Chapter 13
But after asking, Sang Luo thought that the child would be able to keep the question to himself overnight.
Sang Luo knew that the time had come to test her acting skills.
She was stunned when she heard Shen An's words, and then smiled.
How can I describe that smile? Three parts loneliness and five parts bitterness.
Shen An seemed to ask casually, but in fact he stared at Sang Luo's reaction without blinking. The hand holding the chopsticks tightened subconsciously, but when he saw Sang Luo's reaction, he was a little confused for a moment.
"Sister-in-law?"
The slightly worried voice came from Shen Ning.
Sang Luo forced a smile. "It's actually the first time for me to go down to the river to catch fish and pick leaves to make food. The former is something I heard from the children in the tribe about catching fish in the stream in this way, so I took note. The latter is a recipe recorded in the books collected as my mother's dowry. My mother made it for me once when I was young, so I recognize it."
Yes, I recognize it. Why didn’t I do it before?
Shen An still stared at Sang Luo.
Sang Luo pretended not to know. She lowered her eyes and smiled bitterly. After a few breaths, she raised her eyes to look at the brother and sister.
"I haven't told you about my past, have I? I was born in a commoner family, and the education I received from childhood to adulthood... I didn't go up the mountain or down the river, especially taking off my shoes and socks to go into the water to catch fish. In the past, I would never have dared to think about it."
"As for the magical tofu, it was a thing from my childhood. Yesterday, when I was so hungry that I felt like I couldn't stand it anymore, I thought about my parents and my childhood life, and then I remembered that there was such a thing as food."
The brother and sister were a little confused.
They had actually heard of the commoners, who were a completely different existence from the people in their village. The brother and sister couldn't tell what they were specifically, but they both heard the village elders talk about them. Many people in their Shili Village were now farming the best land from tenants, and 60% of them were from the Wang family in the village. It was said that the Wang family was a commoner.
The brother and sister had seen the Wang family's house before when they were taken to the market by their eldest brother. It was the largest house in the village. The old people in the village said that the ladies and girls of the Wang family seldom went out, and all the chores were done by servants and maids. The ladies and girls were very particular about not leaving the front door or the back door.
In fact, if Sang Luo were to explain it, there is a very simple word: landlord.
The so-called poor families, poor clans, and common people were derived from the gentry, and were also the product of the competition for resources between the imperial power and the gentry.
In the time and space where she originally lived, the class of small and medium-sized landlords who were not up to the level of the gentry but were relatively successful were considered commoners, and this time and space was similar.
Shen An and Shen Ning were dizzy. Could it be that their sister-in-law was a lady from a wealthy family?
Although the brother and sister depended on Sang Luo for their survival, they actually felt that their sister-in-law was inactive. They didn't dare to go into the mountains or go down to the rivers, and the vegetables they planted died. In the beginning, they were not even very skilled in making fire and washing clothes.
They can only survive on the little food distributed by their third uncle. To be honest, their survival ability is not as good as that of their two brothers and sisters.
But if the eldest sister-in-law was a spoiled young lady from a wealthy family, then all the things they thought were wrong in the past would make sense if they applied this identity to her.
The most clever lie is one that is seven parts true and three parts false.
The original body's life experience, cognition, and upbringing are all true. The only things that were concealed and mixed in were Sang Luo's time travel and the origins of those skills.
Sang Luo had already achieved half of her goal, and now she was relieved: "After walking on the edge of life and death, I have finally let it go. My parents and relatives are all gone now, not to mention my former family and those ethics. It's not easy to be alive, so why should I care about so many things?"
No matter how vigilant Shen An was, he was actually only a nine-year-old child, or a virtual two-year-old.
At this point, he had completely let down his guard.
Put yourself in my sister-in-law's shoes. She had such a good family background, but she encountered natural disasters and man-made disasters, and her family members were all gone. She herself was in a situation where she would be replaced by half a bag of food...
Well, it's all sympathy and heartache.
He even secretly regretted his previous assumptions about his sister-in-law.
The two little ones were overwhelmed with love and care.
"Sister-in-law, eat more fish to keep your body healthy."
"Don't be sad, sister-in-law. You will have me and Aning in the future."
The effect was a bit too good. Not only did it dispel all of Shen An's doubts, but the two little kids were also taken care of too much by Sang Luo.
…
It was a warm dinner.
After dinner, only dozens of fish and half a bowl of shrimps were left to be processed.
That's right, they can eat three meals a day. For dinner, there is magical tofu, mixed purslane, and two of the biggest fish caught that day. This is really a feast for the two kids who have been living from head to toe for a while.
As for the remaining fish, the two children, who were very conscious of hoarding food, suggested saving them for later.
Sang Luo also agreed. Living and nutritional supplements are long-term matters, especially conditioning the body, which requires steady work. Compared with the refugee-like life before, today's nutrition is more than enough.
Our little family doesn't have much at the moment, but these fish and shrimp are good things. They can be made into dried fish and shrimp and stored for a long time. Not only can they be used as winter reserve food, but eating a little bit every day to supplement nutrition and calcium when there is no meat.
It was already late when I came back with the fish baskets, and it was impossible to dry the fish and shrimp in the sun, so I simply waited until after dinner before boiling the processed fish and shrimp. I walked outside for a long time, found a thin stone slab, washed it clean, and used the stone to dry the fish and shrimp.
At this time, the advantage of living far away from the village came. Late at night, the aroma of grilled fish and shrimps wafted out of the cottage for more than an hour. If you lived in the village, the children of the neighbors would be so greedy that they would cry.
A few small crabs were given to the two children as snacks, and after roasting the other dried fish and shrimp, Sang Luo estimated that they weighed about half a pound.
Chen An dug out another old empty grain bag from somewhere and stuffed all the dried fish and shrimp into it.
After more than half a month, I finally got to experience the two little ones having more than enough food at home. I was so excited.
Chen An, the special housekeeper, was holding two bags of rice and dried fish, running around the house looking for a place to hide. He did this not for anything else but to prevent mice from snatching his food. The dried fish was so delicious.
Finally, he hid the things in two large ceramic basins borrowed from the Chen family, one upright and the other upside down. They fit so tightly that not even a bug could crawl in, let alone a mouse.
Chen An was extremely satisfied with the temporary granary he had built. He brought Chen Ning with him, squatting beside it, supporting and watching for a long time, and was reluctant to move.
"Sister-in-law, you said that our family will definitely have more and more things in the future. When we have money, we will get a big jar to store food. Then we can ask Uncle Arita to help make a lid and put it on. Then our food storage will be safe!"
Chen Youtian knew some simple carpentry skills, and the bamboo sword used by Shen An was carved by him.
Although the family now has only the borrowed food and some dried fish and shrimp that they just collected today, little Shen An is already thinking about the day when the granary is full of food.
…
Unlike Shen An who was afraid of being targeted by mice, Sang Luo was afraid of snakes.
Even though she had lived in the mountains for several years and was quite brave when she built the fish basket, she was still afraid of snakes entering the house because people were completely asleep at night and it was terrifying to think that she was sleeping without knowing anything and those creatures would crawl by.
She had spent a lot of money on screens for the house she renovated before, and the protection was very good.
But now look at this broken thatched house... All Sang Luo can do is to close the doors and windows before going to bed, and check the house carefully, especially the place in the corner where firewood is stored.
The first day of traveling back to ancient times ended in a busy manner. Sang Luo, Shen An and Shen Ning squeezed onto a simple bed made of benches and wooden boards, and fell asleep accompanied by the sounds of frogs and insects.
Before falling asleep, Sang Luo thought to herself that when she had money, besides stockpiling food, the most important thing to do was to build a house and a toilet.
Yes, the toilet.
Apart from the difficulty of taking a bath, this is the most difficult part.
The Shen family originally built a thatched hut on this mountain, a short distance away from the hut. Sang Luo didn't want to comment on the details, but probably because her original body was extremely lacking in various substances, she didn't have to run to the outhouse for the entire day.
I had to take a walk before going to bed at night, and I had to pinch my nose in and out, running at the fastest speed in my two lives.
Sang Luo could only comfort herself that compared to saving her life, all difficulties could be overcome and all unbearable things could be endured for the time being.
So much so that before going to bed, all she could think about was - making money, making money, making money!
That whole night, Sang Luo dreamed that she was selling magic tofu at the market and had a great success. Copper coins fell into her pocket one by one. She laughed out loud in her dream with a pocket full of copper coins.
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