Chapter 33: Drought and Famine Year (Part 4)

Before the sky was dark, people had to walk, and a long line walked sparsely.

Chen Huihong at the front walked like the wind. Except for the style being a bit indescribable and really sloppy, she didn't look like a disaster victim. Especially her clothes stuffed with straw, compared to the truly weak disaster victims on the side, she was simply a strong man who could fight ten.

Hui Niang was a bit afraid of the human trafficker whose face changed faster than turning a book, followed Chen Huihong closely, even if she couldn't keep up, she gritted her teeth and wasted more energy to trot to keep up. When Chen Huihong occasionally glanced back at Hui Niang's staggering figure, she would slow down slightly.

As for the human trafficker walking third in the line, her expression and movements were much more ferocious.

In terms of figure, the human trafficker was normal to thin among modern people, looked forty or fifty years old, and was very tall, comparable to Chen Huihong. She was also dressed in rags, her clothes were relatively thicker, she held sweet potatoes in her arms, and carried property on her body, which was quite rich among the disaster victims.

Perhaps because of the heavy load, it was much more strenuous for her to keep up with Chen Huihong than Hui Niang, and Chen Huihong didn't care at all whether she could keep up, just walked forward on her own, at most waiting for Hui Niang.

The human trafficker didn't want to be left behind by Chen Huihong, and was afraid that the goods behind would really fall behind, so walking was tiring and urgent, looking forward and backward, could only scold and curse in a low voice along the way, anyway Chen Huihong couldn't hear.

Chen Huihong couldn't hear, but Qin Huai could.

From the afternoon to dark, Qin Huai roughly figured out the situation of this team.

Compared with the scene seen in the last dream, this time Chen Huihong and Hui Niang should be temporary teammates who had been teamed up for a few months and were slightly tacit. Not only did they walk out of the severe disaster area, but they also made up their identities and determined the direction.

As for the human trafficker, her surname was Zhang, and everyone else called her Mother Zhang.

In Mother Zhang's perspective, Chen Huihong was a weird-tempered young lady from a big family who had lost contact with her family on the road of fleeing famine and had become stupid from studying foreign books, and Hui Niang was a maid she picked up on the road.

The reason why this strange team was formed was because Mother Zhang's husband died.

Mother Zhang was from Beiping and had been in this business for more than ten years, always a husband-and-wife team. Two years ago, there was a severe drought in Sanjin, and the couple bought low and sold high and made a lot of money. This year, hearing that the drought was still going on, they went to Sanjin to buy people with the idea of making a fortune again.

As a result, they didn't expect that this year's drought was more severe than the previous two years, the grain harvest failed, the land was barren for thousands of miles, and ordinary families had reached the point where they couldn't survive even if they sold their sons and daughters. Buying people didn't even require money or food. With a shout, a large number of people rushed up to follow the human trafficker for a bite to eat.

Famine, people eating people, desperate hunger turned people into beasts. Mother Zhang's husband died accidentally in a purchase. Mother Zhang, who witnessed everything from a distance, was scared out of her wits, took the collected goods and fled overnight, stayed away from the crowd, and finally met Chen Huihong and Hui Niang who were also staying away from the crowd.

Hui Niang was from a farming family with decent family conditions, slightly sturdier than a girl from a truly poor family, and taller. When Qin Huai saw Hui Niang in the dream for the first time, he felt that Hui Niang was thin, small, and extremely malnourished, far worse than Chen Huihui in the real world. But compared to the group of half-grown boys Mother Zhang bought, Hui Niang was much better than them.

Not to mention Chen Huihong, this height, this figure, this appearance, definitely from a big family. Before, there was only Hui Niang for comparison, so it wasn't obvious, but now standing in this group of people, she was simply standing out from the crowd.

Hui Niang knew the way and could find water, Chen Huihong looked like she had a background, was healthy and could fight. Mother Zhang's husband died and she had dozens of new goods, afraid she couldn't keep the food on her body, so she clung to Chen Huihong to travel together, wanting to find a strong person to protect herself.

When Mother Zhang met Chen Huihong, there were more than twenty half-grown children around her, the big ones were thirteen or fourteen, and the small ones were only six or seven, boys and girls.

Walking to now, the good-looking girls had been sold at a discount along the way, and those with poor health who couldn't keep up died on the road. Those who stayed until now were considered Mother Zhang's selection. Each one looked like they were dying, but after reaching Beiping and eating two full meals to recover their energy, they could still be sold for a good price.

Now that they were about to reach Beiping, Mother Zhang had ideas about Hui Niang.

Hui Niang relied on one bean cake every two days and the food she found along the way, and she was considered to be doing quite well among the disaster victims. When she reached outside the city, she was also the batch of high-quality disaster victims most likely to be selected and bought. Mother Zhang's husband died on this road, she lost money, sold goods cheaply, and it wouldn't be convenient to do human trafficking business alone in the future, so she thought about making a little more money for the last time, selling one by one.

In order to make more money, Mother Zhang even generously stuffed a small sweet potato to Chen Huihong and Hui Niang each.

Mother Zhang used flint to ignite dry grass, ignited wood to roast sweet potatoes and roast fire to keep warm. Hui Niang sat by the fire, holding a clay pot full of water, waiting for the water in the pot to settle. Chen Huihong might be worried that the flames would ignite the straw in her clothes, so she sat further away, turned her back and silently gnawed on tree bark, and stuffed the sweet potato into her clothes.

"Hui Niang, have you and your young lady been to Beiping before?" Mother Zhang talked to Hui Niang.

Hui Niang shook her head silently. "Beiping is huge, there is an imperial palace, and there are prince's mansions. Now the emperor is gone, but those old princes and nobles are still very rich. If you can work in the prince's mansion, don't say one bean flour cake every two days, even if you eat 10 a day, no one will care about you." Mother Zhang threw out the temptation of bean flour cakes.

Hui Niang was unmoved, indicating that she had seen the world: "But I want to eat white flour buns."

Mother Zhang: "... There are also white flour buns. In those alleys, don't say white flour buns, the rich ones can also eat what only the nobles in the palace could eat before, like pea flour cakes, donkey rolls, kidney bean rolls. Have you heard of these foods? They are all precious good things, made of fine grains, finer than fine grains, with enough sugar, sweeter than honey!"

Hui Niang was still unmoved, because she had neither eaten fine grains nor honey, and couldn't imagine what Mother Zhang was talking about.

Mother Zhang didn't give up: "If it really doesn't work, being a small worker in a restaurant or oil mill is also fine, some places don't pick people. Although those places are bitter, they can also eat their fill. If you think bean rice is tasteless, you can go to fish for 'staring food', 1 copper coin per chopstick, if you are lucky, you might be able to fish a piece of meat."

Speaking of this, Mother Zhang seemed to blink her mouth like an aftertaste: "Once, Li Mazi who sold 'staring food', I don't know where he collected the leftovers, said it was a Tai-something building that opened from outside the pass, that taste, even if it was rotten, it was delicious, 1 copper coin was really not spent in vain."

Mother Zhang's beautiful description of eating meat for 1 copper coin moved Hui Niang. Hui Niang held the pot and ran to Chen Huihong's side, handed the pot to Chen Huihong: "Sister, drink water."

The water had settled almost enough.

Chen Huihong drank a small sip, returned the pot to Hui Niang, and continued to play with the half-cut wooden horse she had picked up before.

"Sister, just now Mother Zhang said that you can eat meat for 1 copper coin in Beiping City." Hui Niang whispered.

"I heard it." Chen Huihong said faintly, "It's all swill, eating too much will make you sick, and if you are unlucky, you will die."

"But..." Hui Niang was still a little eager, "You can eat meat."

There were also several boys lying down to rest who had the same idea as Hui Niang. A boy struggled to prop up his body, looked at Mother Zhang with eager eyes, and asked: "Mother... Mother Zhang, when we reach Beiping, can we also eat meat for 1 copper coin?"

"Eat, eat, eat, only know how to eat!" Mother Zhang scolded angrily, "How much food did you eat along the way? The pace is so slow, it's good to give you a full meal when you reach Beiping, who told you to sit and talk? Don't you know that sitting and talking wastes energy and food?"

"All lie down and sleep for me, hurry on the road as soon as the sky is bright, when we reach Beiping, we still have to find buyers for you, sell you one day earlier and eat one day less of my food!"

The children hurried to lie down. Mother Zhang finished gnawing the sweet potato carefully, and even swallowed the skin slowly before holding the bag and curling up to sleep.

As if in a breath, only Chen Huihong and Hui Niang were left sitting among everyone.

"Sister, what work should we find when we reach Beiping? Being a beggar seems easy to be beaten to death." Hui Niang asked in a low voice.

"That's your business." Chen Huihong put away the wooden horse, "I don't know where to go, you said your parents might go to Beiping, I'll accompany you."

"When we reach the place, you find yours, I go mine."

After speaking, Chen Huihong lay down and closed her eyes to sleep.

Hui Niang was still in the posture of sitting holding the pot, sat blankly for a while, carefully lay down, her back against Chen Huihong's back, and fell asleep quietly.

Under the reflection of the fire, Qin Huai saw Chen Huihong open her eyes and glance at Hui Niang, adjusted her posture so that Hui Niang wouldn't lean too uncomfortably, and then closed her eyes to sleep.

My white cat urinated blood at noon today, sent to the hospital urgently, spent 1720.

Seeing a doctor for a cat is really expensive.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 34 =====