Chapter 5: Eating Chicken, Mother and Daughter Eating Chicken

There were no timekeeping tools in the house, but since her home was situated halfway up a mountain, she knew it was still early before the end of the workday by watching the people working in the fields.

Bai Jing boiled water, plucked the feathers, and after setting the chicken to stew, she went to the cellar. The cellar was located in a corner of the kitchen, accessible from the ground via a wooden ladder.

The cellar was large, at least ten square meters, but it was quite empty; aside from half a basket of sweet potatoes sitting in a wicker basket, there was nothing else to be found.

It was evident just how impoverished this family was.

To complement this meal of meat, Bai Jing planned to take out five sweet potatoes to serve as the staple, making a pot of thick sweet potato porridge accompanied by wild vegetables.

The autumn harvest was approaching; if her mother didn't eat something substantial, she feared her mother wouldn't survive the end of the harvest season.

It was only because their home was halfway up the mountain that they were lucky; otherwise, the aroma of the stewed chicken would have lured the souls out of the neighbors on either side.

Bai Jing had been busy the whole time, and it wasn't until she heard the sound of the loudspeaker that she realized it was already noon, the time when work ended.

Her younger brother and sister-in-law never came home for lunch; the school was quite far from home, and there simply wasn't enough time in the midday break for them to make the round trip.

Memories surged from the depths of her mind, and Bai Jing recalled what her brother and sister-in-law usually brought to school: wild vegetable balls. They were simply cooked wild vegetables pressed into balls; once the saltiness was gone, nothing remained but the bitterness of the greens.

Aside from ensuring one wouldn't starve to death, these provided no real nutrition. She had been impulsive today; she shouldn't have stewed both chickens at once. She should have waited until her brother and sister-in-law returned to eat before stewing them.

But the stew was already done, and it was too late for regrets.

Bai Jing planned to go to the school to bring some chicken to her brother and sister-in-law after her mother finished lunch.

***

Luo Chunhua was walking home, burdened by exhaustion and hunger.

The closer she got to home, the more she was captivated by a meaty aroma.

She looked up toward the surrounding mountain peaks and sniffed the air, realizing the scent was drifting down from her own mountain. She was puzzled; her family didn't have the means to eat meat. Encountering even a morsel of meat once every two or three years was considered good luck.

But it wasn't a festival or a special occasion; how could a meat aroma be coming from her house?

Thus, she quickened her pace toward home.

It wasn't until she reached her own courtyard that she dared to believe the meaty scent truly belonged to her home.

"Jing'er! Jing'er!" Thinking of something, she began to shout loudly.

Bai Jing had just ladled out the sweet potato porridge when she heard her mother calling her from outside. "Mother, I'm home! What is it?" Setting down the food basin, she hurried out of the kitchen.

She happened to run right into her mother, who was rushing toward the kitchen. "Mother, what are you doing? Who is chasing you?" She looked behind her mother but saw no one following.

"What are you doing at home? Why is there a smell of meat?" She was utterly confused. Upon reaching her daughter, she became even more certain that the scent was indeed from their house.

Hearing her mother mention this, a bright, spring-like smile appeared on Bai Jing's sallow little face. "Mother, I had good luck today. I ran into two injured wild chickens on the back mountain. I originally intended to just gather some firewood, but I didn't expect such luck. Mother, come inside quickly, I've already prepared everything."

With that, she pulled her mother into the kitchen. "Mother, look, this is the chicken soup I stewed. Doesn't it smell wonderful?" She had long since poured the chicken soup into bowls to cool, intending for her mother to eat it as soon as she returned.

She picked up a bowl of chicken soup, brought it to her mother, and blew on it twice. "Mother, it's not hot anymore. Try it quickly. I put some wild scallions in it; it's so fragrant. I was craving it even while I was stewing it."

Before Luo Chunhua could even speak, her eldest daughter pressed a bowl of chicken soup to her lips.

The aroma was too enticing; unable to resist the temptation, she took a direct gulp.

And then, things went downhill—she simply couldn't stop.

Having gone so long without any meat, Luo Chunhua's body was naturally craving fats and oils. When a person is deprived, they can no longer resist anything.

Thus, she sat down at the small kitchen table with the bowl in hand.

Seeing her mother eating so heartily, Bai Jing stopped dallying and began to eat as well.

Though they were wild chickens, because they were cunning and ran all over the mountains, and because it was currently the autumn harvest season, the meat was naturally firm and plump.

The two chickens had filled more than half of a large iron pot.

The family was poor, so they only owned one pot.

It was used for cooking, for boiling water, and it was the sole provider for their mouths.

After finishing a bowl of meat, Luo Chunhua finally slowed her eating.

"Did you go into the deep mountains?" Holding the bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, she stared sharply at her eldest daughter sitting beside her.

Bai Jing naturally knew what her mother was worried about. "No, I didn't even leave our back mountain." She wouldn't dare go into the deep mountains.

"Could there really be such things on our back mountain?" Luo Chunhua looked incredulous. "Don't lie to me; I know our back mountain better than you do." Fearing her daughter might not admit it, she added another sentence.

Bai Jing looked helpless. "Mother, I'm really not lying to you. How about I take you to the place where I found the wild chickens in a little while?" She knew her mother was worried about her.

She remembered that incident well; even after her rebirth, she dared not forget it.

There was a family in the village that had run out of food during a year of great famine. Since the surrounding forests had been picked clean, they had no choice but to head into the deep mountains behind the village.

Once they entered, they never came out again.

When the village chief led a group to search for them, they only found a head and some bones; everything else had been devoured by wild beasts.

His son was nowhere to be found.

The reason she remembered it so clearly was because she had seen that mangled, unrecognizable head.

She had been so terrified that she lost her wits. Her mother had told her it took a whole month of calling her soul back before she returned to herself; otherwise, she would have become a fool.

She understood even more clearly why her mother was worried—fearing that she might end up in the belly of a beast just for a bite of food.

Seeing how certain Bai Jing sounded, Luo Chunhua withdrew her gaze. "Though I have three daughters, you are all flesh and blood from my own body. I don't want any of you to come to harm." Having said that, she began to eat heartily again.

Bai Jing was perceptive enough to hear the tremor and fear in her mother's voice.

"Mother, I promise you, I will never go into the deep mountains. I haven't even had the chance to properly show my filial piety to you yet; how could I go looking for death?" Bai Jing smiled as she placed a piece of meat from her bowl into her mother's.

Luo Chunhua gave her a reproachful look. "Eat it yourself. There is plenty in my bowl."

After the mother and daughter finished the meat, Bai Jing ladled another bowl of sweet potato porridge for her mother. "Mother, eat something substantial, otherwise you won't be able to hold up."

Seeing the sweet potato porridge in the bowl, Luo Chunhua suddenly flared up. "You silly girl! How much of this did you cook? That bit of grain in the cellar is supposed to last us until the end of the month. It's only the beginning of the month; if you squander it like this, how will our family survive the rest of the days?"

Seeing the full bowl of sweet potatoes, Luo Chunhua felt a sharp pang of heartache. If they had added more water, this one bowl could have fed the whole family for a meal.

Seeing her mother so anxious over such a small amount of food, Bai Jing's eyes couldn't help but moisten. "Don't worry, Mother. I'll wander around the back mountain this afternoon. The wild yams are ripe this season; I'll go dig some up."

Although wild yams could provide satiety, they were incredibly difficult to dig up. Families with better circumstances wouldn't even look at them.

Not to mention, they were irritating to the touch; if you touched them too much, your hands could be burned by the irritation.

But for those whose families had no grain, they were life-saving things. What did a little skin irritation matter?