"My goodness, how big is this thing? It turns out the 'big pumpkin' really meant it literally!"
With an involuntary gasp, Ding Yun circled the giant pumpkin, troubled by how to eat it. The original owner had nothing but the tattered clothes on her back. She had eaten the white radish raw earlier and hadn't had any issues, but now she couldn't eat the pumpkin raw.
She had no way to start a fire or any cooking tools.
She didn't even have anything to cut the pumpkin with.
She felt a sense of helplessness, not knowing where to begin.
After agonizing for a while, she finally gave up on the pumpkin and took out another white radish to fill her stomach. After eating, she went out again and tossed out thousands of white radishes before continuing south.
This time, besides traveling, she would occasionally divert a wisp of her consciousness into the farm to check on the pumpkins. She also constantly scanned her surroundings for any tools that could be used to cut or cook the pumpkin, preparing for when she could finally eat it.
Over the next few days.
Ding Yun continued to perform acts of kindness, stopping to rest in certain places and specifically taking out white radishes. She didn't stop even after using up all the radishes in her warehouse.
Instead, after the radishes, she began to release pumpkins.
In addition to this, she also figured out some basic information about pumpkin cultivation and found some makeshift tools, specifically sharp stones and relatively thin stone slabs.
Using the sharp stones to cut the pumpkins.
And using the thin stone slabs to pan-fry or roast the pumpkins.
The cooking method was a bit strange, but she couldn't be picky at this point; being able to cook them was good enough.
As for the basic information about the giant pumpkins.
The maximum yield of a giant pumpkin was six hundred.
It required a total of one hundred minutes.
Looking at the yield and time, it seemed a bit inferior to the white radish, but it made up for it in size. A white radish weighed three catties, while a pumpkin weighed fifty catties. The only regret was that the cultivation experience for pumpkins was no different from white radishes, with each pumpkin yielding only a little experience. And it took a full million experience points to go from level one to level two.
So, for several consecutive days.
Ding Yun hadn't accumulated enough experience to level up.
However, the refugees who followed her, passing through the places she had been and accidentally discovering the radishes and pumpkins she had left behind, were quite happy in recent days. Many people, after finding those radishes and pumpkins.
Under such harsh conditions.
They still didn't forget to kowtow in thanks to the gods, to the Earth God.
They didn't think it was because someone pitied them and deliberately placed radishes and pumpkins there for them to eat. In their impression, even landlords and wealthy gentry would make a big fuss when doing good deeds, letting everyone know they were great philanthropists. Now, the radishes and pumpkins had clearly appeared in the wilderness silently, so they must be divine blessings!
Considering that the food appeared on the ground.
It was naturally a blessing from the Earth God.
Of course, besides this reason, everyone knew that it was not the season for harvesting radishes or pumpkins, and they had never seen such large pumpkins before. These were also the main reasons why they believed these two foods were bestowed by the gods to help them through their difficulties.
The disaster victims who finished the pumpkins didn't dare to discard a single pumpkin seed. They all carefully collected them, preparing to plant them when they were able to settle down again in the future.
At that time, they might be able to grow.
Pumpkins of this size.
...
Meanwhile, Ding Yun, after half a month of arduous travel, finally reached an area that was less desolate and where villages could occasionally be seen.
However, she still didn't dare to let down her guard.
Because she had too many problems. She had neither a travel permit nor household registration. While these could be explained away by her being a refugee, that would only work if she didn't encounter bad people. If she met someone with ill intentions, they could easily sell her.
She wouldn't even have a place to appeal.
After all, why was she an unregistered resident?
An unregistered resident was worse off than even a slave.
If she were an adult male, it would be slightly easier in this era. Whether it was to register at the county office or to reapply for household registration, it wouldn't be particularly difficult. If she was lucky and spent a little money, it could be done.
But she was a woman.
And an underage one at that.
Without the accompaniment of any adult male relative, she couldn't even reapply for household registration. Because there was no head of household, if she wanted to have her own household registration, she would have to find a way to establish a female household.
But this was also quite troublesome.
Because to establish a female household, one would need at least a certain amount of fixed assets, such as land, a house, or a shop.
And generally, only widows established female households.
An underage person establishing one was unheard of.
Of course, these were definitely not things the original owner would have known. Ding Yun learned this information from refugees gathered outside a nearby city waiting for relief from the yamen, gleaning and summarizing it from their conversations.
In short, the issue of her identity alone was already giving Ding Yun a big headache.
Everything else had to be put aside for now.
If this problem couldn't be solved.
She might end up living like a wild person.
However, no matter how much Ding Yun pondered and worried, she couldn't think of a good and safe way to successfully obtain household registration. So, she continued to wander outside the cities, trying to stay away from places that required household registration.
And she didn't stop there.
She continued to head towards more prosperous areas.
Planning to take things one step at a time.
At the same time, considering that even a single coin could stump a hero, and that the areas she was passing through no longer had many refugees, and there was no longer a need to hand out pumpkins for emergencies, Ding Yun specially changed the seeds in her farm. She switched to cultivating fruit radishes, which had evolved from large white radishes. This would not only speed up experience point acquisition but also allow her to sell some fruit radishes in small markets.
Even if she couldn't sell them for much in the small markets.
She could at least exchange them for some copper coins.
So she wouldn't be penniless.
As for why she didn't sell the large white radishes or giant pumpkins, it was because these two items had already been distributed to disaster victims and had been seen by many people. Furthermore, their appearances were very distinctive. To avoid exposing herself.
Ding Yun naturally had to sell a different crop.
Moreover, fruit radishes tasted better.
When selling things, why wouldn't she choose to sell the ones that tasted better?
It was just that she hadn't unlocked fruit seeds. If she had fruits, she would definitely choose to sell fruits.
As she accumulated some copper coins by selling fruit radishes in various small markets, Ding Yun quickly bought some coarse homespun cloth and sewing supplies from the market. With her limited skills, she made herself a few sets of rough linen clothes that could barely be called clothing.
This was to replace the old, tattered set she was wearing, which was almost indecent.
As for why she made clothes herself when she didn't have sewing skills, it was because ordinary small markets in ancient times didn't sell ready-made clothing. Even large shops rarely sold ready-made clothes. In ancient times, there were mainly three ways to get clothes: ordinary families would buy cloth and make them themselves, while wealthy families would buy cloth and have their maids or seamstresses make them.
Or they would go to a tailor shop and hire someone to custom-make them.
If you wanted to buy ready-made clothes, you could basically only check pawn shops to see if there were any suitable second-hand items.
But small markets had no pawn shops.
And tailor shops were also basically nonexistent.
To minimize trouble and potential dangers, Ding Yun was willing to make her own clothes with her less-than-stellar skills.
And so, wearing these slightly awkward clothes she had made herself, she continued south and eventually reached the outskirts of Jinling City.
It wasn't that her destination was Jinling City.
It was because outside Jinling City, she heard many people entering and leaving the city discussing the gossip about the eldest young master of the Xue family, a descendant of Ziwei Shiren, beating Feng Yuan to death.
The most crucial point was that the eldest young master of the Xue family.
Was named Xue Pan.
He had ordered his powerful retainers to beat Feng Yuan to death because he forcibly bought Ying Lian as a concubine and got into a dispute with Feng Yuan.
People in the city were currently gossiping about this.
Everyone was paying attention to the Xue family.
Wanting to see how their family would react.
Connecting so many useful clues together.
Ding Yun instantly understood that this was not an ordinary fictional ancient world, but a derivative world of "Dream of the Red Chamber." She just didn't know what kind of derivative world it was.
But even so, she was very interested.
So she specifically stopped to rest.
She planned to watch the excitement in Jinling City for now.
But before that, she still had one thing to do: obtain legal household registration.