As soon as Li Lanzhen entered the courtyard, it fell silent.
At this moment, a hearty male laugh broke the silence: "Hahaha, my dear in-law, you're back! Thank you for sending your daughter back to call us. We've brought our whole family to find you, and we're ready to go with you to escape the famine."
Li Lanzhen knew from her memory that this was Xue Laohu, the father of her second daughter-in-law Xue Nizi. He was a hunter who looked strong and healthy, befitting someone who spent many years in the mountains.
She smiled and greeted everyone, saying, "No need to thank me, we're all family. Besides, your daughters were worried about you. I was also thinking that once I left, I didn't know where I would end up or if I would ever come back, so I just wanted to fulfill your daughters' filial piety."
Li Lanzhen saw her eldest daughter-in-law's parents, both honest and simple farmers. Her mother was rather thin and frail, while her sister-in-law was talkative and lively.
She stepped forward, smiling as she thanked Li Lanzhen, saying, "Auntie, our whole family is truly grateful that you sent your brother-in-law to our house to call us over so we can escape the famine together."
No one in our village wanted to leave their hometown. Only a few families with relatives or children in other villages or cities left together.
My in-laws and my brother-in-law were worried that this escape from famine might mean they'd never see their sister again. My sister is truly lucky to have such a wonderful mother-in-law like you.
Li Lanzhen chuckled inwardly: "Hmm, what a good mother-in-law. Who was it that jumped up and down in front of her eldest daughter-in-law, cursing me as the worst mother-in-law in the whole area?"
With a smile on his face, he said, "Good, it's good that you're here. Let's all find a place to rest."
Turning to look at his eldest daughter-in-law, who was standing at the kitchen door looking around, she immediately lowered her head when she saw his gaze.
"Eldest daughter-in-law, have you prepared the provisions? Have you cooked dinner yet?"
"Mother, the dry rations are all ready. I... I haven't made dinner yet. I've turned all the food you gave me into dry rations." As he spoke, he didn't forget to check Li Lanzhen's expression.
"Alright, you rest for a while. My second son's wife and I will cook dinner together. We also need to make pancakes and boil water tonight."
As he spoke, he went into his room to look at the two baskets.
Sitting on the bed, taking a break to catch her breath, Li Lanzhen used her consciousness to check the supplies in her spatial storage. What she saw startled her.
"What, what, what's going on??"
The space was filled with cotton quilts, cotton-padded jackets, and cotton-padded trousers, all made of coarse blue and military green cloth. They looked just like the stuff from the labor protection shops of my generation. Look, look, there are also these rubber shoes and cotton-padded shoes, quite a lot of them, though they look like they've been stockpiled for a long time, but there are enough of them.
There were also two piles of cotton that were sticking out, like stockpiled goods in a warehouse. They were yellowed, and some of them had been wetted and dried, sticking together in a clump.
What does it matter? These are all treasures! It's autumn now, and I don't know if we'll be able to find a place to stay in winter. Even if we do find a place, where will we find cotton in the short term?
Then I noticed that the large stone millstone hanging in the mall was gone. This merchant is really generous, providing so many winter supplies.
Looking closer, there's another half-full wooden bucket of brown sugar next to it, probably in bulk, weighing about 5 jin (2.5 catties).
They didn't have the homespun cloth I wanted, but they did have a few rolls of oilcloth, each roll too big for me to hold in both arms.
There was also black plastic sheeting, which is great; it has so many uses. The dried ginger slices were packed in two black garbage bags, weighing about ten kilograms. It's so extravagant that they gave so much.
Hmm, there are two small wooden jars here containing fine salt. I didn't ask for table salt. Is this extra?
Haha, and there are also more than a dozen wooden basins and buckets of various sizes, what a great deal! Thank you so much to this seller! Wherever you are, I wish you a long and healthy life.
She browsed the online store again and saw a window that actually needed oilcloth. The message had three chicken feathers on it. Could this be a message with chicken feathers on it?
Okay, I can spare him a roll of oilcloth.
She specified that she needed to exchange for supplies or food, as long as it was food, even wheat bran would be fine.
As a result, it was gone in seconds!
There was an extra sack of wheat bran, half a sack of corn grits, and a small amount of sweet potatoes and potatoes mixed together in half a sack.
Li Lanzhen sat up and took out a large knife, coarse salt, 10 eggs, and a large wooden bucket that could hold 10 jin of water from the basket. She took out white flour, cornmeal, and rye bran, mixed them together, and filled a large bag and two and a half bags. Of course, there was more rye bran in them, so they looked dark. They should be even darker when made into pancakes or porridge.
Soybeans and black beans were mixed together, filling about half a bag.
She carried a large bag of dark flour with five eggs inside and went out to call her two daughters-in-law to prepare dinner.
"Second son's wife, come here and make dinner. Make some porridge, add an egg to it, and cook the remaining four for your eldest sister-in-law and the children to eat on the road tomorrow."
After you finish eating, make the remaining dough into pancakes and take them with you tomorrow.
Oh, when you cook, please bring food from both families' in-laws as well. If there's nothing, don't eat it.
After saying that, he left it at that and went to check on how the cart that his second brother, Han Mingjiang, was repairing was doing. With such a large family, how could they manage with just a mule cart?
When we arrived at the backyard, it was quite lively, mainly because everyone was talking around their newly purchased big blue mule.
"Third brother, you and mother are so lucky to have bought such a fine big blue mule. Now our escape from famine will be much easier," said the second brother, Han Mingjiang, beaming with envy as he looked at Han Mingxiang.
There were two donkey carts nearby, with two donkeys tied to one side, grazing. The family's big blue mule was bowing its head and braying.
The big-eyed creature looked disdainfully at the two donkeys happily chewing hay, secretly pleased with itself. Its mistress was feeding it top-quality dry rations—soybeans—and giving it spring water from the mountains. It was quite pleased with itself.
When Li Lanzhen saw her, her eldest daughter-in-law's older brother, Zhang Songshu, smiled sheepishly and said, "Auntie, this mule is really something else."
The group chatted for a while before returning to the front yard; they still had a lot of work to do.
Everyone packed their belongings, and the children packed their own things into small bundles to carry with them the next day.
"Eldest and second eldest, hurry up and set the table, eat, and after you finish eating, go check the well, draw up all the water, boil it, let it cool, and take it with you on the road tomorrow. You can't drink any water that hasn't been boiled, there are bacteria in it. If you don't listen and drink cold water, I'll leave you stranded on the road."
Everyone was stunned. What did they mean by ignoring the bacteria? Who could stand leaving it on the road like that? Li Lanzhen's scare tactic really worked. From then on, none of the three families drank raw water.
When the Xue and Zhang families saw that Li Lanzhen's family was having dinner, they both avoided the place. Unexpectedly, Li Lanzhen called out to them, "Both families, come over and have dinner together. We've prepared everything, and everyone will have food. After you've eaten your fill, we'll pack our things and leave tomorrow."
Xue Nizi filled a bowl with thick, dark flour paste for both adults and children, and also filled a bowl with the brine from pickled vegetables. Anyone who wanted some could scoop some up with a spoon and pour it into the bowl of paste to drink.
After dinner, Xue Nizi and Zhang Yueniang started working, while the other two families set up stoves in the yard and began preparing dry rations.
Li Lanzhen scooped two bowls of black noodles for each of the two families and had her two daughters-in-law take them back to their parents' homes. Both families were very grateful to Li Lanzhen and were secretly wondering how their mother-in-law had become so kind.
“Yi Nan, come, take this bowl of black noodles to Gou Dan’s family and tell them to pack their things and come here before dawn to escape the famine together.”
"Oh! Thank you, Grandma. I'll tell Gou Dan. Second Uncle even made Gou Dan a little cart that a child can push to carry things."
And so, just after midnight the next day, Li Lanzhen, along with her children, grandchildren, and in-laws, sped off in the direction the village chief and his group had gone.
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