Ping'an Town had a thousand jin of grain stolen. Food was already scarce, but now it became even more precious. Today it was fifteen wen, tomorrow it would probably be twenty wen.
Fortunately, she had the Trade City, so she wasn't afraid of rising prices.
But others in this era would probably suffer greatly.
Cheng Luanluan cast aside her complicated feelings and sat in the ox cart with Zhao Dashan.
Zhao Da looked into her basket and casually asked, "Zhao Dasao, did you buy an iron pot? This pot looks very good. Is Blacksmith Zhou's craftsmanship that good now?"
Cheng Luanluan said, "It's not Blacksmith Zhou's."
As for where exactly she bought it, she didn't intend to say another word.
Zhao Da secretly thought, this isn't important. It's good to be able to buy food, but this spendthrift woman actually spent money on a pot.
After a trip to the town, everyone in the ox cart was in a bad mood, chatting idly along the way.
"Corn is five wen per jin. I didn't have enough money, so I bought some buckwheat flour."
"There's only three days' worth of food left at home, and all of it relies on homegrown crops. If it still doesn't rain, our whole family will only be able to eat tree bark every day."
"Last year's locust plague was thanks to the imperial court's relief grain. If this year's harvest fails, the imperial court surely won't ignore it."
"Our area is dry, but I heard that in Ancheng, it rains every day. All the crops are waterlogged. With so many people, will the imperial court's grain be enough?"
"..."
The more they talked, the heavier the atmosphere became.
Suddenly, something flew onto Cheng Luanluan's head. Startled, she didn't dare to move. "Dashan, quickly help me get it off."
She had lived for thirty years, fearing neither heaven nor earth, but what she feared most were all kinds of worms and spiders.
Zhao Dashan quickly caught the insect on her head. After taking it down, his face instantly fell. "Da Shu, quickly take a look, is this a locust?"
A yellow insect with long wings—what else could it be if not a locust?
The women in the ox cart let out cries of fright.
"Didn't the locusts fly away last year? Why are they here again now?"
"Don't scare yourselves. It's just one locust. Just crush it."
Fu Gui Shen stepped forward and squeezed the locust. Instantly, the locust squirted liquid. She threw the locust onto the cart floor and stomped on it fiercely twice. Only then did she feel her anger subside.
The proverb says, "Where locusts pass, not a blade of grass remains."
Compared to drought, a locust plague made the villagers feel even more terrified.
A drought could still wait for rain, but if locusts arrived, in less than a day, the entire crop field would be eaten clean.
It was the same last year. Dahe Village had a failed harvest and had to rely on imperial court relief and spring and autumn planting to survive until now.
No one wanted to experience that again.
Upon reaching the village entrance, Cheng Luanluan and Zhao Dashan got off the cart. Inside the house, only Wu Huiniang was sewing clothes.
Cheng Luanluan walked in. "Huiniang, go close the door."
The incident with Elder Wang in town had sobered her up. She absolutely could not reveal that she had grain, otherwise, others would covet it. That was also why she bought a pot in town; the iron pot covered the basket, so no one could see what she had inside.
Even Zhao Dashan didn't know exactly what his mother had bought.
First, she took out the iron pot, then she took out the other items.
Twenty catties of rice, twenty catties of flour, and two catties of pork belly she had taken the opportunity to buy at the Marketplace, a large bag of salt, and various spices, all overflowing the tabletop… Currently, she didn't have a single coin on her. In the afternoon, she would have to go up the mountain to pick mushrooms to earn some copper coins.
Cheng Luan Luan handed the pork belly to Wu Hui Niang: "Today for lunch, we're eating braised pork."
Wu Hui Niang paused for a moment: "Mother, what is braised pork?"