When the sky was fully bright, Chen Huihong woke up on time.
It seemed she hadn't gotten used to having a child sleeping beside her. The first thing Chen Huihong thought of after getting up was to eat tree bark and then leave, nearly stepping on Hui Niang. Seeing Hui Niang, she then belatedly remembered that there indeed was such a person from last night.
Seeing Hui Niang still asleep, Chen Huihong waited for a while and then felt impatient, leaving first to go to the abandoned well she found yesterday to fetch water.
Along the way, most of the wells Chen Huihong found were completely dried up, the bottoms full of dust and mud, not a drop of water to be drawn.
Of the small number not completely dry, the water was also pitifully little, a thin layer of water that couldn't flow faster than it evaporated, managing to draw just a trace of muddy water in the morning.
It showed how severe the drought was.
Chen Huihong drew water three or four times before getting a shallow layer of filthy well water. Without a container to hold it, she grabbed the bucket directly and walked back.
Luckily, the refugees passing by this abandoned well did not take away the hemp rope and the broken bucket, otherwise, Chen Huihong would have had to twist some hemp rope and find a bucket.
By the time Chen Huihong returned, Hui Niang had woken up, sitting on the ground in a daze, her expression blank like a puppet doll. Seeing Chen Huihong approaching, Hui Niang excitedly crawled up from the ground and stumbled towards Chen Huihong, a stark contrast to her zombie-like stagger from last night.
"Water." Chen Huihong said concisely, putting the bucket on the ground, "It's a bit dirty, let it settle before drinking."
Having said that, Chen Huihong sat down, and Hui Niang obediently nodded and sat down.
"Sister wants to ask me something?" Hui Niang knew Chen Huihong had something to ask her.
"Where are you fleeing to during this famine?"
Hui Niang thought for a moment: "At first, my mother said to flee north, hearing that the drought up north isn't as severe as ours, it still rains there, and the price of wheat hasn't reached 20 da yang per stone. Over there, even selling oneself to farm doesn't need to borrow money for food, maybe we could still get a meal."
"But my father disagreed, saying there were military disasters in the north, many people were dead, bandits were rampant, and we might die halfway. Although the farther south we went, the worse the drought, we had a relative in Lin County working as a carpenter, and if we fled there, we might still get a meal." At this point, Hui Niang, who had been keeping her head down, cautiously looked up at Chen Huihong.
Chen Huihong was thinking about her own matters and didn't notice Hui Niang at all, asking, "Did you go to Lin County?"
Hui Niang shook her head: "There was a plague in Lin County, killing many people, and our relatives there also died. Villages severely affected by the epidemic were burned down, and no one dared to go near them."
"I don't know where my parents intend to go, maybe to Beiping or perhaps to Qin. But on the road, we heard from others that there was drought in Qin as well, yet some said Beiping wouldn't let refugees enter the city, blocking them outside. My father thought about catching a train south, but many people fell to their deaths, and some were shot dead on the spot. My father was afraid my brother would fall to his death, so he didn't do it."
"Are there many people fleeing the famine?" Chen Huihong asked.
"Yes, a lot." Hui Niang nodded affirmatively, "It's been dry for three years, no snow in winter, no rain in spring. Initially, there was some harvest barely enough to survive, but last year there was no wheat harvest, not even seeds left for farming."
"With the wheat failing, rent still had to be paid, and taxes had to be met. Many families in our village ran away, our family had four acres of land, those four acres were meant for my brother's marriage, my father couldn't bear to part with the land, so we didn't run away."
"Last year to pay the tax we sold my eldest sister, hoping that maybe this year would be good. But unexpectedly, this year it hasn't rained since the beginning of spring, we truly can't survive any longer, my grandparents, afraid of being a burden, ate Guanyin clay and died from it."
"Last month, my parents buried my grandparents, sold the land, and took my brother and me with them."
"Actually, last year my father originally wanted to sell me too, but my mother said I ate little and could work, and if they waited a year, I might fetch a higher price, so they kept me until this year. But when the human trafficker came this year, he said I was unattractive and wasted food, and wouldn't take me even for free." Hui Niang's tone was indifferent, as if narrating mundane events.
"The neighboring Sister Chun was pretty, and the human trafficker took her, offering two bags of wheat. The trafficker said he would sell her to Beiping, and Sister Chun was quite happy, she left her red hair ribbon to me, telling me that perhaps in Beiping she could eat white flour buns, and with luck, even rice."
"Sister, do you know what white flour buns taste like? In our village, only Landlord Zhang could eat white flour buns, I saw them once, so white and soft, surely softer than clouds in the sky. They all say white flour buns are sweet, sweet without any sugar."
"I know." Chen Huihong said, "White flour buns aren't white, and neither is the flour, they're gray, not sweet."
Chen Huihong's honesty was slightly disillusioning to Hui Niang, but she couldn't help gulping, clearly, Chen Huihong's words were more real compared to Hui Niang's entirely imaginary description.
Knowing that Chen Huihong had actually eaten white flour buns, Hui Niang regarded her with even more respect and cautiously asked, "Sister, are you a lady from the city?"
Chen Huihong didn't answer, so Hui Niang assumed she agreed, continuing to ask, "Sister Chun once worked as a servant girl in the provincial city, she said now city ladies all follow Shencheng style, wearing foreign clothes, eating foreign food, attending foreign schools to learn foreign languages, do city ladies also eat white flour buns?"
Chen Huihong was taken aback for a moment, replying: "They do, everywhere people eat buns."
After thinking for a moment, Chen Huihong added: "They eat rice too."