This courtyard had only three rooms: one for the eldest son and his wife, another for Cheng Loanloan and her three young sons, and a main hall that doubled as a dining area. Beside it stood a dilapidated straw hut, barely passable as a kitchen.
Wu Huiniang bent down and gathered a handful of wild vegetables from the ground. The harvest had been poor, yielding nothing from the fields. Every day, the family ate wild vegetables, which were chopped, mixed with a little buckwheat flour, and cooked into a porridge. This meager dish was meant to sustain the entire family for the day.
On the stove sat a damaged pot, a large piece broken off. One had to tilt it while cooking to prevent the contents from spilling.
Soon after, a large bowl of wild vegetable porridge was placed on the wooden table.
The porridge was black, with dark green wild vegetables mixed throughout the bowl, making it look utterly unappetizing.
Cheng Loanloan was truly ravenous; otherwise, she wouldn't have even spared it a glance.
She took a mouthful.
It tasted incredibly bitter and was completely unsalted. What's more, the porridge, made from some unknown ground powder, seemed to contain husks, catching in her throat and making it impossible to swallow.
But as soon as she looked up, she saw her eldest son and daughter-in-law in front of her, staring intently at the food in her hand, swallowing hard.
The very thing she found so hard to swallow was the primary sustenance for the lowest rung of society in this era...
She placed the bowl on the table.
This action made Wu Huiniang flinch. Her mother-in-law's silent demeanor was truly terrifying... Her knees went weak, and she nearly collapsed to the ground.
Cheng Loanloan tugged at the corners of her lips.
She hadn't done anything, yet her daughter-in-law was already so terrified. Just how many wicked things had the original owner of this body done in this household?
She stood up and said in an indifferent voice, "I'm not eating. You all go ahead."
She rose and walked out of the house.
Wu Huiniang was utterly panicked. "Dashan, Mother, Mother is..."
"Mother told us to eat, so let's eat."
Zhao Dashan brought the porridge over and divided it into five small bowls. He and his wife each took one, leaving the rest for his three younger brothers.
Cheng Loanloan walked out of the courtyard and stood at the doorway, where she could take in the entire landscape of Daha Village. To the east stretched a mountain range, and to the west, dozens of valleys crisscrossed. At the foot of the mountains, a winding river once flowed, but due to the severe drought, its waters had long since dried up, revealing a cracked, parched riverbed that was a horrifying sight.
Last year, Daha Village had suffered a locust plague, and this year, it was hit by a drought. Many households in the village were gradually running out of food, and everyone was at their wits' end.
If it didn't rain within another month, this year would again be a year without harvest, and the villagers here would likely truly become displaced refugees...
Cheng Loanloan sighed.
What sin had she committed in her previous life? Not only had she been promoted to mother-in-law and grandmother overnight, but she had also transmigrated into a year of famine, with natural disasters striking one after another...
However, if she could rise from an orphan girl to a successful entrepreneur in her previous life, then now, even in this year of famine, she could surely settle down and thrive.
She took a deep breath, slowly accepting this harsh reality.
Cheng Loanloan stopped overthinking. After adjusting her mindset, she prepared to familiarize herself with her surroundings first.
She set off towards the rice fields.
The rice plants had already turned yellow, their long, slender leaves dry and curled. The rice ears bore only sparse grains, most of which were empty husks.
With insufficient moisture, the rice ears couldn't grow properly, and the grains had no chance of plumping up.
Cheng Loanloan didn't understand much about these things and was about to turn and leave.
A robotic voice suddenly rang out in his head—
【Ding! Natural, unpolluted bitter lettuce detected!】