There weren't many bamboo worms, so after roasting them, they were placed at the bottom of the bowl, barely covering the bottom.

Chen Kai sprinkled some salt in and then said, "Chen Nong, you try it first."

Chen Nong grabbed one, threw it into his mouth, smacked it a couple of times, and swallowed it. "So delicious!"

Before they could finish dividing the bamboo worms, the group had to continue their journey.

At that moment, the image of steamed buns popped into Chen Nong's mind.

"Hello host, would you like to spend 400 taels of silver to increase the space by 0.5 cubic meters?"

Chen Nong immediately shared the good news with everyone, but the Chen family didn't have enough money!

Not just the Chen family, but the village chief's family too!

Old Man Chen said, "Fourth brother, go borrow from the village chief of Lotus Village. Eldest brother, go borrow from the village chief of Mountain Village. Be quick, don't let the village chiefs beat you to it."

The Chen family only has 150 taels of silver left. They need to keep 50 taels in reserve and cannot touch them.

The three maternal uncles also took out their family savings, totaling one hundred taels of silver.

Chen Xiaohua's family also took out their silver, forty taels of silver.

Although the families of Chen's two daughters-in-law did not know what had happened to their in-laws that made them so in need of money, they still took out their savings, totaling fifty taels.

Finally, the fourth brother borrowed seventy taels of silver from the village chief of Lotus Village, and the eldest brother borrowed forty taels from Dashan Village.

After the steamed bun is upgraded, it has 2.5 cubic meters of space, which is 0.5 cubic meters short of level 3.

Zhou said excitedly, "The steamed bun is almost level 3. Once it reaches level 3, Chen Nong can hide inside the steamed bun whenever he encounters trouble."

As Baozi mentioned before, once Chen Nong reaches level 3, he can freely enter and exit the space.

Chen Nong grinned from ear to ear. Baozi had reached level 3, so from now on, no one would be able to find him when playing hide-and-seek.

Chen Kai said, "Dad, Baozi is almost level 3, when will your Dahei reach level 1?"

Old Man Chen opened the panel and exclaimed, "Huh? Big Black, how did you get to level one?"

In addition, there are 26 experience points.

Big Black: "Host, you accumulated 100 experience points last month. I reminded you whether to use them to level up or to release junk, but you ignored me. I asked you three times and you still didn't answer. So I used the experience points to level up for you."

Old Man Chen: "..." Maybe he didn't notice, since he often couldn't understand what Big Black was saying.

Chen Kai heard that Hei Niu had also reached level 1, but leveling up was still slow. His father couldn't sign in now, so he could only make use of the waste to accumulate experience points.

No wonder there was so much water in the trash this month, including fruit knives and power banks; it turns out they've upgraded it.

Old Man Chen: "Big Black, next time you've accumulated enough experience points, remind me until I hear you, understand?"

Big Black: "Okay, host."

It often has difficulty communicating with its host language, which is why it wants to upgrade as soon as possible.

Just then, the fifth son's voice came from outside, "Dad, Mom, a family has lost a donkey that's about to die. They're planning to kill it and eat it. Should we go and get something to exchange for it?"

Zhou said, "I'll go take a look."

What can we exchange now? Apart from the things bestowed upon us by our ancestors, there's nothing else we can trade.

Finally, Zhou picked out three 5L mineral water buckets and a pair of denim shoes.

Chen Nong's excitement wore off, and he returned to reality.

So what if his buns grow bigger? They still have no water and no food.

Chen Nong said listlessly, "In the future, will we also have to kill the donkey to eat?"

The people in the carriage fell silent. If they were truly starving and had no other choice, they would definitely take this route, after all, human life was of paramount importance.

In the end, Zhou traded ten catties of donkey meat and a bowl of donkey blood for it.

Zhou: "Chen Nong, put it in the bun."

Chen Nong put it inside; it would keep it fresh in his buns.

Inside one of the Wu family's mule carts.

Xiao Bao patted his flat little belly and said, "Brother, I'm hungry."

When he was little, he pulled out three blades of grass and said, "I also have some grass roots, you can eat them."

Xiao Bao took the grass root and started eating it, saying, "Brother, it's not filling."

Xiao Shi sighed, "Oh! Why don't you take a nap after you finish eating? You won't feel hungry when you're asleep."

"Okay!" The three grass roots were chewed up in a few bites.

At this moment, the stomachs of the other two dolls also started growling loudly from hunger.

Xiao Bao sighed, "Let's go to sleep together. If we're asleep, we won't feel hungry."

Xiao Bao was half asleep when suddenly an electronic voice sounded in his mind: "Host successfully locked, farm system successfully bound, would you like to activate it?"

Xiao Bao mumbled a few words in his sleep and then fell asleep again.

The system beeped twice more, then fell silent when the host did not respond.

Xiao Bao slept for the entire afternoon, only to be woken up by hunger in the end.

When Xiao Shi saw that her younger brother had woken up and his stomach was still rumbling, she handed him a small piece of roasted Smilax glabra. "Here, eat this to fill your stomach. Grandma just gave it to you. We're almost at our rest stop. Grandma traded some donkey meat for it, and she'll roast some for us later."

Xiao Bao exclaimed happily, "We'll have donkey meat to eat! Let's go dig up some grass roots and then we'll eat donkey meat when we get back!"

He was very thirsty and wanted to drink water, but there was no water available, so he could only dig up grass roots to quench his thirst.

"Host successfully locked, farm system successfully bound. Would you like to activate it?"

"Huh?" Xiao Bao asked curiously, "Brother, did you hear a strange sound?"

Several people shook their heads.

"We didn't hear anything."

Xiao Bao heard that voice again. Seeing that no one else could hear it, he suddenly remembered something and exclaimed excitedly, "Brother, it seems like Grandma's ancestor bestowed a treasure upon me!"

Xiao Shi exclaimed excitedly, "Really?"

Xiao Bao nodded. "It should be. There's a voice in my head that I can hear, but you guys seem to be unable to hear it. Wasn't it the same with Grandpa's Big Black and Chen Nong's steamed buns?"

Xiao Shi said happily, "That must be it. We have participated in every ancestral worship ceremony of my maternal grandfather's family and kowtowed. It must be because my maternal grandfather's ancestors saw it that they manifested their power and bestowed treasures upon Xiao Bao."

Xiao Shi quickly told his parents about it.

Chen Xiaohua said happily, "It must be a treasure bestowed upon you by my ancestor. Before, your grandparents were unhappy when I took you to kowtow and offer incense to my ancestor, but now they know better. Come on, Xiaobao, let me take you to your maternal grandfather and have him perform the ritual for you."

Xiao Bao and the others are from the Wu family. Chen Xiaohua led them to kowtow and offer incense to the Chen family ancestor every month. How could the two elders of the Wu family be happy? They were so frightened that they developed a mental illness. Although they knew it was just to participate in the sacrificial activities, they were still a little worried that their daughter-in-law wanted to take the children back to the Chen family to recognize their ancestors.

If it were any other family, they would have already started fighting. It's just that the two elders in the Wu family have good tempers, give their daughter-in-law a lot of trust, and believe that their in-laws wouldn't do such a thing.