Li Cuicui muttered under her breath, but she furtively brought out half a bowl of a blackish paste from the corner. A faint scent of grass hung in the air.
"Let your wife have a few mouthfuls of this. See if it helps her recover. And don't be a fool and let her finish it all. Save some for yourself."
Ancient Wen Heng froze. The old woman had just secretly given him some grain earlier today, and now she was bringing him half a bowl of rations. He could feel the other families staring at them.
"Don't be an idiot. Sometimes, your pride isn't worth as much as your life. I really don't know what you've learned from all those years of studying. You've nearly starved your wife to death, yet you don't even know to ask your brothers for help." As she said this, Li Cuicui's face filled with disgust.
'If this boy had been a bit more sensible, I wouldn't have had to part with so much grain today. Didn't he see how my other sons and daughters-in-law all breathed a sigh of relief? My heart just isn't as hard as others'.'
The more she thought about it, the more furious she became. She shoved the bowl directly into Ancient Wen Heng's hands and turned, stomping angrily toward Gu Dashishi.
"That old woman has a sharp tongue but a soft heart," Jin Qianqian said as she sat up, watching Li Cuicui's retreating back thoughtfully.
"You're awake," Ancient Wen Heng said, carefully sitting down beside her while holding the somewhat chipped bowl.
Jin Qianqian gave a wry smile. "This body is just too weak. It's still aching all over. It's a good thing we secretly supplemented a little today, or this new life of ours would have been over the moment it began."
Even though the two of them had prepared some private meals at the back of the group, they only dared to drink a little milk and eat some easily digestible food. Otherwise, their stomachs wouldn't have been able to handle it.
Ancient Wen Heng looked at the blackish substance in his hand, then tilted his head back and poured it down his throat in a few gulps.
Jin Qianqian quickly raised a hand to stop him, only to find him holding the empty bowl and smacking his lips.
To the onlookers, however, this scene looked completely different. The women and children of the Gu family all looked at Jin Qianqian with a hint of pity.
The Gu Family Brothers, on the other hand, all covered their faces in embarrassment. They never knew their Seventh brother was so greedy that he wouldn't spare a single bite of rations for his wife. No wonder she was so thin she looked like a gust of wind could blow her over.
Hong Daya was about to stand up, but Gu Yuantu, who was beside her, grabbed her arm and gave her a slight shake of his head.
"Why are you stopping me? I've never seen Seventh act like such a scoundrel, eating everything himself! What's his wife supposed to eat?" Hong Daya gritted her teeth. "Or is this how you plan to treat me, too?"
Gu Yuantu felt utterly wronged. He shot a dissatisfied glance at Ancient Wen Heng. 'I've never seen such an unreliable brother. He's making me look bad again.'
Even the ever-domineering Li Cuicui turned her head aside. 'This is so vexing to watch.'
Unaware of the misunderstanding, Jin Qianqian was looking at Ancient Wen Heng with concern. "Did you bite down on something hard?"
Even though it had been boiled into a paste, you could imagine that the wild vegetables and weeds hadn't been washed at all. One mouthful would be full of sand and grit.
"It was fine. I swallowed it in one go, so I didn't feel much." Ancient Wen Heng smacked his lips, still in the mood to joke. "I ate it too fast. Maybe I should have let you experience it too."
Jin Qianqian rolled her eyes at him. "If you really thought that, you wouldn't have downed it all at once.
Hurry up and tidy our things. We should get some rest soon. We have to keep going tomorrow."
The thought of endlessly measuring the land with their own two feet made Jin Qianqian sigh internally. 'What have I done to deserve this?'
Ancient Wen Heng flopped down unceremoniously next to Jin Qianqian, lying flat on his back. "Ah, that's better. But we can't go on like this. We need to think of a plan."
Jin Qianqian said, "What plan could we possibly think of? The lack of water alone is enough to kill us."
After speaking, she glanced at herself in disgust. Her hands were caked with grime. No matter how unbearable it was, she didn't dare sneak even a little water out of her spatial inventory to wash them.
To prepare for a possible apocalypse, she had contacted several water plants and stockpiled several thousand barrels of purified water.
Thinking of this, Jin Qianqian secretly nudged Ancient Wen Heng. When his gaze shifted to her, she whispered, "When you were out just now, did you see any secluded spots? We need to replenish our energy."
Ancient Wen Heng thought back carefully and actually recalled a target location. "It's a bit far."
When most of the people had fallen asleep, the two of them slipped away into the darkness. The person on watch glanced at them, assumed they were going to relieve themselves, and paid them no mind.
Guided by the moonlight, Ancient Wen Heng led Jin Qianqian, feeling their way to the small cave he had seen earlier. The place was truly far from where they had been resting. If it weren't for the need for secrecy, Jin Qianqian would have wanted to give up halfway.
"It's only about ten feet wide here. I checked during the day—there isn't even a single weed inside. It's not a lair for any animals."
Jin Qianqian saw that the cave faced away from the direction they had come. Only then did she take out a flashlight and inspect it carefully, which put her more at ease.
She had camping lights prepared in her spatial inventory, but she didn't dare risk using them. She could only make do with the dim glow.
She took out some congee they had packed earlier. Seeing the still-steaming container, Ancient Wen Heng couldn't help but lick his lips. "Your space can even keep things warm. It's more convenient than carrying a refrigerator around. Besides this congee, is there anything else? My mouth has gone completely bland."
Jin Qianqian took out a few salted duck eggs. "You think I don't want to eat something good? Don't forget, our stomachs have been starved for a long time. If we don't nurse them back to health properly, we'll suffer for it later."
Ancient Wen Heng also remembered how Jin Qianqian had always suffered from stomach aches back when she was in school. He knew it was the result of a whole year of having one full meal and then starving for the next few.
In this regard, Jin Qianqian had more of a say than he did. He stopped complaining about the bland congee and, pairing it with the salted duck eggs, finished it off in a flash.
"Now that's what I call satisfying. It's a good thing you have this wondrous treasure, or we probably wouldn't have lasted more than a few days." After eating, Ancient Wen Heng's spirits returned, and he started joking again. "I wonder if we'll be this lucky next time? Will we get another extra life?"
Jin Qianqian cleaned up the leftover takeout containers and eggshells, then said leisurely, "No matter where we are, the chances of us going back are slim. I bet our seniors from school already know what happened to us."
Ancient Wen Heng was more optimistic. "At least we're still alive. People are dying every day; we just took a step ahead of them. By the way, what other strange and wonderful things do you have in there? Just so I have a general idea."
Jin Qianqian briefly summarized her inventory. "I was originally planning to open a large supermarket when I got back. I have all the stock a normal supermarket should have, and even things they shouldn't. It's enough to supply a commercial city."
Ancient Wen Heng clutched at his wildly beating heart. "So... we're not going to starve to death?"
Heaven knows, he was terrified that he wouldn't be able to take care of this girl in this strange new world.