Chapter 4 Chapter 4 The first taste of poverty

The brigade had scheduled the evening grain distribution. The others helped and did good things, and they all went back to the fields to work in high spirits. Zhou Peijun was afraid that something was wrong with Shen Moer, so he simply gave Shen Shaoyuan a day off and asked him to go home quickly to cook a meal for the father and daughter to have a good meal.

The people from Team 8 returned to the fields, and the people from other teams came over to find out what happened.

They were a little far away, but they knew someone had fainted, so they called Doctor Liu over. A group of people gathered behind them and said something, and then they rushed back to the village.

Others didn't say anything, but Aunt Chen and the others wanted to tell the story, not caring about the sullen faces of Cao Mei and Tian Fang, who were following behind them, and told the story of how the two sisters-in-law stole food from Shen Laoqi's house, causing Shen Moer to faint from hunger on the ground.

The members of the commune all thought it was too outrageous, and looked at Cao Mei and Tian Fang with strange eyes.

In this day and age, food is the life of a family, and stealing food from others is the same as taking their lives, isn't it?

Soon the news spread to several nearby teams.

From the 12th Squad, a short, spectacled, friendly-looking young man came back from the field of the next-door 10th Squad. The young men who were weeding looked at him curiously. He walked a few steps to a tall, thin, handsome young man and said mysteriously, "I heard that Shen Moer from the 8th Squad passed out from hunger."

A square-faced young man came over and said, "Zheng Jiamin, please tell me what happened. Our team has enough food, so how could she pass out from hunger?"

Zheng Jiamin looked puzzled and said, "That's what happened. Shen Moer, the daughter of Uncle Shen Qi, passed away. He was hungry because there had been no food at home for a few days, and he fainted on the ground after working for a while."

The square-faced man was called Zhang Zhiqiang. He frowned and thought for a while, "Uncle Shen Qi, Shen Moer, which one is it?"

Zheng Jiamin thought that the father and daughter of the Shen family were usually silent. Except for him, who would chat with the members whenever he had the chance and had a thorough understanding of the situation in the village, others probably didn't know who Shen Laoqi and Shen Moer were. So he explained, "They are Shen Lingling's seventh uncle and cousin."

Shen Lingling is the daughter of Shen Laoer, a high school student, with delicate looks and gentle personality. She is one of the rare girls in the village who is both talented and beautiful.

Although the educated youths were sent to work in the countryside, they still had a sense of superiority over the city dwellers. When they talked about how they could not return to the city and had to start a family in the countryside, many of them secretly said that Shen Lingling was the only one in the entire Yangliu Brigade who could match them.

Not only because of Shen Lingling's own conditions, but also because her parents were reasonable, especially her mother Tian Fang, who was a particularly gentle and kind person, completely different from other rough rural mothers.

Everyone was familiar with Shen Lingling, but her seventh uncle and cousin... no one had any impression of her.

Zhang Zhiqiang frowned and said, "Since they are from the Shen family, it doesn't

make sense that Comrade Shen Lingling's family is thriving while her uncle's family is starving. Most likely, this family is too lazy and hasn't earned many work points." It is said that one should help in times of emergency but not in times of poverty. This family must be too unkind, otherwise the kind-hearted Comrade Shen Lingling would definitely help them.

Zheng Jiamin opened his mouth. He actually vaguely heard that it was Aunt Cao and Aunt Tian who took away Uncle Shen's food, which caused them to have nothing to eat.

However, Aunt Tian usually looked very kind and didn't seem like someone who would do such a thing. In addition, there were several supporters of Comrade Shen Lingling among the educated youth. Once this was said, they would probably attack him in groups.

After thinking it over, Zheng Jiamin swallowed his words and said something fair based on his understanding: "Uncle Shen Qi and his daughter depend on each other. They work very hard. It's too arbitrary for you to say that, Zhang Zhiqiang."

Zhang Zhiqiang: "If that's the case, how come they have to go hungry? It's not that they are lazy at work, but most likely they are too careless and greedy. They eat up the food before the food is distributed again."

Zheng Jiamin scratched his head. He felt that Uncle Shen Qi and his daughter were not such people, but he hadn't squatted on their stove, so he couldn't guarantee that it was not the case.

At this time, the handsome young man who had been weeding stopped what he was doing, wiped the sweat off his forehead with the old towel around his neck, and said lightly: "The leader taught us that without investigation, we have no right to speak."

Zhang Zhiqiang's face suddenly became unhappy. But the other party was talking about the leader's words, and he couldn't refute it. He hesitated for a long time before uttering: "Fu Mingze, don't go online. I'm just making a reasonable guess."

Fu Mingze looked at him deeply, nodded slightly, and lowered his head to weed again.

Zhang Zhiqiang just felt like a fist hitting cotton, feeling neither up nor down.

Zheng Jiamin picked up the weed with a smile, and gave Fu Mingze a thumbs up when Zhang Zhiqiang wasn't paying attention.

Fu Mingze pulled the corner of his mouth and said, "Hurry up and work."

He couldn't help but look in the direction of the eighth team.

Fainted from hunger on the ground... Let's not talk about whether the food distributed by the brigade is enough to eat. This family is definitely poor. Otherwise, even if there is no food, they can use money to exchange some with others privately. If it really doesn't work, they can also take the risk to buy some on the black market.

However, these have nothing to do with him.

*

After returning home, Shen Moer clumsily made a fire and cooked a small pot of porridge based on the memory in her mind.

In fact, they had just eaten snacks before coming to this world, but after coming here, probably because of the magical power of the heaven, Shen Moer found that her body became very weak, her stomach was empty, and she was so hungry that her chest stuck to her back.

Although she fainted on the ground, it was said to be an act, but Shen Moer felt that if she didn't eat something, let alone faint, she might die like the original owner.

When Shen Moer was cooking porridge, Shen Shaoyuan went into the house and moved the bedding and mats to the door to dry, and then cleaned the house inside and out. He also moved two broken chairs and an old wooden box that were also caught in the rain outside.

This family is really poor.

Both beds were stiff, obviously not because they were wet, but because they had been used for so many years that the cotton wool had hardened. It was estimated that even if they were not wet, they would not be warm.

An old wooden box was shared by the father and daughter. In addition to a few pieces of clothes, there were some worthless sundries.

However, Shen Shaoyuan found a few well-preserved small pieces of paper in it. There were several people "drawn" on the small pieces of paper, one was a couple and two children, one was two young men and women, and one was a couple holding a little girl.

Shen Shaoyuan knew that these small pieces of paper were not paintings, but something called photos.

The first photo was a family photo of "his" wife when she was a child. The couple was "his" father-in-law and mother-in-law, and the boy was "his" brother-in-law. The second photo is a photo of "his" wife and his brother-in-law when they were older. The third photo is a photo of "him", his wife and "Shen Moer" when she was young.

What surprised Shen Shaoyuan was that "his" wife looked exactly like his princess who died young in Daliang.

Obviously, his father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, second sister-in-law and third sister-in-law were all completely different from the Daliang.

Shen Shaoyuan sighed and showed the photo to Shen Moer: "Not only do they look the same, but their expressions and movements are also similar. However, your mother, apart from being weak, has never suffered any hardship in her life. She looks a little more beautiful than this lady." Shen Moer lost

her mother when she was young, and her impression of her mother came from the portrait painted by Shen Shaoyuan himself. However, no matter how good the portrait is, it can't compare to the reality of the photo. The photo is like a fleeting moment in time intercepted by the way of heaven.

Shen Moer lightly touched the person in the photo with her finger. Even though she knew that this person was not her mother, she could not help but look at her a few more times.

"Let's go to the county town and take a few more photos of this one day." Shen Shaoyuan did not want his daughter to be sad, so he quickly put the photos away and said cheerfully, "This place is also strange. The people don't look rich, but they can enjoy many things that the princes and nobles of Daliang cannot enjoy."

Shen Moer looked at him indifferently: "Well, the premise is to have money."

Shen Shaoyuan choked and said weakly: "Soon, we will have money soon."

The treasure house does contain Wanguan's family wealth. Unfortunately, these things are either useless here, just like the banknotes that are deposited and exchanged between Daliang and surrounding countries, which are just a pile of waste paper here. Or they dared not use them, like the gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings. First, they had no way to explain the origin of these things, and second, according to the laws of this world, these things would be confiscated if they were taken out, and the father and daughter might even suffer imprisonment or be killed.

Not to mention the treasure house, now their only visible property is the fifty cents left by the original owner and daughter.

Yes, fifty cents.

It is just enough to buy a few eggs.

For the first time in their lives, the father and daughter tasted the taste of poverty.

Fortunately, the food was brought back, plus some snacks and dry food they stored in the treasure house, so they don’t have to worry about going hungry for the time being.

The porridge was cooked thin, which was just right to eat with snacks. Even though they knew that the original owner's father was not popular with women and that no one would come to his house when he was free, they did not dare to be careless and had dinner with the door bolted. After the meal, both of them were sweating profusely.

Shen Moer found a towel and a washbasin to wash her face.

The washbasin had probably been used for a long time, and a few pieces of paint had fallen off. It was then repaired with other colors of paint, and the repairs were also very rough and had bumps. However, compared to the towel, although the washbasin was torn, it was at least clean, while the towel was old and yellow, with two big holes in it, and it was hard.

In the end, Shen Moer just filled a basin with clean water and washed her face with the water in her hands.

There were some cloths in the treasury, but according to the original owner's memory, cloths were also extremely scarce in this country. In addition to money, tickets were required to buy cloth in the store. Farmers had no tickets and mostly wove coarse cloth by themselves.

So Shen Moer didn't dare to take out even a piece of cloth.

This was probably like begging for food while guarding a treasure mountain, Shen Moer thought with a smile. But she was not depressed. After all, it was good to be alive. Moreover, although this place was a little poor, the world was peaceful and the people lived and worked in peace. Compared with Daliang, which had been in war for years, this paradise was no more than this.

In the afternoon, the father and daughter repaired the house.

Shen Shaoyuan was a weak scholar with no fighting ability. Shen Moer, on the other hand, had learned some martial arts from several princes since she was a child. She was not good at fighting in battle, but it was easy for her to climb up the ladder to the roof and pick up the tiles.

A lot of tiles were broken, and they didn't know where to buy more. Of course, they had no money to buy them, so they simply took out some tiles from the corners and moved them to the middle, and covered the empty space with thatch, so that at least the main areas would not leak.

So for the first time in their lives, the father and daughter truly understood what it meant to be stretched to the limit.

"It seems that the money for repairing the house will have to fall on my good nephews!" Shen Shaoyuan sighed.