Wu Huiniang learned for the first time that even the small, hard night-blooming cereus, which she remembered as being tough, could be so delicious. It just used a lot of oil and firewood.
After dinner, Cheng Loanloan brought up the washed wild fruits. These were the fruits Zhao Sidan had found during the day.
They were green and red, and she didn't know if they were wild plums or wild apples. They were sour and sweet, crispy and delicious.
The whole family ate their fill, their bellies round.
Zhao Sidan looked satisfied: "If only we could eat our fill like this every day."
Zhao Ergou calculated in his heart: this morning they bought twenty catties of rice and twenty catties of white flour. Based on three catties per meal, or six catties a day, it would only last six or seven days.
Zhao Sanniu asked directly: "What should we do after we finish all the food we exchanged for the silver hairpin?"
Zhao Dashan said: "The crops in the fields will be harvested in more than twenty days. We won't starve."
As soon as he said this, the room fell silent.
For more than a month, there had been no rain. The great river in Daha Village had dried up, not to mention the rice paddies. Without water, the crops in the fields simply couldn't bear grain.
Everyone in the village was waiting for a good harvest, but after today, the real nightmare might just begin.
Cheng Loanloan waved her hand: "When the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally straighten. This is not something you children should worry about. Go wash up and sleep."
The night was quiet.
The three boys fell asleep as soon as they climbed into bed.
Having slept in the same bed with her sons for many days, Cheng Loanloan was used to it. She gradually drifted into a sweet dream.
A piercing scream cut through the quiet night sky. She suddenly sat up from the bed, and the sound of wailing reached her ears.
Zhao Dashan stood at the door and said: "Mother, there are thieves in the village!"
Cheng Loanloan instinctively looked towards the food cabinet. She took out the key and opened the cabinet. The rice and flour were still there, and she felt relieved.
"All the food in Aunt Wang's house next door has been stolen," Zhao Dashan said. "Village Head Grandpa has sent people to chase the thieves. I don't know if they can catch them."
Cheng Loanloan got up, put on her shoes, and went out. More than half of the men in the village had gone to chase the thieves, while the women here were comforting Aunt Wang.
Aunt Wang sat on the ground, wiping her tears: "What sin has our Wang family committed? Why do they want to steal our family's food... May the thieves be punished by heaven, struck dead by a bolt of lightning..."
Cheng Loanloan and the Wang family lived at the end of the village, at the foot of the mountain. When thieves came, their two houses were the first to be robbed.
The Wang family had a different surname. They had fled during a famine two generations ago and settled in Zhao Family Village. Their house plots were then allocated around here.
The place where Cheng Loanloan lived used to belong to another family with a different surname from Daha Village. However, that person only had two daughters. After his two daughters married, he had no heirs. After his death, his house was not inherited.
The original owner successfully separated from the family and was assigned this place by the village head. Although the house was dilapidated, it was still better than having no house.
Aunt Wang hugged her thighs and wailed: "There's no hope for the crops in the fields, and the food in the house has been stolen clean. How will we live on in the future... A family of six, let's just die together..."
"Fifty to sixty catties of food, saved by eating sparingly, were stolen clean like this... And the two large baskets of chestnuts we picked yesterday were also stolen..."
The women watching couldn't help but cluck their tongues, not having expected that the Wang family still had fifty to sixty catties of food stored. If they ate one meal a day sparingly, a family of six could eat for one or two months...
The village chief sighed and said, "There are still more than twenty days until the rice harvest. Everyone, lend a little to each other, and let's try to get through this difficult period!"