During times of famine: I have a spiritual spring space

Chapter 3: Not even enough to raise 1 yuan

The two little guys, Shitou and Xiaohua, were very close to Zhuang Liming. They each went up and hugged one of Zhuang Liming's legs, looking up at him and calling him "Second Brother."

Zhuang Liming rubbed their heads.

My aunt opened the bag and saw that it was indeed full of plump corn kernels, and she was immediately overjoyed.

"Give half to your second aunt's family, and you can take the rest back and eat it slowly." The second aunt didn't want it all, knowing that her two nephews weren't having an easy time.

To be honest, she was already very happy to see the food returned.

If she were to accept all 10 jin of corn, her husband would get angry with her again, and might even take the corn back while she's asleep. That deadbeat next door is capable of doing something like that.

Therefore, she was not greedy.

Five pounds of corn, if eaten sparingly by the whole family and mixed with plenty of wild vegetables, can last for many days.

"Second Aunt, please keep it! We still have another ten or twenty pounds at home!"

Seeing that his second uncle was about to refuse, Zhuang Liming immediately spoke up to dissuade him.

"Second Uncle, you and Second Aunt have helped my brother and me a lot over the years. My brother said that even the best relationship can't withstand one-sided giving. If you want to treat my brother and me as your nephews, then accept this corn."

"Even if you don't eat it, you have to think about Shitou and Xiaohua!" Zhuang Liming said.

These words struck a chord with the second aunt, who couldn't help but wipe away tears, her affection for her two nephews rising dramatically. All these years of support hadn't resulted in them being ungrateful!

Uncle Zhuang Zhenmin remained silent for a while, then sighed and patted his nephew on the shoulder with satisfaction.

"Good lad! Okay, consider this corn a loan from your second uncle."

As his nephew said, he, as an adult, could endure hunger, but children could not.

This time, the second aunt did not jump out to refute.

As long as there is food and we don't starve, we can lend it! You know, it's difficult to borrow food right now. Even close brothers wouldn't give you face, because if they lend it to you, their own families will have to suffer from hunger.

"Second Uncle, I'll head back now."

"Okay! Watch where you're going, don't fall." Zhuang Zhenmin nodded.

His nephew was able to get food, which relieved him. His hair has turned quite gray recently, and he has to think about how to support two families.

Watching Liming disappear into the darkness, Zhuang Zhenmin turned to look at his wife: "You see, when it matters, it's still Lihui and Liming who are thinking of our family."

Watch your mouth. Li Hui and Li Ming are both good lads who know how to be grateful.

"Our Stone and Little Flower might need their two older cousins' help in the future!"

"I know, do you need to tell me?"

Beside them, Stone and Little Flower stared intently at the corn.

"Mom, I'm hungry!"

The little girl raised her hand and said, "Little Flower is hungry too."

"You won't be hungry if you sleep, you can eat tomorrow." Huang Lan doesn't spoil her child. These days, as long as they don't starve, that's enough. How can she let her child eat until they're full?

……

When Zhuang Liming returned home, he greeted his elder brother and told him about his second uncle's family.

At this moment, Zhuang Lihui took a quick shower, shirtless, and was washing the shirt he had just taken off. He hadn't washed his pants yet, because if he did, he would be naked.

He could tolerate everything else, but he really couldn't stand being naked.

After washing the shirt, I wrung it out and hung it on the bamboo pole by the door to dry.

In the past, they wouldn't hang clothes out to dry late at night because the morning dew would be heavy. But now, it's so dry that people are actually quite excited if there's dew.

"There's not much water left in the water tank," Zhuang Lihui reminded his younger brother.

"Oh! Brother, you poured out the water from your bath and laundry?"

Zhuang Lihui felt embarrassed. He had momentarily forgotten that the water used for bathing and washing clothes still needed to be used, at least to water the vegetables in the garden.

He was somewhat troubled. The space had no shortage of water, and it was even a spiritual spring. But he couldn't openly take it out; the spiritual spring water was too different from the water in the village, and he couldn't explain it.

"Okay! I'll go to the well and fetch two buckets of water tomorrow."

Seeing that his elder brother was silent, he figured he must have forgotten about it, so he didn't say anything more.

Previously, they would fetch water directly from the river. But at the beginning of the year, the small river that flows through their village dried up completely, and if they wanted water, they could only fetch it from the village's old well.

Fortunately, the ancient well still has water, so the villagers don't have to worry about not even having a drinking water problem.

However, the elders have a rule that each person can only have a maximum of one bucket of water per day.

No one can guarantee that excessive water extraction won't dry up the ancient well, which would be a real problem.

"By the way, do you still have any money?" Zhuang Lihui asked.

Zhuang Liming rummaged through the box where he kept his clothes for a while, then took out a somewhat worn 5-cent coin and handed it to his older brother: "This is all the 5 cents I have left."

"..."

Zhuang Lihui still had 3 mao on him.

Good guy!

The two brothers couldn't even scrape together one yuan?

Oh my god! We're so poor. Even a mouse would have to leave a dollar behind in this house before it leaves, tears in its eyes.

Zhuang Lihui didn't even know how to complain anymore; there were just too many things to complain about.

He just wanted to buy a pair of pants!

Alright! I need to make some money next.

For someone with his special abilities, this shouldn't be a difficult task. In this era, the most scarce resource is food; as long as there is food, it can be exchanged for many things.

Food on the black market is a hot commodity and a hard currency; even coarse grains can fetch exorbitant prices.

Of course, at this time, money wasn't enough; it was all about tickets, and you couldn't buy anything without them.

But even with grain, can't you exchange it for tickets?

Zhuang Lihui didn't believe it.

Next, Zhuang Liming went to take a shower. He simply took off his clothes, wet a towel, and wiped away the sweat; he wasn't particularly fussy about it.

In the past, when there was no shortage of water, they would go directly to the river to wash. Whether or not people downstream drank the bathwater was their business; if they didn't want to drink it, so be it.

Zhuang Lihui lay in bed, unable to fall asleep.

This bed is quite rudimentary, with large mud bricks raised on both sides and a bed board in the middle. The bed board is uneven, and a straw mat is placed on top.

It's not that he can't accept a hard bed board; he slept on a hard bed board when he was studying in his previous life, without a mattress.

What really bothered him was that the bed boards were of uneven thickness, causing back pain when he lay down.

And the mosquitoes were really rampant, buzzing around his ear for a long time. I don't know how the second brother fell asleep. Wasn't he afraid of being carried away by mosquitoes in the middle of the night?

Unable to bear it any longer, Zhuang Lihui appeared in the Spirit Spring Space while his second son was asleep.

He would rather lie on the ground.

When I woke up, all the corn I planted last night was ripe.

Zhuang Lihui also discovered a spatial pattern: as long as he doesn't harvest the corn, it will remain in its final state and will not be decomposed by space.

But even if he breaks the corn off the cob without pulling out the stalks, it will decompose within half an hour, becoming nutrients for the black soil.

That's great!

It was a thoughtful space, saving him a lot of trouble.

Unfortunately, it's not as convenient as one-click planting, one-click watering, and one-click harvesting.

It's unclear whether he'll be able to accomplish all tasks with a single thought in the future; it would be best if he had that ability. Otherwise, relying on him to farm in the space alone would be not only tiring but also quite time-consuming.

Zhuang Lihui exited the space and found that his second brother had already gone out to fetch water.