help. Look, my brother caught so many snails and loaches today, and my daughter has learned how to make a fire and even thought of weaving a mat with wormwood. Don't you think we are great?!"

In order to comfort the anxious Zheng, Zhou Yu went out without caring about his face, imitated his original appearance in his memory, acted like a pretentious little girl, and snuggled into Zheng's arms and acted coquettishly.

"Hehe... Mom, please praise me..."

Zhou Jin was shocked...

Who was this limp creature before him? Was it his sister who had shot a zombie in the mouth without blinking?

Could it be that after being transformed into a little girl, she really became a little girl again...? No, when his sister was a little girl, she didn't know what it meant to act like a spoiled child...

Seeing his sister looking at him as if wanting him to do the same, he quickly turned his face away silently. No, he still had some dignity to protect...

How could Zheng not see from the two siblings' expressions that they were worried about her and trying to comfort her? How could she bear to see her children worry? Seeing her daughter acting coquettishly, she quickly pressed Zhou Yu's little nose lovingly and said with a smile:

"Our A-Yu is amazing! Now she knows how to worry about the family. But, when did A-Yu learn to weave mats? And A-Jin, when did you learn to catch snails and loaches? How come I don't know?"

Uh, Zhou Yu held his forehead, forgetting that he was originally a delicate young lady who never left the house. He just spoke out his memories of learning to weave mats with reeds from his neighbors in his hometown in his previous life...

"Haha, my daughter doesn't know how to weave mats, but we can learn. I think it shouldn't be difficult. It's just like making lace. We can learn it if we study hard..." Zhou Yu said quickly.

Zhou Jin...

"Uh... my son also saw someone catching snails and loaches to eat when he went to the village, and out of curiosity he learned how to do it..."

"Oh, so that's how it is! Mother was wondering how you could know this." Zheng asked casually, and believed it after hearing the two people's answers.

Phew, they finally got through it. The brother and sister looked at each other and thought to themselves that they must be careful in the future. After all, Zheng was the biological mother of the original body. It would be bad if she found that they were different from usual and thought they were possessed or something.

However, Zhou Yu felt that just paying attention was not enough, as that would be too restrictive. He also had to find a way to make Zheng feel that their changes were justified. He couldn't just not dare to do anything in the future for fear of arousing suspicion.

So she thought about it and said tentatively,

"Mom, I think the more difficult the situation is, the more we need to plan ahead. For example, Mom was captured by bandits today. We have to think ahead about how to avoid this next time."

"Well," Zhou Jin felt that what his sister said made sense. After thinking for a while, he whispered, "I thought so too. I left those loaches to my mother because I wanted to send them to the official who delivered our sweet soup today. I have already inquired about it. That person is the chief official who escorted us. It will never hurt us to have a good relationship with him!

And I think that from now on, when we travel, we should try to follow Elder Zhou and his family closely. Those officials respect Elder Zhou and will pay more attention to his family, so it will be safer for us to follow behind them."

He glanced at the Zhou family not far away and said, "We just had a falling out with them today. Why don't we just go our separate ways? No one will care about us if we get into trouble anyway. Why should we bear their wrath?"

He doesn't have time to deal with this family now.

Zheng was now completely disappointed with the Zhou family. Seeing her son say this, she nodded and said, "It would be better if you could stay away from them!"

"Mom, look how thoughtful my brother is. As the saying goes, three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang. If you encounter problems in the future, we will help you think together and we will always be able to come up with a solution!" Zhou Yu said while holding Zheng's hand.

So, if she and her brother develop some skills they don't normally have, or their personalities change, that's all because they're forced to do so by life! Don't think they're possessed and burned like evil spirits!!!

In fact, Zhou Yu was unnecessarily worried, as Zheng had already thought so.

Zheng was very pleased to see that her eldest son and daughter were so sensible. She was still in fear of being robbed today. She was not afraid of what would happen to her, as she would die at most. She was afraid that if she died, her children would not be able to live! After listening to her children's words, she thought for a while and said:

"From tomorrow on, Mom and A-Yu will try their best to cover their faces with mud. If someone tries to snatch it from us again... they won't notice us!"

Zhou Yu...

Yeah, the effect is good. Zheng finally agreed to discuss it with them instead of keeping it to herself.

But when she looked down at the flatness of her chest, she realized that she was just a little kid in her teens. If she wore boys' clothes, it would be hard to tell whether she was a boy or a girl. She felt that it didn't matter whether she covered herself up or not, but her mother had to cover herself up well.

Zheng was so beautiful that even with disheveled hair and dirty face, she could not hide her charm. If Zhou Yu remembered correctly, she was only thirty years old this year. She was good-looking and at the age when she was full of femininity. When she stood in the exile team, it was as if she would glow automatically. Who else would the bandits rob if not her!

"Mom, I'm still young. The key is you. You have to cover yourself up carefully. It's better to change this fitted dress..." Zhou Yu said with some envy as she looked at her mother who had everything she wanted and a standard S-shaped figure.

Zheng knew she was beautiful, which was certainly a good thing in the past, but now, in exile, it was a sin! No, it should be said that after she became a widow, in the eyes of her mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law, it was a sin!

Because of this face, no matter how much she abided by the code of conduct for women, she usually went out without makeup and rarely even left the courtyard. They still felt that she was not someone who could keep her face.

If she hadn't been so reluctant to leave her children behind, she really wouldn't have wanted to stay at the Zhou family's house for even a moment, especially when she ran into the two uncles and their eyes looked at her nakedly...

"Well, before we left, your grandparents gave us some coarse cloth clothes, which were deliberately made loose. We will change into them tomorrow. If they still don't fit, mother will scratch her face!" Zheng said gritting her teeth, feeling extremely disgusted with her face.

Zhou Yu, Zhou Jin...there's no need to be so cruel!

"No, no, mother, wait until tomorrow I will use charcoal to shave your face, and then put on some coarse clothes, and then you will be less conspicuous!"

Don’t scratch your face!!

Zhou Yu said hurriedly.

The author has something to say:

Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided me with nutrient solution between 2022-05-25 23:46:42 and 2022-05-26 17:56:43~

Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: yu 2 bottles;

Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!