Zhu Lin was jolted awake by being jostled.
She was on a man's back, and he seemed to be walking up a mountain path. The path was uneven, and it was clearly night, so he was moving forward in the dark, making the journey incredibly rough.
Nearby, a woman's muffled cries could be heard intermittently, and she occasionally reached out to touch Zhu Lin's back.
"Stop crying. The Ran family has food, they won't starve her. If you follow us, you'll starve to death eventually." The man's voice was a little weak, and the language he spoke was particularly difficult to understand. If she weren't in this body, Zhu Lin probably wouldn't have understood what he was saying.
Zhu Lin frowned and mentally asked the system about the current situation.
[Host, this world is quite special. Please receive the memories first.]
"Mhm."
A segment of memory transferred into her mind. The content was very simple.
The original owner, Zhou Sanya, was a little girl from a village in a minority ethnic group in the southwestern region of Huaguo. She was now over five years old and born into a very poor family. She had three daughters and one son. The Zhou family's youngest son had just been born, and they had finally welcomed a son, which should have made the Zhou family very happy. However, the drought that lasted from the year before last to this year had caused severe crop failure, and the Zhou family had been out of food for nearly half a month.
The original owner's father, Zhou Shugen, was an honest and simple rural man. Although he didn't treat his daughters as harshly as other fathers who favored sons, in his heart, his son was definitely more important than his daughters.
It just so happened that at this time, the wealthy Ran family in the village was looking for a "child bride" for their unborn child. There was a superstitious belief in this village that finding a "wife" for an unborn child would ensure the child born would be a boy.
The Ran family used to be "landlords" and were better off than most families in the village, and they had some food. They didn't actually need to find a child bride. However, more than two months ago, the head of the Ran family went with others to dig a well, and the well collapsed, burying him. When he was dug out, he was already dead.
The Ran family's wife, who was heavily pregnant, almost died with him. It was only after the elders' persistent persuasion that she was somewhat pacified and managed to recover her health. As the birth of the child approached, they remembered to find a child bride in advance to try for a son, so they inquired everywhere.
When Zhou Shugen heard that the Ran family was willing to give 100 jin of grain and five yuan, he immediately agreed. Then, under the cover of night, he carried the original owner away.
The original owner's mother was an honest and virtuous rural woman. She followed her husband in all things. Besides, she knew clearly that they couldn't afford to raise the children without food and money. Rather than drag the entire family to starve to death, it was better to send Sanya away, giving her a way to survive and giving the rest of the family a chance.
Zhu Lin thought of how the original owner's family had been chewing on grass roots and eating tree bark for the past half month, and how her four- or five-month-old brother had become as thin as a newborn, on the verge of death. She really didn't know who to blame.
The original owner's parents were feudal and ignorant. No matter how difficult life was, they wanted a son, so the poorer they were, the more children they had. The current social environment was already quite bleak. It was probably the year 2000, the period of the well-known wave of layoffs in history. Even people in the cities didn't have easy lives, let alone this remote, almost uninhabited minority village.
The hardship of life could be imagined.
In the original owner's memories, the most frequent were images of her family and various memories of hunger. Thinking about it, Zhu Lin herself felt hungry.
It was at this moment that they finally crossed the small mountain ridge and arrived at a settlement with a few houses. In the dark night sky, a few faint lights could be seen, but the lights were very dim, clearly not electric lights.
They walked up to a house and knocked on the wooden door.
A moment later, the door opened from the inside.
"Are you from the Zhou family in Hegou village?"
The person carrying her spoke, "Yes, Auntie. You're not asleep yet?"
A woman's voice, seemingly in her forties, said, "No, we've been waiting for you. Come in quickly."
Then she moved aside, letting the couple in.
The house was made entirely of wood. The door creaked when it opened and closed, making a rather harsh sound. The house also had a wooden floor. Not far away was a table with a kerosene lamp lit. A heavily pregnant woman sat under the lamp. A man sat on a small stool nearby, holding a large pipe and smoking tobacco. He looked to be in his fifties or sixties, appearing quite old.
"You're here."
The heavily pregnant woman stood up and looked eagerly at the person being carried behind Zhou Shugen.
Zhou Shugen put her down. Seeing that Zhu Lin had woken up, he didn't feel awkward and nudged his daughter.
"This is my third daughter, born in October. She's almost six years old."
The woman who had opened the door pulled Zhu Lin over and examined her carefully. "She doesn't look six, she's too small."
Zhou Shugen rubbed his head. "She's still two months away. She hasn't been eating enough, so she looks small. She's really almost six. If you don't believe me, Auntie, you can ask around in our village."
The woman touched Zhu Lin's head and looked closely at her face. "Her looks are really good. It doesn't matter if she's a bit small. It's still as agreed: one hundred jin of grain, five yuan. Husband, go get the grain."
The old man put down the large pipe he was holding, got up, and stooped as he went into the main room next door. He brought out two sacks, each only half full, and placed them in front of the Zhou couple.
"There's no millet this year, so it's fifty jin of buckwheat and fifty jin of corn. Would you like to weigh it?"
Zhou Shugen lifted one to feel its weight and then shook his head. "No, we trust Auntie and Uncle."
The woman took out a handful of change from her pocket. Her fingers were dark and cracked. She counted out five yuan from a pile of small bills and handed it to Zhou Shugen.
Zhou Shugen accepted it with some excitement. He counted it twice to confirm it was correct and then put it away preciously.
"Everything is correct, right?"
"Correct, correct."
"Good." The woman said to them, "It's getting late, so we won't keep you. Can you carry this grain? I'll have my husband help you carry it over."
"We can carry it, we can carry it." Zhou Shugen waved his hands repeatedly, nudged his wife, and they each carried half a sack. He thanked the woman profusely and glanced at his daughter.
Zhu Lin watched them with a calm gaze, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
The original owner's mother had not spoken since entering. Her eyes had been fixed on her daughter, filled with tears, but she hadn't said a word until they left.
The woman saw them both out and then returned to the house. She looked at Zhu Lin, who was standing still, and gently nudged her.
"Do you understand what's happening?"
Zhu Lin didn't respond.
"Your parents gave you to our family. From now on, you are the Ran family's daughter-in-law. Do you hear me?"
This depended on whether the child in her belly was Chong Yan.
The woman asked several times, but Zhu Lin didn't respond. She looked at her suspiciously and suddenly slapped her thigh. "Oh dear! This child can't be mute, can she? Quickly, husband, go chase after that couple!"
"No."
The woman looked at Zhu Lin, who had just spoken, and stared at her intently. "What did you say?"
"Not mute."