A daily intelligence report; in chaotic times and famine years, grain is plentiful.

the other side.

When Chen Mo returned home, he was practically covered in snow.

"elder brother!"

Chen Ling'er, whose lips were turning purple from the cold on the kang, immediately brightened up when she saw the rabbit on his back.

"Brother, you caught a rabbit!"

Chen Mo nodded, put the things down, and quickly closed the door tightly.

He threw the firewood he was carrying into the stove pit, and soon the fire was burning.

He worked non-stop, starting to process the rabbit.

Two dead rabbits, skinned and gutted.

Debone the meat and cut it into small pieces.

The internal organs were also carefully cleaned.

He found a broken basket, covered it with the live animal, and kept it for a few days before killing it.

Rabbit fur is a valuable commodity and should not be wasted.

He recalled seeing someone do this in his previous life, so he found some wood ash and rubbed it repeatedly on the inside of the leather to perform a simple tanning process. Then he stretched it out and hung it to dry not far from the stove.

Once it dries, I can make knee pads or something for my sister and father.

He then threw the rabbit meat and bones into the broken earthenware pot, poured in water, and put it on the fire to cook.

Then, he grabbed a small handful of salt from an inconspicuous earthenware jar in the corner and sprinkled it in.

That was a small bag of coarse salt that he had found in the cellar before, and he had been reluctant to eat it.

Soon, a rich aroma of meat broth wafted through the air.

Chen Mo first ladled out a bowl of the thickest soup, blew on it, and then carried the soup to the edge of the kang (heated brick bed).

"Dad, have some soup."

The father, Chen Dashan, was awakened by the smell of soup and struggled to sit up.

Chen Mo supported him and fed him spoonful by spoonful.

After drinking a few sips of hot soup, a bit of color seemed to return to Chen Dashan's ashen face.

"Mo'er, where did this meat come from?"

"Found it in the back hill, it froze to death."

Chen Dashan didn't ask any more questions, but only gave a weak instruction.

"Be careful not to let anyone smell it."

The whole family gathered around the fire and shared the rabbit soup that they had finally managed to get.

This was the first time they had eaten meat in so many days.

Chen Ling'er nibbled on a piece of rabbit meat, getting oil all over her face, and a smile she hadn't seen in a long time appeared on her face.

The heavy snow fell all day and showed no sign of stopping.

As evening approached, the crying in the village intensified.

Some elderly people couldn't withstand the cold and hunger and passed away; some children didn't survive with high fevers.

Li Laogen, leaning on a cane and carrying a half-sack of coarse grains, went from house to house to check.

This half-bag of grain was what he had saved from his own mouth; it was also his last bit of food.

He had no time to think about anything else; he simply gave a handful of money to each of the few particularly impoverished families who were on the verge of death, hoping to give them a little relief.

Some villagers were so hungry that they knelt in the snow and kowtowed to the heavens until their foreheads turned blue.

Others have started digging through the snow with their hands to dig out the grass roots underneath or peel the bark from the trees.

They knew that the thing was inedible, that eating it would make them bloated to death, but it was still better than starving to death.

At night, Chen Mo lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), unable to sleep.

He mentally reviewed all the things he had in the house.

The cellar contained eighteen catties of coarse grains, and there were two catties of grains on the surface.

We cooked some meat today, and there are about six pounds left, plus a live rabbit.

There are five wild eggs left.

For keeping warm, all we had were two rabbit skins that were drying in the sun and two tattered quilts.

Tools: a worn-out bow, five arrows, and a wood-chopping knife that I casually found in the basement the day before yesterday.

Chen Mo counted on his fingers that if he ate these things sparingly, they would only last for half a month at most.

If this heavy snow continues, it will block the mountain.

The consequences could be disastrous.

"Cough cough cough."

His father's cough interrupted his thoughts.

Chen Mo hurriedly got up, poured a bowl of hot water, and put some dark powdered medicine into it from a cloth bag.

That was a folk remedy he made by boiling several kinds of wild vegetables. It wasn't very effective; it only provided slight relief.

After feeding him water, Chen Dashan suddenly grabbed his hand.

The old man's hands were withered and thin, but he was surprisingly strong.

"Mo'er, what if... what if we really can't get through this?"

"Use those silver dollars in the cellar if you need to."

"Don't stick to rigid rules."

Chen Mo felt a pang of sadness and nodded.

"Father, I know. It's not time yet."

He lay back down and tucked the blanket around his sister.

Chen Ling'er smacked her lips in her sleep and whispered, "Brother, we ate meat today, that's great."

"Okay, from now on, I'll let you eat meat every day."

The other end of the village.

Behind a haystack some distance from the Chen family's house, two figures huddled together, frozen like quails.

It's Zhao Si and Sun Gouzi.

"Damn it, Brother Mang told us to keep an eye on things, in this snowy weather, are they trying to freeze us to death?" Zhao Si muttered and cursed as he breathed out warm air.

Sun Gouzi sniffed, but his eyes were shining.

"Fourth Brother, can you smell it?"

"What do you smell? A northwest wind?"

"No!" Sun Gouzi lowered his voice, "Around this afternoon, I smelled something like meat, wafting over from the Chen family's place!"

Zhao Si was taken aback.

"Meat-like? How could that be! Where would they get meat from?"

"Really! Although it's very faint and disappears in a flash, I'm sure it tastes like meat," Sun Gouzi said with great certainty.

The two men glanced at each other, both seeing greed in each other's eyes.

"Let's go! Go back and tell Brother Mang!" Zhao Si made the decision immediately. "The Chen family must be hiding something good."

Just as the two were about to sneak away, the door to the Chen family's house creaked open.

Chen Mo came out carrying a basin of snow and collapsed in the corner of the yard.

The two were so frightened that they quickly hid their heads behind the woodpile, not daring to breathe.

After emptying the snow, Chen Mo did not immediately return to the house.

He stood in the courtyard, his gaze inadvertently glancing towards the woodpile.

He said nothing, turned around and went back into the house, locking the door behind him.

late at night.

Chen Mo was completely wide awake.

He could hear faint gnawing sounds in the distance.

He knew that the villagers were starving and gnawing on tree bark.

He remembered his past life.

It was during this heavy snowfall that nearly 30% of the people in Qingshui Village starved or froze to death.

The Wang family, relying on their stockpiled grain and a few silver dollars, acquired most of the village's land at a very low price after the disaster, instantly becoming the largest landlord in Qingshui Village.

In this life, he has a system, but the situation is still dangerous.

As dawn approached, the familiar panel popped up again.

[Daily information has been updated, please select:]

[1. Near the old cemetery at the west end of the village, there are some unidentified tuberous plants dug up by wild dogs. They are edible, weighing about three pounds. This is a low-risk situation. The cemetery is rather eerie, and there may be extremely hungry wild dogs there.]

[Secondly, there are areas beneath the ice on the Qingshui River where trapped fish congregate. Breaking the ice could allow for fishing, but the tools used are rudimentary, and the success rate is low. The medium-risk scenario is that the ice might crack, and the fishing process would be quite noisy.]

Thirdly, on the sunny slopes deep within Black Wind Ridge, some holly bark can be peeled off. This bark can be ground into powder and mixed with grains to eat. The high risk lies in the extreme cold of the deep mountains and the relatively low nutritional value of the bark.