Chapter 337 Salt Field
When Ning An opened his eyes again, he was hungry.
She was so hungry; she hadn't had a proper meal recently.
She didn't know how long she slept, but she felt weak all over.
Her distracted eyes gradually focused, and after a turn of her eyeballs, she found herself lying in a thatched hut.
Ning An had no idea how he got from the hillside to the thatched hut.
Although the roof of the thatched house was covered with thick thatch, a little light still shone through the gaps.
Strands of light fell.
Tiny particles of dust danced in the light.
Ning An looked at the light for a while, then opened his mouth towards the light.
I'm so hungry. Really hungry.
I'm so hungry that I want to pick the sun and take a bite of it.
She recalled a story she learned when she was a child studying in Lihe Hall:
There was once a man in Luoyang who fell into a deep pit. He saw snakes and frogs in the pit, all of which were looking up to devour the sunlight. After swallowing the sunlight, their hunger and thirst were instantly relieved.
Ning An thought it was ridiculous at the time.
How could anyone be so stupid as to swallow sunlight? How can you eat sunlight?
If sunlight could be eaten, why would people still grow crops? They would just lie on the ground and eat.
At that time, Ning An thought of the scene of rows of people lying on the ground with their mouths open to the sky, and burst into laughter.
But Ning An now can no longer laugh.
It turns out that people are not stupid, but when they are so hungry that they have no other choice, they want to try it even though they know it is fake.
"Are you hungry?" A crisp voice came from the door.
A girl walked in.
She was very thin and short, wearing a coarse cloth shirt and straw sandals, with a sweat towel tied around her waist.
The girl held a bowl of porridge in her hand:
"Here you go. I cooked it this morning."
Ning An smelled the fragrance of porridge and immediately had the strength to get up.
The bowl containing the porridge had several holes in it, and the porridge was a mixture of millet, brown rice and some mashed beans.
Ning An had never seen this kind of porridge. She had never even seen millet or brown rice.
But she drank with big gulps, swallowing it down with big gulps.
After finishing the drink, Ning An finally had the energy to ask a series of questions:
"Where is this? Who are you? Why am I here?"
The girl took back Ning An's empty bowl:
"This is my home. I saw you at the foot of the mountain when I went to collect herbs, so I borrowed a cart and pushed you back. I'm a villager here, you can just call me Douzi."
Ning An repeated: "Beans?"
Ning An thought he had misheard. How could someone be called Douzi?
But the bean girl repeated it again: "Well, my name is Qiao Douzi, the bean in the bowl just now."
"So what place is this, which state?"
Douzi: "It's Jiezhou."
Ning An felt that Jiezhou sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember where it was.
"Bean, thank you for saving me. I have to go now. My family is waiting for me. I will definitely repay you for saving me later."
Ning An just stood up, but felt dizzy and weak, so he sat back on the bed.
Ning An: ...
Douzi: "You're not well yet. You definitely can't leave without a few days of rest. What's your name? Is your home nearby? I can ask someone and help pass on a message.
Ning An hesitated for a moment: "My name is Qin Xiang, and my home is in a village outside Chang'an."
Her original name was Murong Xiang, but few people in the palace called her by her name.
When Douzi heard this, he said worriedly:
"Chang'an? That's a bit difficult. There's a war going on in Chang'an, and many people have fled. No one dares to go there. Besides, Chang'an isn't that close. How can you go there alone, Miss Qin?"
Ning An was silent.
She now has no money and no horse.
Ning An: "Then I'll borrow some money and food and go back by myself?"
This time Douzi was silent:
“…No one in our village has that much money and food to borrow.”
Ning An looked around the thatched hut again and had no doubt about Douzi's words.
There was almost no furniture in the thatched house, only some clay pots and thatch that would blow away with the wind.
When Ning An just woke up, he thought he was lying in the cowshed.
Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Ning An is not smart, but she has a big heart and she will not be depressed or give up.
Ning An: "How about you take me in for a few days? Let me think of a way. I'll see if I have anything I can exchange for money."
Ning An began to collect the things on his body.
Unfortunately, nothing was found.
Her money and gun were stolen while she was in the black shop.
Ning An was really depressed now.
Douzi said, "Actually, if you wash your clothes, you should be able to sell them for some money, but it might not be enough for you to return to Chang'an."
Ning An was surprised: "This can also be exchanged?"
The clothes she was wearing were all worn out, but she didn't expect that she could exchange them for money.
Ning An asked Douzi to help her find some clothes, and she took off her clothes:
"Then let's sell it. Even if the money isn't enough to go back to Chang'an, it will at least give us enough food for a few days."
Ning An felt that Douzi's family was too poor to support another person, so his meals still depended on her clothes.
When Ning An was taking off her clothes, she accidentally touched her face. She raised her hand to wipe it and it was sticky.
Douzi held her hand and said, "Don't rub it. Your wound is broken. I applied some herbal medicine on you."
Ning An: "I want to look in the mirror and see what I look like."
I guess the left side of my face must be quite scary. If I go out, people might mistake me for a female bandit.
Douzi shook his head.
Ning An: "It's okay, I can bear it. The wound on my face was sustained to save my life, it's worth it."
Douzi still shook his head: "I don't have a mirror at home."
Ning An laughed awkwardly: "Ah, haha, that's even better, it's even better if I don't have to watch..."
Ning An changed into the clothes that Douzi found for her. It was a bit short, but barely enough to wear.
Her coat was torn, but Douzi gestured on it, saying, "The lower half is rotten, but the upper half can still be sold."
When Douzi was tidying up Ning An's underwear, a look of shock appeared on his face.
"Miss Qin, are you a lady from a wealthy family?"
Douzi found small pearls on the cuff of Ning An's inner shirt, which were neatly embroidered in a string.
Douzi couldn't imagine how many acres of land a family would need to own to be rich enough to embroider pearls on their sleeves.
Ning An: "Uh... my family used to be very wealthy, but after the war, we fell into poverty. These are all old clothes."
"But can such a small pearl be sold for money?"
Bean: “Of course!”
Ning An asked Douzi to help her sell all these for money, and gave Douzi a few beads to thank her for the porridge and herbs.
Douzi refused to take so much and only accepted one bead with a blushing face, feeling that he was shameless and had taken advantage of others.
"I've counted these beads—eighteen of them. In two days, I'll go to several nearby towns and find pawnshops to sell them separately to avoid being targeted."
Ning An looked at Douzi holding the little pearl solemnly and nodded subconsciously.
Ning An: "Where are your family members? Do your elders agree that I can live here?"
As soon as she asked, she heard a cough.
"My grandma is awake." Douzi quickly ran to the thatched hut next door.
Ning An followed him out of the thatched roof.
As soon as she walked out, she saw a large lake in the distance.
There are many thatched houses around, and each house has no courtyard walls, only a low fence surrounding it.
By the lake and outside the thatched huts, there were groups of people bending over and working.
It's not about farming or harvesting, but about sinking your hands into a dug puddle.
The water surface was a dark red like rust.
The wind smells salty and damp.
Ning An was slightly stunned.
Jiezhou.
She remembered.
Jiezhou salt fields.
That colorful lake is a salt lake.
Everyone here is a salt householder.
…
Outside Chang'an City, Xianyunzhuang.
Several people are discussing.
"Everything is going according to plan now. We have enough food and weapons, but—"
Murong Di's tone changed slightly.
"We've taken inventory again today, and I'm afraid we don't have enough salt to sustain the army for long. We lost a lot of it during the floods along the way last summer."
Hao Ren stared intently. "It's hard to buy salt right now. Official salt can't be transported here, private salt is expensive, and the quality varies greatly."
Su Zhizhi: "Where is the nearest salt field? Since it's so chaotic now and the government doesn't care, can we just go directly to the salt farmers to buy salt?"
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