Hearing Li Chang'an agree, Da Ya felt both shy and relieved.
In any case, with another man in the family, I no longer have to live in fear.
Daya took out a clay pot from the corner, filled it with some water, and put it on the fire to boil.
Then he took out the rice jar hidden under the hay and grabbed a handful of wheat bran from it.
She glanced timidly at Li Chang'an and gritted her teeth.
He grabbed another handful of wheat bran and put it into the earthenware jar, a pained expression on his face.
Li Chang'an watched her movements, waiting for her to put the ingredients in to cook.
After waiting for ages, the water had boiled, but she still didn't add anything else.
"Don't tell me you're going to give me this to eat?"
Li Chang'an pointed at the wheat bran in the pottery jar, looking at her with a shocked expression.
Wheat bran is actually the residue left after wheat is ground into flour.
Li Chang'an had lived for so long, and he had never eaten anything like this before.
Moreover, a jar full of water, boiled with two handfuls of wheat bran, with the bottom of the jar not even leveled, floated in the boiling water, looking particularly pitiful.
"This is all we have left at home. I... I can eat a little less."
Perhaps Li Chang'an's tone was a bit fierce, because Daya was frightened. She lowered her head and dared not speak, her eyes red.
"This isn't about whether we eat enough or not. Is this even grain? Is this something a human can eat? Don't you have rice at home?"
Li Chang'an simply couldn't understand it. In his eyes, even the poorest village was still a mountain village in the 1990s.
In my childhood memories of the 1990s, we could only eat meat during the Lunar New Year; otherwise, we would eat vegetables, chili sauce, and rice.
He thought this was the poorest he could be.
I never imagined that people here could be so poor that they had to eat wheat bran.
Eating wheat bran wasn't enough to fill me up.
This impacted his worldview.
"I... I can go without eating, please have it, don't be disgusted, this is all we have at home, sob sob sob."
Daya looked up at Li Chang'an, her eyes brimming with tears as she wept.
"How about you beat me up?"
In Daya's memory, whenever her grandfather was unhappy, he would beat her grandmother.
Li Chang'an's tone made her feel that she had made a mistake. Although she didn't know what she had done wrong, she thought that if he beat her up, he would be fine.
"No, I'm not sick, why would I hit you? Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry."
Hearing this, Li Chang'an was speechless. He quickly went over and used his sleeve to wipe away her tears.
"What I mean is, is this how you usually eat?"
After finally calming Daya down, Li Chang'an asked softly.
"Um"
After hearing his words, Daya nodded. Afraid that he wouldn't believe her, she handed him the rice jar she was holding.
There was only a thin layer of wheat bran in the jar, and it was estimated that there were still four or five handfuls left.
"Is this all there is left? What will you eat tomorrow?"
Li Chang'an felt that if he grabbed two handfuls of food at a time, and there was still lunch and dinner to go, he would probably be done with four more handfuls.
"I'll have another handful tomorrow."
Daya wiped away her tears and said, "We'll eat a handful every day. Today we grabbed an extra handful. After we finish the food in the jar, we'll go hungry for another day, and then we can go to the market."
We'll take the firewood to the market and sell it to exchange for some grain.
Daya was a thrifty girl. Every time she exchanged grain, she would divide it into portions so that she could last until the next grain exchange.
Looking into Daya's earnest eyes, Li Chang'an realized that she wasn't lying; that was truly her plan.
Let me sort it out.
Holding the pottery jar, Li Chang'an felt he needed to calm down before he could process the information he had just received.
"You mean you only eat a handful of this kind of wheat bran a day?"
"Uh-huh"
Are you full?
"Sometimes I get hungry, but I don't feel hungry when I'm asleep."
"Do you have white rice? I mean, really white rice."
Daya looked at Li Chang'an strangely and said, "You mean the rice that the landlord's family eats? That's a fine grain. I've heard Grandpa talk about it before."
She suspected he was the son of some landlord, otherwise why would he be thinking about eating rice?
For an ordinary family, being able to afford bean rice was already considered a sign of wealth; rice was something she never dared to dream of.
Li Chang'an took a deep breath, looking at the emaciated Daya with a complicated expression.
How strong must one be to have survived until now, and still have two younger sisters to care for?
To show his respect for her, Li Chang'an decided not to hide anything anymore.
"Move aside, I'll cook."
Daya obediently stood up and gave up her place to cook.
Li Chang'an sat in front of the jar, silently praying that the system would work, otherwise he really couldn't guarantee that he could survive in this world.
Fortunately, the system is still very efficient.
A flash of golden light appeared in his hand, and the jar contained an extra portion of rice, which Li Chang'an estimated to be about a pound.
Fearing there wouldn't be enough to eat, Li Chang'an took out another portion of rice and put it in the jar.
When Da Ya saw the golden light, she thought she was seeing things. It wasn't until she saw the rice in the jar that she exclaimed in surprise.
"This, this..."
Li Chang'an took the rice jar from Da Ya's arms, took out rice from his backpack, filled the jar, and placed it in Da Ya's hand.
"Don't tell anyone. This is my secret. Don't worry, I won't hurt you. If I really wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't have given you food."
Looking at the white rice in her hand, Da Ya felt like she was dreaming.
"Are you a deity?"
"I am your husband."
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