A caravan, laden with lively piglets, set off from the desolate mountains.
The wheels rolled, raising clouds of dust, heading towards the lands ravaged by locust plagues.
…
Anhe County
Huang Xinyu opened her eyes, her mind still a complete mess.
She remembers staying up all night in her dorm watching cheesy short dramas, complaining that the female lead's story started with her struggling to survive a famine, yet she still had plenty of meat and fish!
How did I end up lying on a hard earthen bed in the blink of an eye?
"hiss……"
She struggled to sit up and saw mud-brick walls, a dilapidated wooden table, and a drafty window.
Outside the window, the earth was cracked and barren.
"No way..."
Huang Xinyu's face fell instantly.
"Is the game starting in a survival mode during a famine?"
Where is my cheat code?
She was on the verge of tears, staggered to her feet, pushed open the door, and prepared to accept her tragic fate of starving to death.
There was nothing she could do. She knew her own limitations. In reality, traversing a famine year was not as easy as it was depicted in novels and short dramas, where one could thrive like a fish in water.
However, when she turned into her own small storage room, she froze.
Her eyes widened slowly.
In the corner of the storage room, there was a small mountain of sweet potatoes!
Next to it, there were baskets of golden corn cobs!
Even at the very back, she saw several bags of round potatoes!
"Holy crap!"
Huang Xinyu rubbed her eyes hard, wondering if she was hallucinating.
Sweet potatoes! Corn! Potatoes!
Isn't this time-travel perk a bit too generous?
With these high-yield crops, let alone a famine, even if she lay at home every day and ate as much as she wanted, it would be enough for her to eat until next spring!
She let out a long sigh of relief and patted her chest.
"Thank goodness, it's not hell difficulty."
"The survival scenario has been fast-forwarded to a farming and retirement scenario."
However, she hadn't finished catching her breath.
"The locusts are coming!"
"Locusts are coming! Everyone get ready!"
Suddenly, a desperate shout rang out from outside.
Huang Xinyu felt a jolt, and her ears immediately perked up.
She knows this plot very well!
Having read eight hundred time-travel novels and watched a thousand survival short dramas, locust plagues are a classic trope!
Four large, golden characters immediately appeared in her mind.
Oil! Fried! Locusts! Insects!
High in protein, crunchy and delicious, and with the head and wings removed, it's practically a walking energy bar!
Here comes your chance to get rich!
But the next second, she deflated like a punctured balloon and lowered her head.
"That's not right..."
"In this day and age, oil is more expensive than gold, isn't it?"
Who would be so extravagant as to use a whole pot of oil to fry a bunch of unwanted insects?
Sure enough, the novel and the short drama were both lies.
Huang Xinyu thought with despair that if this year's food was all eaten, even if there were more sweet potatoes, she would starve to death next year.
With a nervous heart, she peeked out through the crack in the door.
The imagined scene of people burying their heads in their hands, weeping, and kneeling to beg for help from heaven did not materialize at all.
Not only is there none, but there's even a hint of festive cheer?
The men, women, and children in the village showed no fear on their faces, but rather radiated a joy that signified an impending harvest.
They quickly set up one large, black iron pot after another.
"???"
Huang Xinyu was full of questions.
What are we doing? Boiling water to scald the locusts to death?
Then, something even more astonishing happened.
At the entrance of the village, Old Wang's family released a piglet with an extremely peculiar appearance.
The piglet was entirely bronze in color, with two long, curved tusks at the corners of its mouth, making it look majestic.
It roared at the swarming locusts that were coming from all directions!
"roar!!!"
Those ferocious locusts, like soldiers who had received a command, instantly changed direction and swarmed towards the open space in the village!
Holy crap!
Huang Xinyu's jaw almost dropped in astonishment.
"Is this pig using GPS?"
Once the locusts were driven into the open space, someone immediately pulled up a huge fishing net and slung it over their heads and faces!
With one net, tens of thousands of locusts will flutter about.
Then, a group of middle-aged women gathered around and poured the locusts from the net into the water vat, rinsing them vigorously.
Those practiced movements didn't seem like they were dealing with pests; they looked more like they were preparing food.
Huang Xinyu's eyelids twitched wildly, and an absurd premonition surged into her heart.
She stared intently at those large iron pots.
Several burly men were seen carrying a huge oil jar, pouring the clear oil into the pot with a whoosh.
A whole pot was poured out!
Oil?
It really is oily!
Huang Xinyu felt like her worldview was being brutally crushed and rubbed into the ground.
That's not all!
Once the oil was boiling hot, the cleaned locusts were poured in basket by basket!
"Sizzle!"
The golden oil slicks rolled and churned, and a rich aroma instantly filled the entire village!
Just when Huang Xinyu was completely dumbfounded.
The village chief shakily carried a white porcelain bowl out of the house.
In the bowl, there was snow-white, delicate salt, without a trace of impurities!
Huang Xinyu: "..."
She stared blankly as the villagers scooped out the golden-brown, crispy locusts, sprinkled them with fine, snow-white salt, and then each grabbed a handful, eating them with their mouths greasy.
Her mind completely went blank.
This is such a skilled assembly line operation...
This inhumanly extravagant way of using oil...
The piglets chasing away monsters and the professional techniques used to harvest fishing nets...
And that salt was even more refined than the salt she had eaten in her previous life!
Huang Xinyu opened her mouth, and a soul-searching question arose spontaneously from the bottom of her heart.
"Holy crap..."
"Damn it, who's the real time traveler?"
"It must be because I didn't sleep well. I did something ridiculous. I need to sleep a little longer!"
As she spoke, she didn't care where she was anymore and immediately closed her eyes!
The next second, a fragrant, deep-fried locust was stuffed into her mouth.
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