Famine and Chaos: Weaving Cloth in Exile to Escape the War

"Oh my god... I'm rich, I'm rich!" Kyoto Haru's heart was pounding so hard she almost jumped up on the spot.

She never expected that this batch of Cistanche deserticola would be worth so much!

At this rate, with so many being brought in every day, she and the Yang family will soon have enough medicinal herbs to treat the plague in less than four days.

Just as Jing Zhichun was getting excited, Ji Xiaoman's childish voice rang out.

"Mother, does the aunt in the palace really drink this? I've never heard you mention it before. Also, didn't you say it was medicinal material to trade with the peddler for food?"

amount……

Jing Zhichun sighed inwardly, rubbing her forehead.

It's true that if you tell one lie, you have to tell countless others to cover it up.

Fortunately, Xiaoman is still young and simple-minded, so she is easy to fool.

Jing Zhichun laughed and said, "These are indeed medicinal herbs, and it's true that they can be exchanged for grain. But saying that they're going to be sent to the palace is just Mother lying to the Yang family."

Think about it, what if the Yang family knew that this thing was so valuable and could be exchanged for grain?

Could they secretly dig them up to exchange for food?

Not only would we not be able to dig it up then, but it would also be difficult for Mother to dig it up in this freezing weather. That's why Mother made up that lie.

However, Mother wouldn't let them work for nothing.

They dug up medicinal herbs for us, and I used the medicinal herbs they needed most right now to pay them in exchange for their wages, helping them get through this difficult time.

This is called mutual help and assistance, a win-win situation.

Xiaoman, I've only told you this. It's a little secret between us, so you absolutely mustn't tell anyone else, understand?

Xiaoman seemed to understand, but seeing Jingzhichun's serious expression, she nodded vigorously: "Yes! I understand, Mother, I won't tell anyone!"

"Good girl. Tomorrow, Mom will find a chance to give these to the peddler, and I'll buy you a roast chicken too." Jing Zhichun patted Xiaoman's head.

"Okay, I'll do whatever you say, Mother."

At night, after the two children were asleep, Jing Zhichun added some firewood to the stove before selling all the piled-up Cistanche deserticola to the system.

Seeing the extra 15,000 coins in her system account, she felt much more at ease and then fell into a deep sleep next to Xiaoman.

The next morning, he got up while Xiaoman was still fast asleep, went straight out to the woodshed to chop some firewood, bought a roast chicken from the system, and put 2 jin of flour in his basket before going inside.

Xiaoman just opened her eyes at that moment. She rubbed her eyes, looked at Jing Zhichun who had just entered the room, and then noticed that the Cistanche deserticola on the ground was gone.

"Mother, did you sell the medicinal herbs to the peddler?"

"Yes, I heard the peddler's shouts early this morning, so I took it out to sell to him. Oh, and Mom bought another roast chicken. We'll have roast chicken for lunch again today."

"Wow, that's great! We can eat roast chicken again!" Xiaoman was incredibly excited; roast chicken was her favorite food.

She could eat it every day and never get tired of it.

Seeing how happy Xiaoman was, Jing Zhichun thought to himself that children are really easy to fool.

I'm skipping breakfast this morning; I need to exercise first.

After feeding the baby formula, Jing Zhichun urged Xiaoman to continue jumping rope in the open space in front of the house.

She tied the weighted sandbags to her legs, wrapped the baby tightly in her arms, and then went out of the house to walk slowly around the hut, both to strengthen her leg muscles and to let the child get some fresh air.

However, as she walked to the back of the hut, she noticed something was wrong.

There are two very clear sets of footprints in the snow here.

The heavy snow stopped yesterday, so these two sets of footprints must have been left yesterday.

Who would sneak around to the back of her thatched hut?

Could it have been left behind by the Yang family father and son?

However, she remembered that the Yang family members all wore wolfskin boots, which made their feet look particularly large, making the footprints even larger.

Moreover, the two sets of footprints circled around her thatched hut.

Even if the footprints belonged to the Yang family father and son, there was no need for them to circle around his thatched hut.

Of course, these couldn't possibly be her footprints or Xiaoman's footprints either, because they didn't go anywhere else yesterday except for wandering around the doorway.

However, looking at the two sets of footprints, she compared them and found they were similar to her own, so they must have been a woman's footprints.

At this moment, excluding the Yang family father and son, Jing Zhichun's heart jumped.

Could these two sets of footprints have been left by thieves?

Did they come to her thatched hut to scout things out?

Thinking of this, Kyoto Haru followed the two sets of footprints and found that after walking around the thatched hut, the two sets of footprints stopped and moved around at the base of the east and west walls of the hut.

The snow in both places showed obvious signs of trampling and digging, and the soil had been turned over, as if something had been buried or taken away.

Thief scouting the area?

Why dig?

Jing Zhichun didn't think any further and immediately carried the child back into the house.

She wanted to turn the soil over and examine it thoroughly to see what was going on.

Xiaoman had just finished jumping rope a hundred times and was leaning against the doorframe, panting. Seeing that Jingzhichun's expression was off, she quickly asked, "Mother, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Kyoto Haru said as she entered the room and put the baby back on the tatami mat. "Xiaoman, watch over your little brother. I'm going out to run some errands. Remember to bolt the door, and don't open it for anyone except me."

Xiaoman nodded obediently, "I understand, Mother."

After settling the children in, Jing Zhichun grabbed an axe from the corner of the wall and went out.

She went straight to the area at the base of the east wall that had been disturbed, and began digging with her axe.

Before long, the axe blade hit a hard object.

Kyoto Haru tensed up instantly; there really was something buried underneath.

She quickly dug away the topsoil and revealed a dark, hairy thing. After taking it out, Kyoto Haru was so frightened that she quickly threw it away.

The shape resembled the corpse of a child curled up, with his stark white skull, fingers, and feet...

Good heavens, has someone turned her thatched hut into a graveyard?

However, Kyoto Haru quickly realized what was happening.

Even if it's a child's corpse, it's impossible for it to have hair on its body.

She composed herself, then walked over to the hairy corpse and carefully examined it with the axe.

She then realized it was the corpse of a dead monkey and breathed a sigh of relief. However, at first glance, the thing did look quite human.

Thankfully, it wasn't a human corpse.

The thought that someone had disturbed the earth at the base of the wall on the west side is unbearable.

That means there's something to the west too.

Jing Zhichun went to dig to the west again, and similarly, she dug up another similar monkey carcass at the foot of the west wall.

Kyoto Spring was instantly enraged.

Who the hell was that, staying up all night, came to bury a dead monkey under her wall?

Why would this person do that?

Kyoto Haru couldn't understand it.

However, no matter how confused she was, she knew that the person who buried the dead monkey certainly had ill intentions.

Otherwise, what kind of good person would bury a dead monkey in front of someone else's house?

Kyoto Haru calmed herself down and began to carefully observe the footprints in the snow.

The two sets of footprints circled around her thatched hut and then extended out to the east.

She quickly followed the two sets of footprints, trying to see where the people came from.

The footprints stretched for a considerable distance, estimated to be about 300 meters, and then suddenly disappeared about 50 meters from the Shen family's house.

Because the road to the Shen family's house was covered with messy footprints and cart wheel tracks, completely obscuring and blending in the two sets of footprints she was tracking.

As a result, the trail went cold.

Jing Zhichun walked all the way to the Shen family's gate, then circled around the Shen family's dilapidated thatched huts and found that apart from her own footprints, there were no other footprints.

Those two sets of footprints now both point to the Shen family.

Jing Zhichun stood in the cold wind, staring at the tightly closed, dilapidated wooden door of the Shen family, clenching her fists.

Whether it was the original owner of this body or her, their only enemy in this place of exile was the Shen family.

Who else besides the Shen family buried the dead monkey yesterday?

Why did they do that?

Suddenly, Kyoto Haru remembered something.

In her past life, when she watched period dramas, she saw some unscrupulous people using witchcraft and such.

For example, you might make a voodoo doll with the enemy's birth date and time written on it, then start pricking it with needles while cursing the enemy. Or you might bury a voodoo doll in the enemy's house...

So, could burying this dead monkey in front of her thatched hut also be considered a form of witchcraft by the Shen family?