Sweet Dreams in Famine Years: The System Leads to a Brilliant Life

Perhaps they were too tired after a whole day's journey, so after the kids washed themselves, they went to bed and fell asleep immediately.

She simply washed their changed clothes and then found that there was not enough water. She hesitated for a moment and finally decided to spend five system coins to buy a large bucket of water from the system mall.

After everything was done, Zeng Zhengen went to bed.

A good night's sleep.

……

The next morning, Zeng Zhengen got up early as the sky was just beginning to light up. The clothes washed last night had already dried due to the hot weather. After she neatly put away the clothes of the three children, she went to the kitchen.

She thought it was inconvenient to cook during the day, so she decided to make some simple rice balls. In the hot summer, it was okay to eat something cold. Zeng Zhengen first steamed a pot of fragrant white rice, and then spent 20 system coins from the system mall to buy some fresh pork, eggs and crispy dried radish as ingredients. After the rice was steamed, she quickly stir-fried the pork until golden, mixed the eggs and dried radish to season, and prepared the fillings for the rice balls.

She skillfully wrapped the fillings and rice together, making dozens of rice balls of appropriate size. She carefully wrapped each rice ball with oil paper, picked out a few to eat in the morning, and put the rest neatly into the backpack.

After Zeng Zhengen finished making the rice balls, he bought a few water bags from the system mall, filled them all with water and put them in the backpack. At this time, the sky gradually brightened, and the little guys also climbed out of bed. They tidied up the bedding, walked out of the house and started to wash.

When they saw the rice balls neatly arranged on the table, they all showed surprised expressions. This was the first time they saw white rice being made into such a round shape, and their eyes were full of curiosity.

"Mom, what is this?" Zhang Jiahu asked curiously, his eyes fixed on the rice ball.

"This is a rice ball made of white rice with a poached egg, dried radish and meat slices in it," Zeng Zhengen explained patiently.

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhang Jiahu couldn't wait to pick up a rice ball and took a bite, his eyes suddenly lit up. "It's delicious! This rice ball is so delicious!" He said excitedly, his face full of surprise.

Hearing Zhang Jiahu's praise, the other two kids couldn't help themselves and quickly picked up a rice ball and took a bite. After the rice ball entered their mouths, they all showed satisfied expressions and closed their eyes to savor the delicious taste.

After breakfast, the sound of the village head beating a gong came from outside, indicating that they were about to set off. Yang Yueyue and a few kids loaded the packed things back onto the wheelbarrow one by one.

As the mother and her two children pushed the wheelbarrow out of the yard, they saw Zeng's mother and her group coming out of the yard next door.

"Dad, Mom." Zeng Zhengen shouted over there.

Zeng's father and mother nodded slightly when they heard the shouts, and then followed Zeng Zhengen's family to Pan Yang. Along the way, Zeng's mother asked a few questions with concern, and then changed the subject and mentioned Zeng Zhengen's delivery of food yesterday.

"It's not easy for you to raise three children alone. Why do you give away so much food? Don't give it away anymore. Save it for Xiaojun and his two brothers. They are in the growing period and can't let them starve." Zeng's mother's tone was full of heartache and worry, and she couldn't help but remind him.

"Mom, don't worry, we still have plenty of food at home. Besides, we are fleeing from famine now, and it is not safe to carry too much food on the road. It is better to eat more while we have food so that we have energy to continue on our journey." Zeng Zhengen responded with a smile, still using the same words he had said to Zeng Siyuan last night to comfort his mother.

Zeng's mother wanted to say something else, but Zeng's father interrupted her at the right time. "Alright, stop nagging. The child sent the food out of kindness. If you keep talking like this, it will make the child feel that he did something wrong."

After hearing this, Zeng's mother didn't say anything else, but just nodded, tacitly approving Zeng Zhengen's approach. The group soon arrived at the gathering place of Pan Yang.

Pan Yang counted the number of people and saw that everyone was present, so he signaled everyone to continue their journey. After a night of rest, everyone's mental state was obviously much better than yesterday.

The team successfully traveled more than 20 miles in the morning. On the way, they also met villagers from other villages who were fleeing famine. Everyone passed by hurriedly, nodded to each other, and continued on their way.

At noon, the team came to a relatively wide flat area, and Pan Yang asked everyone to stop and take a rest. Zeng Zhengen saw that the lips of the children were a little chapped, so he quickly took out the water bag and handed them one by one to quench their thirst. After the children drank the water, they recovered a little, and Zeng Zhengen took out the rice balls prepared in the morning and gave one to each of the three children.

Then, she handed the remaining rice balls to Zeng's mother. "Mom, these are the rice balls I made this morning. I put some dried vegetables in them. Please share some with everyone to fill their stomachs!"

Zeng's mother looked at the rice balls and felt reluctant to accept them. She had just complained about her daughter in the morning, and now she saw her making rice balls out of rice. She couldn't help but get anxious again. "You really don't know how to live! Rice is so precious, how can you waste it like this?"

Zeng Zhengen smiled and responded, "Mom, how can this be considered a waste? Besides, the rice balls will definitely go bad by the evening, so it's better to eat them now to avoid wasting them."

Zeng's mother heard her daughter's words and knew she was right, but she still couldn't bear to part with the precious rice, so she had no choice but to take the rice balls and distribute them to her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. Despite this, she couldn't help but continue to tell Zeng Zhengen not to waste it again while distributing it.

Zeng Zhengen listened to her mother's instructions and agreed with them, but in her heart she was thinking about how to reassure her mother. She knew that the journey was bound to be hard, but with the help of the system, she was confident that she could make her family's life a little better. However, she did not say these thoughts out loud for the time being, but just comforted her mother, "Mom, I know, don't worry, I will pay attention in the future."

Here, Zeng Zhengen's family was enjoying rice balls and resting, while on the other side, Zhang Pozi and her group were struggling to travel.

The story started on the day when Zeng Zhengen went back to her parents' home. Mrs. Zhang originally wanted to take her two sons and daughters-in-law to Zeng's house to ask for some benefits. However, Yang Xuyu suddenly called the whole village to discuss the matter of fleeing famine, and decided that the whole village would set out to flee famine together the next day. Mrs. Zhang had no choice but to pack up her things first. When she went to Zeng's house again, she found that all the villagers in Dapo Village had already set out to flee famine, and not even their shadows could be seen. Mrs. Zhang, who had come up empty-handed, was so angry that she stamped her feet and could only go back indignantly and follow the villagers on the road.

Zhangguanbao is located at the foot of the mountains. There are many hunters in the village, and the villagers are relatively familiar with the terrain of the mountains. In order to save time, they chose to take the mountain road instead of the official road. Although the mountain road is closer, it is extremely difficult to walk. The people of Zhangguanbao also dealt with their own livestock, and all used wheelbarrows to push their luggage on the road. The rugged mountain road caused them a lot of trouble. Mrs. Zhang sprained her ankle after only one day of walking, but the team could not wait for anyone, so she could only grit her teeth and keep up with the support of her two daughters-in-law.

Finally, the team stopped to rest on a flat ground. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and took out pots and pans to prepare food. However, a dispute arose in Mrs. Zhang's family because of insufficient food.

"We are all on the same journey, why should we have one less bowl of porridge?" Mrs. Zhang yelled in dissatisfaction, with obvious anger in her voice. Her two daughters-in-law looked at each other and dared not reply. Although the mountain road was closer, there was not much food to begin with, and they had packed up in a hurry the day before, so they did not bring much dry food, which led to the current predicament.

"Sister-in-law, everyone is having a hard time on this journey. There is not much food to begin with. It's good enough if we can eat our fill. Let's just be patient." One of the daughters-in-law whispered.

Mrs. Zhang refused to give in and glared at her: "Endure? Why should I endure? If it weren't for that little bitch Zeng Zhengen, we wouldn't have ended up like this!" She became angrier and angrier as she spoke, as if all the faults were to be blamed on Zeng Zhengen.

"Sister-in-law, there isn't much porridge left. Your eldest and second daughter are still young, so they can eat less." Tang Jiali said.

"Your Xiaobing is just a child, why can't you eat less?" Wang Ju said unyieldingly.

Tang Jiali was immediately unhappy.

"Sister-in-law, Xiaobing is the eldest grandson of our Zhang family. He will have many children for our Zhang family in the future. How can he starve? If he starves, will you be worthy of our ancestors?"