Chapter 6: The Snail Girl

Han Guobin shook his head. “Why would I drink this? You go ahead.”

It must’ve been something his wife had bought from the county town earlier, but he hadn’t asked much about it.

“I already drank some. You drink too. From now on, we’ll share blessings and endure hardships together.” Chen Rou chuckled and looked at him.

Seeing the smile in her eyes, Han Guobin also smiled and drank the cup of milk she had prepared for him.

Only one thought filled his head: It’s delicious.

So fragrant and sweet, just like his wife’s little mouth.

With that thought, his gaze naturally fell on her lips. Chen Rou pretended not to notice. Honestly, could he not see what time it was? They were both so exhausted that they wished they could squeeze in an extra night’s sleep—who had the energy for that kind of thing?

The autumn harvest was grueling. Peanuts, corn, cotton—everything matured at once. Men and women alike were worn to the bone.

Chen Rou considered herself pretty tough. After all, she came from the apocalypse and had endured all kinds of hardship. But even so, after half a month straight, she was starting to hit her limit.

“Take tomorrow off. Just stay home and cook for me,” Han Guobin said, clearly distressed for his wife.

Chen Rou didn’t want to push herself either—especially since there was practically no meat left at home. She had overestimated how far she could stretch the remaining lard and pork cracklings. No matter how frugal she was, they were nearly gone.

So, she figured she might as well take the opportunity tomorrow to make something decent. Without much argument, she agreed and decided to rest for a day and skip work.

That night, she fell asleep early again.

Lately, she had been earning six work points every day—considered excellent among the women.

By comparison, the men earned even more—especially during the autumn harvest. Some could earn twelve or thirteen points. Take Han Guobin, for example—he got the full thirteen.

Needless to say, it was exhausting work. That’s why, the next day, Chen Rou got up at the crack of dawn while the sky was still gray.

By that time, Han Guobin had already left. She planned to deliver his breakfast along with the other meal carriers soon.

Chen Rou decided to make noodles for her husband, so before leaving, she mixed corn flour with wheat flour and kneaded the dough to let it rest.

Then she grabbed a basket and headed out.

She walked straight into town. The original owner of this body had been a foodie, so Chen Rou just followed the route in her memory.

Meat was really expensive these days—nearly 0.7 yuan for even low-quality pork per jin (500g). She didn’t buy much, just two taels (about 100g).

She had one and a half whole pigs’ worth of meat in her space, plus plenty of mutton and beef. The five-cubic-meter space she had—one cubic meter was filled with water, and another entirely used for storing meat.

Down jackets, milk powder, eggs, chocolate, milk candy, medicine, grain—all kinds of supplies filled the other three cubic meters to the brim.

Coming to town to buy meat was really just a pretext.

This way, she wouldn’t be questioned no matter what she pulled out of her basket.

After buying the meat, she hurried home, shut the door, and rendered a pot of lard. Then she diced the meat and stir-fried it. She even splurged and added two eggs. Once cooked, she scooped it all out.

The dough had rested enough by then, so she made corn noodles, boiled them, drained them, let them cool—no worries with the current weather—and then mixed in the meat and eggs.

She made a generous portion. After eating her share first, she placed the rest into the basket, covered it with a lid, locked the cupboard and front door, and headed out.

It was more than half an hour later when she arrived at the grain collection site. It wasn’t close to home at all.

She called out to Han Guobin to come eat. He had left at around 3 a.m. and it was nearly 7 now—his stomach was already sticking to his back from hunger.

“I went to buy some meat, so I’m a bit late. Hurry and eat.” Avoiding the others, Chen Rou lifted the lid.

The dry noodles had gotten a bit sticky, but with meat and eggs, it didn’t matter. Especially when Han Guobin was so hungry his eyes were turning green—he devoured the food like a starving wolf.

“I’ll come bring you lunch again later,” Chen Rou said when she saw the way he was eating.

“Wife, you eat some too,” Han Guobin remembered and tried to feed her a bite with his chopsticks.

“I already ate. You go ahead.” Chen Rou still had things to do—she planned to visit her mother’s house today to see if the cotton and fabric her mother had promised were ready.

Only then did Han Guobin nod. Although she had made a decent portion of noodles, she estimated he was only about 70–80% full.

But there was no helping it. She had plenty in her space, but it still wasn’t enough to go all out with the food. Being able to take out this much was already very fortunate.

“Wife, I’m heading back to work.” Han Guobin stood up after finishing.

Chen Rou nodded. “I’m going home too.”

Han Guobin returned to the fields to continue harvesting grain. Nearby, his mother was so tired her back was bent. When she saw Chen Rou heading back home, she couldn’t help but say, “I knew it—her nature hasn’t changed. After just a few days of work, she’s already slacking off?”

Work points were high during the harvest season—she herself was gritting her teeth and pushing through.

“Mom, Second Sister-in-law’s been doing great lately. She earns six points every day,” Han Laosan (the third son) spoke up fairly.

Han Mother scoffed coldly. “She’s been married into this family for so long—if we had to live off her six points, she’d have starved to death by now!”

“My wife has me to support her. Even if she doesn’t work, I’ll take care of her,” Han Guobin said flatly.

Han Guobin’s mother was furious. Her son was exhausted, and yet his wife didn’t come over to help. She hadn’t even said much about her daughter-in-law yet, and already he was rushing to defend her!

A nearby auntie heard this and said, “Guobin’s wife earns six work points every day, and she works hard without slacking. She’s just taking a day off today to cook at home—that’s Guobin doting on his wife. The households have already been split, so why worry about what’s not your business?”

But there were still some who couldn’t stand the sight of a daughter-in-law resting while others worked, and someone couldn’t help saying, “If you don’t seize the time to work harder now, what are you going to eat when the baby’s born? Is the whole family supposed to depend on the man? Won’t that crush him to death?”

Then, a bunch of aunties began chattering and offering their opinions, while Han Guobin silently continued cutting wheat, far ahead of everyone else.

He thought, even if his wife gave him five, six, seven, or eight children, he could still provide for them all. Once this busy period was over, he’d go into the mountains and take a look.

City folks loved wild game, and he knew someone who collected that kind of thing…

Unaware that she was apparently going to bear five, six, seven, or eight children, Chen Rou had returned home. She took out about half a jin (250g) of pork from her space.

It wasn’t much, but even half a jin showed thoughtfulness. Father and Mother Chen weren’t young anymore, and living like this was extremely tiring—they needed some meat to replenish their strength.

She arrived at her parents’ house, and sure enough, her mother was home.

Today, her mother stayed behind to cook. There was also a niece present—her eldest brother’s daughter.

“Auntie!” the niece called out when she saw her.

Chen Rou nodded and said to her mother, “Mom, I went to town this morning and saw someone selling meat, so I bought a piece for you and Dad.”

The niece’s eyes lit up when she saw the meat. Her aunt had actually brought meat home!

Mother Chen saw that it really was a piece of meat, and though it was lean, she quickly said, “Why did you buy meat? Are you scared of having too much money on your hands?”

“It’s to show respect for you and Dad. This work is so exhausting, you need to eat something nourishing,” Chen Rou replied.

“We don’t want yours. If we want to eat it, we’ll buy it ourselves,” Mother Chen said.

“I still have more at home. This piece is especially for you and Dad. Don’t argue with me,” Chen Rou insisted. “Mom, is there any news about the thing I asked for?”

“Tell Guobin to come get it tonight,” her mother whispered.

Chen Rou nodded. She didn’t stay long and said, “Mom, I’ve got things to do at home. I’ll go back now.”

“Your uncle gave me two jin of rice. This stuff is nourishing—you take some back with you,” Mother Chen said.

Chen Rou’s heart skipped a beat. She had four bags of fifty-jin rice in her space, taking up a huge amount of room. She hadn’t even been able to buy much dried noodles because of it. But there had been no excuse to take any out—until now. With her mother offering some, she finally had a way to pull some out legitimately.

Her mother offered half of it, but Chen Rou only took about half a jin. Then she returned home.

Once home, she placed the half-jin of rice into another clean, unused jar. That half-jin turned into five jin.

The reason she dared to be this bold was because, after spending time with Han Guobin, she realized he never asked questions about the supplies at home.

So, using today’s excuse of going to town for meat, she filled up the lard jar at home more than halfway and added some pork belly.

After visiting her parents’ house, she also turned that half-jin of rice into five jin.

She felt like she might be the legendary Snail Girl.

Chen Rou chuckled to herself. Now that she had this rice, she planned to cook something nice for Han Guobin for lunch.

That man never spoke of his hardships. He was the type to keep everything inside, but she couldn’t let him be treated unfairly.

He cared about her, so she had to repay his kindness, right?

So for lunch, she made braised pork with rice. She also picked two cucumbers and made smashed cucumber salad. That would be enough.

And honestly, the braised pork rice looked especially plump and glossy, with the rice glistening from the pork’s oil. Chen Rou herself ate two bowls.

She was still craving more and felt like she could easily eat two more bowls!

But she couldn’t afford to overeat like that, so she restrained herself. She scooped about three and a half bowls of rice into a large bowl, drizzled a spoonful of braised pork oil over it, and placed a few thick slices of pork on top—each about a finger’s width. On the side was a plate of smashed cucumber salad.

That was lunch done.

After some hesitation, she took out a bottle of mineral water from her space. To remove any suspicious markings, she scratched off everything identifiable. The bottle cap was the most obvious, and since it couldn’t be removed cleanly, she just left it uncapped. Even so, it would be fine.

At noon, Han Guobin was enjoying a bowl of braised pork rice so delicious that it made him want to swallow his tongue.

With food like this, of course, it had to be eaten away from others—otherwise, people’s eyes would pop out in envy.

After devouring the rice and smashed cucumbers, Han Guobin leaned back against a tree and exhaled deeply.

Even a strong man like him was completely worn out from all this labor.