Pei Yuezhi continued, "Once you get sick, you can't do anything. You only realize how good it is to be alive when you're in so much pain. As the saying goes, it's better to live a miserable life than to die a good death."
Looking at the expressions on the two children's faces, from their initial confusion about what she was saying to their overwhelming sadness upon hearing her words.
Especially Xiao Fanmu, whose tears were already falling. Her eyelashes were long and thick, which made her watery eyes look like they were covered with a layer of mist, making people feel sorry for her.
"The three of us, let's live well from now on," Pei Yuezhi said softly as she walked over and gently hugged the two of them.
Fan Chao was stunned when he heard this. He couldn't believe that his mother would say such a thing. He hesitated and struggled, not knowing whether he should believe it or not. Until his mother came over and hugged them, the tears that were welling up in his eyes fell down with a thud.
He didn't want to cry, but this illness had brought about such a big change in his mother. How much pain she must have suffered when she was sick.
"Mother, Mu'er will be more obedient, and we will definitely live a good life." Little Fan Mu sobbed, leaning on Pei Yuezhi's shoulder, and said in a muffled voice.
Feeling a little embarrassed by being hugged, Fan Chao gently pushed Pei Yuezhi away, wiped away his tears, his eyes red and reflecting the shimmering light. He pursed his lips and said, "Mother, I believe you, but I hope you can be happier. Keeping yourself bottled up like this will cause you heartache."
Pei Yuezhi was stunned when she heard this. How could this child be so sensible? She really liked him!
"Don't worry, Chao'er, we will do better in the future," Pei Yuezhi said softly.
......
After comforting the two children, Pei Yuezhi returned to her room and rummaged through the family's savings under her bed.
Because she retained the original owner's memories, Pei Yuezhi had some understanding of money and prices in this world. But this was far too little! The entire family's savings amounted to only 500 coins!
Since her husband passed away, the family has had no income. She has been living in a daze all day long, and her two children are unable to earn money. If things continue like this, they will starve to death sooner or later because they can't afford to eat.
"Ding! Mission triggered: Make sure the children have a satisfying and filling meal. Reward: a generous gift pack of seasonings." Just as Pei Yuezhi was wondering what to do next, the system appeared just in time.
"It can actually trigger a mission? Is this some kind of cheat code for me? Cooking a meal is easy enough. I own a big restaurant, but the reward is a bit stingy, just a big gift pack." Pei Yuezhi muttered.
What should she cook to make a comforting meal? As far as she knew, the family didn't have much food left. They had about 20 kilograms of sweet potatoes, about 5 kilograms of brown rice, and a little over 1 kilogram of coarse flour. There were some unripe cabbages and sweet potatoes in the field, as well as some wild vegetables that the children had dug up.
Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice! I'd better go out for a walk and see what I can do.
Pei Yuezhi found a basket in the yard and set off to find food.
Although it wasn't yet the height of summer, the weather was still hot and humid. Apart from people working in the fields, there wasn't a soul to be seen on the streets. After looking around, Pei Yuezhi decided to go up the mountain to take a look.
There are many trees on the mountain, and with a gentle breeze, it's much cooler than down below.
Pei Yuezhi searched everywhere but found nothing of value, only some bitter and unpalatable wild vegetables.
"It would be better if a rabbit suddenly darted out and crashed into a tree stump," Pei Yuezhi muttered as she walked aimlessly.
There are definitely no rabbits, but there is a large patch of dandelions in front of us.
Although dandelion is slightly bitter, it's much better than those wild vegetables whose names I don't know, and it even helps to reduce internal heat.
However, it's summer now, and the dandelions are a bit old and don't taste as good as they do in spring. Fortunately, it's only early summer, so we can blanch them and dip them in sauce, or use them to make wild vegetable dumplings.
"There's nothing else, let's pick some and figure out how to cook it." No sooner said than done, they picked more than half a basket in no time.
Although I only picked some wild vegetables, cooking the porridge myself and making it thicker was better than what the children made, and it was enough to fill my stomach.
Once you complete the task, you can get a seasoning gift pack, and then you can cook wild vegetables very well.
Pei Yuezhi had just looked around the kitchen and found that there were quite a few seasonings, but not many kinds. They were mostly spices. Dishes made without seasonings would taste much worse.
As she approached her home, Pei Yuezhi saw an oxcart entering from the village entrance. In this era, transportation was very inconvenient, and villagers would either walk or ride an oxcart to get into town.
The oxcart waits for people at the village entrance in the early morning, departs promptly at five o'clock, and returns after lunchtime, stopping at the village entrance again. Each person pays one coin, and those with more goods pay an extra coin.
An old woman carrying a basket on her back walked towards Pei Yuezhi's direction. The old woman had a worried look on her face and was sighing.
Based on her memory, she learned that this was the original owner's family's neighbor. Her husband's surname was Zhang, and she had helped the original owner's family a lot. After her husband passed away, she often came to help the widow and her orphan.
However, the original owner always looked half-dead, and later Aunt Zhang stopped having much contact with their family, but she would still give the two children some food.
Aunt Zhang saw Pei Yuezhi carrying a basket, which didn't look like it contained firewood. But Pei Yuezhi never went out when she wasn't gathering firewood, so she came over with some doubt and asked, "Yuezhi, are you going to gather firewood again?"
Pei Yuezhi took a liking to the kind-hearted old woman and immediately replied, "I went up the mountain to dig up some wild vegetables and I'm just about to head back."
Hearing Pei Yuezhi's reply, Aunt Zhang, who had been somewhat puzzled, was now a little surprised. Indeed, anyone would be surprised to suddenly see someone who rarely left the house and hardly ever spoke a word, suddenly going up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables and talking to people.
Aunt Zhang knew that Pei Yuezhi wanted to live a good life, so she held her hand and said softly, "Child, I know that you have a hard life. If there's anything I can help you with, just come to me."
Pei Yuezhi smiled and said, "Thank you, Auntie. You've really helped us a lot these past few years. By the way, why were you sighing like that just now?"
"Don't even mention it," Aunt Zhang sighed. "I went to town to sell potatoes, but last year the weather was bad, and all that came out were small potatoes. I couldn't sell them no matter what I did. They've been sitting in the cellar for months now, and if I don't sell them soon, they'll just go bad."
Pei Yuezhi's eyes lit up as she asked, "Are there many small potatoes?"
Aunt Zhang said, "Last year we planted a lot of potatoes, but we couldn't sell them. We ate a lot ourselves, but it's just me and your uncle at home. Even if we eat a lot, some of them will still spoil and we have to throw them away. It's a bit of a waste."
"Auntie, how many do you have in your basket? I want to buy some for my children."
Upon hearing this, Aunt Zhang was immediately delighted. This child was finally starting to care about the children. It's good that she's living a good life.
Aunt Zhang smiled and said, "These small potatoes aren't worth much, and we don't really like them. You can take them back; it'll help us eat them too."
“How can we do that? Sweet potatoes and potatoes cost one coin each now, and sometimes two coins. This is quite a lot. You’ve helped us so much, we can’t keep taking advantage of you,” Pei Yuezhi said.
Aunt Zhang kept making excuses. Pei Yuezhi then said, "How about this, you can charge me one coin for two catties."
After much back and forth, Aunt Zhang finally accepted the fifteen coins and kindly delivered the small potato to Pei Yuezhi's home.
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