Look, this little girl named Xie Qiao has her own secret.
Clutching a secret she dared not tell anyone, Xie Qiao returned home distraught and trembling.
In broad daylight, Xie Qiao saw that her family's door was tightly shut.
A tempting aroma subtly wafted from inside.
This aroma made Xie Qiao feel even emptier in her stomach.
"Husband!"
Xie Qiao called out as she pushed the door open.
Beside the dilapidated wooden table, Lu Chen was sitting.
In the earthenware pot on the table were large, glistening chunks of meat, filling more than half the pot.
This scene made Xie Qiao think she had entered the wrong place.
She saw clearly that a pot on the table was full of white rice.
Steaming hot white rice.
And the meat chunks in the earthenware pot were also steaming hot and fragrant.
"Husband, these are..."
Xie Qiao was utterly astonished.
In these hard times when even grass roots were hard to find, where did the rice and fatty meat come from?
Seeing Xie Qiao return, Lu Chen immediately stood up and said with a smile, "Wife, where did you go? You made me wait so long. Come, hurry and eat."
After speaking, he served Xie Qiao a bowl of rice and placed it on the table.
Xie Qiao felt as if she were dreaming as Lu Chen pressed her to sit down at the table.
"I got some unexpected money yesterday, so I just went to town to buy some rice and pork. I just made these casually. Come, eat quickly."
Only then did Xie Qiao remember that Lu Chen had returned with a jar last night.
Could what was in that jar be the unexpected money he spoke of?
But Xie Qiao still didn't quite believe it.
The town was about ten li of mountain road from the village, and a round trip would take most of the day.
Moreover, it was very difficult to buy pork in town now; one might not even encounter someone selling pork in half a month.
While Xie Qiao was still wondering, Lu Chen had already handed the bowl to Xie Qiao: "Wife, eat quickly."
Xie Qiao was completely engrossed in the aroma of the food at this moment, with no time to think too much.
All her questions were blocked by the scent of the food.
She picked up the bowl, shoveled a mouthful of rice into her mouth, and her eyes immediately welled up with tears.
How long had it been since she had eaten a proper meal?
And it was white rice!
Even before the famine, in good years, it was rare to eat white rice even once a year.
It was already good enough to have coarse rice to eat.
Let alone the current situation?
Xie Qiao continuously shoveled several mouthfuls of rice into her mouth, then suddenly saw a large, glistening piece of meat appear in her bowl.
This piece of meat had a good balance of lean and fat, and its color was golden. Just looking at it, Xie Qiao felt she could eat three bowls of rice.
"Don't just eat rice, eat more meat."
Xie Qiao looked up at Lu Chen, tears rolling down her cheeks and into her bowl.
"Thank you, Husband..."
Xie Qiao's voice was somewhat choked.
Ever since she was sold to Lu Chen's family by her parents, Lu Chen's attitude towards her had not been good.
Although Lu Chen was not cold towards her, he was not affectionate either.
Xie Qiao could tell that Lu Chen's heart had always been with Zhao Daya next door.
Lu Chen's actions today brought a few touches of warmth to Xie Qiao's heart.
Xie Qiao put the meat into her mouth and chewed slowly.
The rich aroma made Xie Qiao's head feel slightly dizzy.
"It's too fragrant..."
She hadn't tasted meat in a long time.
Let alone such delicious pork.
This was the most delicious pork she had ever eaten in her life.
Presumably, even the Great Zhou Emperor's meals were nothing more than this, right?
Paired with the fragrant braised pork, Xie Qiao quickly finished a large bowl of rice, not a single grain left in the bowl.
Her stomach, which had been starving for so long, was finally satisfied.
"Wife, if you haven't eaten enough for a long time, you can't eat too much, or your stomach won't be able to handle it. We'll eat the rest tonight."
Before Xie Qiao could speak, Lu Chen had already started clearing the dishes.
"Husband, let me do it."
Xie Qiao hastily got up, snatched the bowls from Lu Chen's hands, and quickly began to tidy up.
As she washed the pots and bowls in the kitchen, she suddenly remembered what she had encountered in the mountains today, and she became somewhat absent-minded.
"Should I tell my husband?"
"Those people have already been buried by me, will they be discovered?"
"If I tell my husband that I killed people, and several of them, even though those people deserved to die, I still killed people after all. If he knows, will he think I am very fierce? Very scary?"
"My husband probably wouldn't like a murderer's wife, would he?"
"But if I don't say anything, I feel I'm letting my husband down..."
"It's so difficult..."
"Also, where did the Great Strength Pill my husband gave me last night come from? It's so miraculous! If it weren't for that Great Strength Pill, I would definitely have met with misfortune today..."
While Xie Qiao was muttering to herself, she suddenly heard a series of "Dong! Dong! Dong!" as a bell rang.
Xie Qiao instantly jolted.
This was the village's assembly bell.
In these famine years, when the village bell rang, it usually meant something bad.
Lu Chen also heard the bell. He went to the kitchen to tell Xie Qiao something, then headed towards the ancestral hall.
At this time, dozens of men, women, and children had already gathered outside the ancestral hall.
And more villagers were rushing towards them.
The village chief, Zhao Dazhi, stood outside the ancestral hall with a solemn expression.
When most of the villagers had arrived, Zhao Dazhi spoke.
"Everyone, old and young, there is something today that needs to be discussed with all of you..."
"Today, Erwa and a few others saw a group of people of unknown origin in Dongshan. They don't look like famine refugees, but rather a band of bandits and marauders..."
Hearing this, the villagers immediately burst into an uproar.
"Bandits? Damn it, are they not letting people live?!"
"We're so poor we're eating dirt, and they still want to rob us?"
"Let's fight them! Anyway, we have no way out, so let's just fight them!"
"Fight? You say it so easily! What do we fight them with? Look at us, each one of us is so weak from hunger, we can't even hold a hoe steady, how can we fight them?"
"That's right, those bandits are all strong and robust, and they live by licking blood from blades. If we fight them, it's like an egg hitting a rock, just looking for death!"
"Why don't we just run away!"
"Run? Where to run? Famine is everywhere, isn't it all the same? Besides, we don't even have dry rations to take with us to escape, wouldn't we all starve to death halfway?!"
For a while, it was a chaotic clamor.
Zhao Dazhi sternly shouted a few times before he managed to quiet the crowd.
"What do you say we do? Running away is definitely not an option. Every household has no surplus grain. We can't run even if we want to. Since we can't run, then we can only fight them!"
Zhao Dazhi naturally had his own selfish motives.
Among the villagers, his family was the wealthiest. His cellar still stored several hundred catties of coarse grain, and his family of more than ten people would not starve for the time being.
Therefore, he had to organize the villagers to protect the village so that he could protect his grain and the lives of his family members.
In reality, Zhao Dazhi also knew in his heart that these villagers had no other choice.
They could only choose to fight the bandits to the death.
These current bandits were different from previous ones.
Previous bandits only robbed money and grain, and at most, defiled a few women.
But the current bandits, however, would eat people!
The villagers had their own thoughts, and their opinions were not unified.
As a village chief who had served for many years, Zhao Dazhi also had some ability.
He explained the stakes to the villagers, gently guiding them, and soon made them understand their predicament.
Without resistance, there was only one path: death.
To make the villagers united with him, Zhao Dazhi even hardened his heart and contributed ten catties of coarse rice, distributing it among the villagers so they could go back and cook some thin porridge, to gain some strength, lest they couldn't even lift a sickle when the time came.
Finally, Zhao Dazhi encouraged the villagers again.
"It's just a dozen or so bandits. Our village has over sixty households, and there are a good hundred able-bodied men. If we really fight, our chances of winning are not low!"