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

Before dawn, people were already moving around, and low voices and the clanging of pots and pans could be heard from the fire.

Last night, the soldiers lit several large bonfires in the middle of the threshing ground, but the heat from the fires didn't reach the edges. The family lit a separate fire, huddled under the crooked jujube tree, covered with their last cotton quilts, and spent the night half asleep and half awake.

Third Uncle got up even earlier than her. He had already buried the last few yams at the edge of the fire, half-covering them with charcoal ash. The flames licked the yam skins, making a soft sizzling sound.

"Awake?" Third Uncle didn't look up. "The last few are left. Roast them and have them for breakfast."

Jiang Xing responded and moved closer to the fire. He warmed his cold fingers over the flames, and his stiff joints slowly came to life.

She glanced down and saw that Zhang and Xiao Niu were still huddled under the quilt. Zhang's arm was draped over Xiao Niu's back, and her fingers were unconsciously gripping the edge of the quilt, not letting go even in her sleep.

The aroma of roasted yams filled the cold air, and activity gradually began to stir around the fires of several nearby houses.

Following my third uncle's example, I buried the yams in the charcoal ash. After searching through my bundle, I found that even the yams were gone. I silently retied the bundle, hunched my shoulders, and sat by the fire, waiting for instructions.

Many families had no surplus food; they neither lit fires nor cooked, and simply sat there doing nothing.

Third Uncle dug two roasted yams out of the charcoal ash, blew off the ash, peeled off the charred outer skin, revealing the steaming golden inside.

He handed one of the sticks to Jiang Xing, broke the other one in half, gave one half to the calf who had just opened his eyes, and gave the other half to Zhang Shi.

After finishing the yams, the sky began to lighten with the first hint of dawn. The sounds of people gathering in the threshing ground gradually increased. Hurried footsteps rushed past, stopping towards the city gate, followed by Shen Dehou's hoarse voice: "People from Jiangjia Village, go to the city gate to collect your summons!"

The villagers packed their belongings in twos and threes and headed towards the city gate.

The white cloth tent that was erected at the city gate yesterday has been removed, and the bloodstains at the base of the city wall have been hastily covered with a layer of sand. A faint smell of rust can still be smelled when the wind blows.

Several long tables were lined up in a row. Shao Yuanyin sat behind the middle table, with several stacks of blank fortune slips in front of him. Several soldiers stood on both sides of the table, their swords hanging at their waists.

"Villages, come in order! Don't push!" An older yamen runner shouted from in front of the table. "Village chiefs, bring your old ration coupons to exchange for new ones. Those who have lost their coupons, register your names first, and we'll reissue them after verification! You can only receive your ration coupons with your coupons in hand. Everyone, understand?"

The line formed, with Jiangjia Village in third place, followed by Wangjiagou and Chenjiagou. Shen Dehou stood at the very front of the line, clutching an old document stamped with a red seal in his hand. The edges were worn and the creases were about to crack, and he pressed it carefully with his fingers.

Jiang Xing and his third uncle were in the middle of the line. According to their household registration, the two families were separate, so they had to receive their own grain rations. The third uncle stood one position in front of Jiang Xing, clutching the crumpled household registration certificate in his hand. The edges of the certificate were soaked with sweat and the writing on it was a little blurry, but still legible.

Jiang Xing also held her family's household registration certificate in her hand, which belonged to Zhang Shi, herself, and Xiao Niu, a family of three.

Zhang and Xiao Niu did not join the queue. Zhang sat under the crooked jujube tree with two broken baskets beside her, and was slowly wiping the rough edges of the baskets with an old cloth.

Jiang Xing picked up these two baskets yesterday when she went to chop firewood outside the city. One of them had a hole the size of a fist in the bottom, and the other had several broken bamboo strips, but it was still usable. She patched up the hole with the remaining straw rope overnight and wrapped the broken bamboo strips with cloth. Although the two baskets were broken, they could still carry things.

One basket contained neatly folded quilts, while the other awaited being filled with grain.

Xiao Niu squatted beside Zhang Shi, clutching a handful of withered grass leaves he had picked up from somewhere, trying to weave a straw rope. He wove it crookedly, the rope coming undone and then coming undone again, but he didn't get annoyed. He muttered to himself, "Third Uncle said that when weaving a straw rope, you have to twist it with the grain, not against it..."

On the other side, Third Uncle had already lined up at the table. He handed over the household registration certificate, which Shao Yuanyin checked, then wrote a new document and a grain requisition form, stamped it, and returned it.

When it was Jiang Xing's turn, the same thing happened. After checking it word for word, the new document was written and handed over along with the grain requisition form. Jiang Xing took it and turned to walk to the table where the grain was collected.

The person in charge of the grain was a plump clerk in his forties. He wrote "Grain received" in small characters on the back of the document and stamped it with his personal seal.

Then he gestured for them to walk forward and pointed to several large bundles of gray cotton-padded coats piled up next to him: "One coat for each person, children's coats are a separate matter. Go over there and get your clothes first."

Jiang Xing rummaged through the pile of cotton-padded clothes, but they were all old. She turned over the collars and cuffs, picked out three with relatively dense stitches, rolled them into a bundle, tucked them under her arm, and walked back to the grain table.

The grain for the two households was packed separately. Jiang Xing's family of three received 15 jin of brown rice, which was packed in a small cloth bag: 6 jin for the adults and 3 jin for the child.

Jiang Xing put the brown rice into another basket and covered it with his cotton-padded coat.

Third Uncle put his own grain bag in, and then folded up the cotton quilt that Zhang had wiped clean and put it in as well. Two broken baskets, one for grain and cotton-padded jacket, and the other for the cotton quilt and the few remaining rough pottery bowls.

The family was tidying up their belongings when they heard footsteps behind them.