Chapter 1, Escape
In August of the twelfth year of Hongtai in the Great Xia Dynasty, the Yangtze River flooded, and many places in seven prefectures including Huai'an in South Zhili were affected. Xiaohe Village in Haining County was one of them, and the entire village embarked on the road to escape.

……

Under the blood-red glow of the sunset glow, the Yangtze River was vast, with wooden planks and benches floating in the water. One could also see the carcasses of chickens and ducks being toyed with by the current, being lifted up and then pushed down.

On the official road more than a mile away from the river, hundreds of people were trudging along with their families. The road was muddy and the soles of their shoes were deeply sunken in the mud. The mud made their footsteps heavy and they had to find stones to scrape against from time to time before they could move forward.

Finally, a voice came from the front of the team, "Let's stop here today, let's make a fire and cook." Immediately, amidst the cries of "ouch, ouch", each household began to set up pots and fetch water, and smoke rose up.

In a corner behind a group of people.

"Sister Fang, your Xuanxuan is really capable. She picked such a big bunch of wild vegetables!"

"Sister-in-law Geng, don't think it's too much. In fact, it's not even enough for her to feed. It's a huge loss to raise her!" Fang Sun said with disdain.

"You're taking advantage of me. Why don't you let Xuanxuan come to my house?" Mrs. Geng looked at the wild vegetables with envy again before turning around.

"You take it away!" Fang Sun said with a smile, and told the girl called 'Xuanxuan', who looked about seventeen or eighteen years old and was wearing coarse cloth clothes, to wash the wild vegetables. She turned around and took out a small cloth bag, opened it carefully like a treasure, counted the rice grains and poured them into the iron pot little by little, then quickly tied it up with a painful feeling.

Wow!
Dark yellow coarse rice mixed with rice husks falls into the bubbling hot water in the iron pot, and the sweet aroma of grains emanates.

The boy who was lighting the fire was named Fang Lin. He smelled the aroma of grains in the steam and subconsciously swallowed his saliva. Even though he mentally rejected it, his body still honestly conveyed a hunger and thirst like dry and cracked soil.

He traveled through time and space half a day ago, but it was not a possession of another body, but more like a fusion, because this body was also called Fang Lin, and his appearance was exactly the same as when he was young in his previous life, and his parents were also 80% to 90% similar.

Even the history of this world was consistent with that of the previous life before the end of the Yuan Dynasty. It only took a turn at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Emperor Taizu of Xia unified the south from the north and established the Great Xia, which has now gone through ten dynasties. Compared with the previous life, this world is like another mirror universe. When Fang Lin traveled through it, it was as if he had merged with himself in the mirror universe, and all the memories and emotions of the two lives became one.

"My son is starving!"

When Fang Sun saw Fang Lin swallowing his saliva, her thin and yellow face was full of heartache: "Okay, okay, let's eat now!"

The lid of the pot was opened, and hot steam came out. The aroma of coarse rice mixed with wild vegetables rushed into my nose and penetrated into my heart, stirring up the fatigue of a day's journey and making my stomach growl.

Fang Sun held the spoon and first filled a bowl with the largest and thickest amount of rice, which she gave to a thick and honest man in his thirties or forties with dry and yellow skin. This was Fang's father, Fang Shuyou, the pillar of the family. He was carrying the heaviest stuff on the road, which was the most tiring, so naturally he was given the first bowl. Fang Lin had the second largest bowl, followed by her own. The last bowl left was only half a bowl, and the bottom was so clear that you could see only a few grains of rice, some rice husks, and two or three wild vegetables.

"Sister Xuan, I can't finish it. Let's exchange bowls!" Fang Lin said as he looked at the skinny girl with yellow hair due to malnutrition.

The girl whom he called "Sister Xuan" was named Tian Xuan. She was adopted by Fang's father from a distant relative in the neighboring village and raised as a child bride.

"My son, I don't even know how much you can eat!" Fang Sun hurriedly stopped him.

"Brother Lin, I have enough to eat!" Tian Xuan also agreed.

This girl is still so happy!

Seeing that Fang's mother and Tian Xuan were determined, Fang Lin gave up. Feeling the urge of hunger and thirst, he drank a small sip of rice soup. It was slightly bitter and rough in the mouth. He chewed the coarse rice grains mixed with rice husks, but it still choked his throat when he swallowed it.

Frankly speaking, it doesn’t taste good, but when you’re starving, even bran or vegetables are delicious delicacies!
Gudong!

When the empty stomach takes a mouthful of rice water, all the cells in the body seem to be shouting and sucking frantically to absorb the nutrients in it, just like trees in the dry season taking root in the ground and squeezing out every bit of moisture in the soil.

At the side, Tian Xuan also held the bowl carefully, afraid of spilling any. She first sucked the rice husks on the soup into her mouth, then took a sip of the soup, raised her neck and swallowed it. She performed the movements skillfully and looked satisfied.

"Sister Xuan!" Fang Lin was silent for a moment and picked up a piece of wild vegetables for Tian Xuan with his chopsticks.

"I've had enough! That's enough!" Tian Xuan covered the mouth of the bowl and refused to take any more.

"My son, just eat your own food, why bother with what she does!" Fang Sun also spoke, glared at Tian Xuan, and sat between Fang Lin and Tian Xuan, separating the two.

"Okay, eat it all." Uncle Fang spoke.

"Oh, everyone, everyone, everyone, eat to your heart's content, do we have enough food?" Fang Sun said unhappily, "Take the lazy Bai family for example, they don't plan their meals. I heard they ran out of food yesterday, and could only eat wild vegetables and grass seeds, and they couldn't even poop. This morning, I saw that the soup at Geng's house was even thinner. And the Fu family... the people in the village are having a hard time!"

As she spoke, she saw Uncle Fang was eating voraciously, and she became furious: "I told you to go find the old man, and the four branches of our Fang family should cook together, but you just couldn't bring yourself to do it. At noon, I saw his grandmother secretly giving food to An'an from the fourth branch..."

"Okay." Uncle Fang interrupted.

"You want to save face but suffer in vain! Your father would rather suffer loss than lose face!"

Fang Sun knew that her father didn't want to hear this, so she snorted and changed the subject: "Boss, we don't have much food left, and we have to get some more. Although we will reach the county in three or four days and there are reserve warehouses for food, I still feel uneasy until the food is distributed to me..."

"Where can I get food? Oh, the Song family still owes me three pounds of coarse rice. I have to go get it back!"

In fact, these three pounds of coarse rice were borrowed by the Song family last winter, more than half a year ago. Fang's mother had gone to pick it up once before, but didn't get it back.

"The Song family..." Uncle Fang was silent for a moment: "At this time, no family is having a good time, forget it."

"Forget it? How can I forget it? If they are not doing well, then our family will be better off? That's three kilograms of food! They have the nerve to lend it to me, but I haven't bothered to ask for it back?
You care about your face and can't bring yourself to ask for it, but I don't care about my face. How can face be more important than the belly?"

Fang Sun scolded Fang's father angrily and looked at Fang Lin: "My son is still growing, he can't starve!"

She dared to confront Fang's father, the head of the family, on such a big matter, because no matter how angry Fang's father was, he would not hit anyone. At most, he would ignore you and use cold violence - this was already the best. According to Aunt Geng's words, "Count the men in our Xiaohe village, one by one, except your father, who doesn't beat women? Your mother followed your father, and I don't know how many beatings she has avoided."

Fang Lin was listening nearby and wanted to ask about the matter of borrowing grain from the Song family. At this time, a woman in her thirties, with a pale face and wearing a coarse linen skirt came over.

"Guihua is here, please sit down! What's the matter?" Fang Sun stood up to greet her.

Although it was time for dinner, but in this situation of fleeing, she didn't dare to be polite and ask, "Have you eaten? Why don't you sit down and eat something?"

"Sister-in-law Fang!"

Sister Guihua looked reluctant and spoke with difficulty: "I just want to borrow some food..."

"Oh, this is really... It's not that my sister-in-law is unreasonable, it's just that my family is running out of food, and you're still wondering where to get some food!"

After sending Guihua away, Fang Sun sighed, "The Chen family is such a piece of shit. Look how hungry Guihua is!"

"Everyone in the village would give Guihua a thumbs up and say good things when they see her, but she is the one who got into trouble with the Chen family. What a sin! All the hard work at home and in the fields of the Chen family was done by Guihua. She didn't even take a break when she was pregnant. Guihua herself is weak in character, so the shameless people in the village bully and order her around..."

Fang's mother kept talking and sighed again: "Alas, come to think of it, our family still owes Guihua a helping hand. It's because we really have no food, otherwise we would have to borrow some this time."

As they were talking, the four members of the Fang family had finished their meal, and the bottoms of their bowls were as clean as new.

"Xiaoxuan, go wash the dishes!"

Fang Sun was unhappy: "I have to go to the Song family to ask for food later!"

"I have to come back so that my family can eat more."

Fang Lin thought about it and said, "Mom, I'll go!"

In this era, men are always more responsible than women.

He asked Fang's mother about the situation, made up his mind, and walked towards the Song family.

……

(End of this chapter)