Chapter 6: Egg Porridge

Zhao Mengcheng only breathed a sigh of relief once he confirmed the child was still breathing. He hadn’t been able to sleep soundly all night, remaining anxious until dawn.

Regardless of what was going on with this child, whether it was rebirth, transmigration, or possession, he had to at least figure things out before making a decision.

Zhao Chun and Zhao Xin hadn’t noticed anything happening beside them and slept soundly until daybreak.

Because he had gone to bed early, Zhao Chun woke up just as the sky was beginning to brighten the next morning.

He first turned to look at his younger sister, then saw that his father and second brother were both fine. Only then did the boy feel a sense of relief and quietly climbed out of bed.

“Chun, what is it?” Zhao Mengcheng asked.

Fearing he would wake his sister, Zhao Chun kept his voice low. “Dad, I’m going to make breakfast.”

“We finished all the grain last night. Lie down for a bit longer. Uncle Wang should be here soon,” Zhao Mengcheng said.

But Zhao Chun replied, “Second brother hasn’t woken up yet. I’ll just add some water to his bowl of rice and boil it. It’ll make a big pot of porridge.”

With that, he scrambled off the bed and ran out.

Zhao Mengcheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but when he turned his head, he met another pair of eyes.

He instinctively began to scrutinize the boy. Unlike the previous night, Zhao Mao’s eyes were bright now. Although his face was still slightly pale, he looked like a normal child.

“Dad,” Zhao Mao called out clearly.

Had the person from last night disappeared?

Zhao Mengcheng’s eyes flickered slightly. “Mao you are awake. Do you feel any better?”

“What happened to me?” Zhao Mao was clearly a bit confused.

Before Zhao Mengcheng could answer, a small head popped out from behind him. “Second brother, you were sick yesterday! You had such a high fever that your eyes were rolling back. Grandpa Liu said you couldn’t be cured, so Dad took you to town. Luckily, you’re okay now.”

Hearing this, Zhao Mao’s small face crumpled. “Did it cost a lot of money again?”

His little face was filled with guilt and regret.

Zhao Mengcheng narrowed his eyes, trying to discern if this was the real Zhao Mao or a natural-born actor with superb skills.

Under that scrutinizing gaze, Zhao Mao remained full of guilt. “It’s all my fault for having such a weak body. If I didn’t get sick and need medicine all the time, the family wouldn’t have to spend so much money.”

His Mental Power detected nothing unusual. It seemed this was truly just a child.

Zhao Mengcheng trusted his judgment. No one could deceive his six senses.

“Don’t say such silly things. Getting sick isn’t something you can control, so how can you blame yourself? Can you get up? You were supposed to drink your medicine last night, but you were out cold. If you can get up, go outside and drink it first.”

Zhao Mao climbed up on his own. “I can get up.”

Seeing that he could dress himself skillfully, Zhao Mengcheng left him to it. He helped Zhao Xin with her clothes and then led the two children outside.

The medicine had grown a bit cold after sitting all night. Zhao Mengcheng reheated it before bringing it to Zhao Mao.

Zhao Mao knit his brows but picked it up and downed it in one go. He stuck out his tongue at the bitterness but didn’t utter a single word of complaint.

Seeing his father staring at him, Zhao Mao gave a pleasing smile. “Dad, I’ll be good and take my medicine. I’ll get better right away.”

He even added, “I feel like I’m already better. There’s no need to spend more money on medicine.”

Zhao Mengcheng felt helpless. In truth, compared to his twin, Zhao Mao was more refined and looked more like the original owner. However, because he had been sickly since childhood and looked like he might die young, the original owner had preferred the healthy eldest son and largely ignored the younger one.

Consequently, Zhao Mao was more afraid of getting sick than anyone. Whenever he fell ill, his parents would look dejected, and he hated that.

Zhao Mengcheng leaned down and touched the boy’s forehead, then gave it a playful flick with a smile. “You are much better, but I don’t think you’re fully recovered yet. You need to eat something good to nourish yourself.”

Zhao Mao had never experienced such intimacy before. He clutched his forehead and stood there dazed for a moment.

The leftover rice saved for Zhao Mao had been turned into a pot of thin porridge. Zhao Mengcheng frowned when he opened the lid. This kind of food was completely lacking in nutrition. It was no wonder the family fell ill so easily.

After a moment’s thought, he simply took out two more eggs.

Zhao Chun hesitated to speak. “Dad, if we eat like this, the food will be gone in two days.”

“When it’s gone, we’ll buy more.” Zhao Mengcheng beat the eggs and poured them directly into the pot. The watery white porridge instantly became egg porridge.

He sprinkled in a bit of sugar before finally ladling it out.

Zhao Xin was stunned when she saw the egg porridge. “Are we eating eggs today too?”

“One bowl for everyone. If you’re not full after drinking it, go back for more,” Zhao Mengcheng said.

Zhao Xin took a sip impatiently, her eyes widening in surprise. “It’s sweet!”

Of course it was sweet. He had used up all the white sugar that the original owner’s wife had carefully hidden away in a single meal.

Zhao Chun and Zhao Mao also sat down and took large gulps. Simultaneously, they began slurping loudly, their little heads nearly diving into their bowls.

The egg porridge with sugar really did taste good. The only regret was that the porridge was too thin and there were too few eggs; it was gone as soon as it was divided among the four of them.

After finishing a bowl, the three children were sensible enough not to ask for more, clutching their stomachs and saying they were full.

Zhao Mengcheng finished off the rest of the egg porridge, even scraping off the strands of egg stuck to the iron pot until it was clean, wasting nothing.

He was truly hungry. He felt famished again right after eating, his stomach like a bottomless pit that never knew fullness.

His body needed nutrition to recover, and his Mental Power needed it even more. Zhao Mengcheng desperately wanted a few more bowls.

But there really was no more grain in the house, and he couldn’t just hog all the eggs for himself.

Zhao Mengcheng picked up the water ladle and gulped down a few mouthfuls, but unfortunately, the plain water only made him hungrier. He simply walked to the vegetable garden, plucked a few leaves, and stuffed them into his mouth.

“Mengcheng, what… what are you doing?” Auntie Wang from next door happened to see him, her mouth hanging open in shock.

“Why didn’t you say anything if your family ran out of food? Come eat at my place first, bring the children along. Your Uncle Wang will be back with the grain soon.”

“Auntie, you’ve misunderstood. We just ate; we had egg porridge,” Zhao Mengcheng explained quickly.

“I was just tasting to see if these vegetables were ready.”

Vegetable leaves could stave off hunger, but what he really wanted now was a calorie bomb, preferably braised pork, the fattier the better.

Seeing his insistence, Auntie Wang went inside with a worried face and pushed Uncle Wang out the door. “Hurry up and help Mengcheng buy that grain. His family must have run out of food; he was just eating raw vegetable leaves in the garden.”

Uncle Wang was also startled. “How did it get to this point? I’ll go right away then.”

“Sigh, this boy is just suffering for the sake of his pride¹. It’s one thing to be stubborn himself, but he’s letting the children go hungry too,” Auntie Wang sighed.

“I asked him to come over for a meal and he refused. He’s probably afraid of taking advantage of us.”

Uncle Wang hurried out. “Is this your first day knowing Mengcheng? He’s a good kid, just too stubborn and can’t swallow his pride. Tell me, how is pride more important than a full stomach?”

“Stop talking and just go, don’t delay any longer. Looking at the state of his house, if they keep starving, something bad will happen.”

In the couple’s eyes, Zhao Mengcheng was a poor soul, which made Zhao Laoda seem like even more of a scoundrel.

When Uncle Wang mentioned this while buying grain, Zhao Mengcheng gained a wave of sympathy. Consequently, Zhao Wencheng’s reputation in the village worsened, making Zhao Laoda and his wife jump with rage.

This was an unexpected side benefit.

Zhao Mengcheng really wasn’t trying to play the victim on purpose; his body simply needed energy and he couldn’t withstand the hunger. Right now, he wanted to stuff anything he saw into his mouth.

He barely restrained himself, thinking that once Uncle Wang delivered the grain, he could eat to his heart’s content.

“Dad, are you still hungry?” Zhao Chun suddenly asked.

Zhao Mengcheng smiled. “I’m full.”

Unfortunately, his stomach didn’t cooperate, exposing his lie with a growl.

Zhao Chun stood up. “Dad, wait a moment.”

With that, he dashed off and disappeared. He was so fast that Zhao Mengcheng couldn’t even call him back.

With his current physical state, Zhao Mengcheng was out of breath after just a few steps. He could only lean against the door and sigh to his younger son, “Your big brother’s physique really is made for being a Great General.”

Too bad he was a cannon fodder villain general who met a tragic end.

Zhao Mao looked at his brother’s retreating back with envy, then looked down at his own thin frame in disappointment.

Before long, Zhao Chun came running back at full tilt, holding up the hem of his shirt excitedly. “Dad, here, eat this.”

When he opened it, inside were bright red wild raspberries.

There were quite a few, at least a dozen or so.

“Where did these come from?” Zhao Mengcheng asked in surprise.

In these times, everyone was short on food and clothing, and children had no snacks. These sweet wild berries were the exclusive treats for kids, usually picked clean as soon as they turned red.

Zhao Chun was a bit proud. “I picked them over by the mountain hollow. No one else can get to them but me.”

Hearing this, Zhao Mengcheng didn’t know whether to praise him or scold him. The mountain hollow was full of jagged rocks and very dangerous; people had fallen to their deaths there before, and the villagers forbade children from playing there.

“Dad, hurry and eat. You won’t be hungry after eating these. They’re really sweet,” Zhao Chun urged.

Zhao Mengcheng didn’t have the heart to take the wild fruit his child had risked his life to pick, so he only ate two just to be polite.

The sweet taste was indeed good, making his mouth water and leaving him even hungrier.

Zhao Mengcheng suppressed the urge to stuff the whole handful into his mouth. “That’s enough for me. You guys share the rest.”

“I don’t like them. Big Brother and Little Sister should eat them,” Zhao Mao said immediately.

Zhao Chun licked the corner of his mouth and placed the remaining berries into his sister’s palm. “I already ate some just now. You eat them, Little Sister.”

Zhao Xin, however, raised her small hand and stuffed one into her father’s mouth, one into her eldest brother’s, and one into her second brother’s before finally taking one for herself.

Having to pass around just a few wild fruits made Zhao Mengcheng feel a pang of sorrow.

Once he found a way to earn some money, he would definitely buy a pile of delicious food so the children could eat to their heart’s content, he thought to himself.

His stomach was still churning with hunger, but Zhao Mengcheng’s heart had finally settled.

A short while later, Uncle Wang arrived, carrying a shoulder pole² with heavy loads.

“Stay seated, no need to help.” Seeing Zhao Mengcheng try to lend a hand, Uncle Wang quickly moved aside, afraid of overworking him.

After moving all the grain into the kitchen in one go, Uncle Wang wiped his sweat before speaking. “It was two taels of silver in total. Currently, the rice shops in town sell two shi³ for one tael. Our village is a bit cheaper, at two and a half shi per tael. I was afraid you might need money for other things, so I only spent one tael. Here is the remaining change.”

“Uncle Wang, thank you. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

In the Great Zhou, one shi was ninety-five kilograms, so two and a half shi was 475 jin⁴. In these times, when food was mostly watery broth, everyone had a large appetite. Calculating at one jin per person per day, this rice would be enough to last them for three months.

Uncle Wang had carried over four hundred jin of rice all by himself. Even though he was used to manual labor, he was still breathless from the exertion.

Zhao Mengcheng was truly grateful that a neighbor would go to such lengths to help.

Uncle Wang waved a hand. “I told you not to be so polite. In the past, when I came to ask for New Year couplets⁵ or things like that, you never charged me a fee for your work.”

He then pulled out a separate bag. “This is a hundred jin of milled rice. I also brought back the rice husks for you. Mixing them in will help stretch the food a bit further.”

Zhao Mengcheng naturally thanked him once more.

Of course, he had no intention of letting himself or the children eat rice husks.

Seeing the pure white rice fill the vat was a delight to Zhao Mengcheng. Suddenly, a series of rumbling sounds echoed through the room.

Zhao Chun clutched his stomach. “I’m not hungry, I’m just… craving it.”

Before the words had even left his mouth, the solo turned into a symphony as Zhao Mengcheng’s stomach began to growl as well.

That bit of egg porridge had passed through them with the first trip to the latrine, so it really wasn’t their fault.

Zhao Mengcheng gave a grand wave of his hand. “Dad is going to cook some fresh rice for you.”

Zhao Chun quickly tried to stop him. “Dad, we just ate, and it’s not mealtime yet. No one eats at this hour.”

“If we’re hungry, we eat,” Zhao Mengcheng insisted. He wasn’t just going to eat; he was going to eat his fill. Only by eating and drinking enough could he restore his health, and only with a healthy body could he earn money to support the family. Once he earned money, they could eat even better.

The rice had only just arrived, and Zhao Mengcheng already had everything arranged perfectly.

Translator’s Notes