Chapter 63: Arid Land and Lean Years (End)

The next day, Chen Huihong went to the inner city to eat as usual.

Qin Huai figured it out. Although Chen Huihong lived with Hui Niang, the two were just simple roommates. Chen Huihong ate a good meal in the inner city every day, brought some snacks back, ate snacks the rest of the time, went out to watch the fun when there was fun outside, and cracked melon seeds at home when there was no fun.

Hui Niang was much busier than her.

She went out to buy vegetables and grain in the morning, came back to clean up the melon seed shells cracked by Chen Huihong, and cleaned the house. If the sun was right outside, she had to set up a shelf to dry the quilt outside.

When Chen Huihong went out to wander, Hui Niang worked outside. When Chen Huihong came back from wandering, Hui Niang was usually steaming sweet potatoes in the kitchen.

It was cold outside at night, so Hui Niang and Chen Huihong huddled at home together. There was no fire basin at home, so Hui Niang curled up in the quilt and chatted with Chen Huihong, while Chen Huihong continued to sit at the table cracking melon seeds and playing with small toys.

According to the agreement with Shopkeeper Lu, Chen Huihong didn't go to Taifeng Building to eat the next day, but went to Yonghe Residence. The waiter of Yonghe Residence entertained her enthusiastically, and Chen Huihong returned home in the evening with big bags and small bags.

Hui Niang was steaming nest-head buns in the kitchen.

"Sister, you're back." Hui Niang welcomed her happily and reported the good news excitedly, "The corn flour in the grain store was especially cheap today. I bought a whole bag! I also bought a small bag of white flour. Sister, I steamed nest-head buns, do you want to eat one?"

Chen Huihong entered the kitchen and looked at the nest-head buns that didn't look very good. She didn't pick, nodded, and asked: "Isn't the grain price different every day now? Why is the corn flour especially cheap today?"

"The waiter in the grain store said it was because this batch of corn flour was damp and a bit moldy," Hui Niang said happily. "It doesn't matter, I have already picked out and thrown away the moldy flour, and there is still more than half a bag left."

Chen Huihong subconsciously frowned: "Don't go to this grain store to buy grain next time. Selling such grain is heartless."

"Sister, the grain in this shop is already very good. Before at home, when there was a shortage of grain, I went to the landlord's house to buy mixed grain. One jin of corn flour had three taels of sand and two taels of mouse droppings. It was good to have half a jin of corn flour after sifting."

"Many people went to buy it, and fortunately I went early this morning, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to buy it."

Chen Huihong didn't speak and handed a candied fruit to Hui Niang.

Hui Niang took it happily and held it in her mouth, reluctant to swallow: "Thank you, sister."

Chen Huihong stood in the kitchen waiting for the nest-head buns to be steamed.

Hui Niang rarely steamed nest-head buns and didn't know how to control the time and heat, so she had to lift the wooden lid from time to time to take a look. Qin Huai watched from the side and felt that Hui Niang's skills were really very worrying.

Not to mention the nest-head buns themselves, a large amount of original ecological corn flour mixed with a small amount of white flour, coarse grains among coarse grains, smooth and flat was impossible.

Hui Niang's skill in kneading dough was probably not very good, and the exhaust was done very poorly.

The most important thing was that the fire in the stove was small.

Don't know if it was to save firewood or simply put too little, Qin Huai felt that according to this steaming method, the nest-head buns steamed out would likely be half-raw.

Sure enough, more than ten minutes later, the firewood in the stove had gone out, but the nest-head buns in the pot were not fully steamed.

Hui Niang fiddled with the nest-head buns with her hands, not very sure, and asked: "Sister, are these nest-head buns steamed?"

"Don't know," Chen Huihong said honestly. "I only know how to eat, not how to cook."

"But there is no firewood at home," Hui Niang said embarrassedly. "I was delayed by grabbing corn flour this morning. When I came back, the firewood seller had already left. If I want to buy, I have to wait until tomorrow morning."

"Make do with it," Chen Huihong said. Thought for a while, she groped for a piece of tree bark from her pocket. "Or do you want to eat this?"

Hui Niang hesitated: "My mother said, nest-head buns can be eaten even if they are not cooked."

The two ate the half-raw nest-head buns.

Hui Niang steamed a total of 4 nest-head buns, each the size of a fist. Hui Niang ate three and Chen Huihong ate one.

The kitchen was too cold, so the two brought the nest-head buns back to the room to eat.

Chen Huihong couldn't help but take a bite in advance out of curiosity on the way from the kitchen to the room. It was so unpalatable that her facial features wrinkled together, and she complained: "Strange taste."

Then she stuffed a candied fruit into her mouth and stuffed the remaining small half-bag of candied fruit to Hui Niang, implying that this nest-head bun was really too unpalatable, so you should mix it with candied fruit.

Hui Niang didn't refuse, took it happily, ate a bite of candied fruit, and then gnawed a big bite of nest-head bun, chewing while muttering vaguely: "Sweet."

"You only have this evaluation," Chen Huihong sat at the table and gnawed on the nest-head bun, watching Hui Niang climb onto the bed, wrap herself in the quilt, and reveal only a head and two small hands.

Hui Niang ate the candied fruit with nest-head bun happily.

While eating, Hui Niang suddenly popped out a sentence: "Sister, you are really good to me, much better than my parents were to me."

"That's because your parents weren't very good to you either. It's been more than half a year, and I haven't seen them come to Beiping," Chen Huihong said lightly.

This sentence directly silenced Hui Niang. After a long while, Hui Niang asked in a low voice: "Sister, if I say I didn't know at all whether my parents would come to Beiping, I was just afraid you would throw me away, so I lied to you that I wanted to come to Beiping to meet my parents. I didn't want to find them at all. Would you be angry?"

Chen Huihong glanced at her: "They called me crazy young lady. I defaulted because this way I could save a lot of trouble and eat and drink for free. I'm not really stupid."

"Then would you think I'm unfilial?" Hui Niang asked again.

"Filial piety is relative. Parents are not kind, so they are not qualified to accuse children of being unfilial," Chen Huihong said. "Your parents wanted to sell you to a human trafficker. Isn't it normal that you don't want to find them?"

Hui Niang immediately became happy again: "Fortunately, the human trafficker thought I was ugly and didn't want me, otherwise I wouldn't have met you, sister."

"Sister, are your parents good to you?"

Chen Huihong didn't quite understand why it suddenly became a heart-to-heart meeting tonight, but she thought about it seriously and answered: "Don't remember."

"Should be okay. Over there... we don't really manage, and we don't need to manage. Let nature take its course."

Hui Niang didn't understand.

Chen Huihong gnawed on the nest-head bun again, frowned, and wanted to look out the window, but the window was paper-pasted and couldn't be seen clearly.

"Tomorrow is the Little New Year," Chen Huihong looked at Hui Niang. "Your coming-of-age ceremony."

"What is a coming-of-age ceremony?" Hui Niang asked.

"It's the 15th birthday. When a girl has her 15th birthday, the elders in the family will use a hairpin to pull up her hair. It seems that they also have to invite guests to change clothes or something. I heard it from the storyteller; it should be celebrating the birthday," Chen Huihong was not very sure.

"So good." Hui Niang was full of envy.

Looking at Hui Niang's expression, Chen Huihong was a bit surprised: "You don't have it?"

Hui Niang shook her head: "My sister was sold to a human trafficker before she was 15. The girls in our village basically got married at 13 or 14. I was originally going to be promised to someone at 13. But it was already dry at that time, and everyone had no money to marry a wife. The money given was too little, so it was better to sell to a human trafficker."

"My mother was already asking a matchmaker to propose for me, but my father wouldn't let me, saying that raising a big girl for another year would sell for more money. As a result, I didn't sell."

Hui Niang gnawed on the nest-head bun, a bit melancholy: "For this, my parents quarreled several times. My father scolded my mother, saying that my name was wrong. When naming, I only thought of 'virtuous' (xianhui), not 'beautiful' (piaoliang). What's the use of just being virtuous."

Chen Huihong said: "Virtuous is useless."

"Gentle and virtuous, cautious and kind. Such beautiful words are really ruined by just summarizing them as virtuous."

"But the word 'Hui' sounds very good," Hui Niang said. "Many girls in our village envy my name, thinking 'Hui' sounds much better than 'Ya', 'Di', 'Cao', 'Hua'."

"It sounds very good," Chen Huihong indicated affirmation. "If you don't like 'virtuous' (xianhui), but like the pronunciation of 'Hui', the 'Hui' of 'clever' (cong-hui) is also very good."

"Beautiful on the outside and clever on the inside, you should like this 'Hui' more."

Hui Niang's eyes lit up: "Sister, you are so cultured!"

Chen Huihong said calmly: "It's all said by the storyteller. They are cultured."

After the short night chat ended, Hui Niang finished the nest-head bun, lay down quietly, and went to sleep, while Chen Huihong continued to crack melon seeds in the dark.

Lamps are expensive these days. Whether it is candles or kerosene lamps, they are not something Hui Niang's wages can afford. Chen Huihong usually steals melon seeds after eating at the restaurant and never steals candles.

When it gets dark at night, the room is pitch black, so it's better to go to sleep early.

But tonight, it is destined not to be too peaceful.

Because Hui Niang seems to have eaten something bad.

Chen Huihong finished cracking melon seeds, finished peanuts, chewed dried fruit, and finally drank two mouthfuls of water to fill the gaps. Just as she was about to get up and enter the room to lie on the bed, Hui Niang struggled to get up, put on a cotton-padded jacket, and went outside to the toilet.

Less than half an hour later, she put on the cotton-padded jacket and went outside to the toilet again.

She ran four or five times all night before stopping and lying on the bed without moving.

After Hui Niang came back from the toilet for the last time and lay down, Chen Huihong sat up and asked: "Did you eat something bad?"

"Seems like it," Hui Niang said weakly. "Maybe it's because the nest-head bun wasn't steamed well."

"It's because you bought cheap moldy corn flour," Chen Huihong corrected. "Do you want me to invite a doctor?"

Hui Niang grabbed Chen Huihong's hand and shook her head: "Too expensive, the money has to be saved for the New Year to buy meat at the two-meat shop."

"I can go to Taifeng Building to steal," Chen Huihong said.

"But you can't invite him now. Doctors charge extra for night visits. Tomorrow morning, I will go to the pharmacy myself. The doctor sitting in the pharmacy is cheap," Hui Niang insisted.

Chen Huihong sat silently for a while and lay down: "Fine, you decide for yourself."

Then Chen Huihong closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Hui Niang also closed her eyes, feeling dizzy, and fell asleep.

Only Qin Huai stood by the bed, staring at Hui Niang on the bed with a somewhat solemn face.

The sky was so dark that Qin Huai couldn't see anything, but he could hear Hui Niang's breathing.

Her breathing was very rapid.

Rapid with a hint of weakness.

Qin Huai let out a long breath, only hoping his experience was wrong.

When Luo Luo was Hui Niang's age, she often didn't realize she had a fever. Often when she had a low fever, she had no reaction at all, and when she had a high fever of 38 degrees, she was still full of energy, and it was only when her little face was red that the family noticed and hurriedly carried the child to the hospital.

Of course, sometimes it would be very obvious.

For example, when food poisoning occurred.

Qin Luo once ate something from a street stall outside and got food poisoning, vomiting and diarrhea with fever, and she wilted immediately.

In modern times, children with food poisoning are sent to the hospital, induced to vomit, hung with water, and prescribed some medicine, and they can get better, but at this time...

Qin Huai stood silently in the room, waiting for the dawn to come.

The next day, just as the sky was getting light, Chen Huihong woke up.

Chen Huihong got up and found that Hui Niang was still lying on the bed, buried in the quilt, so she called her.

"Hui Niang."

"Hui Niang?" Chen Huihong lifted the quilt and found Hui Niang's face was red, and there was no reaction no matter how she called.

Without any hesitation, Chen Huihong wrapped Hui Niang in the quilt, held her horizontally, and ran straight out, even forgetting to wear her cotton-padded jacket.

People were already up at this time. Seeing Chen Huihong running on the street in a single jacket holding a quilt, they hurriedly pulled their family out to watch: "The crazy young lady is crazy!"

Chen Huihong ran straight to the pharmacy. The pharmacy opened early, and the waiter was cleaning, while the doctor was picking medicine. Seeing Chen Huihong running in straight with a quilt, the waiter subconsciously reached out to stop her, but retracted his hand halfway.

"Crazy young lady, why don't you wear cotton-padded clothes in such cold weather? What are you running for holding a quilt?" The waiter stepped forward to persuade Chen Huihong to go out, but found someone wrapped in the quilt and was stunned. "You shouldn't have picked up a fallen person and want us to treat her, right? This can't be treated."

"She ate something bad," Chen Huihong put the cotton quilt down carefully.

The waiter then saw clearly: "Isn't this Hui Niang? Dr. Wang, please come and see."

After speaking, the waiter went to close the door, lest the cold wind blow in.

Dr. Wang, whose hair was already gray, hurriedly came over to take her pulse. Under Chen Huihong's gaze, Dr. Wang asked unhurriedly: "Crazy young lady, what did your maid eat yesterday?"

Afraid that Chen Huihong wouldn't understand, Dr. Wang also made a gesture of eating.

"Moldy corn flour, not steamed well," Chen Huihong said.

Dr. Wang's face changed immediately, and he turned to ask the waiter: "Did Hui Niang go to the grain store in the west to buy corn flour yesterday?"

The waiter was still thinking, and Chen Huihong said directly: "Yes, Hui Niang said the corn flour was damp and moldy, sold cheaply, and she picked out the moldy part and threw it away."

Dr. Wang didn't even have time to think about why the crazy young lady could answer so quickly, sighed and muttered: "It's simply heartless. This kind of thing that kills people is taken out and sold everywhere."

The waiter seemed to remember something: "Dr. Wang, did Li Er's family die from eating corn flour yesterday?"

"I heard them say Li Er's mother felt sorry for the grain, so the moldy flour wasn't picked out and thrown away, but mixed with other flour to boil paste. The whole family, except Li Er's wife who ate less and only ate one mouthful, was fine, but everyone else was gone. They were gone last night."

"And it seems that more things happened in the west, and the grain shop owner ran away overnight."

"What do you mean? Will that corn flour kill people if eaten?" Chen Huihong asked the waiter.

The waiter hesitated and didn't dare to say.

Dr. Wang took her pulse for a while, paused, and said: "Crazy young lady, I believe you can understand, so I will say it directly."

"I will first prescribe a prescription for you, let the waiter boil it here and feed it to Hui Niang to induce vomiting. Then prescribe a prescription to reduce fever, but I can't guarantee whether she can live. My medical skills are limited, and I only have three points of certainty for this kind of acute illness."

"You prescribe it, I will find the money and give it to you when I go back," Chen Huihong said.

The doctor directed the waiter to grab the medicine, and after grabbing it, the waiter went to the backyard to boil it.

Chen Huihong looked at Hui Niang, who remained drowsy and unresponsive, and asked, "If the medicine doesn't work, will she die?"

Dr. Wang sighed: "Can only listen to heaven's will."

"I can only say that after that fever-reducing prescription is poured in, if the fever can be reduced before dark, there is still salvation. If the fever cannot be reduced before dark, then I am afraid it will be very difficult tonight..."

"Crazy young lady, I know you are kind. If you are willing to spend money, sending her to the Western hospital in the inner city might still save her, but that cost... is enough for you to buy 10 new maids."

Chen Huihong was silent.

20 minutes later, the waiter boiled the medicine and poured it into Hui Niang in batches.

The medicine to induce vomiting was still useful. After vomiting several times, Hui Niang gradually woke up. Dr. Wang knew that Chen Huihong must not be able to boil medicine, so he asked Chen Huihong to take Hui Niang back first and not catch a cold, and later he would ask the waiter to boil the medicine and send it over.

Chen Huihong carried Hui Niang back, and as soon as she got home, she looked for copper coins everywhere, even turning out the candied fruit that hadn't been finished in the cabinet.

"Sister, what are you looking for?" Hui Niang asked weakly, half-lying on the bed.

"Looking for something valuable, I'll take you to that hospital," Chen Huihong said.

"It's very expensive, we can't afford it," Hui Niang said, panting. "Seeing a doctor there costs a lot of ocean dollars."

"I'll borrow it."

"But if you borrow it, sister, wouldn't everyone know you're not crazy?"

As soon as these words came out, Chen Huihong's action of looking for things paused.

"This way, sister, you can't go to the inner city to shop every day, you can't eat the things you like, and everyone will find out you're not a human at all."

Chen Huihong squatted on the ground, without any reaction, and looked up at Hui Niang quietly: "When did you know?"

Hui Niang smiled: "Sister, I'm not stupid either. I knew on the first day."

"Tree bark isn't eaten like that at all."

"But you still ate it," Chen Huihong said.

"Because I was too hungry. Sister, you might not know, I hadn't eaten anything for many days at that time. I didn't dare to eat dirt; I was afraid that eating dirt would make me full and even more uncomfortable, but I was really hungry. I couldn't even stand up and could only crawl on the ground."

"I thought I was going to die, but after I finished the piece of tree bark you gave me, I wasn't hungry anymore."

"Sister, you don't look like someone escaping famine at all. You pretend to be not like it at all. Your complexion is so rosy, your strength is so great, you don't look for food, don't drink water, and don't even have a jar for storing water."

"And when I talked to you about Lin County, you didn't have any reaction. The place where we met was Lin County. Lin County had a plague, people died, and the surrounding villages were all deserted villages. People escaping famine didn't dare to flee there. I was afraid of meeting people and deliberately ran to places where there were no people."

"Sister, you said you were escaping famine, but which young lady from a big family would escape famine alone and run to that kind of place."

Chen Huihong looked at Hui Niang: "Then you still dare to follow me, aren't you afraid I'll eat you?"

Hui Niang smiled: "My parents wanted to eat me and I wasn't afraid, so why would I be afraid that you, sister, want to eat me?"

Chen Huihong was startled.

Hui Niang tried to sit up straight: "Actually, I've always known. When my parents escaped famine and brought me along, it was to bring reserve food."

"I didn't dare to sleep at night, fearing that my parents would exchange me and eat me. One night I heard my father discussing with my mother, saying that the food had been eaten up, and keeping me was useless, so he would go find someone tomorrow morning to exchange me."

"I ran away overnight while they were sleeping."

"Actually, even if you wanted to eat me, sister, it wouldn't matter. Eating me at least let me have a full meal."

Chen Huihong didn't know what to say, so she could only say: "Monsters don't eat people."

"Then what kind of monster are you, sister?" Hui Niang asked.

"I am 'Bai'," Chen Huihong said. "According to your understanding, I am a tree demon."

"Sister, can you open the window?" Hui Niang asked.

"Dr. Wang said you should pay attention to keeping warm," Chen Huihong said.

"It's useless," Hui Niang shook her head. "I heard it all. Dr. Wang said he only has three points of certainty at most. He said he only has three points, but actually only one point, meaning I have no salvation and can only wait for death."

Chen Huihong frowned and thought for a while: "I'll take you to the hospital."

"I can ask Shopkeeper Lu to borrow money."

Hui Niang shook her head.

"From the inner city to the outer city, it takes a long time to take a rickshaw," Hui Niang panted fiercely. "I don't know if the money left at home is enough to pay the medical expenses. There is no money for a rickshaw."

"Now the snow has melted, it's colder than the heavy snow two days ago. There must be many fallen people these days. I don't think I can necessarily live to the hospital, so don't waste money."

"I'm so uncomfortable."

As soon as the words fell, Hui Niang vomited a mouthful of blood, vomiting all over the quilt.

"Sorry, sister, I dirtied your quilt."

Chen Huihong didn't speak, just opened the window silently.

The snow

"Big Sister, you are a monster, so what is your ability? I watched plays in the village before, and monsters can all use magic."

"My ability is very useless." Chen Huihong took a piece of tree bark out of her pocket. "I am a tree; eating me can keep one from being hungry."

"Then you are very amazing, Big Sister, much more amazing than those who can use magic." Hui Niang said, unable to sit still, and could only lean against the wall. "You just have to be careful not to be eaten by people."

Only then did Hui Niang realize in hindsight: "No wonder you have to hide from people, Big Sister."

"Big Sister, let me tell you about myself."

Hui Niang began to ramble about her past; her life was actually very plain. Before fleeing the famine, she had stayed in the village, working day after day, waiting to be married, working, and waiting to be married.

As she spoke, Hui Niang's voice began to slur.

"Big Sister, you said that people always have to die; if not today, then tomorrow. I was supposed to die the day I met you, but I've lived for so much longer."

Chen Huihong watched her quietly without speaking.

"If there is a next life, I want to be a young lady in the city so that I can go to school and be cultured like you, Big Sister."

Like a delirious murmur, Hui Niang mumbled a few incoherent words and suddenly reached out toward Chen Huihong.

Chen Huihong stepped forward and took her hand.

"Mother." Hui Niang's pupils began to dilate.

"Don't eat me, okay?"

"I will be obedient."

"Mother."

Her hand dropped heavily.

Hui Niang had ceased to breathe.

Chen Huihong looked at Hui Niang and remained silent for a long time.

"You are very smart."

"But today is your coming-of-age ceremony."

"You haven't even eaten the longevity noodles I ordered for you yet."

Qin Huai left the dream.

(End of chapter)