Chapter 3: Eating Vegetable Porridge
Qin Xiaoguo looked at the dark-skinned little boy in disbelief. She couldn't believe that everything in her dream was real. Those memories from her dream had been experienced by this body, and this body had just passed away. Even though she had left the end of the previous era, her soul has entered this new body. She was still a married woman with a child.
"Mother?"
The boy called out to her in a cautious tone. He looked at his mother's strange expression and felt even more uneasy. "Could she have injured her head?"
"Mom… Are you alright? What am I to do if something happens to you?" The little boy spoke in a childlike voice. "Mom… I won't eat so much in the future. I can go out and find food."
The young child blamed himself, thinking that he had eaten too much and caused his mum to collapse from hunger.
Xiaoguo snapped back to reality and looked at the boy, who was suddenly crying. "Hey, don't cry…" She really didn't know how to get along with a child. She looked at the crying child and wondered what his name was. "Jiang? Jiang? "Jiang… Qingwen."
Xiaoguo uttered his name carefully. The boy, who had been crying uncontrollably, stopped instantly when he heard his name. His mother would only call his name when he got into trouble.
"Mother?"
Hearing the boy call her mother in such a soft voice, Xiaoguo felt like her heart had melted into a mess. "Zhuang Zhuang, Mother will be fine. Don't worry about me." She consoled the child.
XIaoguo had just recalled that when the boy was born, her mother-in-law had called him by this nickname, Zhuang <anno data-annotation-id="fb10175e-30b4-4480-86e9-54bfb8f76f08">Zhuang</anno>. She had hoped that he would grow up to be fit and strong.
Looking at him now, he was so skinny and dirty-looking. "How did I manage to have a son this age when I am still a maiden?"
"Gurgle, gurgle… ."
Xiaoguo could hear her stomach growling in protest. She was feeling very hungry. This body had not eaten in three days. Xiaoguo pressed on her stomach, and tried to get out of bed to find food. Before her feet could touch the floor, she felt her head spinning and almost fell off the bed. Xiaoguo desperately tried to reach for the bed to avoid falling. Zhuang Zhuang—who had his eyes on her—quickly leapt to her side and grabbed onto her clothes tightly with both hands.
He had been so affected by Xiaoguo's previous fall and was worried that she would have another accident.
Don't worry, Zhuang Zhuang. I just lost my balance. It's fine." Xiaoguo gently stroked Zhuang Zhuang's back.
"I'll hold you, Mother," the child said solemnly.
"Okay."
Xiaoguo walked with Zhuang Zhuang to the kitchen. She looked at the empty grain bags and thought long and hard trying to recall what she had eaten before the famine. There had been rice before the drought, but when the rice ran out, she had to dig wild vegetables for survival. There was no more food left in the house.
Xiaoguo searched high and low in the kitchen, and she finally found a grain bag containing a handful of rice. It was a very small amount of rice, but every grain of rice now was so rare and precious. Xiaoguo was delighted. She poured some water and the rice grains into a pot and lit the stove.
Zhuang Zhuang, who was following Xiaoguo closely, asked in a hesitant tone. "Mother, didn't you say that this bit of food is saved for emergencies?"
The previous owner of this body had said that this bag of food was set aside for Zhuang Zhuang. But in the current situation, Xiaoguo felt that if this were to go on, both of them would definitely starve to death. Since she was here in the present, she would not let Zhuang Zhuang starve. That would be the priority for now.
"Yes, that's right. This is an emergency. Shall we have porridge?"
Upon hearing the word porridge, Zhuang Zhuang began to crave it. It had been a long time since he had tasted any porridge. He could still remember its aroma. He smacked his lips and nodded slowly in agreement.
XIaoguo ruffled his hair—it was a sticky mess. She decided to prepare some water for him to wash up afterwards.
As they were speaking, the water started to boil. The fragrance of cooked congee wafted out from the sides of the pot lid. The both of them sighed in contentment simultaneously, taking in the aroma of the boiling porridge. "Ah… "
Upon hearing each other, they exchanged glances and laughed sheepishly.
Xiaoguo stood up and looked around the kitchen for some oil and vegetables to make a vegetable porridge. She managed to find a stalk of vegetables and a cube of lard in the oil can.
She started to rinse and chop the vegetables. When it was done, she threw the greens and lard into a pot and started stir-frying with a spoon. The delightful aroma of freshly cooked food filled the kitchen in an instant. Xiaoguo and Zhuang Zhuang could hear their stomachs growling in anticipation.
<annotations style="display: none;"><li>Zhuang means strong</li></annotations>