I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

Before I had even finished my tea after ordering, the waiter brought over a plate of food.

Zhao Ningning glanced at it and saw that he was carrying a plate of cold dishes, and couldn't help but ask in confusion, "We didn't order any cold dishes?"

Our family prefers strong flavors, but the cold dishes here are mostly light, so we didn't order any when we were ordering.

The waiter smiled and said, "Hot dishes take some time to prepare, so this is what our manager instructed us to bring you."

As he spoke, he put the dish down and said, "This dish is called Crystal Sliced ​​Rice, please try it, sir."

After the waiter put the dishes down, he left. Ning's father took chopsticks and distributed them to the family, saying, "This shopkeeper is quite good at doing business."

Ning's mother picked up a slice, and it turned out that this crystal-clear sashimi was actually pork skin jelly!

She laughed and said, "You're quite good at naming things."

When ordering, Ning's mother felt that the menu was a bit too formal, so she asked questions as she ordered.

The trembling pork skin jelly was put into my mouth; its soft and bouncy texture, along with the aroma of garlic and the flavorful dressing, actually tasted quite good.

Zhao Ningning also picked up a piece with her chopsticks. After everyone had eaten, Zhao Ningning said, "I'm starting to look forward to the next dish!"

Before long, the Dongpo pork, which had been simmering for a while, was served directly.

Large chunks of pork belly, slowly stewed in Shaoxing wine, are incredibly tender and juicy when picked up with chopsticks, fragrant but not greasy.

Zhao Ningning ate with her eyes squinted. Although her father could also cook such elaborate dishes, every family had its own way of making them, and this family's version was very much to Zhao Ningning's liking.

The next dishes, stir-fried seasonal vegetables and steamed sea bass, were served in turn. The vegetables were fresh and tender, and the fish was delicious. Each dish was devoured by the group as soon as it was served.

We thought we wouldn't be able to finish the food we ordered, but after we finished, we still felt it wasn't enough, so we ordered two more plates of staple food.

After finishing her meal, Zhao Ningning had a sudden inspiration and called out to the waiter, "Do you accept banquets?"

The waiter rubbed his hands together and said, "Sir, this is a restaurant that has taken you in! How many tables would you like? Do you have any preferred dishes? I'll give you a quote."

After Zhao Ningning asked the question, Ning's mother also realized what she wanted to do. Seeing that Zhao Ningning was still hesitating, Ning's mother said directly, "Bring twenty of each of the dishes that your restaurant has."

"Alright! Please have your tea while I go downstairs and call the manager to come up and tell you!" The waiter took the teapot, poured tea for the group, and ran downstairs with light steps.

Before long, the shopkeeper came up with an abacus and calculated the accounts in front of him.

"Our restaurant offers a total of forty-eight dishes and three types of beverages. Would you like some drinks, sir?"

Ning's father nodded, "Yes!"

"Alright, let me calculate." The shopkeeper placed the abacus on the table and moved his fingers back and forth between the beads, making Zhao Ningning's eyes unable to take it all in.

After a short while, the shopkeeper finished calculating the bill, held up the abacus to show the group, and said, "The total is four hundred and sixty-five taels and three hundred and twenty-one cash. Round it off, and you'll get four hundred and sixty-five taels."

Zhao Ningning exclaimed: Expensive! But delicious!

Buy more and store them in your space. When you don't have time to cook, just take them out and eat them without even heating them up.

After paying the deposit and instructing that the food be delivered to their transit yard the next morning, the family of four left the restaurant satisfied.

The next morning, the family of four went out to wait in the courtyard. Before long, the restaurant staff delivered the food boxes in a horse-drawn carriage.

The innkeeper said yesterday that the food box was complimentary. Once the restaurant has set out the dishes, Ning Ma will pay the remaining amount.

After the people left, Ning's mother quickly put the dishes into the space while they were still hot.

After putting everything away, Zhao Ningning grabbed her mother's clothes and shook them. "Mom~ don't we still have some jewelry? Why don't we sell it and exchange it for some food?"

Ning's mother tapped her forehead with her index finger and said with a playful laugh, "You little rascal, alright, let's look for it later. I remember passing by a pawnshop yesterday."

These jewels were taken from thieves on the road. Ning Ma doesn't wear them anyway, so it's better to exchange them for grain while Yikang County is still peaceful.

The group went out and found the pawnshop that Ning's mother had seen the day before. They pawned all their jewelry and then went to several restaurants, just like yesterday, to have the dishes prepared and delivered to their courtyard.

In the afternoon, Zhao Ningning's family went to the pharmacy again and bought a lot of herbs in a wholesale manner, almost emptying the entire pharmacy.

Although they didn't know how to prepare the medicine, Dr. Kang in the group did! There was going to be a plague soon, and if they needed medicine but there were no herbs, they would be completely helpless.

While buying supplies for her own family, Zhao Ningning also reminded He Shi to prepare some supplies as well.

After resting for a night, the mother and son rushed to the grain store to queue up to buy grain the next day.

Only after buying enough grain did the mother and son have the mind to do other things.

He was good at making clothes, so she bought some fabric and cotton, planning to make two sets of clothes for herself and Zhou Jian when she had time.

Of course, Zhao Ningning's family of four couldn't be left out either.

After buying the fabric, Mrs. He took her son to buy food and supplies for the journey.

They were scattered everywhere, and when I finally tried to put them in the car, there wasn't enough room!

Having bought almost everything, Mrs. He, while tending the pancake-making machine, sighed, "I'm so scared of fleeing famine. I want to buy everything I see, and I feel like I lack everything."

Zhou Jian smiled and said, "That's not human nature. When I see grain, I feel like I want to pounce on it."

The mother and son smiled, and Mrs. He sighed, saying, "If only we could live peacefully in Yikang County."

The daughter said that there was a possibility of continuing to flee famine, so He Shi rested for a while before getting up to make pancakes.

Taking advantage of having an iron pot, she made a lot. Otherwise, in the rush of fleeing the famine, she wouldn't have had the leisure for such things.

The firewood in the stove crackled and popped as the flames licked at it, and Zhou Jian stared at the dancing flames, lost in thought.

The drought is over, the floods are over, what disaster is next? A freeze?

—Cold wave!

The two words flashed through Zhou Jian's mind, and his expression immediately turned serious. "Didn't my brother-in-law tell us to buy more cotton and make more quilts?"

Ms. He asked in confusion, "Didn't we already buy it?"

She bought a huge bag of cotton, enough to make clothes for six people.

"That's not enough, we need to buy more!" Zhou Jian stood up and said, "It's gotten colder every day since we came down the mountain. Although it's supposed to be autumn, it's getting colder too fast. I'm afraid this winter will be like last year!"

Thinking back to last year, Mrs. He's expression also turned sour. "We should have bought more..."

If it really is a cold disaster, the cotton-padded coat she prepared won't be enough!

It would be best if they had leather coats! Otherwise, they simply wouldn't be able to withstand the cold snap.

Seeing that it was still early, He's family stopped making pancakes and asked Zhou Jian to put out the fire. The two of them then hurriedly went out to the street with the money.

The village head's family.

The village head's gate was never closed, and every now and then one or two villagers would come looking for him.

They were all asking the village head what his plans were.

Having fled famine for so long, they always regarded the village head as their backbone. When the village head said, "Let's go! Let's go up the mountain," they followed him up the mountain.

The leader said: "Attack! Smash them until they are completely wiped out!" So they followed and attacked the thieves.

I'm only alive now thanks to the village head's leadership.

Sitting in the main room, Doctor Kang sighed and said, "What are you all thinking?"

The village head shook his head. "It's not a matter of whether I want to, but whether I can."

"I also want to stay in Yikang County, but..." the village head hesitated and said, "I don't know how many more days I can live like this."

The fact that Yikang County has been closing its city gates for the past two days indicates that the number of refugees is increasing.

No matter how many refugees there are, Yikang County probably cannot keep them.

"...So these next few days, buy whatever you can. Don't be afraid to spend money. Money is just inanimate; it's only when you exchange it for food and eat it that you can survive."

Doctor Kang scratched his head in worry. The village headman got up and took out a bag of gold from the inner room.

"Take this, go buy some herbs. Our team was able to get here safely thanks to you." The village head took Dr. Kang's hand and put the bag in his hand.

Dr. Kang immediately refused, "This won't do! I don't want it."

"Take it!" Without waiting for a reply, the village head grabbed his hand and shoved it into his arms, pretending to be angry, "It's not like we're stopping you from treating everyone on the way here."

"If you use the silver to buy herbs, then if anyone in the group has a headache or fever, they can get the medicine right away."

Dr. Kang smiled wryly: He was just a half-baked barefoot doctor, only good at treating minor ailments like headaches and fevers.

After putting away the silver, Doctor Kang stopped chatting with the village head and got up to inquire about buying herbs.

He bought a batch himself, and now that he had money, Dr. Kang bought some more. He tied the quilts from inside the carriage to the outside of the carriage and piled the herbs inside.

The more astute villagers even came over to ask the village head what his plans were.

This clever person is none other than Granny Qian.

The Zhao family, consisting of about ten people, rented a small courtyard.

The three rooms could only be roughly divided into men's and women's rooms, with the remaining room serving as the main room.

There isn't even a pot in this courtyard, so the couple can't sleep together at night.

Wu Qiugui only slept for one night, and the next day she rubbed her back and complained to Zhao Laosan, "You have no idea how outrageous my niece-in-law is!"

"Taking advantage of her pregnancy, she took up most of the bed! If I hadn't been holding Sixia with one arm, she probably would have slept right under the bed!"

"Sun and her daughter-in-law should sleep in the same bed!"

Wu Qiugui made up her mind that she would switch places with Sun Shi tonight, and she would sleep in the same bed with Si Xia and Granny Qian.

The family went noisily into the main room, where Mrs. Sun set out the breakfast she had prepared on the table, and the adults sat down around the small square table.

The child could only stand to one side.

Zhao Huilan held her own bowl, squatted down and drank the thin rice soup in the bowl while listening to the adults talk.

After serving the food, Granny Qian sat down and said, "I've inquired! A mu of land outside is only five taels of silver now."

"Five taels of silver!?" Old Zhao's breathing became unsteady.

In Wangli Village, five taels of silver wouldn't be enough to buy land!

"Good land or bad land?" Old Zhao pressed.

"What a good field!" Granny Qian said, rubbing her knees. "If it weren't for a good field, why would I be telling you this!"

"Oh my... this is really something!" Old Zhao laughed heartily. "Let's eat quickly! After we finish eating, let's go take a look. If we stay in Yikang County, we can't be without land!"

No peasant family dislikes the land. Although Old Zhao himself didn't particularly enjoy farming, buying the land meant he had a place to call home!

Buying land gives you the feeling that you have a place where you can put down roots.

After finishing breakfast at Old Zhao's house, Granny Qian didn't take much with her. She hurriedly headed towards the city gate with her eldest son and Old Zhao.

Halfway there, she suddenly remembered that she had to pay one tael of silver to enter!

The three people going in and out each time cost three taels of silver, enough to buy half an acre of land!

—How about we send the eldest son and the old man back, and I'll go take a look myself? We'll save every tael of silver we can.

As they hesitated, they reached the city gate only to find that it had been closed sometime earlier.

I asked around and found out that there were refugees gathering outside.

Granny Qian said thankfully, "Luckily, our group arrived early!"

Otherwise, I'd be out here worrying all day.

Now we don't have to worry about moving to the city anymore, but we should be worrying about buying land.

After wandering around the city gate, suddenly, someone patted Granny Qian on the shoulder.

Granny Qian turned around and was pleasantly surprised to find that this person was the same one who had introduced her to the land yesterday.

"Xiufen, how did you know I was here?"

"Isn't that the city gate locked? I found a way to get in!" Wang Xiufen smiled, her face crinkling with wrinkles.

"I was afraid you'd be waiting, so I thought I'd come to the city gate to check. Look! Sure enough, you're here."

"Sigh..." Granny Qian sighed, "It's a pity the city gates are locked; we can't check the land today."

Wang Xiufen patted her chest, "What's there to be afraid of! I have a plan!"

Granny Qian was curious about what her solution was, so Wang Xiufen simply pulled her along, not forgetting to call out to the two men following Granny Qian.

She led Granny Qian around a corner, until they reached the base of a city wall. Wang Xiufen squatted down and used her hands to clear away the dry grass blocking the base of the wall.

There was a hole in the wall below.

"It's a bit troublesome, you have to squat or crawl!" Wang Xiufen said before crawling in first.

Granny Qian looked at the cave with curiosity, walked to the entrance, bent down, and squatted to walk forward.

Seeing that it was pitch black ahead with no light, Granny Qian instinctively rushed to find Wang Xiufen ahead. In her haste, she stood up and bumped her head on the cave ceiling with a "bang".

Hearing the noise, Wang Xiufen stopped and advised her, "Why don't you crawl? You won't bump your head if you crawl."

Helpless, Granny Qian could only lie on the ground.

This path is usually neglected and is full of pebbles and clods of dirt.

Granny Qian pressed down on her with one hand, and the pain made her face contort.

Wang Xiufen was still walking ahead, and Granny Qian endured the pain to keep up.

Behind her were Old Man Zhao and Old Man Zhao.

After finally enduring the ordeal and crawling out, Wang Xiufen carefully blocked the entrance to the cave and called for Granny Qian to get up.

"Come on! I'll take you to see the fields!"

Old Lady Qian was pulled along the path to a village.

Most of the land in this village is dry land, which can only grow wheat.

"These few acres of land I told you about are all paddy fields!" Wang Xiufen said, "Top-quality paddy fields!"

"Really?" Granny Qian exclaimed happily. "Come on, come on! Take me to see it quickly!"

The two old women walked quickly ahead, and soon, Granny Qian saw the place of her dreams.

This plot of land is square and close to the river, with few trees blocking the view.

Plant something casually before the New Year, and you'll have something to eat by the next year. Once the weather warms up, they can start planting grain!