Hearing her father's words, the girl didn't know what to say. After all, it was the truth. If she insisted on staying at home, the only thing waiting for her family was to starve to death.
If I could exchange myself for some food, not only could my family survive, but I might also be able to follow the Han army soldiers as my father said, and perhaps I would never have to go hungry again.
"My daughter understands!!"
Thinking of this, the girl wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and walked behind Zhao Si.
"Okay! Give him the thing!!"
Then Zhao Si waved his hand, and a soldier next to him took a bag of grain, weighed out twenty catties in front of the man, and handed it to him.
"I have two daughters! Give me forty catties of grain in return!"
Soon, a middle-aged man also came over with two young girls, and then exchanged forty catties of grain and left.
"I recently got married. Do you want some? Just ten catties of grain will do!"
A young man came up to the crowd, looked at Zhao Si with pleading eyes, and spoke with a hint of entreaty in his voice.
"Pah! You shameless bastard, you even sell your own wife?"
Someone in the crowd couldn't help but spit at the young man.
Even Zhao Si couldn't help but frown. He looked down on this kind of person from the bottom of his heart.
Upon seeing this, the young man panicked and immediately knelt down in front of Zhao Si. He looked up at Zhao Si and pleaded, "I have no other choice. My mother is too hungry to get up and might starve to death any day now. It's already the dead of winter, and there's nowhere to find food. She and I will starve to death sooner or later!"
After saying this, the young man couldn't help but shed tears.
Just then, a woman ran out from the crowd and knelt down next to the young man.
The woman raised her head, her eyes filled with tears, and looked at Zhao Si, sobbing, "He's right. I can't bear to see my mother-in-law starve to death. Please, buy me!"
The Juyan people who were watching all turned their heads away, not knowing what to say.
"Well... okay!"
Looking at the young couple kneeling in front of him, Zhao Si nodded.
Zhao Si then ordered someone to fetch twenty catties of grain and give it to the young man.
"Thank you, thank you all!"
The young man thanked them and hurried home with the grain in his hand.
Faced with the scene before him, Zhao Si merely sighed slightly at the hardships of people's lives.
After all, back in the Han Dynasty, whenever there was a disaster, it was normal for countless Han people to sell their children in order to survive, and he had even seen cases of exchanging children to eat each other.
"My brother recently died of illness, and his wife is now a widow. Do you want her?"
"......"
Soon, all the women in the tribe who could be sold brought over to exchange for some grain and salt.
After the middle-aged man returned home with the grain, he began to cook. Soon, the aroma of rice filled the air.
"It smells so good, Father! I'm hungry!"
A little boy, drawn by the aroma, approached the middle-aged man. As the fragrance wafted into his nostrils, a trickle of saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth.
"Hehe~, my son, don't be impatient, it will be cooked soon!"
The middle-aged man looked at his son, and thinking of the daughter he had sold with his own hands, a forced smile appeared on his lips.
Before long, the middle-aged man divided the cooked rice porridge into two large bowls, handing one bowl to his son. The little boy took the bowl and, ignoring the scalding heat of the rice, began to slurp it up. While slurping, he looked up at his father with a happy smile on his face.
The man looked at his son with a bitter smile on his face, then carried another bowl of porridge into the house.
On the bed inside the room lay a emaciated woman with a sallow complexion. Her breathing was extremely weak. This woman was his wife.
The man hurried over, sat down beside the bed, helped his wife up, and leaned her against the wall behind her.
Then the man picked up a wooden spoon, scooped a spoonful of rice porridge from the bowl, gently blew on it, and then held it to his wife's lips.
Feeling the warmth on her lips, the woman couldn't help but part her lips slightly and swallow the rice porridge in the spoon.
After swallowing a few spoonfuls of rice porridge, the woman felt warmth in her abdomen and regained some strength. She then opened her weak eyes.
"You're awake?"
Upon seeing his wife awake, the man's face lit up with joy.
The woman nodded slightly, then looked at her husband beside her and the bowl of rice porridge, and couldn't help but ask softly, "Where... did this come from?"
"Don't worry about that, just eat first!"
The man's expression darkened. He didn't answer his wife's question, but instead ladled out another spoonful of rice porridge and brought it to her lips.
The man's expression did not escape the woman's notice, and then she realized that her daughter, who was usually by her side, was nowhere to be seen.
The woman seemed to realize something, and her eyes darkened. But seeing the rice porridge her husband brought to her lips, she couldn't help but drink it down; she was just too hungry.
After eating most of the bowl, the woman felt much better and looked at her husband, saying softly, "I can't eat anymore, you can finish the rest!"
The man nodded, picked up the bowl, and gulped down the remaining half bowl of rice porridge in a few mouthfuls. He even stuck out his tongue and licked the bowl clean of any remaining rice bits.
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