In the courtyard, Shen Jingli was currently struggling to pour the water he had brought back from the well into the water jar. He had already traveled here for five days, and during these five days, he had a rough understanding of his current situation.
In this world, there were men, women, and even twins. The twins' bodies were weaker than the men's, tougher than the women's, they could marry or marry, but their fertility was very weak and their status was very low, especially in small families, where they usually either sold themselves to be slaves or sold themselves as concubines.
Last March, the original owner was sold by his biological father for 10 taels of silver to his current family's eldest son to be his daughter-in-law. Last month, the original owner's mother-in-law contracted an illness, spent all the savings in the family, and still died. Since the original owner found out that he was pregnant, the original owner dragged his pregnant body for two days and ran back to the town next door to borrow money.
Thinking about it, Shen Jingli could not help but be speechless, why was he so sad? When other people transmigrated to this world, they would either be princes or rich princes, but he was a poor kid who was neither loved nor doted on by his father nor sold by his mother. Not only that, he was even married to someone else and had a sickly husband, a malnourished brother-in-law, and a three-month-old child in his belly.
He couldn't help but sigh once again. Shen Jingli wiped his sweat and brought the wooden bucket into the house.
When he woke up, he found a "corpse" lying beside him, and at the end of the bed was a skinny little boy, and he almost died again. Later on, after he had sorted out the original owner's memories, he found out that the "corpse" was the original owner's husband, Mu Chen. He was ranked 14, and also called Mu Shisi, and his body was in a bad condition, which meant that he had to fall asleep for a few days now and then, and the skinny, bone-thin little boy was the original owner's brother-in-law.
From Mu Jin's mouth, Shen Jingli also found out that after the original owner had left, the people from the Mu Family came once, and said some darn things to attack Mu Chen's vital energy and blood, and passed out. Mu Jin stayed on guard by himself, and everyday he would send him some rice soup every day.
The moment Shen Jingli woke up, Mu Jin heaved a sigh of relief and fainted at the same time. Shen Jingli found out from the original owner's memories that this little uncle was not easy to deal with, and he felt very sorry for this pitiful child.
After cooking some rice and feeding it to him, Shen Jingli took a look around the house. It was a very run-down house, a total of three rooms and a small stove room, with two bedrooms on both sides, one wooden bed in the middle, the other a wooden bed in the middle, where the original owner's mother-in-law normally slept, and a four square table and a few broken stools. There were a few baskets hanging outside the door, but other than some weeds, there was nothing inside.
The cold spring breeze blew, Shen Jingli's heart was filled with anxiety. He almost wanted to hang himself at the door with a rope.
He was extremely depressed, but he still had to live on. He wasn't naive enough to think that he would be able to return to his previous life just by knocking himself to death.
After making sure that the two inside the house were still alive, Shen Jingli did not care about his body's discomfort at all, and found a broom to clean the entire house, both inside and out, and packed everything that he could and could not use, and went to fill the well at the door with water, and washed all the things that he needed to clean and wash in the house. After a long while, the house finally became accessible to the people.
When doing all this, Shen Jingli couldn't help but thank his sisters who had not touched the spring water at all. His parents had passed away in a car accident when they were young, and his grandfather had taken care of them all by himself, his grandfather was a famous sculptor with excellent woodworking skills, and was extremely busy normally. Thus, he had learned how to do household chores since he was very young, and in order to earn pocket money, he even went to a restaurant to work.
After tidying up the room and preparing to boil some hot water to wash up and wash up, he suffered from not being able to make a fire and almost burned the house, scaring the sister-in-law next door out. He explained the situation embarrassedly, and after taking pity on his husband next door, she taught him how to make a fire and gave him a few eggs and some cornmeal.
On the mountain in April, wild vegetables grew crazily. Sis Chen then led him to gather wild vegetables, such as purslane, ground rice, bitter herbs, wild shepherd's purse, fern and so on … Whatever he could eat, he would pick them up. If he couldn't finish, he would dry them in the sun or marinate them. There were also wild chickens, wild boars, rabbits, and other animals on the mountain. He set up traps and caught two wild chickens. He dug out several nests of wild eggs. The wild chickens were kept in the yard, while the wild eggs were used for cooking.
There wasn't much food in the house, so Shen Jingli made a simple porridge. He thought of the big and small malnourished people in the house, then looked at his unwell stomach. He took out a few eggs and made himself an egg soup.
Mu Jin woke up and smelled the fragrance of the food. He could not wait to run out and saw Shen Jingli cooking breakfast in the kitchen. He was slightly startled and then asked weakly, "Sister-in-law, what are you doing?"
Although big brother doesn't like Shen Jingli, but those people said that big brother's health was not good, and I'm afraid no lady is willing to marry him. It's very hard for big brother to have a person to take care of him and his mother, so big brother decided to accept them.
But Mu Jin remembered that no matter what his mother told him to do, he would do it for her. He did not have any opinions, but when his mother left, he left immediately, because Mu Family had sent people to beat her up. He was so angry that he vomited a mouthful of blood and passed out, he was very afraid that his brother would leave him alone, so he stayed by his side all day long guarding big brother.
A few days later, he saw his sister-in-law faint at the door and burst into tears. He begged the villagers to help her into the house and became even more frightened. What if all her family members died? But then, her sister-in-law seemed to have woken up …
Mu Jin saw Shen Jingli busy figure in the kitchen, and his heart warmed. There was water in the kitchen, and the firewood was neatly placed there. There was a meter in the rice bowl, and vegetables in the basin; there were a few bamboo baskets hanging on the beams of the rooms, and a few eggs and mushrooms on one of the baskets. There were also some wild fruits on the other fruits.
"Brother Jin, you're awake?" Shen Jingli was elated, he ran over and touched Mu Jin's forehead. Honestly speaking, Mu Jin slept for two days straight, if they were not still breathing, he was worried that the two brothers would not be able to wake up, "How do you feel?"
"I …" Before the words were even out of his mouth, his stomach started rumbling loudly. He felt extremely ashamed, so Mu Jin lowered his head and did not speak.
"I'm hungry. I've made breakfast, so we'll be able to eat soon." Shen Jingli rubbed Mu Jin's head in pain. Mu Jin was eleven years old, but due to being born prematurely and his family being poor, he was unable to keep up with his nutrition. With his short stature and pale white skinny body, he was obviously not a healthy baby.
Hearing that he could eat breakfast, Mu Jin gulped down his saliva. He had not eaten for a few days and smelling the aroma of food.
As he helped Shen Jingli carry the food into the living room, Mu Jin sat obediently on a rocking stool, staring at the sweet potato porridge and egg soup on the table, licking his lips from time to time.
When Shen Jingli returned from the kitchen with the water, he saw Mu Jin salivating over the food on the table. Shen Jingli's heart ached even more, just how hungry was this poor child of his. "Come and wash his face, wipe his hands, then you can eat."
Hearing that he could eat, Mu Jin quickly washed his hands, and that Shen Jingli had given him a wet cotton handkerchief to wash his face, so he let him eat.
Mu Jin did not dare to touch the egg soup, and scooped up a bowl of sweet potato porridge and started to drink.
Shen Jingli once again filled up a bowl of water, planning to clean up that cheap husband of his, but he realised that that person had already woken up and was even sitting up. Shen Jingli did not expect that he would wake up at this time, he was first stunned, then heaved a sigh of relief.
"Fourteen, it's great that you woke up. You can have breakfast after you wash up."
Mu Chen was ranked fourteenth on the Mu Family, so he was called Mu Shisi. Shen Jingli was his wife, so logically speaking, he should be addressed as Master, but the current Shen Jingli was not the same as the one from before, wanting him to call an unfamiliar man like Master Xiang. Since he was unable to say it out loud, chose to call him by a more pleasing name, which was taken as a Japanese name.
Shen Jingli had bought it for him from the Mu Family, he had always thought that Shen Jingli was someone from there, and was not good to him. If he had not been obedient, he would have already killed with a palm. Not long ago, his mother had passed away, and before the seventh head even reached the seventh head, Shen Jingli had already left.
The status of this world was very low, it was better for wealthy families to have money and be pampered. If one was not pampered or did not live in a normal family, one would not be able to marry into a wife, and would only be able to be sold as a slave or a concubine if one's family was in an even worse situation, one would be forced to work hard, and would often be tortured to death in just a few years. In fact, one would not have any freedom to sell himself as a concubine.
If Mu Chen wanted to sell it, he could do so anytime, and could even sell it to the officials as an official slave. Furthermore, if Mu Chen died, his indenture could very well fall into the hands of the people from the Mu Family, and even though he had never seen the people from the Mu Family, he knew from the attitude of the two brothers that the family was not a good person. They would definitely not treat him well, and as for the original owner's own parents, there was no hope that anything would happen to Mu Chen.
"Eat! This egg soup is nutritious. Eat while it's hot."
Seeing that Mu Jin was engrossed in eating porridge, Shen Jingli quickly pushed the egg soup over, Mu Jin looked at Shen Jingli, then at Mu Chen, seeing him nod his head, he started to eat big bites of the egg, he was really hungry, the egg soup was steamed up and after a while, it was all finished, he licked his lips and looked at Shen Jingli, feeling unsatisfied.
Shen Jingli looked at Mu Jin's thin and weak face, and gave half of his egg drop to him. Mu Jin quickly finished it, and looked at him again, but Shen Jingli shook his head, eating the rest of the egg drop by himself.
"Brother Jin is good, I'll make fish for you at noon." Shen Jingli caressed Mu Jin's face that was not much, and said with a pained heart.
"Yes." Mu Jin nodded obediently as he scooped a little more sweet potato porridge and started to drink again.
"Where did the fish come from?" Mu Chen's body was not well, so he ate slowly. However, he had already eaten two bowls of potato porridge and a bowl of egg soup. In order to treat his mother's illness, he had spent all of his remaining savings. Where did he get the money to buy fish?
"I caught them in the river yesterday. Two fat grass fishes." Shen Jingli proudly raised two fingers. Fish was a good thing, they had a lot of protein, hence it was perfect to nourish their families' bodies, especially this pregnant husband of his. He had the little fellow in his stomach who worked hard and still didn't give them enough to eat and drink.