Chapter 79: Egg Custard

Liu Yinyin felt embarrassed and said, “Mother, you already said it yourself—this year, we don’t even know what’s going to happen. Now is not the time to have another child.”

The people of Liujia Village were simple and honest; there weren’t any truly evil individuals. But… if famine really struck, when people became desperate with hunger, who knew what they would be capable of?

Jiang Cuihua had experienced famine when she was a child. At times like those, humanity and morality became meaningless.

Her daughter was often home alone, and if she had to take care of two children… it really wouldn’t be practical.

Thinking about this, Jiang Cuihua sighed. “You should keep a low profile in the future.”

Her daughter’s household had the best conditions in the village. They could afford to eat meat every few days, and fine grains were available whenever they wanted.

Even though the villagers hadn’t seen it firsthand, there was no such thing as a secret that wouldn’t eventually leak.

People might not say anything outright, but they understood perfectly well. “An innocent man gets into trouble for his wealth”—sooner or later, this could bring them trouble.

“It’s fine,” Liu Yinyin wasn’t too worried. “Gu Cheng said that if things really become unmanageable, we can always move to the county town.”

After all, they had a backup plan.

Jiang Cuihua gave her a look. “You’re just lucky to have married such a good husband.”

Even if famine struck this year, her daughter’s family wouldn’t have to worry. Gu Cheng had a government job and received rationed food supplies. No matter what, he wouldn’t let his family starve.

Liu Yinyin didn’t respond, choosing instead to change the subject. “Mother, how much grain has the family stored?”

She was referring to the Liu family’s stockpile. Last time, she had helped them purchase 440 jin (220 kg) of coarse grains.

Sure enough, not long after, the prices at Auntie Li’s place skyrocketed—and by quite a lot.

Cornmeal and brown rice had originally been 0.16 yuan per jin, but now they were 0.31 yuan per jin. Sorghum rice and buckwheat flour had gone up to 0.22 yuan per jin, and dried sweet potatoes had risen to 0.10 yuan per jin.

And fine grains? Those had increased even more.

Jiang Cuihua’s heart ached. In just a few days, grain prices had nearly doubled.

But this also proved that something was truly wrong this year. Stocking up on food had become an urgent matter.

Despite the cost, Jiang Cuihua still bought another batch of grain:

• 500 jin of dried sweet potatoes
• 200 jin of sorghum rice
• 200 jin of buckwheat flour
• 100 jin of cornmeal

A total of 1,000 jin (500 kg) of grain, costing 168 yuan.

If Auntie Li had more dried sweet potatoes available, Jiang Cuihua would have bought them all.

After all, they were cheap. In times of famine, having food to eat was all that mattered—taste was the least of anyone’s concerns.

Over the next few visits to the county, Liu Yinyin had continued helping her family by buying another 100 jin of cornmeal.

All in all, the Liu family had now stored about 1,600 jin (800 kg) of grain.

The village communal kitchen would surely have some rations, so this amount of food would be enough to sustain the Liu family for a year or two.

With this much grain stocked up, Jiang Cuihua finally felt at ease. But as a result, the household was now completely out of money.

She told Liu Yinyin, “Don’t bring us any more food. We can’t even scrape together ten yuan at this point—we just can’t afford to buy more.”

Liu Yinyin tried to persuade her. “Mother, isn’t it safer to store even more food? If you don’t have money, I can lend you some.”

The truth was, the extra grain she had brought home for Jiang Cuihua was all smuggled from her system.

Because Auntie Li’s prices had risen again!

It was already July. Even if it rained now, the crops in the fields wouldn’t recover. A reduced harvest was inevitable. If they could get even half of last year’s yield, they would be extremely lucky.

At Auntie Li’s shop, dried sweet potatoes had now reached 0.20 yuan per jin.

Liu Yinyin thought the price was too high, so she had simply bought grain from her system instead.

She never bought too much at once, so it didn’t cost her much money.

Jiang Cuihua quickly refused. “Absolutely not. Your money is all earned by your husband. If you lend it to us, who knows when we’d be able to pay it back? It’s better to forget about it.”

Borrowing money could strain relationships, and her son-in-law had his own family to support. Jiang Cuihua didn’t want her daughter and son-in-law to have conflicts because of this.

Anyway, the grain at home was enough to last the whole family until next year’s autumn harvest. If they rationed it carefully, they could stretch it for another year or so.

Besides, Jiang Cuihua didn’t believe that next year’s weather would be as bad as this year’s.

If it really was, then even all this stored grain wouldn’t be enough—they’d just have to wait for the worst.

Liu Yinyin couldn’t convince her otherwise.

After giving Gu Yanyan a bath, Liu Yinyin placed him in a small stroller.

The little one could crawl all over the place now, so it was no longer safe to leave him playing on the small bed.

The crib’s railings weren’t very high, and she was worried he might accidentally climb out and fall.

Liu Yinyin beat two eggs and steamed an egg custard.

Gu Yanyan could now eat a variety of foods—fruit purée, egg custard, rice porridge, vegetable and minced meat congee, noodles… he could eat it all.

Moreover, the little one wasn’t picky at all—he ate whatever was given to him.

His diet now mainly consisted of complementary foods, and he only needed to drink milk once in the morning after waking up.

Once the egg custard had cooled, Liu Yinyin drizzled a few drops of walnut oil over it.

She took a small spoon and brought the custard to Gu Yanyan.

Seeing Liu Yinyin approaching with the egg custard, Gu Yanyan wiggled his little bottom excitedly, even calling out, “Ma… ma…”

Liu Yinyin was both amused and exasperated. She placed the egg custard on the stroller’s tray, tested the temperature to make sure it wouldn’t burn him, and then handed him the small spoon.

The chubby little hands immediately gripped the spoon tightly, eagerly scooping up a spoonful of egg custard and bringing it to his mouth…

His movements were clumsy, but he was indeed able to feed himself now.

He bit down on the small spoon and quickly swallowed a mouthful of egg custard, then tightly grasped the spoon again and continued scooping…

One spoonful after another, he ate with great satisfaction.

Liu Yinyin sat beside him, occasionally wiping the custard off his face.

It took him more than half an hour to finish the bowl of egg custard, and in the end, he even licked the corners of his mouth, looking absolutely adorable.

That evening, Liu Yinyin prepared a cold okra salad and stir-fried chives with eggs, steaming a pot of white rice in the clay pot.

The hot weather made her reluctant to cook, so she mostly relied on cold dishes.

If it weren’t for the fact that the food portions from the communal kitchen were getting smaller, she would’ve made even simpler meals.

Due to the drought, the crops in the fields weren’t growing well, and the quality of meals at the communal kitchen had declined again and again.

Lately, her rations at each meal consisted of just one wild vegetable cornbread and a bowl of porridge made from dried sweet potatoes. Even vegetables were limited to just one type, and the portions were small.

There was no choice—if the crops failed, even vegetables had to be dried and stored for later, ensuring they had food in the future.

Not only that, but even the wild vegetable cornbread had changed.

Previously, it was made with 30% wild vegetables and 70% cornmeal.

Now, it was the other way around—30% cornmeal and 70% wild vegetables.

Honestly, it didn’t taste very good. No matter how nutritious wild vegetables were, they still weren’t as good as homegrown greens.

Moreover, during times like these, the villagers were no longer picky about what wild vegetables they gathered. Even the older, tougher ones with poor texture—if they were edible, they were taken.