Chapter 14: Wanting to Exchange

"Dalang, Erniang, Youniang, come over and eat!" Xu Da called out to the children, not wanting to say another word to the Wang woman.

Different paths lead to different plans; as long as his life wasn't threatened, why should he worry so much?

Did she really think he had nothing better to do? He hadn't eaten all morning and had just fought a group brawl; he was so hungry his chest was sticking to his back.

"Sigh~" Xu Da couldn't help but sigh. When would these bitter days ever end?

The Wang woman took out the remaining rice bran cakes from the basket, one for each person. Paired with the pot of porridge Xu Da had snatched—which was so thin you could count the grains—the family of five barely managed to fill their stomachs.

With their bellies full and their strength restored, the Wang woman looked at the dense forest nearby, picked up her homemade bow and arrows, and prepared to take a walk in the woods.

"You stay here and look after the children. There are plenty of grass stalks nearby; figure out how to make a few pairs of straw sandals to replace the ones we have."

The Wang woman assigned the task to her cheap husband as if it were the most natural thing in the world, her tone full of disdain.

Xu Da glared, pointing at the Tong woman and others nearby who were nursing their babies, and growled in a low voice

"Wang, don't go too far. Have you ever seen a real man stay behind to watch kids and make straw sandals?"

The Wang woman said "Oh" and glanced at him, "Can you hunt?"

"I..." Xu Da choked. He knew how to kill spirit beasts; he could even list the characteristics and weaknesses of every single one.

But these mundane animals? He hadn't seen a single one!

Still, he figured they were all beasts, so it should be about the same.

Just as Xu Da was about to say "I can do it too," the Wang woman had already walked away. From a distance, her mocking voice drifted back

"With that scrawny frame of yours, you couldn't even chase down a pheasant. Better save your strength to make me some straw sandals. As long as I'm around, you won't go hungry."

Listen to that—it sounded as if he relied entirely on her for food. Was that pot of porridge not something he had scavenged himself?

Xu Da’s chest heaved violently. Whether from shame or anger, his face flushed a deep red—a red that could be glimpsed even through his dark, weathered skin.

Especially when he felt the strange looks from Wang Dayou and the others, Xu Da wanted nothing more than to chase after her and hack the Wang woman to death.

The tall, imposing image he had worked so hard to build among the villagers was completely gone!

However, after the recent battle with the refugees from the other village, the people of Dawang Village all knew that the woman of the Xu household was a fierce one, so even those who wanted to laugh held it in.

It was just that their sympathetic gazes were always directed specifically at Xu Da.

Xu Yue slurped up the last of her porridge, placed the bowl into the clay pot, and didn't dare provoke her cheap father, who was radiating cold air. She silently called her sister, and the two girls carried the pots and bowls to the pond to wash them clean.

Xu Dalang followed closely behind, protecting his sisters.

Seeing the Wang woman enter the mountains, the people of Dawang Village followed one after another, likely hoping to find some food in the forest to fill their bellies.

Even if they couldn't catch any game, a few handfuls of tender leaves or a palmful of wild berries would be good.

The clearing was soon left with only women and children. The Tong woman led her daughter, carrying her son on her back, searching through the grass, perhaps hoping to find a few wild duck eggs or something similar for the children to eat.

Her son, not yet a year old, had only had half a bowl of thin porridge and wasn't full; he was crying from hunger.

The sound was like a kitten mewling—thin and weak, but never-ending.

The Tong woman felt her heart ache, so she had to unstrap him from her back and lift her clothes to nurse him.

As for those "rules of propriety," they were desperate people who couldn't even afford a meal; they couldn't afford to be picky about such things.

With something to suck on, the little one stopped crying immediately, nursing greedily.

But due to long-term malnutrition, the Tong woman had long since run out of milk. The little one couldn't get anything out and soon began to cry in that thin, reedy voice again.

One family crying triggered a chain reaction; the child in the arms of the Qiu woman began to cry as well.

It was all caused by hunger.

Adults could still endure it, but children didn't understand how to hold back, let alone infants who couldn't even speak and could only express their needs through crying.

Xu Da felt his head throbbing. He suddenly felt that his own three children were actually quite sensible.

However, just as he picked up the sickle and prepared to follow the original owner's residual memories to find usable grass stalks, he turned around and saw a little girl standing behind him.

Perhaps not expecting him to turn so suddenly, the little girl was startled and took a large step back.

Xu Da knew this girl; she was the eldest daughter of Wang Dayou’s family. She was a very sensible child who had followed the adults the whole way without ever crying or making a fuss.

The tiny person had a large head and a small body, barefoot, covered in an ill-fitting, old adult garment. Her two large eyes were staring longingly at the basket hidden by his feet.

Xu Yue and her siblings returned after washing the bowls and saw their father staring eye-to-eye with a little girl.

As soon as Xu Da saw the three of them, it was as if he had seen a savior. He wasn't good at dealing with children, so he hurriedly gave Xu Yue a look and decisively picked up his sickle, bypassing the Wang girl to go cut grass.

Xu Erniang nudged Xu Yue’s shoulder with her elbow, signaling her to go ask what the little girl wanted.

Xu Yue put down the bowls, first reassured her "personal bodyguard" Xu Dalang, and then walked toward the Wang girl.

Perhaps because they were both children, the Wang girl’s courage grew, and she took two steps forward.

Before Xu Yue could ask, she reached her hand into her collar.

She wasn't going to pull out a gun, was she?

The thought flashed through her mind, and Xu Yue couldn't help but admire herself—she’d watched too many crime dramas; the side effects were getting serious.

In a backward ancient era like Daqing, there couldn't possibly be guns. What the little girl pulled out was a white stone.

It was the size of an infant's fist, smooth and shiny; one could tell its owner had been fondling it for a long time.

At first, Xu Yue thought it was jade, but then she remembered that Dawang Village was about the same level as her own village; it was impossible for anyone to afford something like jade.

She stepped forward, and seeing that the Wang girl didn't object, Xu Yue took the stone into her hand and held it up to the light.

It was just an ordinary white stone, or more accurately, a white firestone. It contained silica and could produce sparks upon high-speed impact, so it was also called flint.

But it wasn't the same variety as the fire-starters used in ancient times.

Because the color was pretty, with crystals inside the white, Xu Yue remembered that when she was a child at her grandmother's house in the countryside, she and the village children often picked up these stones to play marbles.

But clearly, the Wang girl treated it as a treasure.

She spoke in a low voice: "My brother is crying from hunger. Can I trade this with you for some food? This is my only treasure."

It was clear she was very reluctant to part with her treasure, but thinking of her brother crying from hunger, she decided to part with it through gritted teeth.

Xu Yue felt that this girl, who was even thinner and smaller than herself, was different from the other children whose eyes were filled with numbness. Her eyes were bright.

Most importantly, she already understood the concept of equivalent exchange, which was why she chose to trade her treasure for food.

It was just that Xu Yue couldn't make the call on food; she still had to rely on her mother for every meal.