Ch 41: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

“You tell me, how does my sister-in-law have the nerve? The best things in the house always go to Lian Bao first. She even tries to snatch food straight from my kids’ mouths—when has Lian Bao ever gone without? And now she dares to come begging from you?” Second Aunt Lian returned from washing dishes, fuming after hearing Miao Shi recount what had happened in the courtyard. How did she end up with such a sister-in-law? “If my mother-in-law finds out, she’ll definitely scold her! This is so embarrassing!”

Miao Shi added, “If I had brought more, I wouldn’t mind giving her a piece—kids get greedy for treats, that’s normal. But I only took two pieces with me, and I already gave one to Rong Jie’er. Am I supposed to go back home to fetch another, or take it back from Rong Jie’er? Neither would be right.” The jujube cake was something Shen Qing had specially bought for Miao Shi. She had a lingering weakness from childbirth complications, often feeling dizzy. Though country folk didn’t understand medicine, they had heard that red dates were good for replenishing blood. Shen Qing figured that if Miao Shi carried some jujube cake with her and ate a little now and then, it might help nourish her body over time.

Second Aunt Lian snorted. “If you hadn’t already given it to Rong Jie’er, I bet my sister-in-law wouldn’t have wanted it so badly. Things always taste better when snatched from someone else’s mouth.”

And it wasn’t just about these two pieces of cake—just the other day, when Shen Qing had sent over two catties of pastry, the whole family had an uproar over it!

From Second Aunt Lian’s perspective, Miao Shi was her kin, practically her own family. Back when Old Lady Lian had forbidden them from associating with the Shen family, Second Aunt Lian had secretly maintained their connection, even using her dowry to help Miao Shi. That was why they remained so close. Now that Qing Ge’er had sent pastries as a token of gratitude, naturally, it was meant as a thanks to her, his aunt.

She had willingly shared the pastries with the family out of kindness, but then Wang Shi had jumped in, claiming Lian Bao was craving them and trying to take more than half for herself. That had nearly made Second Aunt Lian explode—where did Wang Shi get the nerve?

Since when did anyone take a gift from a wife’s maiden family and hand it over to a sister-in-law?

Second Aunt Lian had argued with Wang Shi on the spot. But Old Lady Lian, favoring Lian Bao, had taken Wang Shi’s side and forced her to share a portion. “Your kids are all grown now, and they’re a ger and a girl—what do they need pastries for? If word gets out, they’ll be labeled greedy, and it’ll be hard to find good marriage matches later. Lian Bao is just a child. Ao Ge’er and Rong Jie’er, as his older siblings, should learn to let him have more.”

Second Aunt Lian had been so angry her face turned red, while Wang Shi, like a victorious rooster, strutted around smugly. Even thinking about it now made Second Aunt Lian seethe. “That day, my mother-in-law backing her up made her cocky. She must think I’m easy to bully! If she dares pull that trick again, I swear I won’t hold back—not even for my mother-in-law’s sake!”

The tension between the sisters-in-law had been brewing for years, ever since they first married into the family. The Lian family was well-off in the village, with only two sons. By the time they started arranging marriages, the Lian daughters and gers had all been married off with generous dowries, leaving the household quite wealthy. Unlike many other families where the elder son married a woman and the younger a ger, both Lian brothers married women.

Wang Shi had married the eldest son and saw herself as superior, always trying to suppress Second Aunt Lian. But things hadn’t gone as planned—while Wang Shi’s firstborn was a ger, Second Aunt Lian had given birth to a son, making him the family’s first male grandchild.

From that moment on, Wang Shi saw Second Aunt Lian as a thorn in her side, always picking fights. “Later on, I had Ao Ge’er and Rong Jie’er. She, on the other hand, finally got her long-awaited son on the second try, then had another one two years ago—Lian Bao. And now she thinks that because she has one more son than me, she’s above me. She parades around like her child is some kind of imperial edict! As if we’re some noble house where the eldest grandson inherits family lands.” Second Aunt Lian scoffed. “She probably went after you for that treat just to get under my skin. We’re family, after all.”

Some people aren’t really after the food—they just want to make things difficult. Even if she had thrown the treat away afterward, it wouldn’t matter, as long as Second Aunt Lian’s kid didn’t get to eat it.

Miao Shi sighed. After being bullied in the Shen family for so many years, she had become all too familiar with this kind of malice, and she loathed it. “Adults can fight if they want, but why drag a child into it? What did Rong Jie’er ever do to her?”

“Exactly! I tell Ao Ge’er and Rong Jie’er to avoid her when they can. Otherwise, she’ll just boss them around, making my kids serve her little golden treasure all the time. It’s exhausting,” Second Aunt Lian said as she pulled out a large bundle from under the kang table and opened it, revealing a thick, tightly knotted rope net. “See if this works. The whole family worked late into the night braiding these for you.” She joked.

These rope nets were what Miao Shi had asked her to make a few days ago, with help from other trusted women and gers in the village. Shen Qing planned to use them as traps for hunting wild boars.

Miao Shi examined the ropes. “They look sturdy. I’m no expert, but Qing Ge’er will know for sure. These are so well-made, I’m sure they’ll do the trick.” She pulled out her money pouch and counted out twenty copper coins for Second Aunt Lian. “If Qing Ge’er says any adjustments are needed, I’ll come back. Oh, and I wanted to trade for a few more eggs—we’re almost out at home.”

She didn’t dare admit that they had already run out.

Second Aunt Lian didn’t stand on ceremony—close friends didn’t need to. Back when Miao Shi had struggled, she had secretly used her own dowry to help her, expecting nothing in return. Now that Miao Shi had money and wanted to support her in turn, why would she refuse? She took the twenty copper coins and carefully tucked them into a hidden compartment in the kang cabinet—this was their household’s private money, away from the family’s shared funds.

She then led Miao Shi to the kitchen to fetch eggs, joking, “You all go through eggs so fast! Even with my hens laying as fast as they can, it’s getting hard to keep up.”

Miao Shi laughed. “Qing Ge’er eats a lot. He spends his days chopping wood in the mountains, working himself to the bone—of course, he needs to eat well. Back in the Shen family, they treated him like a workhorse and never fed him properly. Now that we finally have some money, I let him eat whatever he wants.”

All mothers understood the pain of seeing their children suffer, and Second Aunt Lian wholeheartedly agreed. “That’s exactly right! If we have the means, we should feed our children well.” She glanced around, making sure neither Old Lady Lian nor Wang Shi was around, then whispered, “Honestly, I’m a bit jealous of you! No mother-in-law lording over you, able to live as you please, eat whatever you want.”

What could Miao Shi say? She could only console her. “That may be true, but we’re only a household of two—our foundation is weak. My brothers are far away, and if something happens, we have no one to rely on. Your mother-in-law isn’t so bad. It’s not the worst situation. Having a big family has its benefits too.”

Second Aunt Lian snorted. “That’s one way to look at it. My mother-in-law is decent, but it doesn’t help when there are difficult people constantly whispering in her ear.” It was just the way of the world—sons were favored over daughters and gers. Even though Old Lady Lian wasn’t as harsh as Old Lady Shen, whenever Lian Bao was involved, she would always expect Ao Ge’er and Rong Jie’er to give way.

Opening the gourd holding the eggs, she counted—only ten had been saved up over the past few days. Second Aunt Lian took out eight and handed them to Miao Shi. “This is all I can spare. Lian Bao eats an egg every other day. If I don’t leave some for him, his mother will make a fuss again.”

Miao Shi nodded. Eight eggs were enough for two or three days, as long as Qing Ge’er didn’t take them all away again in one night. Later, she would visit other families to collect more hemp rope, and if anyone had eggs, she could trade for more.

Eggs sold for one wen per two in the county, but in the village, they were a bit cheaper—smaller ones could be traded at three per wen. Miao Shi calculated based on the county’s price and counted out four large copper coins, placing them in Second Aunt Lian’s hand.

This money, however, Second Aunt Lian dared not keep as private savings. When Old Lady Lian returned, she would have to turn it in to the household’s shared funds.

“Do you still have any extra grain at home?” Looking at her own empty kitchen, Miao Shi asked.

“Why, do you still need to trade for grain? Didn’t you already exchange a lot before?” This was not something Second Aunt Lian could decide on her own, but she had a rough idea of how much grain was left at home. “Even if we trade, it won’t be much. At most, a few dozen catties. My mother-in-law isn’t the type to count every grain, but she likes having enough stored so we don’t have to worry.”

Their family had already traded 200 catties of fresh wheat with Miao Shi before, so Second Aunt Lian said, “Even if Qing Ge’er eats a lot, there’s no need to hoard so much. Grain goes stale over time—old grain is never as fragrant as new. Don’t you have enough to last until next spring? Once the winter wheat is harvested, you can get fresh grain again.”

“It’s because Qing Ge’er wants to hunt wild boars. He told me to stock up more for bait,” Miao Shi explained. That was indeed what Shen Qing had said.

“Oh, I see.” Second Aunt Lian thought for a moment. “Then you should ask Yanzi’s family. Even if they don’t have any left, her parents’ house definitely will.”

Miao Shi went around the village, collecting bundles of hemp rope nets and half a basket of eggs. By the time she returned home, Shen Qing had just woken up. He was in the kitchen, drinking the last of the dumpling soup from the pot—hauling grain up the mountain all night had exhausted him.

Miao Shi called him over to inspect the hemp nets. “See if these will work. If not, I’ll have them make adjustments.” Then she added, “And you took every last bit of grain from the house! I nearly had a heart attack when I walked into the kitchen this morning. I asked around, but no one has any extra grain left to trade.”

If it had been right after the autumn harvest, it wouldn’t have been a problem. But since Shen Qing had started going to the other world, it had already been two months past harvest season. Anyone who wanted to sell grain had already taken it to the county market. The fact that they had managed to trade for some last time was already lucky.

Shen Qing scraped the pot clean, finishing the last drop of dumpling soup before coming over to check the hemp rope. “They’re all good. What’s there to check? As long as they’re sturdy, they’ll do.” The village women and gers who made them were honest people—none of them would cut corners. “These are just for support. The key is still this.” He made a hand gesture mimicking a gun.

For Shen Qing, who now had a gun, hunting wild boars wasn’t difficult—the real challenge was taking down a whole herd. If he shot one, the others wouldn’t just stand there waiting for him to finish them off; they’d scatter in all directions, running wild through the mountains. He wasn’t after the meat—his goal was to eliminate the threat the wild boars posed to the village’s crops. He needed to wipe out the whole herd at once.

Miao Shi didn’t understand his hand gesture at all. “What’s that supposed to be? Your hand cramping?”

Shen Qing froze for a moment, then looked at his own hand. He suddenly realized that, though he still felt like the other world was foreign to him, it had already influenced him more than he had noticed.

“…Nothing,” Shen Qing said. “Don’t worry about the grain. I’ll just buy it in town.” He would need a lot of grain in the future—not just for food, but also to trade for crystal cores to help his team upgrade their abilities. The village’s supply wouldn’t be nearly enough.

However, buying large amounts of grain and hauling it back to the village in carts would be too conspicuous. Shen Qing thought to himself—he needed to buy a house in the county!

◦°˚(*❛‿❛)/˚°◦