“Laoshan, what do you make of it?” Wu Xiang still felt something was off.
“Who knows? At least we know they’re getting by—that should put your mind at ease.” Lin Deshan figured the goods probably came from the black market.
But with Third Brother laid up in bed, who went to the black market? It couldn’t be Xiaohe, could it? Third Brother must have some nerve, sending a kid that young to the black market.
Ah, times were tough nowadays.
If it weren’t for this drought, things wouldn’t have come to this.
“Let’s sleep, let’s sleep. We’ll turn in early too—sleeping keeps the hunger at bay.”
In these times, no family in the village dared to eat their fill. Every meal was just enough to take the edge off.
This wasn’t even the hardest stretch yet—at least they’d gotten a little grain from the autumn harvest.
When that little bit ran out, that’s when things would get truly dire.
No household dared to stuff their emergency rations into their bellies—they had to stretch them and save them for as long as possible.
…
Early morning, the sky still gray and not yet bright.
Lin Xiaohe was already up. She took out the sweet potatoes they’d picked yesterday, broke off the sprouts, and gave them a quick rinse.
She lit the fire with a flint and started boiling them.
In about two days, they’d eaten nearly a jin of rice. There were still 39 jin left in the house.
Lin Xiaohe split the rice into two portions. She hid one part in the wall beside the bed—she’d discovered it last night while sleeping. One brick there was loose and could be pulled out, revealing a decent-sized space inside. Perfect for stashing things.
The other portion she hid in the cellar.
There were still some potatoes they’d gathered. Before heading out, she put them on to boil—they’d be today’s meal.
“Sis, what are you doing?” Xiaogu appeared behind her, rubbing her eyes. “Let’s hurry and dig for wild greens. The sooner we get them to the market and turn them into money, the sooner we can rest easy.”
“Hang on, I boiled two sweet potatoes. Let’s eat our fill first, then go.”
The family had some surplus food now, and Lin Xiaohe felt they should all eat until they were full.
They split the two big sweet potatoes between them, and boiled some potatoes too—they’d be done by the time they got back, for their parents and Xiaoman.
One big sweet potato left Xiaogu letting out a satisfied belch.
Her eyes curved into happy little crescents. If only they could eat their fill every meal!
“Sis, the sweet potatoes over there taste completely different from ours. Ours are so dry they choke you, but those over there are so sweet!”
Lin Xiaohe nodded. “Yeah, ours are white inside. Those are pumpkin-colored—they’re bound to be sweet.”
After eating their fill and tidying up the house, making sure nothing suspicious was left out in plain sight, they locked the door from the inside and headed over to dig for wild greens.
The sky was still a bit gray. Lin Xiaohe rolled up her sleeves. “Let’s go wash the clothes at the little pool first, then walk a bit further past it and see if we can find some shepherd’s purse.
Shepherd’s purse sells—we can take it over and turn it into cash. Let’s look for it first. If we can’t find any, we’ll dig up something else.”
They didn’t have soap or soapberries for washing, so they used plant ash instead. A good scrub with that and the clothes came out quite clean.
They hung the clothes back at home first, then came back out to dig for greens.
Shepherd’s purse was supposed to be pretty common, so it was strange they hadn’t seen any. Probably because they’d been sticking to the same area the past few days and hadn’t gone further ahead.
The two sisters held hands and walked along the pool, heading onward.
Up ahead, there were fewer trees—and a sea of green everywhere!
“Sis! I see shepherd’s purse, I see it!” Xiaogu was hopping with joy like a little monkey, running over with wild excitement.
When they got over there, they couldn’t believe their eyes—how could shepherd’s purse grow this big?
In their memory, shepherd’s purse leaves were only about as long as a finger.
These leaves were half an arm’s length—three or four of them would be enough for a whole dish.
“Sis, is this really shepherd’s purse?” They’d been digging wild greens since they were little—they’d seen plenty of shepherd’s purse, but never anything like this. Lin Xiaohe wasn’t sure she could even recognize it.
“I think it is,” Xiaogu said, reaching down and pulling one up. She broke off a leaf and smelled it. “It smells like shepherd’s purse.”
“But we can’t take this over there to sell, can we? These are way too big. Let’s look for some more normal-sized ones. Remember how purslane came in both slightly larger and extra-large sizes? This must be the same.
We can take these home for ourselves—the wild greens over here taste way better than the ones back home anyway.”
When it came to selling greens, they only dared to pick the ordinary-sized ones, afraid of raising any red flags.
“Okay!” The two of them pulled up a few of the big ones, filling one basket, then moved on to find normal-sized shepherd’s purse.
And they did find some—not far away.
These looked much more normal. Back when Lin Xiaohe used to dig for greens, if she was lucky, she’d occasionally find some this plump and tender.
Only here, this was the standard size.
After filling a whole basket and a sack, they called it quits.
They went back to the little pool and gave everything a quick tidy-up. You couldn’t wash wild greens before selling them—they’d spoil. So they just brushed off the dirt from the roots and picked off the old, tough leaves.
They arranged them neatly in piles.
“I’ll go grab some grass by the pool to tie them into bundles. That’s the easiest way to sell—we don’t have bags or a scale anyway.”
Each bundle weighed at least one jin—always a little more, never less.
They’d sell each bundle as one jin.
By the time they were done tidying up, the sun had come out.
Lin Xiaohe said, “I wonder if we’re still in time. Let’s hurry.”
Back home, they placed the boiled potatoes from the pot on the bed—whoever woke up could eat them—and the two of them rushed off to sell the greens.
They walked along the market and stopped at a familiar spot.
Lin Xiaohe stood by the shop entrance, carrying her basket on her back, and told her sister to go call out to the shopkeeper.
“It’s you two!” Cheng Chunyun beamed. “Got some shepherd’s purse today?”
“Yeah, we went out specially to dig some today. Auntie, would you like to take a look?” Lin Xiaohe unbuckled her basket so the woman could see what was inside.
“Yes, yes, I’ll take it. Wait here—I’ll go get the money.”
Cheng Chunyun came back cheerfully with 50 yuan. “Here you go.”
Lin Xiaohe pursed her lips. “Auntie, could I have smaller bills instead?”
They still needed to set up a stall later, and if they couldn’t make change, that’d be a real headache.
“Sure thing, I’ll go get some.”
Cheng Chunyun came back with two 5-yuan bills, two 10-yuan bills, and ten 1-yuan bills—a nice thick stack.
“Thank you, Auntie!” Lin Xiaohe quickly thanked her, then took five bundles of greens out of her basket. “Auntie, each bundle is one jin—here are 5 jin.”
“Great. If they taste good, I’ll have you bring me more next time.”
Cheng Chunyun carried the greens home, not even bothering with her shop since there was barely any business anyway. She just pulled down the rolling shutter and went to buy meat—the morning meat was always the freshest.
Once she got back, there was still the shepherd’s purse to wash—and that was a real chore. Plus mincing the meat filling and wrapping dumplings—she probably wouldn’t get it all done before noon.
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