Chapter 2: The Young Madam is So Cruel
Shitou blushed and whispered in defense, "It wasn't like this five years ago."
"You also know that was five years ago." Shang Wan held her forehead helplessly. If she had known that it was such a "feng shui treasure land", she should have found a rich guy in the city to rob the rich and help the poor.
"I'll go to the cellar and take a look." Shi Tou ran towards the cellar as if he was escaping.
Xiao Huan stuffed the baby, who was about to cry with a flat mouth, into Shang Wan's arms and said, "Madam, please comfort the young lady. I will go to the kitchen to check."
Yuanyuan stayed in her adoptive mother's arms and didn't need any coaxing at all. She sucked her chubby fingers obediently and smiled at Shang Wan with her big eyes curved.
Shang Wan gently poked her chubby little face while thinking about where to get some food later.
Even if the three adults could go hungry, the little baby could not.
"Ah! Rat!" Xiaohuan screamed and ran out of the kitchen with a broken pot lid in her hand.
When Shang Wan looked over, she said with a bitter face: "Young Madam, the rice jar has become a rat's nest, and there is nothing to eat in the kitchen."
Shang Wan wasn't surprised. It would be strange if there was food in the kitchen of such a dilapidated house. Even if there was, the house was unguarded and would have been taken away by someone with ulterior motives.
Shitou also came up from the cellar, with a gloomy look on his face, "The cellar is full of rats' descendants."
As he spoke, he shook his trouser leg and a little mouse fell out. It squeaked and ran away, but was stepped on by Shang Wan.
Xiaohuan was so scared that she stepped back repeatedly.
Shang Wan stared at the struggling little mouse under his feet for a while, then exerted a little force and the little mouse died.
She raised her head, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the two of them. "Let's roast some rats. We can get a whole nest of them, and we'll be full."
This is all meat!
They both: “…”
Are you the devil?
"Young Madam, you can't eat mice." Xiaohuan was so scared that she was about to cry, and she didn't dare to look at Shang Wan's feet.
Shitou also said: "The young master said that eating rat meat will make you sick."
Shang Wan secretly clicked his tongue. It was obvious these two had never been hungry. In the apocalypse, there was a lack of food. They were so hungry that they could even catch mutant beasts and eat them.
Seeing that the two were particularly reluctant, Shang Wan did not insist. He kicked the dead mouse into the weeds, plucked out the only silver hairpin in his hair and handed it to Shitou, "Take this and trade it with the villagers for some food."
"Young Madam, you can't do that!" Xiao Huan said, "This is a token of love given to you by the young master. How can you exchange it for food?"
"You're almost starving to death, why do you care about those things?" Shang Wan urged Shitou to go quickly and specifically asked him to exchange some rice so that he could cook some porridge for Yuanyuan.
Even though he had never raised a child, Shang Wan knew that the baby in his arms, who had just grown two small baby teeth, needed to eat something soft.
Shitou looked at Shang Wan several times before leaving with a complicated expression, holding the silver hairpin.
Xiaohuan brought out a pile of dry firewood from the kitchen, used some hay to start a fire, and the flames illuminated the yard.
She wiped the stool clean and brought it out from the main room. She said to Shang Wan, "It's cold on spring nights. Young Madam, you're weak. Hold the young lady by the fire first. Be careful not to get cold. I'll clean up the kitchen first. I'll trade the stones for food so we can cook."
Seeing Xiaohuan busying around, Shang Wan put the swaddling clothes on a stool, glanced at the weeds in the yard that were half a person's height, and moved the stool away from the fire and closer to the kitchen.
She reached out and patted the swaddling clothes, "Play by yourself for a while, and go to sleep when you are tired. Don't cry."
Yuanyuan blinked her big eyes and smiled at Shangwan as if she understood.
"So good." Shang Wan lowered his head and kissed her little chubby face, then stood up and walked towards the kitchen, taking out two wooden barrels, one large and one small.
There is a well in the corner of the yard next to the kitchen. The well is full of water and you can just bend down and draw water with a bucket.
Shang Wan squatted down, filled a large bucket with water, and walked towards the kitchen with it steadily carried in one hand.
Xiao Huan looked up and saw the scene, her eyes widened with shock, and she quickly went to meet him, "Young Madam, please put it down quickly, be careful not to hurt your waist."
How could our young lady, whose body would fall over at the slightest gust of wind, do such rough work as fetching water?
"It's not heavy." Shang Wan avoided her outstretched hand, put the bucket on the stove, soaked a rag in it, and helped clean the kitchen.
Xiaohuan pinched herself hard, and tears came to her eyes due to the pain.
Wow, what kind of god is this? The young lady actually took the initiative to help her with the work.
The two were busy in the kitchen. In the yard, the baby in the cradle was sucking his little hands with relish, babbling vaguely from time to time, and his big watery eyes were looking at the moon in the sky, blinking.
A rustling sound came from the half-human-high weeds. A spotted snake as thick as an adult's arm hissed and spit out its tongue. Under the cover of the weeds, it meandered towards the square stool.
Shitou traded his silver hairpin for a can of oil, half a pound of salt, three pounds of rice, two pounds of noodles, five eggs, a pound of meat, and some vegetables grown by the villagers. Because it was difficult to carry so much stuff, he even borrowed a backpack.
He came back with his things on his back, and as soon as he walked into the yard, he saw a two-meter-long spotted snake crawling to the foot of the square stool, hissing and spitting out its tongue, raising its triangular head and trying to climb up the stool leg.
He was so frightened that his eyes were bloodshot and he was about to scream, but the spotted snake seemed to be hit by some huge force. It rolled over in the air and landed three steps away from him. A piece of wood as thick as his little finger pierced through the snake's head and nailed it firmly to the ground.
The two-meter-long snake tail kept twisting and swinging, and it was silent for a long time.
"You're back just in time. I'll leave it to you. I'll add another dish later." Shang Wan stood by the kitchen window, holding a wooden stick between his white fingers that was almost the same as the one that was stuck in the snake's head.
In fact, when she kicked the mouse to death just now, she discovered the spotted snake hiding in the weeds.
Originally, she figured that given the current prices, she could at least trade the stone for some meat with the silver hairpin, so there was no rush to kill the snake for meat. She even deliberately moved the stool closer to the kitchen. Who would have thought the spotted snake was so eager to die? She had no choice but to reluctantly eat the roasted snake.
Shi Tou's face turned pale. He looked at the spotted snake, then at Shang Wan, then at Shang Wan, and then at the spotted snake again. His Adam's apple rolled up and down, and he swallowed hard.
Young Master, the Young Madam is so cruel now!
While Shitou was dealing with the spotted snake, Xiaohuan started washing vegetables and cooking.
Shang Wan's cooking skills are not good, so he won't help in the kitchen.
At Yuanyuan's babbling call, she went out and picked up her adopted daughter to play throwing high up, the kind that would go over the roof. Xiaohuan, who occasionally glanced out, was frightened, fearing that Shang Wan would accidentally fail to catch her and Yuanyuan would fall and get hurt.
But the little guy in the cradle was not afraid at all. He was giggling with joy and drooling uncontrollably.
Listening to the baby's laughter, Shang Wan felt that he had mastered the skills to get along with the cubs. He threw the baby in various ways, making it like a manual roller coaster.
Xiaohuan was so frightened that she couldn't help but speak out to stop them. The big and small regretfully stopped the high-throwing game and waited patiently for dinner.
(End of this chapter)
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