The sun had shifted from its zenith, its light still blinding.
Emerging from the grain shop, everyone was dizzy with hunger. Bai Sheng led Lu Hua and Lu Yu, while Lu Ye carried a wooden bucket in one hand and held Lu Yun's hand with the other.
Before they had walked far, Lu Yu’s legs gave out, and he began to fall.
“Xiao Yu!” Bai Sheng cried out, catching him in a half-embrace.
“Xiao Yu!” Lu Ye, Lu Hua, and Lu Yun also rushed over.
Lu Yu weakly opened his eyes, his gaze unfocused as he looked at everyone, then settled on Bai Sheng. “Sister-in-law, I’m hungry… so hungry… hungry…”
The four-year-old child was reduced to this state by hunger…
Bai Sheng’s eyes instantly welled up. She gently comforted him, “Be good, hold on a little longer. Sister-in-law will get you something to eat.”
“Okay… hold on…” Lu Yu weakly agreed, “I like… sister-in-law.”
“Sister-in-law likes Xiao Yu too,” Bai Sheng said, smiling through tears as she kissed the dark smudge on Lu Yu’s forehead.
Lu Hua and Lu Yun were also on the verge of collapse from hunger, slumping to the ground beside Lu Yu, their heads drooping weakly.
“Be good, you wait here and keep an eye on Xiao Yu,” Bai Sheng said, her heart aching as she stroked their heads. She then stood up and walked towards the wooden bucket.
“Bai Sheng, you can’t do this anymore!” Lu Ye stopped her, his tired eyes filled with worry. “I’ll sell the wolf.”
Bai Sheng thought for a moment. “How about we ask the restaurants about the price first? If it’s too low, selling it won’t be worth it. Besides, Xiao Yu wants to eat meat too.” In truth, she also wanted to eat.
“Okay!” Lu Ye nodded.
The two walked into a nearby alley. Lu Ye kept watch.
With a thought, Bai Sheng summoned the wolf to her feet.
There were no restaurants in town, only a few eateries.
Lu Ye picked up the wolf and walked directly towards the largest eatery in town.
In fact, selling the wolf to the town’s brothel might fetch a higher price. However, because of the incident involving Lu Hua, Lu Ye had fallen out with those people, and he didn’t wish to encounter them again.
The three children were too dazed from hunger to notice the wolf that their elder brother had “hidden,” which had inexplicably appeared on his shoulder.
Bai Sheng had instructed that if the wolf could be sold for five taels of silver, it should be sold. If not, there was no deal!
Lu Ye, however, thought that if he could get two taels, he would sell it. He didn’t want Bai Sheng to take more risks for just a few taels, especially since this was a world where wolves roamed freely!
However, the owner of the eatery only offered Lu Ye one tael of silver. He claimed the wolf Lu Ye hunted was too thin, with not much meat, and even one tael felt like a loss.
Lu Ye had initially wanted to sell, but he was afraid Bai Sheng would be angry when he returned. After all, one wolf could provide several meals, but one tael of silver couldn’t buy much, and prices were extraordinarily high nowadays.
Seeing Lu Ye carrying the wolf back, Bai Sheng was somewhat pleased. The wolf meat was within reach and wouldn’t slip away!
After secretly returning the wolf to her space, the group went to a noodle shop. Bai Sheng exchanged two buckets of water for five large bowls of noodles with hot broth.
The noodle shop owner was desperately short of water. Having two buckets made him very happy. He added extra noodles to everyone’s bowls and even included a few slices of meat.
The three children were eating real white noodles for the first time. They devoured them, yet cherished every mouthful, not daring to waste a drop of the broth.
Lu Ye also ate quickly, likely famished. With his tall stature, his appetite must be substantial. Fearing he wouldn’t have enough noodles, Bai Sheng offered him some of hers, claiming she couldn’t finish.
But he refused to accept, saying he would eat if Bai Sheng truly couldn’t finish.
Bai Sheng ended up eating half of her noodles and pushed the remaining half-bowl towards him.
Only then did Lu Ye unceremoniously pick up the bowl and finish it in a few slurps.
Bai Sheng watched Lu Ye, resting her chin in her hands, a somewhat lecherous smile on her face. This was the second man who had eaten her leftovers.
The first was eight years ago in her previous life.
Lu Hua also shared her noodles with her two younger brothers. Though they were small, their appetites were not.
“Sister-in-law, these noodles are too delicious! Truly the most, most, most, most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten in my life!” Lu Yun said, patting his round belly with satisfaction, letting out a small burp.
Bai Sheng smiled. “In the future, our whole family will work hard together. When we have money, we can eat whatever we want!”
After finishing a large bowl of noodles, Lu Yu’s spirits instantly recovered. He burped, his small face looking extremely content.
After they finished eating and were leaving, the noodle shop owner told Lu Ye and Bai Sheng that if they had water in the future, they could sell it to him, and he would pay a higher price than others.
This time, Lu Ye didn’t refuse, because Bai Sheng had privately told him she had found a way to legitimize the space water, and they could sell it freely from now on.
Bai Sheng felt uninhibited. She exchanged another four buckets of water for a large iron pot, two buckets for ten water skins, two buckets for twenty-five flatbreads, and one bucket for fifteen sets of bamboo bowls and chopsticks, and five buckets for five sets of clothes…
Watching her brother and sister-in-law bring out bucket after bucket of water, Lu Hua and the others had grown accustomed to it. They felt it was only right that a divine being was secretly helping their family, so there was nothing to be curious about.
On the way home, to avoid exposing Bai Sheng’s space, Lu Ye carried all the items himself.
As the saying goes, a long road makes no light load.
Bai Sheng secretly put the smaller items into her space, so Lu Ye only had to carry the wooden bucket and the iron pot.
The children would only assume those smaller items were stored within the wooden bucket.
However, Lu Hua and the others had long ago discovered the anomaly. The grain seeds they had bought earlier had disappeared, but their brother and sister-in-law weren’t worried at all.
Moreover, these past few days, their brother and sister-in-law had been deliberately avoiding the three of them, whispering and chattering mysteriously. They must have something they didn’t want them to know, so they would act as if they knew nothing.
Although Lu Hua was only ten years old, she often told her two younger brothers that since their parents were gone, they were now a burden on their brother and sister-in-law, and they should be good children who listened to them.
Therefore, being good children, they were not curious, really not curious, not curious at all!
When Bai Sheng and the others returned to Red Tree Slope, almost all the unregistered residents had come out, watching them from afar with looks of scrutiny and surprise.
What the unregistered residents couldn’t understand was why this newly arrived family, who could afford so many things, had chosen to move to Red Tree Slope.
Bai Sheng and Lu Ye paid no attention to their stares and walked directly towards their “home.”
The sun was already setting in the west, its rosy twilight casting a blush upon the desert.
No one was in the mood to admire the scenery.
Everyone was tired and sat down to rest among the sand rock piles.
Bai Sheng pulled Lu Ye aside again for a private conversation.
Bai Sheng told Lu Ye that they couldn’t openly use their water and felt extremely stifled by it, so they absolutely had to find a way to legitimize the space water.
Lu Ye asked her what method she had thought of.
Bai Sheng smiled. “Digging a well.”
“Digging a well?” Lu Ye was slightly taken aback. “But the entire Tasha Prefecture has been suffering from drought for almost two years. Even outside this desert, it’s difficult to find water. If we say we found water after digging a well in the desert, will people believe us?”