Chapter 2: Lin Family Village

  San Pia said: "This white flour was sent by Er Gouzi's mother yesterday. She said that you have come, and you should take good care of yourself and supplement your body well. She left a white-flour steamed bun for you to eat."

  Oh, so that's how it is. Lin He said that even such a poor family can still have white mantou for every meal.

  San Ya pushed the porridge and steamed buns towards Lin He and said, "Sister, hurry up and eat, it's cold outside, if you don't eat quickly, it won't taste good when it gets cold."

  Lin He touched her head and was about to stuff the bun into her mouth when she saw San Ya staring at the bun with eager eyes. Lin He broke the bun in half and handed it to her, saying "Eat."

  San Ya shook her head and refused to accept it, saying: "This is what Mother said yesterday that Second Sister bumped her head, she left some food for you to eat. I had a bowl of millet porridge this morning and I'm already full."

  Lin He smiled wryly, such a small child already understands so many things, it's really the environment that forces people to be like this. She stuffed half a bun into San Ya and said, "Sister is full after eating half a bun and drinking a bowl of porridge, I can't finish this half, you help me eat it."

  After all, being a kid, he couldn't resist the temptation of this white steamed bun, took it over, stuffed three or two mouthfuls into his mouth, and even made a satisfying sound, "It's really delicious, haven't had one for a long time".

  Lin He felt a pang in her nose as she thought about how many people had wasted so much food for various reasons in their past lives, and now this little kid was so happy over just one plain bun. It really tugged at her heartstrings.

  But Lin He couldn't think that much anymore, and she quickly stuffed the steamed bun into her mouth, took a sip of coarse rice porridge, almost vomiting out the bitter and astringent taste, the rice was very hard to swallow, swallowing it made her throat hurt. However, Lin He knew she had to face this reality, and get used to this kind of life.

  After breakfast, Lin He and San Ya decided to go find their brother.

  Lin He led San Ya's hand and slowly walked out. When they reached the gate, San Ya turned around and closed the dilapidated door. Lin He thought it was also funny that in such a poor and white family, what could be stolen? But she also sighed that at this time, children were really sensible, and at a young age, they already knew how to do many things.

  Because Lin He was used to modern life and had seen many modern children's privileged lives, in ancient times, four or five-year-old children were like this, except for not being able to farm, they could undertake most tasks, such as taking care of younger siblings, doing household chores, etc., poor people's children had to grow up early.

  Lin He and San Ya walked slowly forward, Lin He took a look at this place, the village was very large, the distance between houses was very scattered, each household occupied a large area, each house had a small courtyard in front and back, the courtyard had a big gate, only after entering was it a small courtyard, and then inside was the house. If rich people's homes had pigpens or chicken coops, they could be raised in the small courtyards behind the houses.

  In ancient times, this was a good thing, as there was plenty of land available, and the area of a house could be built into a large villa in modern times.

  Just then, someone in front of her was calling "Er Ya Er Ya". Lin He raised his head and saw that it was a middle-aged woman who was calling her. She didn't know who she was. The middle-aged woman was slightly plump and looked very kind, with a smile on her face all the time, and she was holding a handful of what looked like wild vegetables in her hand.

  Lin He asked: "Are you?"

  The middle-aged woman put away her smile and had a puzzled expression.

  "San Ma immediately said: 'This is Er Gouzi's mother, sister, you don't remember either, we all call her Auntie Xu, Auntie Xu is really good.'"

  Then turned to Aunt Xue and said: "Aunt Xue, my sister hit her head and can't remember some things. It's okay."

  Auntie Xu finally put her mind at ease and said: "It's all because of that second son of mine. Last night his father gave him a good scolding, fortunately nothing serious happened, or else it would have been disastrous."

  Lin He smiled and said: "Auntie Xu, it's okay, Er Gouzi didn't mean to, I'm fine now, see?" Lin He instinctively felt that Auntie Xu was a kind person and must be familiar with her family, so she also politely said a couple of words.

  "Auntie Xu said: 'Hmmm, Second Sister, I don't know if it will leave a scar or not. The doctor said that fortunately the wound is not deep, so it shouldn't leave a scar. If there's a small scar later on, we can just buy some ointment to apply and it should be fine.'"

  Lin He smiled and then walked forward with Er Ya and Xu Shu, Xu Shu seemed to say that she wanted to go ahead and pull some pig grass to feed the pigs. Along the way, Xu Shu chatted with Lin He about village affairs.

  Originally, this village was called Linjia Village. Most of the villagers were surnamed Lin, but there were also some outsiders who weren't surnamed Lin, like Xu Aunt's family just now. The village is quite large, with over 200 households, but it has been divided into Upper and Lower Linjia Villages, which are essentially two parts of one village. Lin He's side belongs to Lower Linjia Village, with over a hundred households. The people in this village aren't wealthy; the vast majority rely on farming to make a living.

  Many people in the village do not have their own fields and are tenant farmers on land rented from a landlord surnamed Xia. The Xia family has over 1,000 mu of good land, all of which is rented to villagers for farming. Every year, after paying rent, the villagers' harvests are barely enough to feed their families, so they remain poor. However, Lin He's family is an extremely impoverished household because they have many children and few laborers, resulting in insufficient food and inevitable poverty.

  Lin He and Xu Shu found out that this dynasty was called Yun Chao, which didn't belong to any era in history, it was a dynasty that had been erased from history. The crops here also didn't belong to any place in the previous life, there were both southern and northern crops, mainly wheat, corn, and millet, but also rice, although very few people planted it because of low yields and expensive seeds, like them, poor people who had never seen it before, but had heard of it.

  Roughly understanding the situation, Auntie Xu went to another small path to pull pig grass, San Ya and Lin He continued walking forward. After a few minutes, a child in front of a tree shouted: "Second sister, third sister, I'm here!"

  Lin He looked ahead and saw a child about three years old wearing a short jacket with two patches on it. The child was very thin, but compared to San Ya and herself, he was much better off. His face color was still normal, probably because he was the youngest son in the family and a boy, so he was somewhat pampered.

  San Ya called out, "Xiao Bao, come home!" Xiao Bao listened and walked over, holding San Ya's hand. He looked at Lin He, who smiled at him and said, "Xiao Bao, come to sister for a hug."

  "No, sister is hurt, Xiaobao has grown up and can walk by herself now," she said in a milky voice, deliberately running two steps ahead.

  Lin He watched him run unsteadily and was afraid he would fall, saying "Second sister knows you've grown up, come over here".

  Xiao Bao walked over and held Lin He's hand as they headed back home. Once they arrived, Lin He found a small stool to sit on in the courtyard, watching Xiao Bao and San Ya running around and playing happily.

  Lin He thought to herself: "Our family is so poor, what can we do? How are we going to get by? There are only two people in the household who can work, but there's a big group of mouths to feed, and they're all young children who are still growing. We can't keep going on like this, something has to be done. But then she snapped out of it and thought to herself: "I've really been living in that stressful world for too long, as soon as I got here I started thinking about livelihood problems again." And besides, this body is still so small, what can it even do? Let's take things slow for now.

  Lin He looked at the yard where several trees were planted, but she didn't know what kind of trees they were. The leaves had fallen all over the yard, so she asked San Ya to bring a broom made of woven reeds and slowly started sweeping. Although there wasn't much in the house, cleaning up a bit would make it feel more comfortable. First, she swept the two rooms, wiped down the few pieces of furniture with a rag, swept the floor, then cleaned the kitchen, and finally thoroughly swept the yard again.