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

In the afternoon, Chen Mo estimated the time, then filled a large earthenware pot with crab soup, wrapped it in a rag, and secretly went out.

At the entrance of a cave outside the village, he imitated two bird calls.

Soon, Sun Dazhu poked his head out.

He paused for a moment when he saw the earthenware pot in Chen Mo's hand.

"This is……"

"This is for you and your dad, drink it while it's hot."

Inside the cave, Old Man Sun drank the warm crab soup, tears streaming down his cloudy old eyes.

"I...I've lived for over fifty years, and I never imagined...that I could still drink soup like this these days..."

He couldn't bear to eat the crab meat, so he just sipped the soup slowly, as if he were savoring something particularly delicious.

Sun Dazhu was a whirlwind; he even cracked the crab shells with a loud crunch, swallowing them along with the soup.

He wiped his mouth, looked at Chen Mo, and his eyes were full of gratitude.

"Chen Mo, from now on, my life belongs to you!"

Chen Mo shook his head.

What would I do with your life?

His gaze passed over Sun Dazhu and looked towards the hazy sky outside the cave.

"We all have to survive. Not only survive, but we have to live better than those sons of bitches from the Wang family."

The system refreshed again the next day.

[Daily information has been updated, please select:]

[1. There are three field mice left behind by owls at the old cemetery north of the village. They look quite fresh. (Low risk, the environment is very eerie, and the mouse meat may carry germs.)]

[Second, beneath the ice of the Qingshui River, there is a fishing net lost by a villager, with five small fish tangled in it. (Medium risk situation; some areas of the ice are unstable and there is a risk of it breaking.)]

[3. Under the wild walnut trees on the southern slope of Black Wind Ridge, the wild boars have been scared away by other hunters, and the fallen walnuts can be safely picked up (high risk)]

Chen Mo's gaze immediately locked onto the third option.

The risk has been reduced.

The wild boar is gone; isn't this a freebie?

He immediately called to Sun Dazhu, and the two of them, each carrying a burlap sack and holding a sharpened wooden stick as a means of self-defense, ran directly towards the south slope of Black Wind Ridge.

Sure enough, under those three bare walnut trees, the snow was trampled into a mess, and you could even see huge pig hoof prints.

But the wild boar had vanished without a trace.

The two were overjoyed and immediately took action.

They used sticks to clear away the snow, and the dark walnuts were revealed.

These are mostly old walnuts that fell last year or even the year before. The shells are dry, but the kernels inside are quite well preserved.

The two men worked hard and collected more than 20 kilograms of walnuts. They even unexpectedly found a few pine cones that had been gnawed by wild boars.

Come back fully loaded.

Back home, Chen Mo looked at a pile of walnuts and a bold idea suddenly popped into his head.

Oil extraction.

It's been a long time since we've had any oily food in our house.

Just do it.

He found a stone mortar and pestle in his house, put the cracked walnut kernels in, and crushed them into small pieces.

Next, he found a clean cloth, wrapped the walnut crumbs carefully, and placed them between two flat wooden boards.

"Ling'er, come help!"

The brother and sister each held onto the plank, one holding onto it while the other used all their strength to press down.

squeak...

Under immense pressure, drops of cloudy, nutty-smelling oil slowly seeped from the gaps in the cloth and dripped into the bowl below.

After a lot of effort, they finally managed to squeeze out about half a bowl of walnut oil.

Chen Mo carefully filtered out the impurities from the oil and poured it into the pot.

He put the sliced ​​potatoes into the pan and fried them.

Chen Ling'er was leaning over the stove, her mouth practically watering.

"Brother, this is even better than yesterday's!"

When the potato chips were served, Chen Dashan ate a few more, and his originally sallow face even gained a rosy glow.

Chen Mo even traded three pounds of potatoes for a skinny old hen from a villager who was starving to death.

The villager, clutching the potatoes, wept like a child, muttering, "Chickens are more precious than people, chickens are more precious than people..."

After consuming high-quality nutritional supplements for seven consecutive days, the Chen family's health condition clearly improved.

Chen Ling'er is no longer sickly and confined to the kang (a heated brick bed) all day like before; now she can get out of bed and help start a fire and mend clothes.

Chen Dashan's cough has improved; it's not as severe anymore, and there's no more blood in his phlegm. He's even able to lean against the kang (heated brick bed) and weave some simple ropes with dry grass to prepare for the spring.

Chen Mo's leg wound has completely healed, leaving only a dark scar.

That night, Chen Ling'er snuggled into Chen Mo's bed and whispered in his ear, "Brother, I had a dream last night that we could eat potatoes and fried pancakes every day."

Chen Mo gently touched her no longer dry hair and said softly, "Silly girl, that's not a dream. From now on, it will exist every day."

A few days later, one morning, Chen Ling'er suddenly let out a joyful shout.

"Brother! Brother! Look!"

Chen Mo went over to take a look and saw that in the corner of the house, in a simple chicken coop enclosed by wooden boards, the old hen was clucking, and in the dry grass under her, a small brown egg was lying quietly.

Although it was small, it was a brand new, warm egg.

Chen Ling'er carefully held the egg in her palm, as if she were holding some priceless treasure.

"Brother, the chicken laid an egg!"

Chen Mo took the egg, steamed a small bowl of steamed egg custard, and even lavishly added a drop of walnut oil.

The pale yellow steamed egg custard sloshed gently in the bowl.

One small spoonful per person.

Chen Ling'er was eating until tears almost streamed down her face.

"Brother... I've never eaten such delicious eggs before..."

After finishing his own portion, Chen Dashan remained silent for a long time before solemnly saying to Chen Mo, "Mo'er, this chicken... is our family's lucky star. You must take good care of it."

"Mo'er, I don't understand where you got such great skills from, but you must remember that in these famine years, the greater your skills, the more you must hide them. The Wang family and their gang are watching us, and the other starving people in the village will be watching too. You must learn to play the victim."

Starting the next day, Chen Mo began going out every day with a basket to dig for wild vegetables. He would only wander around in places where the villagers could see him, and he would secretly take the scraps of wild vegetables he dug back to feed the chickens.

When he went out, he still wore his most worn-out clothes, and he even smeared two streaks of ash on his face.

When his neighbor Zhang San passed by his house, he had even timed it perfectly so that Zhang San would inadvertently see a pot of dark-looking wild vegetable porridge cooking in his pot.

Actually, it was mashed potatoes mixed with chopped wild vegetables. It didn't look very appetizing, but it tasted quite delicious.