Chapter 4: The Fridge Can Refresh!

Floods and mudslides.

Huangshi Village was destroyed…

Lin Yue broke out in a cold sweat. She dared not imagine—what if they had still been there…

Her heart relaxed slightly. This way, no one would know what they had done.

Her appetite surged.

She took out the last meat bun, split it in half, stuffing one half into her clothes for later and the other half into her mouth.

Lin Yue felt a twinge of reluctance—it was the meat bun she had grown up eating.

Even after becoming a food blogger and making more delicious buns, she had always craved this nostalgic bite.

But now, once eaten, it would be gone forever.

“Sister-in-law, why are you crying?” Dog Egg offered her the other half of the bun.

He swallowed greedily but still said, “Sister-in-law, you eat it. I’m not hungry.”

Lin Yue wiped her tears and pushed his hand back, “We still have a long way to go. If you and your little sister faint like before, how will we get through?”

After finishing the bun, with the rain still pouring, she couldn’t tell the exact time.

She guessed it was around noon based on her intuition.

“Sister-in-law, the road ahead will be much easier,” Dog Egg said, having eaten only a quarter of the bun.

He licked the oil off his lips and pointed downwards. “Someone paved steps with stones.”

Lin Yue nodded.

As night approached, they finally arrived in Zi Mountain Village. The meat buns were gone.

Zi Mountain Village was indeed more populated, with houses built closely together and lights shining brightly.

“Are your relatives here?”

Dog Egg shook his head. “Not yet. If we take a shortcut, we still have to cross three more mountains. Only after that will we reach Shitai.”

Lin Yue felt dizzy and forced herself to scan the houses. “We can’t afford an inn. We’ll have to find a family to stay with for the night.”

With only four copper coins on her, Lin Yue felt even more strapped.

It seemed they would have to sleep in a firewood shed.

“No need,” Dog Egg jumped ahead, leading the way. “When my brother went hunting and couldn’t return home in time, we often stayed at Aunt Qu’s place. She’s very kind. We can go there.”

They walked a long stretch through the village, stopping at the foot of another mountain.

The wooden house before them was much better than their mud house.

Lin Yue, her heart pounding, knocked on the door.

After three or four knocks, there was movement inside.

“Who’s there?”

“It’s us, Guo Dog Egg,” Dog Egg called out loudly. “We’d like to stay the night.”

A faint light appeared in the dark house—Aunt Qu had lit a candle.

The candlelight grew closer.

The door latch rattled, and a wrinkled face appeared in the crack.

“Oh! You’re from the Guo family! How did you come here?”

“Come in quickly,” she opened the door. “Poor things, it’s been raining so much.”

“We…” Dog Egg hesitated.

Lin Yue immediately spoke, “It’s been raining for days, and we couldn’t survive out there. We tried to reach relatives, but on the way, we found the village destroyed. Luckily…”

“Oh, you truly escaped with your lives,” Aunt Qu patted Lin Yue’s shoulder. “Your clothes are soaked—quick, dry yourselves.”

She placed the candle on the living room table, grabbed two cloth towels, and hurried to the kitchen.

“I’ll light a fire. You can warm yourselves.”

She scooped a few buckets of water into a pot, lit the stove, and opened the cupboard.

Out came a leftover bowl of wild vegetable porridge from earlier, along with a piece of ginger.

She poured the porridge into the pot, shredded the ginger, and added it in.

Aunt Qu hesitated, standing before the cupboard, thinking it over. Finally, she took out two eggs and boiled them in the porridge.

“Come, warm yourselves by the fire. Don’t catch a chill,” Aunt Qu said, pulling them to the stove.

The firelight reflected on Lin Yue’s face, and she finally felt a touch of warmth.

She took Da Ya out of the quilt and placed her on her lap.

“How’s your little sister?” Dog Egg asked, worry etched on his face.

Lin Yue patted Da Ya’s head.

After being wrapped in the quilt all day, she was sweating, but the fever had finally subsided.

Lin Yue dried Da Ya thoroughly with a cloth and placed her near the stove to warm her up.

“Brother… don’t…” Da Ya kicked her legs, clearly uneasy, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid,” Lin Yue quickly soothed her, gently patting her back.

“Here, have some porridge.”

At that moment, Aunt Li brought two bowls of porridge to Lin Yue and Dog Egg.

“Dog Egg, you and your sister share one bowl.”

The bowls were as big as fists, filled with plenty of wild vegetables, the grains of porridge clearly visible.

Even like this, Aunt Li was considered generous.

When Lin Yue scooped to the bottom, she found a surprise—a single egg.

At this time, most people could only afford pork during festivals.

Eggs in daily life substituted for meat and were very precious.

Even in the countryside, two eggs would cost one copper coin. In the city, an egg would also cost one coin.

Lin Yue was about to eat it when she saw Dog Egg feed half a bowl of porridge to his sister and finish the rest himself.

The egg remained at the bottom of the bowl.

“Aunt Li, I’m full. Let’s save this egg for Li Xiaoya,” he said.

“Oh, you’re already so thin—eat it, get some strength,” Aunt Li urged warmly.

But Dog Egg repeatedly shook his head, patting his stomach. “I’m really full. I won’t eat.”

Lin Yue remembered something her father had once told her.

When he was a child, his family was very poor. When visiting relatives during the New Year, every household would serve a bowl of sweet rice wine.

Beneath the wine was an egg.

That egg was not to be eaten—it was a ceremonial gesture for guests.

The next guest would still need an egg.

Typically, it wasn’t eaten until the Lantern Festival, January 15th.

Not eating the egg would be proper etiquette.

And from the journey, Lin Yue knew Aunt Li’s life wasn’t easy either.

Her husband used to collect hunting goods. He charged fair prices and was kind, which is how he met Gu Cai.

Due to war and conscription, Aunt Li’s husband and her two sons all joined the army, leaving only grandchildren behind.

Lin Yue swallowed and realized she couldn’t be ruder than the children.

She forced herself to restrain her desire, finishing her porridge and returning the bowl with the remaining egg.

“I’m full. This porridge is hearty, and the ginger warms the stomach,” Lin Yue said with a smile. “I really can’t eat the egg.”

After some polite refusal, Aunt Li put the bowl back into the cupboard.

“It’s late. Go get some sleep,” Aunt Li said. “You’re heading to Shitai, right? Tomorrow morning, the Zhou family has an ox cart. I’ll ask them to take you along.”

“Thank you!”

Aunt Li prepared a room, though it hadn’t been used for years; the straw mattress smelled slightly musty.

Lin Yue was already very grateful.

The two children lay down and quickly fell asleep.

Lin Yue listened to the rain drizzling outside but couldn’t sleep.

No grease or meat—she was still so hungry!

If only there were a few more meat buns…

Thinking this, she couldn’t help but turn her mind to the virtual fridge space.

Suddenly, she noticed that all the other items remained gray and dim—but the meat buns she had taken earlier reappeared in the fridge.

And they were shiny once more.