Chapter 6

Sang Luo silently observed the entire process and couldn’t help but admire Shen An’s maturity. But he was burdened with too much; it was very hard on him.

In this moment, Sang Luo saw herself in Shen An when she was young.

Unable to bear seeing the heavy burden on the young boy’s shoulders, she smiled and stood up, picking up two empty baskets from the corner of the wall. “I promised to take you to find food, and now I have some strength back. Let’s go; we’ll go around and search.”

…

The region of Qiyang County was mountainous, and Shili Village was a small village nestled in the mountains.

While other villagers settled to the east, where there were mountains but not as close to the big mountains, Sang Luo’s residence with Shen An and Shen Ning was a bit farther away. To reach the nearest household in the village, they had to cross three mountain ridges to the east.

Of course, many of the mountain ridges closer to the village were privately owned, and families often went to gather firewood on their own mountains. The mountain where Sang Luo’s family lived was one of the two hills designated for their family after settling in the area. Therefore, these closer mountain ridges were frequently traveled and relatively safe.

As for the west, it was the towering mountains with no end in sight. At least in the memories of the original inhabitants, not many people ventured deep into the mountains from Shili Village.

Of course, part of the reason was that Shili Village now mainly housed the elderly, women, and children, as most of the able-bodied men had been conscripted to the front lines. Some hadn’t returned for several years, while others were unlucky enough to never return, like Shen Lie.

Conscription was a common practice throughout history, but it was particularly prevalent during the Daqian Dynasty, especially in recent years since the new emperor ascended the throne. Almost every family had someone conscripted to the front lines, and events like the conscription two years ago weren’t the first or the last.

Therefore, with such a lineup of elderly, weak, women, and children in the village, nobody dared to venture deep into the mountains.

At this moment, Shen An and Shen Ning, each carrying an empty basket, followed behind Sang Luo with hesitant steps.

Shen Ning hesitated and advised, “Big Sister-in-law, your health is still not good. How about resting for a few more days at home? We can save some food, and I and Big Brother can go find wild vegetables.”

This hesitation stemmed from Sang Luo’s previous behavior that frightened them.

Shen An, on the other hand, looked at Sang Luo and then towards the west, puzzled. “Big Sister-in-law, didn’t you forbid us from going into the mountains before? And Big Brother also didn’t allow us to go into the mountains.”

Of course, Sang Luo dared not venture into the deep mountains, especially considering… She glanced at the shorts of the two children, which were so short that they barely covered half of their calves. She couldn’t risk taking these two children deeper into the mountains. If they were bitten by insects or snakes on their calves, even if the bites weren’t venomous, it would still be a big problem for her.

“We won’t go deep; we’ll just walk around the outskirts,” Sang Luo assured.

Shen An’s shoulders visibly drooped. “There’s nothing much around the outskirts. Aren’t we wandering around every day?”

He couldn’t believe he had trusted his big sister-in-law to have a plan. If she had a plan, why hadn’t she used it earlier when they were starving nearly to death?

Shen An feels foolish now. It must have been the aroma of the white rice porridge from this morning that clouded his judgment.

While lamenting inwardly, he also secretly thanked himself for saving some rice earlier. He also rejoiced that he had saved half of the porridge to give to Shen Ning.

He was right to save half of the porridge. Although his big sister-in-law treated him and his sister kindly, she really wasn’t reliable, especially now after recovering from her illness. She used food in a way that made him anxious. With Big Sister-in-law eating so much thick porridge, even if they survived this winter, they would find it hard to cope this autumn.

Just a few steps out of the cottage with the baskets on their backs, Shen An was already worried.

He wanted to say, “There’s no need for two baskets if we’re just going around the outskirts,” but he didn’t want to embarrass Big Sister-in-law, especially since she had just recovered from a serious illness. Besides, the baskets weren’t heavy.

However, he had already made up his mind secretly: tonight, they couldn’t let Big Sister-in-law arrange their meals anymore.

When Big Sister-in-law was sick, let her eat a bit more, but it shouldn’t be so thick. Let Big Sister-in-law eat her portion separately, with fewer vegetables, and make it last a few days.

He and his sister would continue as before, gathering more wild vegetables and asking Third Uncle for help. With a bit of effort, they could make it through.

They definitely couldn’t let things happen like they did this morning, with the three of them boiling such thick white rice porridge together. Such wastefulness, even in winter, would be difficult for them to endure this autumn.

Shen Ning also looked at her elder brother, and the siblings exchanged a glance, both wearing the same worried expression. It was clear they were thinking the same thing.

Sang Luo, unaware that she had been relegated to the extremely unreliable category by the two children, smiled confidently. “Whether there’s anything or not, you’ll see after we take a walk.”

She glanced at the empty baskets on the children’s backs with some regret. It would have been great if they had more baskets, but their belongings were too few.

With one adult and two children, their minds went in opposite directions. With sticks and bamboo branches in hand, they walked towards a small path between the mountains.

…

Sang Luo did exactly as she said. She didn’t take the children deep into the mountains, but instead led them to a mountain stream near their home.

Shen An looked at the clear stream with swimming fish and finally understood what Big Sister-in-law had in mind. “Big sister-in-law, these fish are very agile and hard to catch. Both An Ning and I have tried before, but we couldn’t catch a single one all morning.”

Shen Ning confirmed, “They swim too fast and are too slippery.”

Sang Luo smiled and said, “It’s indeed difficult to catch them with your hands, but we don’t need to use our hands. Let’s set up a trap and wait for them to swim in by themselves.”

With that, she reached for the empty basket on Shen An’s back and gathered some grass and leaves by the stream, grabbing a few pebbles with a bit of algae on them and throwing them into the basket. She then lifted a large stone, about the size of a fist, from the water, took off her shoes and socks, and waded into the stream with the basket.

The mountain stream was lively, with excellent water quality and clear visibility. Even in the deepest part of the water, it only reached Sang Luo’s knees. She placed the basket diagonally in the deepest part of the water, picked up a few rocks with a bit of algae from the bottom of the stream, and placed them inside the basket. After a few steps, she returned to the riverbank.

Shen An and Shen Ning watched her actions with wide eyes, amazed.

“Can we really catch fish like this?” 

Sang Luo nodded, “With some bait, we could attract even more fish, but unfortunately, we don’t have any at hand right now. However, there are plenty of fish in this stream. Let’s give it a try first. If we don’t catch enough, we can try again in a different spot.”

Saying this, she reached for the basket on Shen Ning’s back to set up another trap.

Shen An was excited. “Big sister-in-law, let me do it!”

“Sure.” Children always love to play, especially since the water is shallow. Sang Luo smiled and agreed without hesitation, teaching them the technique briefly before letting the two children play around. She watched from the sidelines.

Shen Ning followed her elder brother closely, happily helping him pick up pebbles from the stream and occasionally fetching rocks from the water.

After discussing and selecting another spot together, the siblings followed Sang Luo’s method and set up another trap. Then, excitedly, they returned to the shore. Shen An’s eyes sparkled as he looked up at Sang Luo. “Big sister-in-law, when can we see results from this trap?”

Finally, they started to act like children.

Sang Luo smiled. “We’ll check in the evening. For now, let’s make some makeshift shrimp traps.”

Actually, it’s best to check these traps the next day for a better yield. But since they were eager to see results, they had to shorten the waiting time.

The mention of shrimp traps immediately caught the children’s interest. “How do you trap shrimp?”

Setting shrimp traps was quite simple. Sang Luo showed the children how to gather branches with leaves and tie them together. Then, they placed these leafy branches in the water with stones, a bit away from the fish traps.

This method fascinated the children, and they happily set up seven shrimp traps along the stream, satisfied with their efforts.

“After we come ashore, what’s next? What are we going to do now?” 

“Do we have to wait until the evening to catch shrimp?” 

Each of them spoke, their eyes shining as they looked at Sang Luo.

After setting up a few traps, although they hadn’t seen any results yet, the trustworthiness of Sang Luo in the children’s hearts had clearly increased.

Sang Luo watched the children, who were visibly happier today compared to the anxiousness and despair of the previous night, and her smile widened. “Yes, we have to wait. Let’s go do something else in the meantime.”

She motioned for the two children to follow her.

However, Shen An hesitated, looking back at the spot where they had placed the basket in the stream. “Big sister-in-law, are we just going to leave like this? What if someone takes the basket away?”

Once the joy of playing had passed, Shen An’s instincts as a little steward kicked in. Whether they caught fish or not was one thing, but they only had two baskets at home. Not only the baskets, but everything they had was rare and precious. They were really short on supplies.

Shen Ning, who had just started to move her feet, also stopped, turning her head to look at Sang Luo.

Sang Luo wasn’t too worried. She smiled and reassured them, “It’s okay. Take a look for yourselves. From the shore, you can’t even see where the baskets are placed under the water.”

The siblings looked together towards the spot where the baskets were placed, and indeed, they were not visible. This reassured them, and they abandoned the idea of staying to guard the spot.

Sang Luo ruffled Shen Ning’s hair. “Let’s go. I’ll show you how to find other things to eat.”

The mention of finding more food immediately lit up the eyes of the two children.

“What are we going to find?” 

Author’s Note:

Regarding the place names, I need to add an explanation. This story is set in an alternate world, so please don’t associate it with reality. I named the county where the protagonist lives “Qiyang” because I found dozens of place names by searching on Baidu, either with the same pronunciation or the same word. Finally, I had to lie flat. The names of the states behind them should also use historical place names, and they won’t be too different from the real names of the states, but don’t relate the places in the novel too much to reality. It’s all fictional, fictional, fictional, and there are personal settings, such as the mountains behind the Shili Village. If you try to connect it with reality, it won’t match at all.