Cheng Zongyang's brows furrowed as he looked at the bloody Stone Ring.
'What's going on? Snakes don't have a habit of swallowing stones, especially not one this big.'
Looking at the Stone Ring, he saw it wasn't crude at all; on the contrary, it was quite exquisite. It didn't look hand-carved, but more like it had been machined, with ancient-looking engravings all around it. And was that some kind of jade material set in the center of the Ring?
He was, in fact, a Transmigrator. The original owner of this body had drowned at the age of six, after which he had awakened with memories of his past life. That was nine years ago.
After understanding the general situation of this country and this world, he never thought about using any knowledge from his previous life to change things, much less entertain the idea of making a fortune.
Of course, the main reason was that he had just been a corporate drone in his past life—a completely ordinary person. What kind of special skills would he know?
For a person with no power, no connections, and no background to think he could change his inescapable station as an uneducated farmer, let alone challenge the rules set by the powerful—that was just asking to die.
Besides, he had just been a corporate drone. He might have watched plenty of videos about transmigrators on social media and read his fair share of novels. But when it came to actually doing it himself, how could he possibly know that much? Even if he did, he'd have to wait until he had the strength to act on it.
So, for the past nine years, he had only focused on changing himself. Thanks to his Talent, he grew stronger, at least enough to ensure his family stayed whole and could get by.
Doing what he could to give his family a better life was already quite an achievement.
In fact, the family's development was proceeding exactly as he had planned.
At the very least, despite the hardships and failed harvests caused by the two-year drought, his family hadn't been reduced to the state many others were in—alternating between full meals and starvation, digging up wild grass, and stripping bark from trees.
He could even ensure they had rice and flour at home, and occasional meat and soup after a hunt.
Of course, they had to eat behind closed doors. They kept a low profile when they had to and hid their good fortune when necessary. The two children were kept inside as much as possible.
In times of famine, who knew how many children were stolen and traded for food.
Cheng Zongyang brought his focus back to the Stone Ring in his hand. A thought seemed to strike him. He rinsed the Stone Ring in the water and tucked it away inside his clothes.
"Big Brother, what's that?" his little sister asked, tilting her head curiously. "Is it something to eat?"
Cheng Zongyang was speechless. "No, it's not," he said. "You little rascal, it's not like you don't have food. Why are you so greedy?"
"Hmph! You're the one who said I need to eat my fill to grow tall," the little girl huffed, pouting and turning her head away from her big brother.
Cheng Zongyang was charmed by her cuteness and chuckled. "Alright, I'll give you a piece of malt candy tonight."
"Really?" The little girl immediately turned back, her eyes wide with pleasant surprise.
"Has Big Brother ever lied to you?" Cheng Zongyang retorted, his hands never stopping their work.
"Hee hee, Big Brother is the best!" the little girl said, her eyes curving into happy crescents.
"I want some too...!" his second brother's voice called out from the kitchen.
Cheng Zongyang deadpanned, "You've got sharp ears, kid."
"Heh heh..."
Soon, Cheng Zongyang finished preparing the pheasant and the scrawny, lean rat snake.
The former was to be steamed and eaten later with a soy sauce dip. The latter was for a stew.
Oil was hard to come by these days, and making food taste good used up a lot of it.
The game from the mountains wasn't very fatty either.
After two years of drought, the family's savings had dwindled. He had to be frugal.
Besides, his mother would never agree to using so much oil to stir-fry snake meat.
Making a soup was one of the best ways to extract all the fat from the meat. 'Of course, people with high cholesterol should probably drink less of it,' he mused.
As night fell, an oil lamp was lit in the main hall.
"It's getting late. Let's eat," Mrs. Zhou of the Cheng Family reminded them at the right moment.
A moment later, the family of five, all with their hands washed, sat down at the table in the main hall.
The spread on the table was quite lavish.
A steaming platter of steamed pheasant.
A plate of snake meat, lifted from the broth to be eaten with a soy sauce dip.
A basin of snake soup, with a thin sheen of oil floating on top after the meat had been removed.
A plate of slightly yellowed green vegetables.
And finally, a large basin of rice mixed with sorghum and Old Rice.
Her heart aching over such a large meal, Mrs. Zhou of the Cheng Family began to serve the rice, giving more to the workers and less to the children.
Although she felt the pinch, her eldest son often insisted they eat like this. Arguing was useless, so she no longer said anything about it.
As Cheng Guanghai picked up his chopsticks, everyone else began to eat as well.
Cheng Zongyang placed the two small drumsticks he had cut off into his younger brother's and sister's bowls.
From the moment they sat down, the two little ones' eyes had been practically glued to those two drumsticks.
There wasn't much meat on the pheasant, but at least it was fragrant.
"You just spoil them. They don't do much all day, why do they need to eat so much," Mother Cheng said, shooting her eldest son a look.
Cheng Zongyang smiled, his hands still moving. He picked up the meaty wings and placed one in his father's bowl and one in his mother's, saying,
"They're at the age where they need to grow. Since we have the food, there's no need to be stingy. There's meat in the mountains. When we run out, I'll just go hunt for more."
Cheng Guanghai shook his head.
"What kind of times are we living in? Even if your Archery is unerringly accurate, what's the use if there's no prey? Grain was hard to buy in the county town today, and the price has gone up. A single catty of Old Rice costs fifty cents! White Rice is even more expensive!
And even at that price, you can't buy any!
So, I had to borrow thirty catties of Old Rice and fifty catties of sorghum flour from your second uncle. We'll see if we can pay him back next month. Also, your second uncle said that the county is short on meat now too, which means the game in the mountains is getting scarcer.
People are even scrambling to buy wheat bran now. Li Dashan, who went to the county with me this time, bought twenty catties of rice bran and thirty catties of wheat bran... Sigh!"
Cheng Zongyang was silent for a moment before saying, "That's why I'm planning to go into the Inner Mountain tomorrow to have a look."
As soon as he said this, Cheng Guanghai's brow furrowed. Mother Cheng also looked sharply at her son, putting down her chopsticks to say hurriedly,
"No, absolutely not. The Inner Mountain is too dangerous. It's incredibly dangerous even for Martial Artists who go in.
I heard from the village chief's daughter-in-law that there was once a Ninth Grade Martial Artist, a constable from the county, who chased a fugitive into the Inner Mountain and never came back. You can't go!"
Cheng Guanghai remained silent.
Cheng Zongyang, however, spoke slowly.
"Mother, there's no telling how long this drought will last. The fields have yielded nothing, and the game in the outer mountains has been all but hunted out. Whatever is left has probably fled into the Inner Mountain.
There are too many people and not enough to go around. Something has to change.
Mother, you're the one who keeps the silver coins, so you know we don't have much left. It's mainly for emergencies. Besides, the mid-year is in seven days.
We pay the tax silver mid-year and the Tax Grain at year's end. But at the beginning of the year, we barely managed to pay ten taels of silver to buy our way out of one military conscription slot. Now, at mid-year, we have another expense of one and a half taels of silver. With the poor harvest this year, there can't be much left of our savings, right?"
Hearing this, Mrs. Zhou of the Cheng Family fell silent for a moment, then nodded.
"Besides what you mentioned, the savings have mostly been spent on food. We have two taels and three mace of silver, plus eighteen cents left."
Cheng Zongyang continued.
"Mother, Father also borrowed a lot of grain from Second Uncle's family today. Even though they're family, we have to pay it back. After we do that, how much of those two taels of silver will be left?
Father just said that the county is also running low on grain and meat. If I can hunt a large animal, we can sell it for a much better price. As long as we have money, we can buy more food. And if we have food, we won't have to worry about going hungry."
"Their father, say something!"
Seeing she couldn't persuade her headstrong eldest son, Mrs. Zhou of the Cheng Family turned to her husband and gave him a push.
Cheng Guanghai said suddenly,
"Yang'Er is right. Our savings will run out eventually if we just keep dipping into them. We have to pay back his second uncle next month, too. But if you're going into the mountains, I'm going with you. That way, we can watch each other's backs."
At that, Mrs. Zhou of the Cheng Family grew even more worried.
'Now they're both going?!'