CHAPTER 800: FAMINE ERA 4 (2 UPDATES)

It can be said that for the sake of difficult survival, their lives were not necessarily easier than those outside, but the one thing that kept them going was that they at least had something to eat.

Even in the bitter December cold, determined bandits would still come to scout the village. It wasn’t that they were overly cautious, but rather that reality forced their hand.

In addition to bandits, there were some idle soldiers. If circumstances were especially harsh, she would stealthily transfer water from her space’s watering can outside, not a lot, just enough to ensure they wouldn’t die of thirst.

As food was gradually consumed day by day, she would intermittently replenish it from the space.

They gave the finer foods to the elderly and children. Ye Huan, because she would occasionally sneak a tomato or cucumber, volunteered to eat coarse grains.

They saved the sweet potato flour, potato flour, and cornmeal for grandparents and her younger siblings.

For this reason, Uncle Auntie, and Uncle Auntie held her in great affection, but fine grains were truly scarce. Sometimes the grandparents insisted not to eat, accepting only the occasional meal. Everyone was making sacrifices for the children, which also brought their family closer together.

"This winter is the hardest I’ve ever endured. Although it’s not my first time experiencing a disaster, if it weren’t for Huanhuan, we really might have died on the road fleeing famine,"

In the war years, crossing enemy territory was terrifying to even think about, whereas the disasters in the second year were at least during a time of peace, with no warfare or layers upon layers of exploitation and oppression. Common folks, though suffering, managed to get by—but could they survive this year of famine?

Twenty of them hardly managed on two meals a day, consuming around two jin per meal, totaling three to four Jin daily, even on their strictest rationing. Since June, nearly half a year had passed, and in fact, not much grain had been consumed. The remaining grains and the occasional additions by Ye Huan could at best last until the year ended, hopefully until wild vegetables sprouted.

Sometimes in the evening, Ye Huan would accompany them to fetch water from the river. Using this opportunity, she would occasionally dig up a potato or sweet potato.

Ye Huan knew her little tricks couldn’t deceive the adults. Having lived together for the past half a year, they no longer saw her as a real child. Knowing the disaster in advance, they’d already treated her differently. So when she occasionally unearthed a potato or sweet potato, they knowingly accepted her secret gifts as if surprised. After all, without these foods, they really couldn’t have survived.

A single potato could make a pot of soup to give the children and elderly something to chew on. What did feigning ignorance really matter?

Thus, with one deceiving and the others knowingly playing dumb, they somehow endured the harsh winter.

As the earth gradually warmed, they expected rainfall but were greeted with persistent drought. God was so stingy, not a drop of water fell. While there were two pitiable snowfalls during winter, there was no rain as spring approached—a far cry from her initial assessment.

In the end, Ye Huan concluded, "Maybe back then when she was sold, the place was different, so I didn’t know the weather back in our Henan homeland?"

This conclusion was accepted by everyone, as there was no ground for dispute.

Well water dwindled, with rivers receding considerably, yet near the riverbanks, some wild herbs and vegetation sprouted.

Relying on the occasional potatoes and sweet potatoes dug up by Ye Huan and the remaining leftover food, they made it to April.

In other words, by April, the grains painstakingly saved over the past few years were all consumed.

They survived because they foraged wild vegetables and grasses from the riverbanks. Beyond that, the fields and ditches sometimes yielded little, which required searching. Luckily, after nearly a year of struggling, no one ventured this way anymore, and if they saw someone, they would hide promptly.

Hiding out in their village, they were unaware of how inflated prices had become outside, with grains rocketing to several hundred yuan per jin (National Currency) and many firms refusing to accept large denomination notes, requiring exchange into smaller denominations.

Of course, these were memories from Ye Huan’s past life. Now secluded in the village, it was impossible for them to know what was happening outside.

The family didn’t ask, and she didn’t tell either. The lack of anyone returning from the village hinted at how dire the outside situation had become.

Because their village had ultimately become a ’Deserted Village,’ it also gave them a chance to survive.

The previous emergency rations were gone, no matter. The entire family mobilized to search for food in the fields and ravines.

Hearing the data on Liang Tian, Ye Huan felt a shocking pang of fear, for the terrifying reality was that the specifics were still a mystery to this day.

However, when the scorching summer arrived, the wild grass and wild vegetables were gone. The sun was too fierce and there was no water, even surviving was a struggle, let alone for those wandering outside.

Because nothing grew outside the rivers and even many trees had withered away, they had no choice but to go down to the river to catch fish and shrimp, yet they also had to be careful not to eat things like the water snails, which were not safe to consume.

In summer, she would fetch wild strawberries, wild tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, and such from her space to quench everyone’s thirst and cravings.

Her family had learned to accept in silence the items only she could find, not asking questions, just accepting.

As long as they could survive, they didn’t care what secrets Ye Huan was hiding, because everything she did was for the safety of her family.

Her family didn’t question her, which made Ye Huan very grateful. Of course, she hadn’t gone too far, only bringing things out when her family truly couldn’t bear it any longer.

She didn’t give them the illusion of an inexhaustible supply; after all, she could only help her own family members.

Being able to live healthily through the Famine Era was already a great blessing for her family; they dared not even dream of more.

Finally, in September 1943, a heavy rain fell. Who knows what it felt like when the rain came down and the entire family stood in the rain, weeping and jumping for joy?

And Ye Huan knew that this time, they truly made it through. The next time would be the early 1960s.

Someone once said, "What’s so great about starving to death? Twenty years later, I’ll still be a brave and strong man."

The worst and hardest must be those who lived through both those times, right?

The rain had come, but there were no seeds to plant, and she couldn’t use the seeds from her space.

The seeds she had stored were for wild vegetables; for grain crops, they’d probably have to look to the government.

They planted the radishes and cabbages they could, and then her grandparents, uncles, and father started making trips back and forth to the town and county.

Their family was the only one remaining in Tupo Village, so they not only received government relief grain but also winter wheat seeds.

For that relief grain and seeds, they made an arduous effort for over a month, and during that month, people began gradually returning to the area.

Their family planted the wheat first since the government only provided seeds for four mu of land, and as more people returned, more land was cultivated.

By the end of the year, the population increased to one hundred people. After the New Year, there were no further increases. During these days, everyone relied on the government’s relief grain to survive tough times. Because the relief was limited, when they were hungry, they depended on Ye Huan, so her family’s situation was indeed much better than others’.

As for the women, those who could be sold would end up the same as the girls.

Thus, the current situation in Tupo Village, with an imbalance of men to women, and fewer old and young, was essentially the same as in other counties and cities.

No matter what, they had made it through the toughest years of ’42 and ’43. Ye Huan had grown into a young lady, fourteen years old. According to the customs of the era, she should be married by fifteen or sixteen, but how could Ye Huan allow herself to marry early? So, she secured a promise from her grandparents that she could decide on her own marriage and insisted on not marrying early.

The elders of the Ye Family now regarded Ye Huan as the family’s lucky star, naturally obliging her every request.

The 1940s was a period without an economy to speak of, for in 1945 the war against Japan was won, World War II ended, and the United Nations was established.

The whole world was moving toward a period of unrest, not to mention her place, a dilapidated town in the countryside. So, merely living was a luxury, let alone anything else.

And in the countryside of 1944, what people saw in their eyes, in their hearts, was the land that had nurtured them. Farming the land and harvesting the crops became their sole obsession.