Chapter 3
The Shen San couple were able to lie down again. In the Chen family courtyard next door, Old Man Chen and Mrs. Chen were old and had light sleepers, but they woke up when they heard the noise.
Old man Chen listened for a while with his ears perked up, and when he heard the knocking on the door still continued, he got up from the bed, went to the window and looked out.
Mrs. Chen half-raised herself and asked her husband, "What's going on?"
Old man Chen squinted his eyes in the moonlight and took a closer look: "Xiao An from Old Shen's family banged on the door in the middle of the night. Did something happen in the mountains?"
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Chen also got up, got out of bed, went to the window and looked out, "It's true."
Seeing that no one from the Shen family answered the door, the old lady curled her lips and said, "Shen San and his wife are really evil. They pushed their eldest nephew out to serve in the military before he even became an adult and lost his life. The Shen family only has these two bloodlines left. They separated such young children and just threw them on the mountain."
"That Sang is my sister-in-law, but she's only a few years older than Xiaoan and Aning, and she can't support the family at all."
Of course, it can't be sustained. Old man Chen thought about the vegetables planted on the hill that Old Shen's family gave to the eldest house, or the vegetable seedlings that the old woman gave to Sang. Now, some of the seedlings are dying, some are lacking fertilizer, and some are infested with pests. None of them can grow.
I don’t know how Li picked his people. And Sang doesn’t know how to do farm work at all. How can these three people survive together?
Mrs. Chen turned around and put on her clothes: "I'll go out and take a look. It doesn't have to be anything urgent."
Old man Chen didn't stop her.
The Chen and Shen families fled famine together nine years ago and settled here. Before the famine, the Chen and Shen families didn't know each other. They met up in the second half of the journey and walked halfway. In addition, the eldest grandson of the old couple was also captured as a soldier more than two years ago and has not returned yet. It is said that he is in the same camp as Shen Lie's child.
On one hand, they lost their brother, and on the other hand, they lost their grandson. Now the old couple looked at the plight of the two children from the eldest branch of the Shen family. Whether it was sympathy or sympathy, they were soft-hearted.
The Shen family had not made any movement yet, but the Chen family next door had removed the bolt on their door.
When Shen An heard the noise and turned around to look, Mrs. Chen opened the gate and waved at him: "Xiao An, come here."
Chen An was so angry that he was about to alarm the villagers and force his uncle to give him some life-saving food for the sake of face. But when he heard Grandma Chen next door calling him, his anger suddenly dissipated.
My sister-in-law can’t wait any longer.
He almost ran over, and without waiting for Old Lady Chen to ask him anything, he knelt down and kowtowed: "Grandma, my sister-in-law is not well. Do you have any food at home? Can you give me a few bites? I will take it back and feed it to my sister-in-law."
Thinking of the fact that he had detected his sister-in-law's breathing, which was so weak that it was almost imperceptible before he came out, Shen An's tears fell.
His eldest brother was gone, and the family was divided. He knew very well that the only person he and his sister could rely on was his eldest sister-in-law. If even his eldest sister-in-law was gone, Shen An didn't dare to imagine what it would be like to live alone in the mountains with his sister in the future.
He did not dare to hold out hope that his uncle and aunt would take them home. At most, they would be given a meal every one or two days to keep them alive, as they had been doing these days. But how would they survive in the winter? Were there any wild animals in the mountains? What if they got sick?
As long as his sister-in-law was around, he and his sister could still at least retain some courage. But now that his sister-in-law was gone, he dared not even think about what the future would hold.
When Mrs. Chen heard what Shen An said, her heart skipped a beat and she asked hurriedly, "Are you hungry?"
Chen An nodded, then shook his head: "She's hungry, and seems to be sick. My sister-in-law said she should just lie down. She fell asleep during the day and hasn't woken up since. Xiao Ning and I couldn't wake her up no matter how hard we called."
Mrs. Chen had escaped a famine before, and she had seen people die of starvation or thirst.
When I heard this, I guessed that he was very hungry.
That’s right. Sang had originally been fleeing here, and his physical condition must have been damaged during the journey.
"Wait for me, I'll go into the mountains with you." Mrs. Chen didn't say much, turned around and went back to the house to get food.
Old man Chen listened to the whole conversation between the two people inside, and now he came out: "I'll take you there."
Seeing his wife going into the house, he thought for a moment and said, "Get some maltose."
Mrs. Chen nodded. If she was really hungry, drinking salt and saccharified water would be helpful. She turned around and asked Chen An, "Do you have salt at home?"
Shen An nodded quickly: "Yes."
"That's fine."
Mrs. Chen entered the house, opened the rice jar and measured one liter of rice. Thinking of how her eldest grandson had seen Tian'er running after Shen Lie in the past, and how now both of them would never come back, Mrs. Chen's eyes ached. She gritted her teeth and measured one more liter, then covered the rice jar, opened the cupboard and took out two pieces of malt sugar, which she usually couldn't bear to eat at home, and hurried out of the house.
Old man Chen gave the old woman a bamboo stick for cutting grass, picked up a stick for himself, closed the gate, and the three of them quickly went into the mountains.
As they walked, Mrs. Chen asked about the situation at Chen An's family. The more she listened, the more worried she became about the little brother and sister. Chen Lie was gone, and Sang was useless. How would these three people live in the future?
…
In the thatched cottage on the mountain, Shen Ning was feeding his sister-in-law hot water one spoonful at a time.
As Sang Luo drank, she was worried. What she was worried about was not how she would live in the future, but how she would get food for the time being.
There was no hope of finding food near the hill where she lived, unless she ate leaves... Well, there were indeed leaves in the nearby mountains that could be made into food, but she searched her original memory and couldn't remember where she had seen them before.
There was no need to count on the two little ones' uncle and aunt. Not to mention that they might not be able to borrow food in the middle of the night. Even if they did, according to Li's previous behavior, they would only give enough to keep the two of them alive.
She needed to gather up her strength as quickly as possible so that she could go out and look for food. Otherwise, not only her but also the two children would be ruined if they continued to go without meals.
If there were another time when they were so hungry that they couldn't even walk, especially if all three of them were that hungry... Sang Luo felt that she might not be as lucky as she was this time, to be able to travel through time, to have a kind little girl go to the mountainside in the middle of the night under the moonlight to find wild fruits for her to sustain her life, and to have a little guy come into the village to borrow food to save her.
Sang Luo lowered her eyes when she thought of this, not daring to meet Shen Ning's gaze at this moment.
Because the person the little brother and sister wanted to save was already dead, she just got extremely lucky and occupied the original body and continued to live.
Just as she lowered her eyes, she heard hurried footsteps outside the thatched cottage. The voice came before the person arrived: "Aning, I borrowed some food!"
The door was pushed open, and a little boy as skinny as a stick rushed in like a cannonball.
After all, it was the room where the young daughter-in-law lived, and it was the middle of the night, so Old Man Chen did not go in, but just stood outside. Mrs. Chen followed Shen An into the room.
With just one glance, Mrs. Chen cursed Shen Lao San in her heart for his sin.
Can this be called a house? Is this what beggars living in a dilapidated temple look like?
There was no other belongings in the room except a bench, a bed made of bed boards, and a few farm tools standing against the wall.
The stove was made of stones. A broken clay pot with a chip on it and three sets of bowls and chopsticks were placed on a stone slightly larger than a small basin that was brought from somewhere by some small children. This way they escaped the fate of being placed on the ground.
And Sang Luo, who Chen An said was dying, was indeed not in much better condition. She was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall, and had to rely on Aning to feed her water.
Mrs. Chen naturally didn't think that Sang Luo would not stay in bed in the middle of the night and sit on the ground. She had experienced a severe drought and fled famine, so she could guess the general idea by looking at the situation.
Without wasting any time, he put the rice bag aside and looked at the little hot water left in the earthenware jar. He quickly threw a piece of malt sugar into it and put the remaining piece in the empty bowl. He then saw a small covered jar beside the bowl and opened it to take a look. The jar, which was the size of a child's palm, now only had salt left at the bottom.
He pinched a little and put it into the water in the clay pot to dissolve it, then called Shen Ning over and poured the salt and sugar water in the clay pot into the bowl Shen Ning was holding: "Go feed it to your sister-in-law."
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