Chapter 32 – Cannon Fodder Old Woman Fleeing Famine (Part 2)

Early the next morning, Wang Daya had already woken up. Judging by the sky outside, it was roughly Mao hour—just after 5 AM in modern time. The sky was only faintly lit.

She could already hear people moving about outside. Based on the original host's memories, it should be her daughter-in-law starting on the morning chores.

To be fair, as the head of the household, she didn't need to toil anymore. She only had to assign tasks to her sons and daughters-in-law. Her main job was to look after her grandchildren.

As soon as Wang Daya stepped outside, she saw her second daughter-in-law, Zhang Zhaodi, standing there like an aggrieved little wife—silent and expressionless—waiting for the grain to cook breakfast.

Oh right, she had forgotten about that. So, she went back inside, took the key hanging around her neck, opened the wooden chest in the room like the original host used to, and scooped out two handfuls of coarse rice and three eggs.

The original host had treated all three grandchildren equally, with no preference for boys over girls—a rarity in the entire village.

However, Zhang Zhaodi did not share that fairness. She resented her daughter Lin Chunya for not being the son she had hoped for. Though she wasn't outright abusive, she never showed a pleasant face.

The original host had tried correcting her behavior several times, but Zhang Zhaodi always pretended to comply while continuing as before. In the end, she gave up. As for Wang Daya now—she didn't plan to intervene too much either, since her mission didn't concern that granddaughter.

Once she was up, the rest of the family got up one after another. Her eldest grandson took the younger children out to collect firewood—poor kids always grow up fast.

Wang Daya didn't intend to stop them from working hard. After all, they'd soon be fleeing famine—no one, not even an old woman like herself, had the luxury to be pampered.

Her eldest daughter-in-law, Zhao Xiaohua, greeted her sweetly upon seeing her—which explained why the original host had favored her a little more.

It wasn't that being quiet and hard-working like Zhang Zhaodi was bad, but she treated her nephews better than her own daughter, which was something the sharp-eyed Wang Daya looked down upon.

When breakfast time came, Zhang Zhaodi cooked a meal for the whole family: a pot of thin porridge, a dish of pickled vegetables, and stir-fried cabbage with plain water.

As per custom, Wang Daya divided the food: one bowl of porridge for each adult, half a bowl and one egg for each child. The men's porridge was a bit thicker.

Eggs were a luxury in the Lin family—only on the first of each month would they eat them like this. Today happened to be the first day of the month. The rest of the eggs were usually sold for money.

But now, Wang Daya had no intention of selling the remaining eggs. Since it was a busy farming season, she decided it was more important to nourish the family so they could walk farther on their journey when it was time to flee.

After breakfast, the adults headed to the fields—it was peak agricultural season. But the drought meant the fields were dry, and every household was scrambling to get water for irrigation. The harvest was supposed to be in just over a month, but this year was bound to be a disappointment, as the barbarians would invade in just seven days.

Wang Daya didn't plan to organize the whole family to work today because she needed to use the family's money to stock up on supplies appropriate for the current era.

If she took others with her, wouldn't that expose her secret space?

So, after breakfast, she sent her eldest grandson and the two younger kids to forage wild vegetables, while she set off alone to bring her youngest son home from town.

She felt at ease leaving the kids in her eldest grandson's care. The boy might not be good at studying, but when it came to chores, he was reliable—just like his father.

In total, the family only had a little over five taels of silver. That wasn't much, considering they had to feed the whole household and pay for the youngest son's tuition at the academy. Although the boy copied books to help earn extra, money was still tight.

As for why the original host had wanted to spend five taels to buy Qian Lan's farmland—it was all because she thought more land meant more income.

Forgive her ignorance—she had never gone to school. In her mind, farming was the only way to make money.

Linjia Village was about an hour's walk from town, so Wang Daya didn't dare delay. She hurried along, barely greeting other villagers she passed.

That was just how it was. As a widow, the original host had fought tooth and nail to raise her children, earning a reputation as someone no other village woman could match. As a result, she had few friends.

Her biological family had long since cut ties with her. She was married off to Old Man Lin in exchange for ten catties of coarse rice. After marrying, she never returned home.

Old Man Lin—real name Lin Shan—was an only son. His parents had died when he was fifteen.

No one had wanted to marry him, believing him to be a bringer of bad luck, especially after the great famine thirty years ago, when the Wang family essentially sold Wang Daya to Lin Shan. Only then did he finally get a wife.

Sadly, he died young, leaving behind a widow and children. If Wang Daya hadn't been strong-willed and capable, this family would have fallen apart long ago.

An hour later, Wang Daya arrived in town, ending her reminiscing about her late husband. Due to the lack of rain this year, the streets were filled with hurried and anxious pedestrians, all with worried expressions on their faces.