An outsider suddenly intervened, and Grandma Sun lost interest in scolding her granddaughters. However, she still coldly asked Little Ya's Mother, "Since you seem to like these two wretched children so much, why don't you buy them back for 10 pounds of aged rice?"
She looked at Little Ya's Mother expectantly. Little Ya's Mother looked at the two poor little girls pitifully. Her heart was willing, but she lacked the means. They didn't even have enough food for themselves, let alone rice to buy children.
Seeing her conflicted expression, Little Ya's Dad knew what she was thinking and hurriedly pulled her away, "Let's go, let's go. We're starving ourselves, where would we get grain to buy children?"
"Pah! What good is it without grain?" Grandma Sun spat an old phlegm at their retreating backs.
Then, pointing at her two granddaughters, she said, "You two wretched brats don't have such luck. Since no one wants to take you, you can only be cattle and horses at my old Sun family, serving my great-grandson."
Little Ya's Mother heard what Grandma Sun said from afar. She turned to look at the two little girls huddled on the ground and asked Little Ya's Dad with some reluctance, "Husband, why don't we ask Master Six for ten pounds of rice and buy those two children?"
"Wife, we have our own daughter. Why would we need to buy someone else's children? What would our daughter think?" Little Ya's Dad was very troubled. It was like this in the village before, and even after fleeing the famine, it was still the same.
"Wouldn't it be nice for Little Ya to have two more sisters to keep her company? I can't have any more children, so Little Ya will be quite lonely without any siblings."
Lonely? Not to mention the character of those two little girls, they were surviving on Master Six's charity. How could they afford to feed two more children when their own survival was uncertain?
Would they take in two more children to compete for food with their daughter?
Little Ya's Dad flatly refused in a cold voice, "No, we don't have the ability to raise two more children."
However, Little Ya's Mother was not discouraged and had a fanciful idea, thinking she had come up with a good plan.
She asked Little Ya's Dad excitedly, "Husband, Master Six's family only has Miss Chang An as a daughter. Why don't we ask Master Six to buy them to be companions for Miss Chang An?"
"Why would they buy them?"
Before, when they were in the village, he didn't find her character troublesome. But now, he felt her kindness was indiscriminate.
"They can afford it, right? Since they've already rescued one, saving two more isn't too much to ask. Moreover, those two children are quite diligent. If they're bought back, they can help out with chores."
Listen to that matter-of-fact tone! Whether their family could afford it or not was their own business, what did it have to do with her?
"Shut up," Little Ya's Dad's face darkened, suppressing his anger, which made his voice deeper.
Seeing Little Ya's Mother staring at him in a daze, her lips pouting and tears glistening in her eyes, as if she was about to cry any second.
Little Ya's Dad didn't give her a chance to accuse him. He went up the hill to clear the snow on the roof, calling out to Little Ya's Mother, "Hurry up and work, instead of finding trouble all day long."
Old Gu Six saw the whole incident below clearly and heard Little Ya's Dad and Mother's conversation distinctly. He scoffed in disdain.
He decided not to team up with them after the disaster was over. If their group had someone like Little Ya's Mother, who couldn't do good deeds herself but wanted to force her kindness onto others, she would be more terrifying than the natural disaster in this year of famine.
After clearing the snow on the hill, Old Gu Six had Chang Le clear the snow at the entrance as well, shoveling it all to the other side of the slope. It would be harder to clear it when they had to leave later.
Chang'an heard the gossip from outside, not very clearly. She didn't expect the usually simple and somewhat dull Little Ya's Mother to be such a 'kind' person, wanting to monopolize kindness for Old Gu Six's family.
It was impossible to buy someone else's children. She and her father lived freely and weren't mentally ill to bring in two unrelated strangers into their family.
Clearing the snow was a labor-intensive task. Chang'an steamed sausages from her space, stir-fried rabbit meat with dried chili peppers, and then steamed a pot of rice using the outdoor stove.
Since Chang Le was an outsider, for more than a month, their family mostly drank porridge, ate steamed buns, and those rock-hard fried bread that could kill a dog if thrown.
As for vegetables, they mostly ate wild chickens and rabbits that Old Gu Six had hunted while fleeing the famine.
Those wild rabbits and chickens were preserved by salting, but mainly through the preservation function of her space.
After clearing the snow on their side, Old Gu Six saw the other people around and helped Little Wood's family clear theirs as well.
Then he glanced at Little Ya's Dad's side, where only the couple was working, slower than the other families with five or six people. Thinking of Little Ya's Mother's behavior earlier.
Old Gu Six felt she might have been idle from being too well-fed, so he let them clear the snow themselves and went home with Chang Le.
Hearing footsteps outside, Chang'an hurriedly took the dishes out from her space. Not too hot or cold, just right, without worrying about the aroma drifting out.
It was Chang Le who came back, the young man wearing a wooden mask. His body was no longer gloomy like when he first arrived, and the lean youth exuded confidence and calm, seeming to have emerged from the shadow of his disfigurement.
"Old Gu Six said he'll be out for a while but will be back soon," his voice was a little hoarse, perhaps from not speaking for too long.
Chang'an poured him a bowl of water, "Have some water first."
Not knowing when Old Gu Six would return, Chang'an added some cold water to the sand pot and placed a small steamer on top, just big enough for two large bowls of food.
She covered the steamer and added some fuel under the sand pot to keep the dishes warm. The two sat in front of the fire, silently waiting for Old Gu Six to return.
Chang'an knew Chang Le didn't like to talk, and he was the same. Both of them quietly gazed into the fire in silence.
Meanwhile, Old Gu Six was leaping through the snow-covered mountain forests, heading deeper into the mountains.
In the depths of the mountains, the trees were dense, and the snow on the ground was not as thick as the outskirts. However, the towering trees were bent over, and some had even broken.
With the snow stopped and the sun out, those small animals that had been hibernating for over a month should be coming out to forage.
Old Gu Six wanted to hunt some fresh game for his daughter to eat. Children were still growing, and after eating nothing but salted meat and dried vegetables for over a month, he didn't want her health to deteriorate.
Old Gu Six was always lucky. He didn't frequently bag large prey, but whenever he ventured into the mountains, he never returned empty-handed with small animals.
A rather scrawny rabbit bounced in front of him. Old Gu Six hurled a stone, and the merrily bounding rabbit tumbled to the ground, its short legs twitching a couple of times before falling still.
Old Gu Six picked up the small rabbit, his eyes full of disdain. "Starved to skin and bones? Barely any meat, all bones."
He bound it with a grass rope and carried it as he ventured deeper. This time, he encountered a wild chicken foraging for food, easily dispatching it with a well-aimed stone. The wild chicken collapsed without even a twitch.
Suddenly, a series of loud bangs echoed from within the forest. Old Gu Six's expression changed abruptly. He glanced upwards at the towering trees around him, spotted a suitable one, and nimbly climbed up, awaiting the large prey that would come fleeing in his direction.
