Chapter 4: and

“Someone’s dead!”

“Someone’s dead?”

I don’t know who said it, but it exploded like a crashing wave, sending ripples through the crowd.

“Pick up the baskets! Eldest, Second, get to the cart. Eldest’s wife, Old Woman, hold onto the children. Fourth’s wife, stay close. Little Sister, come over here. Big Sister, follow Fourth. Da Lin, you take the rear.”

In a rapid-fire sequence, Old Man Li gave his orders, lifting the baskets beside him and helping everyone strap them on. Seeing Old Man Li’s actions, the people around them also began to shoulder their luggage.

Leave—everyone had wanted to leave for a long time. Compared to the one or two taels of relief grain a day and half a gourd ladle of water per person, everyone wanted to go somewhere better to fill their bellies. But the county magistrate wouldn’t let them go, keeping all the refugees from the entire county huddled together, leaving everyone helpless.

Originally, they had thought that since grain was distributed daily, no one would starve to death. But a few days ago, when collecting grain, Old Man Li heard several people saying their children were dying and trying to beg for a little more, only to be refused. He took it to heart, and when he returned, he told the village chief about the situation. Consequently, everyone in their village quietly packed their luggage, fearing they wouldn’t have time if chaos broke out. This was the reason why others had set up tents, while they hadn’t even laid a cloth on the ground.

“Everyone, squat down!” A sharp voice came from not far away, followed by the sound of scabbards clashing against broadswords and constant, gruff shouting: “Everyone squat! Whoever dares to disrupt the order, I’ll cut them down!”

In the feudal era, let alone yamen runners, even a village chief was a high official. This made the commoners obediently squat down wherever the runners passed. Watching the riot being suppressed, Old Man Li and the village chief exchanged a look.

“Squat down.”

“Village Chief, this won’t do,” an old man said, his gaze fixed toward the direction of Chenjiagou. “It wasn’t scary as long as no one died, but now that someone has, it’s dangerous. If an epidemic breaks out, none of us will escape.”

“Uncle Laocai, I understand this too. Otherwise, why would I have let the villagers pack quietly? But you’ve seen it yourself—everyone is panicked, but no one dares to move.”

Last year, due to the ravages of war, their three prefectures in the Northeast were plundered. This year, they were the first to bear the brunt of the drought. To avoid a series of problems caused by the refugees from the three prefectures, the imperial court transported a lot of relief grain, but very little actually reached the individuals.

If the grain was limited but water was plentiful, they could have survived the year by foraging in the mountains and rivers. But without water, they couldn’t even boil porridge, so where would they find wild vegetables?

“Uncle Laocai… this won’t be the only one.”

Heavily, the village chief watched the corpse being carried away by the yamen runners.

As if in response to the village chief’s words, over the next two days, the runners carried away more than a dozen people. On the third day, from morning till night, there were actually more than thirty.

“It can’t go on like this.” Glancing at the people around them leaning against each other in a daze, Qin Wangshu tugged at her cheap husband. When he leaned in, she said, “If this continues, I’m afraid few will survive.”

Giving his young wife a deep look, Li Jiang muttered, “Don’t be afraid. I won’t let you die.”

“Is this something that can be avoided just because you don’t want me to die?” Over the past few days, she had thought about the "treasure mountains" in transmigration novels, but from the original owner’s memories, the Li family had decided to flee because the mountains themselves had withered. Along the entire journey to the county seat, she hadn’t seen a single patch of green.

When even the mountains are withered, where are you going to dig for wild vegetables? The relief grain in the county seat could be considered their only hope.

Worried that the relief grain wouldn’t last long, everyone ate sparingly. Those few pounds of wheat Mother Li had were saved bit by bit over these past few months.

Now it was already mid-October. It should have been snowing, but there wasn’t a flake in sight. The authorities were just keeping them penned up without doing any morale work. With no hope, who could hold on?

She had finally transmigrated once; it would be so unjust to kick the bucket before she even got to appreciate the original scenery of this place.

“Don’t tell me you’ll give me all of yours to eat. Even if I ate the whole family’s share, I still wouldn’t be full.”

She pouted, wanting to say more, but the words didn’t come out. After a moment, he only said, “I’m sorry.”

“...I didn’t mean to blame you.” She sheepishly withdrew her gaze, muttering to herself. She didn’t know how many times he had said this; as long as she opened her mouth, he could end it with "I’m sorry." Those three words had become the ending to every story.

Pursing her lips, Qin Wangshu pondered that there was a generation gap every three years, and there were three between them—no wonder they couldn’t communicate. However, talking about divorce when everyone was about to starve to death wasn’t very realistic. She’d better just endure it.

Just as Qin Wangshu was secretly complaining, Er Niu, the daughter of Li’s second son who had been squatting beside her and picking at the embroidery on her skirt, crept over to the ear of San Lang, who was nestled in the arms of the eldest daughter-in-law: “Fourth Aunt said she wants to eat the whole family’s grain.”

“...What~” Li Mingyao, who had been drooping his head, was horrified. He immediately lunged toward the squinting Mother Li, snot and tears streaming down his face: “Grandma~, San Lang is obedient. Don’t give San Lang’s grain to Fourth Aunt. San Lang doesn’t want to starve to death!”

“What? What give to Fourth Aunt? What starve to death? What kind of nonsense are you spouting?” Dazed, Mother Li pulled Li San Lang into her arms. “Keep your voice down. Aren’t you afraid of being struck dumb?”

Li’s third grandson was only five. When he got excited, he was muddled and couldn’t explain clearly, but if a mother couldn’t understand her own child, how could she be a mother?

“Mother~ Fourth is your son, but isn’t Li Shan your grandson too? For the sake of Fourth, how could you even do something like letting your own grandson starve?”

The fourth sister-in-law had been acting up ever since she entered the family. It was understandable that Fourth favored his wife, but the mother-in-law, who was always strict with them, was always accommodating to the fourth daughter-in-law.

The mother-in-law’s heart was biased to the soles of her feet, and though she was full of resentment, she didn’t dare say a word. But to give even the children’s grain to the fourth daughter-in-law? Was this reasonable? Was she going to let the Li family die out for the sake of an outsider?

The eldest daughter-in-law had long harbored deep grievances against Qin Wangshu, and children were the lifeblood of every mother. Suddenly feeling that her child was gone, she was already covered in cold sweat. Hearing that the mother-in-law was going to give the child’s grain to the fourth daughter-in-law, how could she stand it?

“Mother, you’ve always been biased toward Fourth. I, as a daughter-in-law, haven’t said a word. When we were at home, you gave the fourth daughter-in-law special treatment, and I didn’t say a word either. But you shouldn’t have, you really shouldn’t have, tried to scrape away the children’s grain for her!”

“Fourth sister-in-law, I know you’re a young lady from a wealthy family, delicate and precious. But if you want a good life, you should have looked for a young master in town. We Li family are destined to eat chaff and vegetables. You, this golden phoenix, flying into our Li family—are you trying to eat up all our lives?”

“I’m old, if I die, I die. But Little San is only five, only five! How can you have the heart to do this to such a small child~”

“Shut up~” Raising his hand, Li Jiang’s slap almost landed on his sister-in-law’s face. Fortunately, at the moment he raised his hand, he remembered this was his sister-in-law, and even if she was wrong, his elder brother should be the one to teach her.

“Sister-in-law, watch your tongue.”

What special treatment from his mother? What golden phoenix?

The special treatment his mother gave was grain he had bought himself. The golden phoenix was a woman of the royal family.

They were simply blinded by hunger, daring to say anything, howling regardless of whether they were right or wrong. This was a path to death.

Li Jiang was very angry. Although he had been schemed against, Qin Wangshu was superior to women of his level in both appearance and status, so he felt he had hit the jackpot—that heaven had been kind to him.

(End of chapter)