Chapter 9 Chestnut Picking_1

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"The harvest season is upon us," said Shen Dashan, although his voice lacked conviction. After all, who could tell if it would rain in the next month? If it didn't, I'm afraid all the crops in the fields would wither from drought."

"So tell me, if it really doesn't rain and we can't harvest any grain, and the price of grain goes up, what will our whole family eat?"

Shen Dashan was left speechless, cornered by the question. How could he know whether the heavens would bring forth rain? But if it truly didn't rain, the price of grain after the harvest might be more than what their family, who toiled in the fields for a living, could afford.

"If you ask me, we should do as the girl Lin suggested and buy some grain to store for now. Even if it does rain later, at worst we'll lose some silver coin, but if it doesn't, at least our whole family won't starve to death."

After thinking it over, Shen Dashan nodded, "Tomorrow I'll discuss it with a few of the clan elders in the village. Alright, it's time to wash up and go to bed."

Just as he was about to lie down, Qin Niang pulled him back up. "Lin girl also mentioned two other things."

Seeing his spouse's secretive behavior, for a moment, Shen Dashan was at a loss for words.

"Lin girl discovered a chestnut forest on East Mountain."

At these words, Shen Dashan sprang up, his tone incredulous, "Lin girl found a chestnut forest on East Mountain?"

"Yes, and she said there might be something like underground water on East Mountain." Qin Niang didn't understand what underground water was, but it sounded like a good thing as it was water, after all.

"No, I must talk to the clan elders about this right now."

No sooner had Shen Dashan said this than he tried to get out of bed and put on his shoes to run outside, only to be held back by Qin Niang grabbing his sleeve.

"What are you rushing for? I haven't finished speaking yet."

Qin Niang gave Shen Dashan an annoyed look, waiting for him to calm down before continuing, "Lin girl suggested that we shouldn't tell the villagers just yet. We can talk about it in a couple of days."

"Yes, yes, yes, it's just her and her son at her home. Since Lin girl discovered it, we should definitely let her store some in her house first."

Shen Dashan completely calmed down, and the couple started discussing the matter of buying grains.

"I'll have Qingchuan inquire in town tomorrow and discuss it with the clan elders," said Shen Dashan.

Shen Dashan had two sons, the elder named Shen Qingchuan and the younger Shen Qinghe.

Nanzhi, of course, had no idea of the circumstances at Li Zheng's home.

She was busy in the kitchen making soup.

She still had some grass mushrooms at home, perfect to stew with the pork bones.

She also checked the parcel wrapped in oilpaper from Steward Wang, inside of which were two flatbreads that were already cold, yet still made her and her son drool.

If she had known they were flatbreads, she and Gougou wouldn't have gone hungry on the road.

She didn't know how much longer the soup would take to cook, so after eating the flatbreads, Nanzhi coaxed Gougou to nap for a bit, planning to wake him when the soup was ready.

Seeing Gougou drowsy and dozing, Nanzhi's heart softened a bit more.

She wanted to raise Gougou plump and healthy.

In the past, she often wished she could skip having a husband and go straight to having a lovely baby; now, she indeed had her own baby, albeit under somewhat subpar conditions.

After kissing Gougou's forehead, Nanzhi returned to the kitchen to check on the fire.

Tomorrow, she planned to take Auntie Liu to East Mountain to pick chestnuts, and she knew she had to pick plenty to keep at home.

The bone soup was ready by nearly midnight. After calling Gougou to drink a bowl each, Nanzhi sealed the pot tightly and added a few more sticks of firewood to the small stove before washing up and going to bed.

The original owner of the body had an internal clock that woke her up at five in the morning. Looking at the dim morning light, Nanzhi didn't feel sleepy at all.

After washing her face and rinsing her mouth, she dug out a small half-bowl of black flour from the cloth bag and went to the kitchen to mix it with some still-warm bone soup to cook a pot of Spiky Ball soup.

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Watching Gougou savor the food, Nanzhi smacked her lips, wondering if the dough soup really tasted that good.

How come it looked like what Gougou was eating was different from what she had?

Although she had eaten coarse flour in modern times, there was some difference between that and the black flour of these times. In modern times, the coarseness was just due to sieving it fewer times, but it still tasted fragrant, whereas the coarse flour of ancient times had a somewhat coarser sound to it. Even though Nanzhi had made it into dough soup, it could only be considered barely edible.

You could only say that severe hunger made anything taste delicious.

After having breakfast, Nanzhi cooked two sweet potatoes and two potatoes, then locked up and took Gougou to Auntie Liu's house.

At home, everyone had to keep the fact that there was grain a secret. Although there were few families in the village poorer than their own, not many families were willing to spend money buying grain now.

If other families were gnawing on sweet potatoes and potatoes and her family brought out black flour buns, it would certainly attract some people's covetous thoughts.

It wasn't that Nanzhi had a dark mindset, thinking badly of others; the current times forced her to be more cautious. After all, she and Gougou, a small child, were the only ones at home.

Auntie Liu had gotten up equally early. In fact, she had not slept at all last night, unable to doze off from the excitement of having new grain at home.

This startled Nanzhi and Gougou when they saw her.

Auntie Liu's eyes were rimmed with deep dark circles, and bloodshot, looking as though she hadn't slept for days.

"Oh, is it Nanzhi girl?" Auntie Liu's spirits lifted when she saw Nanzhi, welcoming them into the yard before she quickly went to wash her face.

The Shen family were all having breakfast, each with a boiled sweet potato and a half bowl of mushy potato soup.

Shen Dazhu, seeing Nanzhi and Gougou, also invited them to sit down and eat together.

"No thank you, Uncle Shen, we've eaten at home," Nanzhi declined with a smile.

Who has it easy these days?

She couldn't possibly take advantage of someone else's household.

Auntie Liu, on the other hand, quickly got herself together, pocketed two boiled potatoes, and followed Nanzhi with her basket on her back towards East Mountain.

It was still early, and most of the villagers had just gotten up, which suited Nanzhi and the other two as they headed into the mountains without fear of encountering anyone.

"Auntie, there's something I need to tell you," Nanzhi said as she led the way, cutting through the brush as she went.

"You tell me, I'm listening," Auntie Liu responded.

"I've spoken to Uncle Li Zheng about the chestnut trees. He will inform the villagers in a few days. Considering we have plenty of chestnut trees and everyone in the village is having a tough time, I thought we couldn't consume that much by ourselves. It's better to tell the villagers so no one goes hungry."

"Alright, we'll collect more in the next few days," Auntie Liu wasn't fussed, knowing that the chestnut forest was vast, as Nanzhi had said. Even if the entire village knew, with her big family, they would still be able to gather plenty.

Gougou had been silent all the way, just lugging his little basket and trudging along behind them.

He was still savoring last night's pancake and this morning's dough soup; it had been a long time since he had anything that tasted so good.

Even with mental preparation, Auntie Liu was shocked when they arrived at the Chestnut Forest.

There was an expanse of chestnut trees as far as the eye could see, and the ground was littered with Spiky Balls.

The sight was vastly different from that on West Mountain.

Nanzhi showed Auntie Liu how to step on the chestnuts to collect them, and the three started to work, each with their head down.

Nanzhi planned to gather more chestnuts to sell in town over the next few days, wanting to buy more grain before prices soared beyond what she could afford.

Since her family didn't own land, the incoming fall harvest was only relevant to her as far as grain prices were concerned. Having grain at hand calmed her mind; she preferred to stock up on enough food now, even if there was a chance grain prices might drop later.