Sold immediately after wearing it? I took my family and fled the famine.

When they returned to the cave, Doctor Gu had already set up a large pot at the entrance, and the medicinal soup inside was bubbling away. Although he hadn't collected as many medicinal herbs as he had from the south, it was enough for their needs. Together with the herbs he had gathered, he had brewed two large pots of medicinal soup.

Seeing Jiang Xing return with his men, he put down the medicine spoon in his hand and went to greet him. He rummaged through the baskets on his back, his eyes widening as he looked at the Arisaema heterophyllum, Polygonatum sibiricum, and Smilax glabra, all of which were of exceptionally high quality.

He then saw the snake meat, snake skin, and snake gallbladders being carried by the people behind him. He opened his mouth, and after a long pause, he finally said, "Have you searched the entire southern mountain area?"

Jiang Xing instructed the team to hand over all the medicinal herbs to Doctor Gu, and then took one-third of the herbs from the bag containing snake gallbladders and snake skins and placed it next to Doctor Gu's medicine box.

"Dr. Gu, please keep the snake gallbladders." She paused for a moment, "They're all from vipers; you can add them to the medicine for the villagers to drink."

Doctor Gu glanced at the pile of perfectly preserved snake gallbladders on the ground, then at Jiang Xing, and nodded: "Alright, young lady, you know quite a lot. Who is your teacher?"

"I don't have a master; I learned about it from books."

The group of people who went out with Jiang Xing put their baskets on the ground, and ferns, kudzu roots, and smilax glabra roots rolled all over the ground. The wild vegetables were piled up like a small mountain. The most eye-catching thing was the string of more than forty snake meats, which were strung together with straw rope and hung on a carrying pole, swaying as they were carried into the cave.

The entire cave fell silent for a moment.

The first to get restless were the group of refugees who had originally occupied the cave. After they arrived, all they did was chop firewood and lie on their bedding to doze off. All the wild vegetables that could be dug up nearby had already been dug up, and they were too lazy to even dig for wild vegetables far away. If they didn't move, they wouldn't get hungry quickly.

Yesterday, we collected the grain from these newcomers, giving each of them a pound or two. We cooked two meals of porridge, and I feel that we can still make ends meet.

At this moment, seeing that the basket contained not only medicinal herbs, but also fern roots, kudzu roots, and Solomon's seal, as well as a long string of snake meat, their eyes almost popped out. The man who was leading them stared at the basket with a change in expression, biting a blade of grass hard in his mouth.

The first to crowd around were the group that had gone to the north slope with Doctor Gu. They looked at Jiang Xing's group's harvest, then at the few handfuls of mugwort and perilla in their own baskets, their expressions a mixture of envy and resentment: "How did you find the snake?"

"Miss Jiang led us to this place!" The dark-faced man shouted, carrying snake meat. "Not only snake, but also fern roots, kudzu roots, and smilax glabra—all edible!"

The news spread through the cave, and everyone, whether sick or healthy, couldn't help but crane their necks to look in that direction.

A string of forty-odd snakes hung on the carrying pole, their white bodies reflecting the firelight.

"Miss Jiang said we should keep some, and use the rest to cook." The dark-faced man turned around and discussed with the others who had caught snakes with him: "Keep a dozen or so for our own family, and use thirty to make soup, so everyone can have a bowl."

After these words were spoken, the cave fell silent for a moment. Then a woman covered her mouth and cried. She had been holding it in for a long time but suddenly couldn't hold it in anymore. Her shoulders trembled and tears streamed down her face from between her fingers.

As she cried, several women around her also wiped away tears. The men did not cry, but some turned away and wiped the corners of their eyes, while others squatted down and pretended to tidy up their baskets, but their hands did not move for a long time.

After fleeing famine for so long, having gnawed on tree bark and sucked on grass roots, and barely able to even drink wild vegetable porridge, someone suddenly suggested that we could have meat soup tonight. This idea itself was like a stone thrown into stagnant water, making our hearts feel both sour and swollen.

Even Ma Dadan, leaning against the cave wall, glanced over there twice. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he didn't say anything, but he couldn't help but smirk.

"What are you crying about?" The dark-faced man was at a loss for words, scratching the back of his head. "It's just snake soup."

But everyone knows that this is not just snake soup; it is the first time in more than two months since they left their hometown that they feel they are not abandoned by God.

The cave suddenly became lively. Some people took out their own millet flour, some pulled out a small bag of black bean flour, and some took out half a piece of dried ginger from the bottom of the bundle.

Liu brought over the last bit of her pickled wild vegetables, saying, "Anyway, they won't last long."

Aunt Wang brought a small half-bag of mixed grain flour, while Granny Zhao contributed a handful of dried mushrooms, which she had brought from Jiangjia Village and had been reluctant to eat along the way.

You give a handful, I give a handful, this family gives a little, that family gives a little. Even families with little grain can afford to contribute. Some people who don't have rice or flour will voluntarily chop wood and fetch water; others who don't have dry firewood or ginger will squat by the fire to keep it burning. The harmonious atmosphere in the cave gives it a sense of everyday life.

Scholar Chen walked over from beside his carriage, carrying a bag of coarse rice, and placed it next to the large pot of snake soup.

He didn't say much, but simply cupped his hands in greeting to Shen Dehou, who was in charge of the pot: "This is fifty catties of brown rice. It's not very good quality, but I'll add some porridge for everyone."

Shen Dehou looked at the bag of rice, then at Chen Xiucai, and nodded solemnly.

Master Qian didn't come over. He had his servants light a fire next to his carriage and stew a chicken in a pot.

He dared to openly stew chicken today because the refugees were busy dividing up snake meat; no one was looking in his direction, and no one was staring at his pot, drooling.

He sat on the edge of the carriage with a teacup in his hand, feeling unusually relaxed. Qian Baozhu sat inside the carriage, picking at the chicken leg in her bowl, finding it too dry, and after taking two bites, she had the maid take it away.

Master Qian was right. The refugees who had fled the famine together were indeed not concerned about what they were eating today; their minds were entirely on those four large pots.

Four pots were placed at the entrance of the cave, with a roaring fire. Snake meat cut into sections was put into the pots along with grains collected from various households, millet flour, black bean flour, mixed grain flour, and dried mushrooms, all bubbling and churning.

The snake meat quickly turned milky white in the boiling water, with a thin layer of oil floating on the soup. The aroma wafted out of the cave entrance, masking the fishy smell of the cold rain outside.