Chapter 3

Jiang Wan saw her mother at a loss and turned to glare fiercely at the Cai family, then called out loudly into the house.

“Village Chief, please come out and uphold justice! My mother and I are really being bullied here!”

As she spoke, she pinched herself hard, causing tears to well up in her eyes, making her look quite pitiful.

“Hmph!”

With a cold snort, the old village chief, holding his smoking pipe, stepped out from the main house, causing the Cai family to turn pale with fear.

Did they just say something they shouldn’t have?

“In this poor mountain village, it’s really a disgrace for you Cai family to be here!”

The old village chief, with his hands behind his back, glanced at the pitiful mother and daughter, then looked over the entire Cai family, wishing he could expel them from the village right then and there.

“It seems you didn’t take to heart what I said all along. You must not even want those three rooms. Since that’s the case, I’ll take those three rooms back. You’ll have to figure out where to live.”

“Please don’t, Village Chief! We understand our mistake!”

“The three rooms are quite nice; we’re very satisfied with them!”

The Cai family panicked. If those three rooms were taken back, where would they live? They would become the laughingstock of the village just after arriving!

“Village Chief, we truly know our mistake!”

“Quickly go back and collect your belongings; if you wait any longer, I’ll take those too!”

Upon hearing this, the Cai family, who had initially planned to plead for mercy, dared not say another word. They glared viciously at the mother and daughter before hastily leaving.

This enmity was firmly established.

The old village chief saw them leave and prepared to go as well, but he noticed the sickly little girl tugging at his clothes, looking like she had something to say.

“What? Do you have something else?”

“Village Chief, thank you for helping my mother and me drive away the bad people.”

Jiang Wan was now so thin she looked almost emaciated and couldn’t put on a cute act, but her large, sparkling eyes evoked a lot of sympathy.

The old village chief already liked children, especially this well-behaved and articulate girl. His expression softened significantly, and his voice became gentler.

“There’s no need to thank me. We can’t have bad people in our village. If they come back to bully you, remember to find me. I live behind the big banyan tree in the village. Just ask around when you enter the village, and you’ll know where to find me.”

Jiang Wan nodded obediently and tentatively asked, “Village Chief, the few rooms my mother and I got are a bit too big. Can we swap them for rooms with Uncle Zhou’s family?”

The old village chief’s beard trembled as he nodded, saying, “Of course, you can swap. I said you were lucky from the start; did you think it was just for those rooms?”

His notion of luck was that this girl could trade those big rooms for the stone house. Every fisherman knew how good the stone house was; if it weren’t too small, many people would want to buy it.

Jiang Wan understood now, her eyes shining as she sent the old village chief off.

“Mother, let’s go find Uncle Zhou’s family to swap houses!”

Yin Huaixi hadn’t seen Zhou’s house yet, but since her daughter liked it, they would go ahead and swap.

When the mother and daughter found the Zhou family, they were frowning as they cleaned up the ground outside the stone house since this was their bed and it needed to be tidy.

“Uncle Zhou~”

Jiang Wan called out first, and everyone from the Zhou family turned to look. They all recognized Jiang Wan, having lived in the same alley back in the capital. Although they weren’t particularly close, there was some neighborly affection. Later, during their exile, they helped each other, and their relationship grew stronger.

“Xiao Wan, Huaixi, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?”

At this time, everyone should have been busy tidying up their new house, so Zhou’s wife, Lin Wanrong, looked a bit puzzled.

Jiang Wan nudged her mother, and Yin Huaixi finally pulled her burning gaze away. As soon as she arrived, she had seen that little stone house and felt incredibly pleased. Although it appeared to be just over ten square meters with nothing in it, it was definitely enough for her and her daughter. Plus, this stone house was close to her brother’s home and could withstand the wind and rain. Having grown up by the sea, she naturally understood the benefits of such a house.

“Brother Zhou, Sister Lin, we came to ask if you want to swap houses with us.”

The mention of swapping houses felt like a heavy hammer striking the hearts of the Zhou family, making all their eyes light up.

Lin Wanrong was so overjoyed that she nearly cried; she had seen that Huaixi and her daughter had five big rooms, which would be more than enough for her family.

This anxious housing problem would be resolved immediately!

“Sister Huaixi… are you really serious about swapping with my family? You can see that this little stone house is completely bare, with nothing in it.”

Yin Huaixi nodded, her expression earnest. “Sister Lin, don’t worry; I genuinely want to swap for this house. It’s wasteful for my daughter and me to live in five rooms, and the stone house is closer to my brother’s place. I already thought this through before coming to you; Jiang Wan even asked the village chief, and he said we could swap.”

Hearing that the village chief had agreed put the Zhou family’s minds at ease. The heavy burden on their shoulders suddenly felt much lighter. After all, what do people need in life? Just food, clothing, and shelter. Now that they had been exiled here, they couldn’t leave anymore. The weather was also mild year-round, so they didn’t have to worry about clothing or traveling; they only needed to think about food and shelter. Jiang Wan and her mother had solved their housing issue, which was a huge help.

The Zhou family thanked them in unison, and even the three-year-old twins expressed their gratitude and greetings in their childish voices.

Thus, the two families swapped houses.

Old Zhou took his eldest son’s family to tidy up their newly swapped house, leaving his second son’s family and several children to help Jiang Wan and her mother clear the weeds around the stone house. This saved the mother and daughter a lot of work. As Yin Huaixi…

When Yin Huaishan returned, there were hardly any places to settle in.

After everyone had settled down (except for the Cai family), the old village chief arranged for people to inform each household about certain matters.

The Lian family came to the little stone house.

“This room belongs to Grandma Jinhua. You can use the things left inside, but take care of them because this room is only lent to you temporarily; it doesn’t belong to you. Starting next month, you’ll need to pay thirty cents in rent each month. If you don’t have enough money, you can use seafood as payment. As for how to pay and what seafood to use, you can ask the neighboring families.”

Lian’s family came and went in a hurry, and the mother and daughter didn’t have time to inspect the house. They turned and went back to their maternal home to cook, as they didn’t have a kitchen in the stone house. There should have been one in the past, but it had long been reduced to a pile of mud due to the rain and wind, and they would have to build a new one later.

At this point, they didn’t have time to worry about that; filling their stomachs was the priority.

The house that Yin Huaishan had caught had a perfectly good kitchen, and there was a cooking platform inside. However, since the previous tenants had moved out, the pots were gone, leaving only two clay jars that were clean enough to use after washing.

“Hui Niang, you and your younger sister tidy up the kitchen and the room; I’ll go fetch some water so we can cook some porridge.”

Yin Huaishan found a bucket, grabbed the two clay jars, and headed outside. He had already observed the roads in the village carefully on his way here and noticed that a river surrounded the village, not far from their house. It wouldn’t take long to go back and forth.

By the time he returned with a half-full bucket of water after washing the clay jars, his younger sister and wife had already cleared out the dirty items from the kitchen. They just needed his jars and water to start cooking.

The jars were clean, and Yin Huaishan carefully scooped some millet into them, added water, and placed them on the cooking platform.

After striking the flint repeatedly, he finally ignited the firewood. As time passed, the smell of burning wood began to mix with the faint aroma of grains wafting through the air. Jiang Wan swallowed hard, feeling like she could eat an entire cow at that moment.

The five family members were so hungry their stomachs were rumbling, and none of them could focus on working anymore. They all stared eagerly at the clay pot where the millet (similar to modern millet) porridge was gradually cooking.

The golden millet grains were very small, and since they had added so little, the porridge was not thick enough, but it didn’t matter. This was already far better than the clear porridge they had on their way into exile, which could reflect their shadows. The family didn’t mind the heat; they took turns with a broken spoon, scooping the porridge from the pot to eat.

“Ah…”

It felt so good!

Because Jiang Wan was the weakest in health, she had the most porridge. The warm millet porridge filled her stomach, instantly making her feel much better. In short, it was a problem caused by hunger.

After the meal, the family seriously checked the three rooms. Interestingly, the largest room wasn’t the bedrooms but the kitchen, although they didn’t know why. The two bedrooms were the same size, so there was no need to argue about who would stay in which room. Yin Huaishan and his wife would take one, while Yin Ning would stay in the other.

The rooms were not large, and they couldn’t even fit the beds they used to sleep on; now there were only a few stones with a simple wooden board on top. They could sleep, which was definitely more comfortable than the ground.

“This wooden board looks like it’s been here for a long time; it’s all moldy. I’ll take it to the river to wash it and let it dry in the sun, and we’ll be able to sleep on it tonight. Hui Niang, you and your younger sister tidy up the rooms on both sides and go ask the neighbors what we should pay attention to as newcomers.”

Dealing with people was what his wife was good at, so Yin Huaishan didn’t worry at all. As soon as he left, Song Wenhui took Yin Huaixi to tidy up the little stone house. The two younger girls were initially told to rest, but Jiang Wan couldn’t stay still.

“Cousin, shall we go out for a walk?”

This was the seaside, with endless seafood!

Just thinking about it made her mouth water.

Jiang Wan had been a seafood live-streamer in modern times, going to the seaside every day during low tide to live-stream herself catching various seafood. It was a skill she had practiced since childhood with the adults, and it would not be an exaggeration to say she had an eye for spotting things. Sometimes, while her viewers were still squinting to find something, she had already swiftly caught her prey from beneath the sand, in puddles, or between stones.

The house they were staying in was very close to the sea, about a five-minute walk away. She didn’t know if the tide was out yet, but it wouldn’t matter. With a little effort and careful searching, they could dig up some clams by the shore. Even the smallest mosquito was a morsel, and clams were certainly bigger than that and full of nutrition.