Upon seeing Jiang Tangtang and Lu Shiyan return, Luo Taohua quickly went to greet them. Seeing that Jiang Tangtang's hair was wet and her clothes were soaked, she couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Third sister-in-law, what happened to you?"
Jiang Tangtang said, "It's nothing, I just washed my hair."
Luo Taohua was incredibly envious. She hadn't taken a bath in many days, and she wished she could take one too.
She quickly took the clothes that Zhou Qiongniang had been working on and handed them to Jiang Tangtang, saying, "The clothes are finished for you. Go find a place to change quickly so you don't catch a cold in the night wind."
Summer nights aren't cold, so there's no issue of feeling chilly. However, Luo Taohua meant well, and Jiang Tangtang smiled and accepted the gift, saying, "Thank you, sister-in-law."
She knew Luo Taohua was always lazy, so the main credit for this outfit probably went to Zhou Qiongniang. After saying that, she looked at Zhou Qiongniang and said, "Thank you too, Second Sister-in-law."
Luo Taohua felt a little embarrassed for stealing Zhou Qiongniang's credit and trying to curry favor with Jiang Tangtang.
She pulled Zhou Qiongniang over and grinned at Jiang Tangtang, "Third sister-in-law, where did you find the water? Can you take me and your second sister-in-law to take a bath?"
Jiang Tangtang hesitated for a moment, then said, "It's in a cave. Not only is the water deep inside, but the cave itself is quite far away and difficult to access, located at the bottom of a very high cliff..."
If it weren't for Lu Shiyan, even with the search system, she wouldn't have been able to find the water source.
Upon hearing this, Luo Taohua could only say regretfully, "Never mind then, I'm actually quite fine this way."
She felt too embarrassed to ask her brother-in-law to carry her over mountains and valleys, so she decided to go take a bath!
Zhou Qiongniang was too embarrassed to bring up the topic of bathing. She handed a bamboo tube to Jiang Tangtang like she was presenting a treasure, saying, "Third sister-in-law, are you hungry? This was specially saved for you. It smells especially good. Eat it quickly."
The dry food biscuits that the Lu family brought out have been eaten up. Tonight's dinner is made with the food that Lu Shiyan and Jiang Tangtang exchanged for medicinal herbs.
Because there was no water to cook, Zhou Qiongniang could only stir-fry the beans in a large pot until fragrant.
Although the roasted beans were quite dry, there were still quite a few large banyan fruits that Jiang Tangtang had brought back last time. Eating beans with wild fruits, the Lu family felt that this was simply blissful.
Jiang Tangtang had no desire to eat stir-fried dried beans with wild fruit.
She wanted to eat rice.
Thinking of the bamboo tube that Lu Shiyan had specially brought back last time, she had an idea.
She leaned closer to Zhou Qiongniang and whispered, "Second Sister-in-law, would you like some rice?"
"Huh?" Zhou Qiongniang's eyes widened like saucers, and she asked cautiously, "Is it okay?"
That's rice!
Does she even deserve to eat it?
"Why not? We'll cook rice in a bit."
Jiang Tangtang was thinking that she would use up all the water she had brought back from the water bag, and when Lu Shiyan went to get the honey later, she would go to the cave again to bring back some water.
Meanwhile, the villagers learned that Lu Shiyan had found a water source, but it was far away and inconvenient for them to go and fetch water. They all asked Lu Shiyan to help them fetch some water.
Lu Shiyan agreed to help all the villagers who came to him for help.
There are 130 households in Dawan Village. This time, almost all the households in the village came to pray, and each family received more than ten water bags.
Even if Lu Shiyan is skilled in martial arts and has great strength, it is no small matter for one person to carry so many water bags to fill them with water.
After looking at the map, Jiang Tangtang said to everyone, "We can slightly modify the route and start from another road to Jiangzhou."
Tomorrow morning, we'll head southwest. We should reach the hill near the cave by tomorrow afternoon. One person from each family will go with my husband to wait for him near the hill. He'll go down the cliff into the cave and fetch water for everyone.
Many villagers looked on with suspicion, not understanding why Jiang Tangtang was so familiar with the route to Jiangzhou.
No, to be precise, it wasn't that she was familiar with the route to Jiangzhou, but rather that she seemed to know the whole route quite well.
How could a woman who has never traveled far from home be so familiar with the roads outside?
The villagers were filled with doubt, but none of them were tactless enough to voice their questions at this time, and they all expressed their gratitude to the Lu family.
Jiang Tangtang didn't take the villagers' gratitude to heart. After agreeing to help the villagers fetch water the next day, she and Zhou Qiongniang started discussing how to make bamboo rice.
Zhou Qiongniang looked at the bamboo tube with a troubled expression. "Third sister-in-law, how much water should I put in this bamboo tube? Will the food really cook properly if I do it this way?"
Jiang Tangtang, who has never lifted a finger to cook, how would she know how much water to add?
She asked the system, "Could you show me how to make bamboo rice?"
[Ten character profiles, encompassing eight major cuisines, live video tutorials—learn whatever you want! Host, would you like a copy?]
Jiang Tangtang rolled her eyes: [Get lost!]
She spent money to buy the recipe, which lowered her character value and made her unable to use the scanning function. She wouldn't waste her character value!
She was too lazy to argue with the system and casually replied to Zhou Qiongniang, "Just put it anywhere! It should be similar to cooking normally!"
Zhou Qiongniang figured that since the bamboo tubes were being steamed in a large pot, not much water would be needed, so she only added enough water to just cover the rice grains.
Lu Shiyan cut more than twenty bamboo tubes in total, but Zhou Qiongniang couldn't bear to fill them all with white rice.
Except for five bamboo tubes filled entirely with rice, the rest were rice cooked together with sorghum.
More than twenty bamboo tubes were all standing upright in the large iron pot, filling it to the brim. Jiang Tangtang squeezed in some mountain eggs in the few gaps around the pot.
Mountain eggs cook faster than bamboo rice. In no time, Zhou Qiongniang scooped out the mountain eggs, put them in a large bowl, and handed them to Jiang Tangtang, saying, "Third sister-in-law, it's ready."
All the children in the Lu family stared intently at the mountain eggs in Jiang Tangtang's hand.
Seeing the children's longing eyes, Jiang Tangtang couldn't bring herself to eat it all by herself. She counted the mountain eggs in her bowl and decided to give one to each of them.
There were six left in the bowl. She kept two for herself and divided the other four equally between Lu Shiyan and Lu Chenyan.
In addition to mountain eggs and bamboo rice, Lu Shiyan also killed a chicken and slowly stewed it in an earthenware pot.
The aroma of pheasants wafted through the quiet wilderness, making the already hungry refugees feel even hungrier.
Smelling the aroma of the chicken soup, Wang Juhua felt a pang of jealousy and resentment. She muttered to herself, "How come the Lu family is always so lucky? They either catch pheasants or pick wild fruits. I think all the good luck in the village goes to their family."
"That's right, your older brother and the others also went up the mountain today, but they didn't find anything."
Fang's eldest sister-in-law, Tian Guizhi, said, "That Lu family's third son went out carrying a burden, how did he manage to catch so many pheasants? There must be some trick to it."
"What's the trick?" Zhu Dong'e quickly leaned closer, her eyes darting around.
Tian Guizhi said mysteriously, "When I was a girl in my parents' home, I heard about a kind of sorcery that sucks away people's luck."
It is said that those who understand this kind of sorcery can steal a person's good fortune simply by performing a ritual. Those whose good fortune is stolen will, at best, experience a series of misfortunes, and at worst, suffer bloodshed.
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