Chapter 1, The First Inn, Mushroom Sauce
When Yunyin woke up, she found herself lying on a hillside. She remembered that she had gone to Grandma Su's house today to learn how to make mushroom sauce. After saying goodbye to Grandma Su, she was walking back to her house with the mushroom sauce she had made.
What happened next? She felt dizzy and it took her a while to remember. Oh right, she also ran into Zhao Xinxin. Sister Xinxin returned the books she had lent her before. Where are those books?
Yunyin sat up and looked around. She found a basket of mushroom sauce and a canvas bag next to her. She opened it and saw that it was indeed the books she had lent to Sister Xinxin.
The mushroom sauce and the book were still there. She got up and looked around. The trees rustled, and birds chirped in the distance.
After looking around for a long time, Yunyin finally confirmed that this was not Yunwu Village.
Yunyin thought of the cloud that had swept her away. The cloud was so powerful that even she was swept away in the blink of an eye. She wondered what had happened to the others in Yunwu Village.
Will her disappearance have any negative impact on the village? After all, Yunwu Village is a small scenic spot deep in the mountains, and not many people visit it every year. If her disappearance brings a bad influence to the village, Yunyin will feel very guilty.
The people of Yunwu Village are very kind and simple. Yunyin has been living in the village for almost two months, and everyone cares about her. Especially Grandma Sun, who, upon hearing that Yunyin wanted to learn how to make mushroom sauce, shared her knowledge without reservation and even refused the money offered to her. Therefore, Yunyin didn't want to bring any negative impact to the small village because of herself.
Thinking of the mushroom sauce, Yunyin looked down at the dozens of intact jars, as if she could still taste its delicious flavor through the transparent glass.
Yunyin swallowed hard, then looked away and continued to survey her surroundings, wondering where she was now.
Yunyin was unaware that her departure had no negative impact on Yunwu Village. When they couldn't find her anywhere in the village, the village chief called the police.
Unfortunately, the police found no clues. However, some research institutions have discovered that the fog here is beneficial to health, and living here regularly can help maintain good health.
As this conclusion was discovered, Yunwu Village became a popular tourist attraction, and only the villagers who remembered Yunyin from back then still remembered her. Grandma Su prays for Yunyin every year, hoping she will be safe and healthy.
Yunyin, of course, was completely unaware of this. After surveying the surrounding environment and finding no danger, she hid the mushroom sauce and the book and headed down the mountain.
As soon as I reached the foot of the mountain, I could vaguely hear shouts coming from not far away, but they were drowned out by the sound of flowing water and were not very clear.
Yunyin washed her face in the stream to clear her mind, straightened her wrinkled clothes, and tied up her loose hair. She then slowly walked toward the direction from which the sound came.
Before she even got close, she saw a group of men with knives chasing a dozen or so ragged people. Yunyin realized they were heading her way, so she quickly found a tall tree and hid behind it.
At this moment, a group of people ran to a place not far from the big tree. The group of men with knives cursed and said, "What are you running for? What are you running for? You bunch of refugees, stop right now, or it won't be as simple as just doing hard labor."
Yunyin, standing in the tree, overheard the reason: it turned out that this was a group of refugees fleeing disaster in Longyou.
Last year, Longyou suffered from a locust plague, resulting in a poor harvest and soaring rice prices. People had no choice but to flee to find food. This group of people fled from Longyou to Jiannan Road.
From these people, Yunyin learned that she was now in Jiannan Road. Watching the yamen runners escorting the refugees away, Yunyin tightened her sleeves, realizing that her situation was not good.
According to the group of yamen runners, the county is currently short of laborers to repair water conservancy projects, and the displaced people have been captured to do hard labor. If they are women, they will be randomly assigned to other people if they are captured.
There are many bachelors in the county. Whether they are young women or widows, as long as they do not have a household registration, they will be arrested and married off to increase the population of the county.
For the county magistrate, increasing the population was also a great achievement; with wives, those idle men and soldiers would not cause trouble.
But for Yunyin, who was penniless and had no household registration, this was a big problem.
She frowned, watching the departing constables as she fell into deep thought.
Jiannan Circuit? Longyou? Could this be the Tang Dynasty?
Yunyin could understand what those people were saying. If it really was the Tang Dynasty, she shouldn't have been able to understand them.
Just then, a group of people came from a distance. They also noticed the chaos ahead, so they quickly stopped their carriages by the roadside and sent someone to investigate.
Yunyin recognized the group of people carrying goods as merchants and cautiously approached. Fortunately, she had been practicing martial arts since childhood, and even after her father's death, she had not given up. She tiptoed closer to investigate, and most people wouldn't notice her.
Sure enough, when she approached the thatched hut next to their lodging, no one noticed her. Yunyin carefully crouched at the corner of the thatched hut, listening to the crowd's discussion.
"Manager, I just found out that they are not bandits, but refugees who fled from Longyou."
"Now there are more and more refugees coming from over there, and the officials are telling us to be careful when we travel on the road."
The steward frowned and said, "In recent years, Da Zhao has suffered disasters everywhere. The year before last, we were hit by a frost disaster. This year, we finally had some peace and quiet, but now the refugees have come again."
"Hopefully we won't encounter bandits on our way back, otherwise we won't be able to survive."
"Forget it, let's not rest anymore. Let's hurry up and get to Mianzhou as soon as possible. We won't go out this year."
The man quickly called to the others, packed up his things, and left.
After Yunyin and the others left, she emerged from the corner of the thatched hut.
Looking around at the desolate landscape, and with the thatched hut behind her offering some shelter from the wind and rain, she decided to settle down here until she resolved her identity issue.
The constables have just left and shouldn't be back anytime soon. If anything unusual happens, being close to the main road, they'll be able to spot it immediately.
Yunyin inspected the thatched hut. It was crudely built, constructed only of wood and thatch, and empty inside. It was likely just a place for travelers to rest. Fortunately, it offered shelter from the wind and rain, so a short stay shouldn't be a problem.
She just didn't know if other caravans would stop here, and if there were many people, she probably wouldn't be safe alone.
She looked up at the sun that had already peeked over the mountains and decided to go to the hillside where she had appeared to take a closer look. If possible, she would find a place to stay there. If there were many caravans, she would just avoid them.
After she came out of the thatched hut, she walked through a thicket of bushes and returned to the stream she had just been by.
The flowing stream gently lapped against the riverbank, and occasionally some fish swam freely, sometimes wandering into the riverside grass. Perhaps because no one had ever been here before, these fish were not afraid of people, and Yunyin walked past them without disturbing them.
She looked to the left along the river, and could faintly hear the sound of the river flowing at its end.
Yunyin walked upstream along the river and indeed saw a slowly flowing river meandering down, with a hidden path on the opposite bank, the destination of which she did not know.
As she stood there lost in thought, she caught a glimpse of a dark dot in the distance. She quickly hid in the woods by the river and watched as a boat approached from afar. Once the boat was out of sight, she turned her gaze back to the riverbed, crossed the exposed rocks, and returned to the hillside she had been on before.
The basket and canvas bag she had hidden were still intact, and Yunyin breathed a sigh of relief.
There's a flat area at the bottom of this hillside; perhaps we can use this as a temporary shelter, and then figure out how to build a thatched hut.
Yunyin hid the mushroom sauce, took a basket and went into the mountains. After choosing a temporary place to stay, she needed to find something to eat.
Judging from the clothes of the group of Da Zhao people, it must be early spring. When she saw the familiar wild vegetables, shepherd's purse, and purslane, Yunyin realized that it was indeed spring.
Before she transmigrated, it was August, the season for eating mushrooms. She was going to Cloud Mist Village because she had heard that Grandma Sun there made an exceptional mushroom sauce. Grandma Sun's mushroom sauce was indeed delicious; even after eating it for two months, she still didn't get tired of it.
Thinking of the bottle of chicken oil that Grandma Su had given her, the lingering fragrance seemed to still be on her lips and teeth. She swallowed hard, suppressing her craving.
Thinking of Grandma Su and the skills she learned from her, Yunyin sighed softly, wondering how worried she must be.
Although she had only spent less than two months with Grandma Su, she felt that Grandma Su was as gentle as her own grandmother.
Perhaps Grandma Su treated everyone this way, but this was the first time she had experienced the feeling of family affection since her grandmother passed away.
As for her father, she didn't know how he felt. He certainly had feelings for her, but there were always things more important in his eyes, and she would never be his number one priority. Perhaps she shouldn't blame him, after all, he provided her with a good life, but it was also he who often made her feel suffocated.
From a young age, Yunyin had to get up before dawn to practice martial arts, regardless of the weather, there were always countless training sessions waiting for her.
If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad, but she lost all her time. While others went shopping and to the movies with their friends, she was training; while others watched TV and played games, she was training.
Over the years, she hasn't had a single close friend. Friends need to be in touch, but she doesn't even have time to spend with them.
Later, in order to revitalize the family's martial arts school, her father sent her to a film crew to become an actress, hoping that one day the school's fame could be expanded through her.
Perhaps because Yunyin is quite pretty, with big almond-shaped eyes that are as clear as water, and her smile seems to fill the whole spring day, coupled with her wonderful martial arts scenes, she actually became a little popular. Netizens say that she has a first love face, and when she doesn't smile, she is aloof and cold, but when she smiles, she can be so sweet that it kills people.
Since she gained some fame, her family's martial arts school went from being deserted to attracting inquiries. This further convinced her father that he hadn't made the wrong choice, but Yunyin didn't like it.
She doesn't like being the center of attention, as it makes her feel insecure. She prefers to hide in the kitchen, making delicious and enjoyable food, just like the happiness she felt when her grandmother cooked for her when she was a child.
She also wanted others to experience this kind of happiness.
But those days were over after her grandmother passed away. Thinking of her father's dying wish that she could revitalize the martial arts school, she didn't know how to tell him.
Learning martial arts is a very arduous task, and in modern times, children are becoming increasingly rare and precious, so few people are willing to let their children endure this hardship.
She was willing to learn because she didn't dislike martial arts, but even she preferred to do what she liked.
Thinking of her father's remains, Yunyin couldn't help but touch the whip tied around her waist. Perhaps staying in Dazhao wouldn't be so bad. Perhaps she could really revitalize the martial arts school. Unfortunately, Yunyin didn't have such a goal. She would rather cook some delicious food, raise a dog and a cat, and live a simple but happy life.
Yunyin stopped her random thoughts and started thinking about what to do next. She looked around and saw a bamboo grove not far ahead. It was early spring, the perfect time to eat bamboo shoots.
She glanced at her clothes, which were the white training clothes she usually wore. The clothes had a classical feel to them. In her father's words, they were very elegant for filming martial arts videos, so her training clothes were all like this.
Fortunately, the clothes are made of cotton, which makes them very comfortable to wear, so she doesn't mind wearing them and usually wears them when she's not going out.
Yunyin took out a few red ropes from her bosom and tied them to her trouser legs and cuffs to prevent insects and ants from crawling in. After all the preparations were done, she carried her basket and walked towards the bamboo forest, intending to pick some bamboo shoots.
A note from the author:
Pre-order now and add to your favorites!!! The synopsis for "Farming in the Mountains After Fleeing Famine in Ancient Times" is below:
At the end of the dynasty, disasters were frequent and the people were suffering. When Lu Man woke up, she regained her memories of her past life and realized that she was not a native, but a time traveler, and that she had traveled to a year of disaster.
After three years of severe drought, there was no harvest in either the fields or the mountains, and everyone was on the verge of despair. Lu Man felt that she could not sit idly by and wait for death. Fortunately, she had been an agricultural student in her previous life, so she could find a suitable place to live in the mountains, farm, and avoid disaster.
She discussed with her family about fleeing south to avoid disaster, and invited Luo Ling, her childhood sweetheart from next door, and the whole family headed south to escape the calamity.
Along the way, they witnessed the horrific scene of people exchanging children to eat, as well as the phenomenon of eating tree bark, grass roots, and even clay. There were also people who tried to steal their food.
Fortunately, Lu Man and her companions had many strong men, and she was also incredibly strong, so the journey was relatively safe. However, war broke out in the Central Plains, forcing them to find a more suitable place.
Luo Ling and Lu Man grew up together. They would go hunting in the mountains every day. Even when Lu Man thought of his past life, he did not forget this skill. The mountains and forests of Shu were steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, making them very suitable for avoiding disaster.
After searching for a long time, Lu Man and Luo Ling finally found a suitable place. They cleared out the valley, gathered wild vegetables, planted grains and mushrooms, and Lu Man, an agricultural student, finally had a place to use his skills.
As the valley improved, Lu Man's family had hope for the future, except for their childhood friend who always followed them.
Lu Man: "What are you doing following me? Have you caught any chickens or ducks alive? Have you raised any cattle or sheep yet?"
Luo Ling looked at Lu Man quietly: "What about what you promised me?"
Lu Man looked up at the sky and the ground but not at him. Who told her to have memories of her past life? Even though they were childhood sweethearts, she treated him like a younger brother and had long forgotten what she had promised him.
From then on, Luo Ling kept pestering her, determined to make her fulfill her promise.
Lu Man: "..."
Reading Guide:
1. In the early stages, they fled famine; in the later stages, they farmed.
2. The dynasty is fictional and not based on historical fact.
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