The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 63: Drought and Famine

Chapter 63: Drought and Famine (End)

The next day, Chen Huihong went to the inner city to eat as usual.

Qin Huai could see that although Chen Huihong lived with Hui Niang, they were just roommates. Chen Huihong went to the inner city every day to have a good meal, and then brought some snacks back to eat snacks the rest of the time. If there was something going on outside, she would go out to watch the fun, and if there was nothing going on, she would eat melon seeds at home.

Hui Niang is much busier than her.

In the morning, I go out to buy food and groceries. When I come back, I clean up the shells of the melon seeds that Chen Huihong has eaten and do the housework. If the sun is shining brightly outside, I also put up a rack to put the quilt outside to dry in the sun.

When Chen Huihong went out for a stroll, Hui Niang was working outside. When Chen Huihong came back from her stroll, Hui Niang was usually steaming sweet potatoes in the kitchen.

It was cold outside at night, so Hui Niang and Chen Huihong stayed at home together. There was no brazier at home, so Hui Niang curled up in the quilt and chatted with Chen Huihong, while Chen Huihong continued to sit at the table, eating melon seeds and playing with small toys.

According to the agreement with Shopkeeper Lu, Chen Huihong did not go to Taifenglou for dinner the next day, but went to Yongheju. The waiter of Yongheju entertained her warmly, and Chen Huihong returned home in the evening with a lot of bags.

Hui Niang was steaming steamed buns in the kitchen.

"Sister, you're back." Hui Niang came out with a smile, announcing the good news excitedly, "The cornmeal at the grain store is very cheap today, I bought a whole bag! I also bought a small bag of white flour, sister, I made some steamed cornbread, do you want to have one?"

Chen Huihong walked into the kitchen, took a look at the steamed bread that didn't look very good, and nodded without picking it out. She asked, "Doesn't the price of grain change every day? Why is cornmeal so cheap today?"

"The guy at the grain store said that this batch of cornmeal was damp and a little moldy." Hui Niang said happily, "It's okay. I have picked out the moldy flour and thrown it away. There is still more than half a bag left."

Chen Huihong frowned subconsciously: "Don't go to this grain store to buy grain next time. They sell this kind of grain. It's conscienceless."

"Sister, the food in this store is very good. When I was at home, I was short of food and went to buy mixed grain from the landlord. One pound of cornmeal contained three ounces of sand and two ounces of rat feces. After sifting out half a pound of cornmeal, it was good. The cornmeal from this store doesn't have any sand at all, and it's cheap!"

"A lot of people went to buy it. Luckily I went early this morning, otherwise I wouldn't be able to buy it."

Chen Huihong stopped talking and handed Hui Niang a candied fruit.

Hui Niang happily took it and put it in her mouth, reluctant to swallow it: "Thank you, sister."

Chen Huihong stood in the kitchen waiting for the steamed corn bread to be ready.

Hui Niang seldom steamed steamed bread, and she didn't know how to control the time and heat, so she would open the wooden cover from time to time to take a look. Qin Huai watched from the side and felt that Hui Niang's cooking skills were really worrying.

Not to mention the steamed bread itself, it is made of a large amount of original corn flour mixed with a small amount of white flour, which is the coarseest of coarse grains, so it is impossible for it to be smooth and flat.

I guess Hui Niang’s skill in kneading dough is not very good, and the air release is very poor.

The most important thing is that the fire in the stove is too low.

I don’t know if it’s to save firewood or simply because they put too little fuel, but Qin Huai feels that if they use this steaming method, the steamed cornbread will most likely be undercooked when steamed.

Sure enough, more than ten minutes later, the fire in the stove had gone out, but the steamed bread in the pot had not been completely steamed.

Hui Niang fiddled with the steamed bread with her hands, not quite sure, and asked, "Sister, is this steamed bread ready?"

"I don't know." Chen Huihong said honestly, "I only know how to eat, not cook."

"But there is no firewood at home." Hui Niang said embarrassedly, "I was delayed this morning by grabbing cornmeal. When I came back, the firewood seller had left. If I want to buy more, I have to wait until tomorrow morning."

"Just eat it." Chen Huihong thought for a moment and fished out a piece of bark from her pocket. "Or you can eat this?"

Hui Niang hesitated for a moment and said, "My mother said that we can eat uncooked steamed bread."

The two of them ate the half-cooked steamed bread.

Hui Niang steamed 4 steamed buns in total, each as big as a fist. Hui Niang ate three and Chen Huihong ate one.

The kitchen was too cold, so the two of them took the steamed bread back into the house to eat.

Chen Huihong walked a few steps from the kitchen to the house. Out of curiosity, she couldn't help but take a bite in advance. It was so unpalatable that her facial features wrinkled together and she complained, "It tastes weird."

Then he stuffed a candied fruit into his mouth and stuffed the remaining half bag of candied fruit to Hui Niang, implying that the steamed bread was really too unpalatable and she should eat it with candied fruit instead.

Hui Niang did not refuse and happily took it. She took a bite of the candied fruit and then a big bite of the steamed bread. While chewing, she mumbled, "It's sweet."

"That's all you can say." Chen Huihong sat on the table, gnawing on steamed bread helplessly, watching Hui Niang climb onto the bed, wrap herself in the quilt, and reveal only her head and two little hands.

Hui Niang happily ate candied fruit with steamed corn bread.

While eating, Hui Niang suddenly said, "Sister, you are so good to me, much better than my parents are to me."

"That's because your parents don't treat you very well. It's been more than half a year, and they haven't come to Peking." Chen Huihong said lightly.

This sentence made Hui Niang silent. After a long while, Hui Niang asked in a low voice: "Sister, if I said that I didn't know whether my parents would come to Beiping, and I was afraid that you would abandon me, so I lied to you and said that I would come to Beiping to meet my parents, and I didn't want to look for them at all, would you be angry?"

Chen Huihong glanced at her and said, "They call me Miss Crazy. I accept it because it saves a lot of trouble and I can eat and drink for free. I'm not really stupid."

"Then do you think I am unfilial?" Hui Niang asked again.

"Filial piety is relative. Kindness is the opposite of filial piety. Parents who are not kind have no right to accuse their children of being unfilial." Chen Huihong said, "Your parents are about to sell you to a trafficker. Isn't it normal that you don't want to look for them?"

Hui Niang immediately became happy again: "Fortunately, the man-bearer thought I was ugly and didn't want me, otherwise I wouldn't have met my sister."

"Sister, are your parents good to you?"

Chen Huihong didn't quite understand why tonight had suddenly turned into a heart-to-heart talk, but she thought about it carefully and answered, "I don't remember."

"It should be okay. We don't really care about it over there, and we don't need to care. Let it go."

Hui Niang didn't understand.

Chen Huihong took another bite of the steamed bread, frowned, and wanted to look out the window, but the window was covered with paper and she couldn't see clearly.

"Tomorrow is the Little New Year." Chen Huihong looked at Hui Niang, "Your coming of age."

"What is Jigui?" Hui Niang asked.

"It's the 15th birthday. When a girl turns 15, the elders in the family will tie her hair up with a hairpin, and it seems that they will also invite guests to a banquet and ask her to change clothes or something. I heard it from the storyteller, so it should be a birthday celebration." Chen Huihong was not very sure.

"That's great." Hui Niang's face was full of envy.

Looking at Hui Niang's expression, Chen Huihong was a little surprised: "You don't have it?"

Hui Niang shook her head: "My sister was sold to a trafficker before she was 15. Girls in our village basically got married at 13 or 14. I was supposed to be married when I was 13. But there was a drought at that time. No one had the money to marry. The money they offered was too little, so they might as well be sold to a trafficker."

"My mother had originally asked a matchmaker to find a wife for me, but my father wouldn't let her, saying that we should keep her for a year so that she could be sold for money. In the end, she was never sold."

Hui Niang was chewing on a steamed bun, feeling somewhat melancholy. "My parents had several fights over this. My father scolded my mother and said that I chose the wrong name. When I chose the name, I only thought of virtuousness, not beauty. What's the point of just being virtuous?"

Chen Huihong said: "Being virtuous is useless."

"She is gentle and respectful, prudent and kind. It is a waste to use only the word virtuous to describe such a beautiful thing."

"But Hui sounds good," Hui Niang said. "Many girls in our village envy my name and think Hui sounds much better than Ya, Di, Cao and Hua."

"Yes, it sounds good." Chen Huihong affirmed, "If you don't like Xianhui, but like the pronunciation of Hui, Hui in Conghui is also good."

"Beautiful and intelligent, beautiful on the outside and smart on the inside. You should like this Hui more."

Hui Niang's eyes lit up: "Sister, you are so cultured!"

Chen Huihong said calmly: "These are all said by storytellers. They are well-educated."

After a brief night chat, Hui Niang finished her steamed bread and lay down quietly to sleep, while Chen Huihong continued to eat melon seeds in the dark.

Lamps were expensive these days, and neither candles nor kerosene lamps were affordable with Hui Niang's salary. After eating at a restaurant, Chen Huihong usually took melon seeds, but never candles.

The room becomes pitch dark as soon as it gets dark at night, so it’s better to go to bed early.

But tonight, it's not destined to be peaceful.

Because Hui Niang seemed to have a stomachache.

After Chen Huihong finished eating melon seeds, peanuts, and dried fruits, and finally drank two sips of water, she was just about to get up and go into the house to lie down on the bed when Hui Niang struggled to get up, put on her cotton jacket, and went outside to use the toilet.

In less than half an hour, he put on his cotton jacket and went outside to go to the toilet.

He ran four or five times that night before he finally stopped and lay motionless in bed.

When Hui Niang came back from the toilet for the last time and lay down, Chen Huihong sat up and asked, "Did you have a stomachache?"

"It seems so." Hui Niang said weakly, "It may be because the steamed bread was not cooked through."

"It's because you bought cheap moldy cornmeal." Chen Huihong corrected, "Do you want me to call a doctor?"

Hui Niang held Chen Huihong's hand and shook her head: "It's too expensive. We need to save the money to buy meat at the second meat shop during the New Year."

"I can go to Taifenglou Shun." Chen Huihong said.

"You can't ask for help now. The doctor will charge extra for seeing patients at night. I can just go to the pharmacy myself tomorrow morning. The doctors sitting in the pharmacy are cheaper." Hui Niang insisted.

Chen Huihong sat in silence for a while, then lay down: "Okay, just make your own decision."

Then Chen Huihong closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Hui Niang also closed her eyes and fell asleep in a daze.

Only Qin Huai was left standing by the bed, staring at Hui Niang with a serious expression.

It was so dark that Qin Huai couldn't see anything, but he could hear Hui Niang's breathing.

Her breathing was rapid.

There was a hint of weakness in the haste.

Qin Huai let out a long sigh, hoping that his experience was wrong.

When Luo Luo was Hui Niang's age, he often didn't realize he had a fever. He often didn't react at all when he had a low fever, but he was still full of energy when his fever reached 38 degrees. His face was so red that his family members would rush to the hospital after noticing it.

Of course, sometimes the opposite effect can be very obvious.

For example, when you have food poisoning.

One time, Qin Luo stole food from a stall and got food poisoning. He suffered from vomiting, diarrhea, and fever, and became weak all of a sudden.

In modern times, if a child has food poisoning and is sent to the hospital, he or she can be cured by inducing vomiting, hanging an IV, and prescribing some medicine, but at this time...

Qin Huai stood silently in the room, waiting for dawn.

Chen Huihong woke up at dawn the next day.

Chen Huihong got up and found Hui Niang still lying on the bed, buried in the quilt, so she called her.

"Hui Niang."

"Hui Niang?" Chen Huihong lifted the quilt and found that Hui Niang's face was red and she didn't respond no matter how she called.

Without any hesitation, Chen Huihong wrapped Hui Niang in a quilt, picked her up horizontally, and ran out, forgetting even to put on her cotton coat.

Some people had already woken up at this time. Seeing Chen Huihong running down the street in a single layer of clothes and holding a quilt, they quickly pulled their family members out to see: "Miss Crazy has gone crazy!"

Chen Huihong ran straight to the pharmacy, which opened early, and the shop assistant was cleaning while the doctor was picking up medicine. Seeing Chen Huihong running in with a quilt in her arms, the shop assistant subconsciously reached out to stop her, but pulled his hand back halfway through.

"Miss Crazy, why don't you wear a cotton coat in such a cold weather? Why are you running with a quilt?" The waiter came forward to persuade Chen Huihong to leave, but was stunned when he saw a person wrapped in the quilt. "You didn't find a way to get us to treat you, did you? We can't treat you."

"She has a stomachache." Chen Huihong carefully put down the quilt.

The waiter then saw clearly: "Isn't this Hui Niang? Doctor Wang, please come and take a look."

After saying that, the guy went to close the door to prevent the cold wind from blowing in.

Doctor Wang, whose hair was already gray, came over to feel her pulse. Under Chen Huihong's gaze, Doctor Wang asked slowly, "Miss Feng, what did your maid eat yesterday?"

Afraid that Chen Huihong might not understand, Doctor Wang even made eating gestures.

"The cornmeal is moldy and not steamed well." said Chen Huihong.

Doctor Wang's expression changed immediately, and he turned to ask the waiter, "Did Hui Niang go to the grain store in the west to buy cornmeal yesterday?"

The waiter was still thinking, and Chen Huihong said directly: "Yes, Hui Niang said that the cornmeal was damp and moldy, and she sold it cheaply, so she picked out the moldy parts and threw them away."

Doctor Wang didn't even have time to think about why Miss Crazy could answer questions so quickly. He sighed and murmured, "It's simply unscrupulous to sell something like this that can eat dead people."

The waiter seemed to remember something: "Doctor Wang, did Li Er and his family die from eating cornmeal yesterday?"

"I heard from them that Li Er's mother was very stingy with the food, so she didn't pick out the moldy noodles and threw them away, mixing them with other noodles and cooking them into paste. Except for Li Er's wife, who ate less and only had one bite, the rest of the family was fine. They were all gone last night."

"And it seems that Li Er's family is not the only one in trouble. There are more accidents in the west. The grain store owner ran away overnight."

"What do you mean? Will eating that cornmeal kill people?" Chen Huihong asked the waiter.

The guy hesitated and didn't dare to say anything.

Doctor Wang felt her pulse for a while, paused, and said, "Miss Feng, I'm sure you can understand me, so I'll tell you straight away."

"I'll prescribe you a prescription first, and have the waiter prepare it and feed it to Hui Niang to induce vomiting. I'll also prescribe a prescription to reduce fever, but I can't guarantee whether she can survive. My medical skills are limited, and I'm only 30% sure of this kind of emergency."

"You drive, and I'll go back and get the money for you." Chen Huihong said.

The doctor instructed the waiter to get the medicine, and after getting the medicine, the waiter went to the backyard to boil it.

Chen Huihong looked at Hui Niang, who was still groggy and unresponsive, and asked, "If the medicine doesn't work, will she die?"

Doctor Wang sighed and said, "We can only leave it to fate."

"I can only say that if you take that fever-reducing prescription and the fever goes down before nightfall, there's still hope. If the fever doesn't go down before nightfall, I'm afraid tonight will be difficult..."

"Miss Crazy, I know you have a kind heart. If you are willing to spend money, you can send her to the Western Hospital in the inner city. Maybe she can be saved. But the cost... is enough for you to buy 10 new maids."

Chen Huihong remained silent.

20 minutes later, the waiter prepared the medicine and fed it to Hui Niang in batches.

The emetic medicine was still useful. After vomiting several times, Hui Niang gradually regained consciousness. Doctor Wang knew that Chen Huihong must not know how to make medicine, so he asked Chen Huihong to take Hui Niang home first to prevent her from catching a cold. Later, he asked the waiter to make the medicine and send it over.

Chen Huihong took Hui Niang back home and started looking for copper coins everywhere, even turning out the uneaten candied fruits that were stuffed in the cupboard.

"Sister, what are you looking for?" Hui Niang asked weakly while half lying on the bed.

"If you want to find something valuable, I'll take you to that hospital." said Chen Huihong.

"It's very expensive. We can't afford it." Hui Niang panted, "It costs a lot of money to see a doctor there."

"I'll borrow it."

"But if you go and borrow it, won't everyone know that you are not crazy?"

After these words were spoken, Chen Huihong paused in her search for things.

"This way, sister, you won't be able to go shopping in the inner city every day, and you won't be able to eat the food you like, and everyone will find out that you are not a human being at all."

Chen Huihong squatted on the ground, without any reaction, and looked up at Hui Niang quietly: "When did you know?"

Hui Niang smiled and said, "Sister, I'm not stupid. I knew it on the first day."

“That’s not how you eat tree bark at all.”

"But you still ate it." Chen Huihong said.

"Because I was so hungry. Sister, you may not know that I hadn't eaten for many days. I didn't dare to eat dirt. I was afraid that eating dirt would make me die of bloating, which would be even more uncomfortable. But I was really hungry. I couldn't even stand up and could only crawl on the ground."

"I thought I was going to die, but when I ate the piece of bark you gave me, I wasn't hungry anymore."

"Sister, you don't look like a refugee at all. You don't act like one at all. You have such a rosy complexion and so much strength, but you don't look for food or water, and you don't even have a water jar."

"And when I told my sister about Lin County, you didn't react at all. That's where we met. There was plague in Lin County, and everyone died. The surrounding villages were deserted, and people fleeing famine didn't dare to flee there. I was afraid of running into people, so I ran to a deserted place on purpose."

"Sister, you said you were fleeing famine, but how could a young lady from a wealthy family flee famine alone to a place like that?"

Chen Huihong looked at Hui Niang and said, "Then why do you dare to follow me? Aren't you afraid that I will eat you?"

Hui Niang smiled and said, "I'm not afraid even if my parents want to eat me, so why would I be afraid if you, my sister, want to eat me?"

Chen Huihong was stunned.

Hui Niang tried to sit up straight: "In fact, I have always known that my parents took me with them when they fled the famine in order to bring back the food reserves."

"I was afraid to sleep at night, for fear that my parents would replace me and eat me. One night I heard my father talking to my mother, saying that the food was gone and there was no point in keeping me, so he would go find someone to discuss replacing me the next morning."

"I ran away at night while they were sleeping."

"Actually, it's okay if you want to eat me, sister. At least you can have a full meal."

Chen Huihong didn't know what to say, so she could only say, "Monsters don't eat humans."

"Then what kind of monster are you, sister?" Hui Niang asked.

"I am Bai." Chen Huihong said, "According to your understanding, I am a tree demon."

"Sister, can you open the window?" Hui Niang asked.

"Doctor Wang said you should keep warm." Chen Huihong said.

"It's no use." Hui Niang shook her head. "I heard it all. Doctor Wang said he only has a 30% chance at most. He said 30%, but in fact it's only 10%, which means there's no hope for me and I can only wait to die."

Chen Huihong frowned and thought for a moment: "I'll take you to the hospital."

"I can borrow money from Shopkeeper Lu."

Hui Niang shook her head.

"It takes a long time to get from the inner city to the outer city by rickshaw." Hui Niang took a few deep breaths. "I don't know if the remaining money at home is enough to pay for the medicine. There is no money for a rickshaw."

"Now that the snow has melted, it's even colder than when it snowed the past two days. There will definitely be a lot of walking in the next few days. I don't think I can make it to the hospital alive, so I'd better not waste my money."

"I feel terrible."

As soon as she finished speaking, Hui Niang suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and vomited all over the quilt.

"I'm sorry, sister. I made your quilt dirty."

Chen Huihong didn't say anything, but just opened the window silently.

The snow outside the window has melted, and the trees outside the yard are bare with only branches left. There is no beautiful scenery outside the window.

"Sister, you are a monster, so what are your abilities? I watched a play in the village before, and monsters all knew magic."

"My abilities are useless." Chen Huihong took out a piece of bark from her pocket, "I am a tree. If you eat me, I won't be hungry."

"You are really amazing, sister. You are much more amazing than magic." Hui Niang said. She felt a little uncomfortable sitting still and could only lean against the wall. "Just be careful not to get eaten by others."

Then Hui Niang realized belatedly: "No wonder you are hiding from people, sister."

"Sister, let me tell you about myself."

Hui Niang began to talk about her past. Her life was actually very ordinary. Before she escaped from famine, she stayed in the village, working day after day and waiting to get married.

As she spoke, Hui Niang's voice began to become unclear.

"Sister, you said that everyone will die eventually. If not today, then tomorrow. I was going to die the day I met you, but I lived a lot longer."

Chen Huihong looked at her quietly without saying anything.

"If there is an afterlife, I want to be a lady in the city so that I can go to school and be as educated as my sister."

Hui Niang muttered a few unclear words like a delirium, and suddenly stretched out her hand in the direction of Chen Huihong.

Chen Huihong walked forward and held her hand.

"Mom." Hui Niang's pupils began to dilate.

"Don't eat me, please."

"I will be obedient."

"mother."

The hand dropped heavily.

Hui Niang is lifeless.