Chapter 31 Lots of Grain
When Molly woke up the next day, the Ji family had all gone to work. They had left her breakfast in the earthenware pot: smoked meat, vegetables, and mixed grain rice. They had left her two large bowls of it, which were being kept warm in the pot by steaming.
Grandma Ji went to clean the cowshed again. Molly ate breakfast while Grandpa Ji watched her eat from the bed. Seeing how much she enjoyed her meal, Grandpa Ji also started to salivate.
"I'll make you some pheasant soup for lunch, stewed with chestnuts," Molly said.
"Okay, I'll wait." The old man agreed readily.
After breakfast, Molly began cleaning the three pheasants. She planned to cook one for lunch and save the other two for dinner. After preparing the pheasants, she peeled the chestnuts. Dinner would again be chicken stew with chestnuts, which would require quite a few chestnuts.
After peeling a basket of chestnuts, she started making chicken soup. Besides the chicken soup, she also planned to stir-fry some cabbage. There was half a cabbage in the corner, so she didn't have to go out, which was convenient.
Molly then realized that the Ji family was lacking not only refined grains but also coarse grains. Before she left, she would do her best to get them some of both.
But food is hard to buy.
She didn't know what the situation was like on the black market, but if meat could be exchanged for food, she could make more trips into the mountains. She could also exchange some food to take back to Xiaonan Village, as she and Mo An were also short of food.
After dark, Xu Xia'an arrived with the goods. He looked at Molly with joy and excitement. "I've lived up to your expectations. I've exchanged them for three quilts and ten jin of noodles. The quilts are eight jin thick. If it weren't for the severe shortage of meat on the black market, you couldn't buy such good stuff even if you had the money."
"Besides the quilt and noodles, I used the remaining money to buy four boxes of face cream, six towels and six toothbrushes."
"Thank you, Brother Xu, these are things we're missing at home." Molly hadn't thought of the towels and toothbrush.
Xu Xia'an shook her head, "Things are expensive on the black market, and the quantity you can buy is limited. If you have coupons, you can buy soap and shampoo at the supply and marketing cooperative, which will be much cheaper. Also, processing rabbit fur takes time, so I'll bring it to you next time."
"Besides noodles, does the black market have rice and millet?" Molly wanted to eat rice, but she was asking about millet for Grandpa Ji.
Xu Xia'an shook her head, "But the black market boss said that if there is meat, he can get a batch of fine grains for us from the city."
Molly's eyes lit up. "Not just refined grains, I want whole grains too."
Xu Xia'an was stunned. "Grain isn't cheap. Are you sure you can get meat, sister-in-law?"
Molly didn't dare give a definite answer, after all, she didn't know if there were still large prey in the mountains, so she could only reply, "I'll try."
Xu Xia'an was a little worried. "Sister-in-law, please be careful. Or, I'd like to go with you?"
Molly refused without even thinking, "It's inconvenient."
Xu Xia'an: "......."
What's inconvenient?
What's inconvenient?
Before leaving, Xu Xia'an spent some time talking with Grandpa Ji. He was surprised and delighted to see that the old man's complexion had improved, and he became even more certain that inviting Molly was the right decision.
When Xu Xia'an learned that Molly had successfully set Old Master Ji's bones back to their original position, she was so shocked that she couldn't speak for a long time.
Just who is this amazing person their company commander married?!
The old man's condition improved day by day, as if he had been injected with some kind of vitality and suddenly regained his energy.
After Xu Xia'an left, the old man wasn't tired at all. Touching the newly covered quilt, his eyes slowly welled up with tears. "You little rascal, you did such a big thing without making a sound. You're amazing!"
Molly remained calm. "With the wind gone, it's my duty to take care of you all."
These things are not difficult for her; they just take some time and effort.
Grandma Ji hugged Molly tightly, saying, "You're such a sweet child. He Feng is so lucky to have married you."
Molly smiled without saying a word. Back then, Ji Hefeng rejected the girls in the village who were better off and married her, a daughter who had come with her sister in marriage. She had always remembered Ji Hefeng's kindness, so she was now willing to be good to Ji Hefeng's family.
Under the new cotton quilt, the Ji family slept soundly, enjoying the scent of cotton. However, Molly's hands and feet remained restrained, tightly bound by Grandma Ji and her mother on either side.
Molly woke up before dawn, and as soon as she moved, Mrs. Ji opened her eyes as well.
"If I come back late tonight, don't wait for me. You guys go to sleep first. I'll be fine," Molly said.
Mrs. Ji didn't say anything. Molly was always so certain, so how could she not worry?
Molly went into the mountains again.
She changed locations again this time, and after a morning she caught a few pheasants, rabbits and mountain mice. She also found a pond with icy water and some small fish and shrimp, but Molly was too lazy to clean it up, so she didn't go down to catch them.
At noon, while Molly was roasting mountain rats, a black bear attacked her from behind.
A single shot of a black bear weighing over 300 pounds shattered the wooden stool Molly was sitting on.
The next second, pink tentacles entered the black bear's body through its mouth, nose, and eyes.
roar!
The black bear roared and struggled violently.
Molly grabbed the roasted mountain rats and quickly retreated to avoid being hurt by the black bear.
Molly was eating roasted mountain rat when she finished eating. Just then, the black bear died.
The pink tentacles returned to Molly's body. On the surface, she seemed to have exerted little effort, but only she knew how tired she was at that moment, so tired that she didn't even have the strength to lift a finger.
Molly lay on her back on the hay, her eyes closed, letting the sunlight shine on her, warm and comfortable.
The forest was quiet, save for the sounds of the wind, insects, and birds. Molly had her eyes closed and was breathing evenly; she seemed to be asleep.
The smell of blood can travel far on the wind.
Molly only opened her eyes when the second bear came close; it seemed she had been too comfortable lately and her vigilance had dropped.
The pink tentacles struck again, swift and precise, piercing the bear's eye and breaking through the back of its head.
The two bears are a male and a female, and there will probably be cubs as well.
Molly remained silent for a few seconds, intending to leave, not wanting the other child to witness the horrific scene of their parents' deaths.
Molly walked ahead carrying a sack, with two bears dragging behind her in pink tentacles. Along the way, Molly caught a few more mountain rats and pheasants, and collected several nests of eggs, totaling more than fifty.
Molly didn't return to the vicinity of the farm until the moon was high in the sky. She left the two black bears, mountain rats, and hares in the grass, and took six pheasants and more than fifty eggs back to the farm herself.
There was still a fire in Grandpa Ji's house; it was Ji Liangyou who was waiting for Molly.
"I persuaded your mom to go back to sleep. There's dinner and hot water in the pot, so you can eat first."
"Hmm." Molly was indeed hungry. She put more than fifty wild eggs into the basket. "There are eggs here. Mom will cook them tomorrow, one for each of us."
Eggs are a good thing, Ji Liangyou was overjoyed. "So many eggs! How many places have you been to? You must be exhausted!"
Molly nodded. "It is quite tiring. But not because of the eggs. I need to go to Brother Xu's house later to ask him to help me sell my game. Is there anything Dad wants?"
Ji Liangyou shook his head. "I lack nothing. You've given me more than enough. Promise me, after this, you won't go into the mountains again."
“No, that won’t do. We have to go again. There are a lot of rats on this mountain. I’ll go get some and bring them back to Xiaonan Village.” Molly thought for a moment, “Mom doesn’t eat rats, so does she eat rabbits?”
Ji Liangyou: "...Probably, she should eat it. If she doesn't eat it, Dad will."
Molly knew what to do. "Okay, I'll catch a few for you, Dad, the day after tomorrow."
Xu Xia'an was surprised that Molly could even hunt bears, and two at once, each weighing around 300 pounds.
“Bear paws are a good thing, did you sell them all?” Xu Xia’an said with some regret.
“Sell it.” Molly didn’t understand this. “Exchange it all for food and cloth. If you have any medicine, exchange it for some medicine as well.”
"What kind of medicine?" Medicine is also sold on the black market, not many finished medicines, but a lot of traditional Chinese medicine.
"Some common medicines, such as cold medicine, anti-inflammatory drugs, and wound medicine." It's not convenient to buy medicine on the farm, and my grandparents are getting old, so we can't do without medicine at home.
Xu Xia'an nodded, "Okay, I'll find it for you."
"As usual, the reward is the hare and the mountain rat. I'd appreciate it if you could help me sell them for a good price, Brother Xu," Molly earnestly requested.
"Of course, I won't sell something this good for less money." He's made a lot of connections and knows a lot of people over the years. If the black market doesn't give him a satisfactory price, he can just go somewhere else.
"Also, Brother Xu, please leave me fifty catties of rice and thirty catties of flour. Please keep them for me and I will take them back with me when I return to Xiaonan Village."
"Okay, no problem."
Molly returned to the farm late at night and didn't wake up until noon the next day.
When she got up, Grandma Ji had already cooked lunch: stir-fried smoked meat and shredded radish, and boiled an egg and vegetable soup. There was only one egg in the soup; the rest were dried vegetables that Molly had brought.
Grandma Ji peeled the hard-boiled eggs she had left for Molly that morning, put the peeled eggs into the soup, heated them up, and then scooped them into Molly's bowl with a spoon.
Molly didn't stand on ceremony, took a bite, and then said, "Thank you, Grandma."
"Grandma should be thanking you. Without you, Grandma wouldn't be able to eat all this good food. Since you came, our meals have improved, and your grandfather's injuries are also getting better. Our Ji family owes you a great debt of gratitude. If Hefeng bullies you in the future, just tell Grandma, and Grandma will take care of him for you." Grandma Ji liked Molly more and more. Heaven had been kind to the Ji family, sending them Molly.
Molly smiled and said, "Grandma, he's not as strong as me. I can take care of it myself."
Grandma Ji laughed, "Alright, you can clean up after yourself. If he doesn't listen, you'll have to clean up after him a few more times. Don't let yourself get upset. Women shouldn't suffer or hold back their anger; it'll harm their health. If someone makes you unhappy, you should retaliate fiercely. If you can't fight back openly, then we'll fight back secretly."
Molly agreed wholeheartedly, saying, "Grandma is right."
Xu Xia'an came to the farm again that night.
He brought quite a lot of things this time. Qiao Ye came with him, but she didn't come in; she stayed outside the wall to wait for him. Xu Xia'an was worried about Qiao Ye, so she put down her things, said a few words, and left in a hurry.
Molly and the Ji family were in the old man's room taking stock of the things Xu Xia'an had brought. There was a bag of rice, which should weigh fifty or sixty pounds. There was also a bag of millet, which looked like more than the rice but was lighter, weighing about thirty or forty pounds. There were also about ten pounds of flour, five bundles of noodles, and a full sack of potatoes.
There should be over 100 pounds of potatoes, enough to be a staple food for the family for a while.
There was also some corn, beans, and sorghum, totaling about forty or fifty jin (20-35 kg).
Two rolls of cloth, one blue and one cyan.
There was also a box of cold medicine and a large bag of miscellaneous herbs, each bag labeled with the name of the medicine and its purpose.
In addition, there were several bars of soap.
There were so many things that the old man couldn't fit them all in his room, so he moved some of them to Grandma Ji's room and hid them under the bed.
"With so much stuff, we won't go hungry this winter." Ji Herun breathed a sigh of relief, then turned and hugged Molly tightly. "Thank you, Molly."
Molly patted her on the shoulder. "We're family, let's not talk about these things."
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