During famine years, I had a divination slip in hand, and my whole family ate chicken, duck, fish, a

Horse hooves clatter...

"Besides, the fact that our family is where we are today is largely thanks to Brother Dazhuang!"

We're really relatives. It would be crazy for me to become distant just because of some gossip.

Ye Qingqing spoke a little loudly, deliberately, and it's unclear whether Ye Dazhuang, who was following behind the car, heard her.

Ye Dazhuang lowered his eyelids slightly, his face remaining as calm as ever.

She simply curled her lips into a smile without even realizing it.

Seeing that it was getting late, Ye Dali drove the carriage out of the city.

The people in the car remained silent for a moment, creating an awkward atmosphere.

Li Chunyan was afraid that Ye Dazhuang would feel uncomfortable hearing these gossips and become estranged from his family, so she made small talk with him and Ye Qingqing.

"By the way, Er Ya, do you think the old beggar really didn't realize that the broken stone was a treasure?"

He can dye stones to fool people, so he must have some skill. How come I didn't see any treasure in it?

Ye Qingqing said casually,

"Having dyeing skills doesn't necessarily mean having an eye for jade. Even the shopkeeper at the jade store couldn't tell the difference."

If everyone could see the treasures indicated by the divination slips, then they wouldn't be treasures.

"Too……"

Li Chunyan then looked at Ye Dazhuang and asked curiously, "Brother Dazhuang, when Er Ya said she was going to sell broken stones, why did you go with her without saying a word? She said they were treasures, and you believed her?"

"Um."

Ye Dazhuang raised his eyes and said calmly, "I believe you."

"Big Zhuang, you're a true friend!"

Ye Qingqing raised an eyebrow triumphantly, took a sesame seed cake from her bag, and handed it to him. "Want one?"

Ye Dazhuang casually accepted it, saying, "Thank you."

The two of them acted as if they hadn't heard any of the gossip, and Li Chunyan even curled her lips into a wide grin.

If she weren't part of this family, seeing the two of them like this would surely cause more gossip than it did in the village!

……

It was completely dark when the horse's hooves finally entered Kaoshantun.

To everyone's surprise, the bright torches in the village were flickering wildly, and the village head's courtyard was filled with people, all arguing about something.

Ye Cuicui, with her hands tucked into her sleeves, spotted her family's carriage in the distance and hurried over, her face full of anxiety, and said...

"Eldest brother and sister-in-law, second sister, have you heard the news in town?"

"What news?"

Seeing her anxious expression, Li Chunyan felt a sudden pang of panic.

"What other news could there be? Grain prices have gone up. I heard from the Sun family who came back from town that the price of mixed noodles has jumped from 12 copper coins per pound to 30 copper coins!"

Right now, our village is in an uproar! Everyone's rushing to the village head's house, begging his son, Ye Cunfu, to use his connections in town to get cheap grain.

Ye Cuicui ran to the carriage and saw that it was loaded with boxes and paper packages, but there wasn't a single bag of grain. She immediately became a little anxious.

"Second sister, didn't you say you were going to buy grain today? Why isn't there any on the train? We won't be able to afford grain anymore!"

"What?"

Li Chunyan exclaimed in surprise, "Say it again, Young Master Duo?"

My dear parents!

Twelve copper coins for a bowl of mixed grain noodles was already considered expensive, but now the price has tripled. How are people supposed to live?

The divination slip came true, and Ye Qingqing, as calm as an old dog, spoke slowly and deliberately.

"What's the rush? Who told you we can't afford food?"

"Oh, Second Sister!"

Ye Cuicui stamped her feet anxiously, "The Sun family's daughter-in-law said that rice and flour have gone up to 6 or 70 yuan! Even if we have a lot of money, we can't afford to eat like this!"

Ye Qingqing affectionately patted her head.

"I bought it, I bought enough food to last us until next year. Silly child, look how anxious you were, are you relieved now?"

"real?"

Ye Cuicui's heart, which had been pounding in her throat, instantly jumped back into her stomach. She grabbed her hand and cried out, her heart pounding.

"Second sister, is what you said true? That's great, that's great! Now I can finally relax!"

"Our family has finally had a few days of good food, and I never want to go hungry again, Second Sister... going hungry is just too unbearable!"

Ye Qingqing, "..."

It turns out they were afraid of going hungry.

It's no wonder that Cui Cui reacted so strongly. People who have never experienced hunger can never understand the torment and despair of not having enough to eat for many years.

"My goodness!"

Li Chunyan clutched her wildly pounding heart, her lips trembling uncontrollably.

"Second, Second Girl, how did you know we should buy food first?"

When Er Yatou went straight to the grain shop, she was determined to sell the wolf-skin pork first, and she was a little reluctant.

The grain shop was closed, but she said she still had a lot of grain at home and advised her to come back to buy it tomorrow.

Thinking about it now, it's really scary. If Er Ya had listened to her, we would have been in real trouble!

"I don't know."

Ye Qingqing scratched her nose and said casually, "When I heard that the grain store was closing, I panicked a little. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to buy any. I wouldn't feel at ease until I had the grain in my hands."

"My goodness..."

Li Chunyan stared at her in disbelief. "Second girl, you're incredibly lucky!"

As the carriage passed the village head's house, the crowd erupted in a frenzy.

"Village head, your son Cunfu runs a shop in town and knows people in the government. Can't you ask him to help us find some connections?"

"Even whole grain noodles have tripled in price, who can afford that?"

"People are starving to death, village head, you can't just ignore this..."

……

Seeing the anxious faces of the villagers, Ye Qingqing felt very uncomfortable.

That's how it was in ancient times; people relied on the heavens for their livelihood, and human life was as cheap as an ant's.

Especially in the northern regions, there are four or five months of cold weather a year, making it impossible to grow crops, and only one harvest of grain can be obtained throughout the year.

Even in a bumper year, the harvested grain had to be paid for rice in the land tax and grain tax, as well as various other exorbitant taxes. The remaining sorghum and beans were barely enough to feed a family.

In the past two years, there has been a drought, and the harvested grain was not enough to eat. By winter, every household's flour bins were almost empty. They could only rely on doing manual labor and odd jobs in town, or chopping wood and hunting to earn some copper coins to buy grain from the south.

Food prices are bound to rise in the cold winter, but no one expected them to increase several times over!

This isn't a year of famine that can be endured by tightening your belt; it's a year where you have to tighten your belt up to your neck!

"Everyone, don't panic! I'm even more worried about the rising food prices than you are. I've already sent someone to town to find Cunfu!"

The village head shouted for a long time before finally calming the chaotic crowd, and said with a worried look,

"Cunfu knows people in the government, but now not only our town, but the entire northern border region is facing a food shortage. What can he do?"

You should try to figure something out yourselves. If all else fails, head south. Things might be better once you cross Shanhaiguan Pass…”

Before the words were even finished, the crowd, which had finally quieted down, erupted again.

"Village head, are you telling us to flee the famine?!"

"They're clearly telling us to wait to die! We're supposed to be fleeing famine, but there's no food. We won't even be able to escape; we'll starve to death on the way!"

"Village head, our whole village depends on you, you can't just abandon us..."

……