I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

With only a dozen or so coins left, the family searched their pockets thoroughly and finally pulled out a bag with only the bottom left from the carriage.

They shoved the bag into my hand, saying, "Sir, there's still some grain in here. It should be worth about ten coins, hehe..."

The bag was tattered and dirty, making one wonder if it had contained other things before.

Seeing that they really couldn't come up with any money, the yamen runner turned a blind eye, waved his hand and refused their bag, only taking the pile of loose silver and copper coins, while holding a rather heavy gold hairpin in his hand, and let them go.

As he left, Ning's father turned back a few times, reluctant to part, to look at the gold hairpin that Ning's mother had kindly given him.

That was the first gold jewelry he bought for Ning Ma in ancient times!

And just like that, it was given away for nothing.

Ning's father secretly regretted it, thinking that he would buy Lanxiang a bigger and shinier gold hairpin when he had the chance in the future.

After successfully entering the city, the villagers of Wangli Village who were walking ahead saw that his family had come out with their horses, mules, and carts all together, and they hurriedly gathered around to ask how he had managed to save the carts.

They were completely bewildered. It took them quite a while for the carriage to be taken away before they realized what was happening, and by then it was too late.

Ning's father didn't hide anything and said frankly, "The yamen runner said it would take fifty taels of silver to redeem them."

—Fifty taels!

The villagers who came to inquire gasped in shock.

Who could possibly pull out fifty taels of silver in one go! Only Zhao Lao Er's family could manage that. Just a few days ago, they were fighting off thieves, helping to catch wild boars, and then sharing the silver and meat...

No wonder Zhao Lao Er could afford fifty taels of silver!

After a period of envy, those villagers who could afford it inquired about how to redeem their own carriages.

Those who couldn't afford it secretly lamented their situation.

There's another type, like Old Zhao's family. Their carriage was taken away, along with all their belongings. They stood there empty-handed, making sarcastic remarks.

"Fifty taels! Fifty taels is enough to buy another carriage and there's still some left over!" Granny Qian spat, her eyes filled with envy as she looked at the second son's plump and strong horse, and the mule with its glossy coat.

It's so enviable!

If only the second child hadn't broken ties with the family yet.

When the time comes to set off, I'll beg him, play the victim, and surely no one would bear to see their own mother suffer.

Granny Qian pondered the feasibility of this idea, and the more she thought about it, the more excited she became.

Before they could get excited, everyone from Wangli Village had arrived. Apart from Zhao Ningning's family, the village head and the village chief's family also spent money to save the carriage.

The Shang family and several other families also had money.

If they can confiscate carriages and collect money just by entering a door, then carriages in Huangshi County might be even more expensive.

Don't let fifty taels of silver not even buy you a carriage and a reliable animal.

After everyone had gathered, the village head led the group towards the county town while asking around.

Huangshi County is more chaotic than Heqing County.

The streets here are full of people fleeing famine.

I inquired at several guesthouses, but they were all fully booked.

An innkeeper saw an old man, travel-worn and looking for lodging, and advised him not to bother, as a large number of refugees had arrived in Huangshi County in the past few days, and most of the available places to stay had already been booked.

The inn is full, and the rooms available for rent outside can only be rented for a minimum of one month. If the room is too small, they won't have enough room; if the room is too large, a month is too long, and they won't stay that long.

But some people want to rent long-term.

After traveling for so long, I heard that because Huangshi County is full of rocky mountains, the underground rivers at the foot of the mountains have not been dried up by the sun, so you can still buy well water in Huangshi County.

Where there is water, there is hope for survival.

Two families decided to settle in Huangshi County.

The village head couldn't refuse them, so he accompanied them to the county government office to process the household registration documents.

This has always been the case in the Great Zhou Dynasty. If you want to settle down in another place, you must have a certificate issued by your original village or be accompanied by the village head.

When he went to get the paperwork done, he was extorted for two taels of silver by someone. By the time he had rented the courtyard, the two families were already out of money and food.

Zhao Ningning's family is also considering renting a house.

They didn't want to stay in Huangshi County; they just wanted to cook more food and store it while they rested here for the next couple of days.

The food we prepared before setting off to escape the famine has been mostly eaten along the way. If we don't make some more and store it away, we'll have to cook and eat it as we go.

The streets were full of refugees, and Ning's parents were worried about leaving only one adult with two children to wait on the street, so they took the carriage with them to find a middleman.

When the middle-aged people heard their requirements: it had to be big and far away from others.

I'm really worried.

Huangshi County is packed with people right now, where can you find a deserted spot?!

Ning's father had no choice but to settle for second best, asking to stay as far away from people as possible.

Finally, we chose a house that was close to the river from the three houses.

Although it is close to the river, the riverbed has long since dried up, leaving only bare riverbanks and cracked silt at the bottom.

One wall runs along the river, and there are few neighbors on either side; the nearest neighbor is about twenty meters away.

There is a wide road in front of the house.

There's hardly any vegetation around; you could see a fly hiding nearby if you looked around.

The only drawback is that the house only has two rooms.

Ning's parents decided to stay here.

Knowing that the neighbors were also renting out houses, Ning's mother directly arranged a rental for the Zhou family.

When she came out, Madam He also wanted to rent a house to rest properly. Since she entrusted it to Aunt Ning, Aunt Ning kept an eye out for it for her.

After booking two rooms in one go, Ning's mother went into the courtyard first.

There are only two rooms here. One room is used as a kitchen and storage room. The bamboo planks divide the space into three sections. The innermost section is the kitchen, the middle section is the main room, and the left side is empty. Judging from the size, it used to be where a bed was placed.

The other room was also divided into three sections, and there wasn't even a bench inside.

Fortunately, there was no furniture, otherwise it would have been a hassle to clean.

Before leaving, Ning's mother brought the bed, table, and chairs from home!

With a wave of his hand over the open space, a bed appeared, with the blankets on it neatly folded.

After setting this up, Ning's mother went to the side and put Zhao Qi's bed out.

During this special period, it is safest for the family to sleep in one room. This house is just right, with a bamboo partition in the middle, so they can't see what each other is doing, but they can hear what the other is saying.

If anything happens, you can hear me if I call out.

After settling them in, Ning's father also took He Shi and Zhou Jian to the adjacent room.

Ning's father happily went "home" after giving Zhou Jian the key and letting them open the door themselves.

Ning's mother placed the bathtub in the space separated from the kitchen. Since the three of them couldn't enter Ning Ning's space, they took turns going over to use their own bathtubs and had a good, refreshing bath.

When Zhao Ningning came out of the space after taking a shower, her father had already wiped the stove clean and was putting their own big iron pot on it.

Two iron pots sat on the stove, and Ning's father came over to ask for everyone's opinions.

"What would you like to eat? Time to order!"

"Stewed pig's trotters! I want to eat stewed pig's trotters!" Zhao Ningning raised her hand.

The braised pig's trotters made by Ning's father were tender and flavorful, and not greasy at all. Zhao Ningning and the others all liked to eat them.

"Okay, let's stew it!"

"Should we prepare some extra staple food in advance?" Zhao Qi asked. "Don't we have a lot of scallion pancakes and steamed buns in the fridge at home? Let's prepare some in advance so they're convenient to eat on the road."

"Oh right, we also need to make some soup to go with it."

Ning's father thought of several of his and Ning's mother's signature soups.

Finally, it was decided that one pot would be used for staple foods, and the other for side dishes.

Zhao Ningning was in charge of starting the fire, Zhao Qi was in charge of assisting, Ning's father cooked the main dishes, and Ning's mother was in charge of preparing the staple food.

When they have some free time, the group will also prepare some cold dishes and cold noodles.

In this awful weather, you can do without anything else, but you can't do without cold dishes and cold noodles.

The kitchen was extremely hot, so to cool it down, Ning's mother took out all the ice she could find in the space, and also took out the frozen meat to thaw on the side, which also helped to cool the room.

The first dish we made was the stewed pig's trotters that Zhao Ningning had specifically requested.

It's called stewed pig's trotters, but it's actually similar to braised pig's trotters. The soybeans weren't soaked beforehand, and Ning's dad asked Ning's mom for a pot of rice cakes, which he cut open and stewed with the pig's trotters.

The stewed rice cake pieces are smooth and slippery, and when eaten with the soft and glutinous pig's trotters, it's hard to tell which is which.

Ning's mother praised it as delicious, which greatly encouraged Ning's father. He took out the ribs, chopped them all up, and cooked another dish of braised rice cakes and ribs.

I always cook a large pot at a time.

While the stew was cooking, Ning's father washed the ten large water vats that had been used to store the vegetables, dried them, and then filled them with the freshly cooked vegetables.

After finishing these two dishes, Ning's father started making braised pork.

He first grabbed a handful of yellow rock sugar and threw it into hot oil to caramelize it. Then he added the spices and stir-fried them together for a couple of seconds. After pouring in boiling water and heating it up, he added some soy sauce.

Another pre-prepared spice bag was placed in a muslin bag and thrown into the pot to stew together.

Finally, add five or six chickens and braise them.

After the chicken was almost cooked, Ning's father took it out of the pot and then put the pork belly, big bones, and spare ribs into the pot.

After braising the difficult-to-braise ingredients, he then added chicken feet, spare ribs, eggs, and tofu skin, which are easier to cook.

Just before taking it out of the pot, he also cooked a handful of kelp.

Braised pig's trotters and red-braised pig's trotters have completely different flavors.

Zhao Ningning sat in front of the stove. Whenever a dish was cooked, she would be fed immediately. She ate until her belly was round and full, and she kept saying no to the cold shredded chicken that her father offered her.

On one side were main dishes, and on the other side were staple foods prepared by Ning's mother.

Instead of steaming buns, she heated up the pan first and fried a bunch of sausages, chicken cutlets, chicken strips, and meatballs.

There were beef patties for making hamburgers that had been stored in the freezer before, and Ning's mom fried some out as well.

Finally, she also cooked two side dishes.

After doing all that, she wiped the pan, poured on a thin layer of oil, and began making the scallion pancakes one by one.

Zhao Qi assisted her from the side.

A frozen scallion pancake was torn open and thrown into the pan. Before the pancake could react, an egg was cracked on top.

At high temperatures, one side of the scallion pancake cooks quickly. Flip it over with a spatula and fry it briefly before serving.

Next is Zhao Qi's procedure.

After receiving the fried scallion pancake, Zhao Qi put lettuce and sausage inside, added sauce, rolled it up, and a sausage scallion pancake was ready.

Besides sausage, there were also chicken cutlets, chicken strips, meatballs, beef patties... After the braised pork was made, Ning's dad also asked him to make a few braised pork hand-pulled pancakes.

As Zhao Qi finished making five or six scallion pancakes, Ning Ma took advantage of their warmth and stored them in her spatial storage.

The only slightly troublesome part of the pre-made dishes is that the other buns and dumplings are all steamed, and someone just needs to watch the fire at the end.

After cooking all afternoon, when he went out and saw that it was still light out, Ning's dad felt like jumping into the river.

The riverbed behind him was dry, so there was no river for him to jump into. He looked out at the hot, dry sky, and a gust of hot wind blew by, making his skin feel like it was being roasted.

Looking back at the room filled with ice basins, Ning's father went back to continue cooking.

They worked until dark, and the group was exhausted, their clothes soaked with sweat. Zhao Ningning and Zhao Qi even took turns helping out.

The ice in the ice basin had mostly melted, so Ning's mother simply took out a large bathtub and let everyone take another bath so they could go to sleep feeling refreshed.

Before going to bed, Zhao Ningning took out the ice that had been frozen in the freezer during the day and placed it in the room.

One night passed, and the next day, it was time for another round of cooking.

Today, both Ning's parents are cooking stir-fries. They've agreed on a division of labor: Zhao Qi will help prepare the ingredients, and Ning's parents will take turns cooking.

We stir-fried all the vegetarian dishes in turn.

Ning's mother also made a few soups when she had a spare moment, but since she didn't have time, she chose the simple ones.

She made two large pots of hot and sour soup, which Zhao Ningning loves, and four pots of sweet fermented rice balls, which the whole family loves.

Two days and two nights later, half of the ingredients in Ning's mother's space were used up, replaced by a pile of steaming, delicious-looking dishes.

After taking a shower, Zhao Ningning took out ice cream from the refrigerator and gave it to her family.

Ning's father has a psychological aversion to ice cream because he had diarrhea after eating it last time.

But seeing the sizzling ice cream made him craving more, and after a struggle with his conscience, he reached for the ice cream anyway.

He scooped a dollop with a spoon and put it in his mouth. The ice cream melted into a cool liquid that spread in his mouth. When Ning's father opened his mouth, white smoke came out.

Zhao Qi and Zhao Ningning couldn't help but laugh when they saw him like this.

They stayed in Huangshi County for two days.

On the afternoon of the third day, around 5 p.m., Ning's parents finally had a moment to spare. They had the kitchen steam some buns while they went out to gather information.

After the people of Wangli Village settled in the city, they all left a message for the village head.

Most of them hadn't found a place to stay, so they gathered together in an open space.

A few families gritted their teeth and rented houses, thinking that even if they left, they could sublet them later.

After wandering around the place where the village head was staying, Ning's father found out some bad news.

The wildfire is still burning, but it is burning more slowly because it is hitting the rocky mountains near Huangshi County.

At this rate, it won't be long before the fire spreads beyond Huangshi County.

We'll have to figure something out then. If we can stay in Huangshi County, then we'll stay. But if things don't go well, we'll have to run away as soon as possible.

The village head knew that Zhao Lao Er's family and his mother-in-law's family lived by the Nantou River in Huangshi County. He told them to be vigilant and come to the city as soon as they saw something was wrong with the weather.

I had just met the village head in the morning, and in the afternoon, Ning's parents were reselling grain in Huangshi County to replenish their stock when suddenly black dust began to fall from the sky.

It's ash from the wildfire!

"It's actually drifted all the way to the county town." Ning's mother looked up at the sky and murmured, "We'll pack up today, and we'll probably have to leave by tomorrow at the latest."

"Let's go back and pack our things," Ning's father said, pulling her along as the two hurried home.

Zhao Ningning and Zhao Qi, who were at home, also noticed something strange in the sky.