Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

He had picked many medicinal herbs, and also brought back a bundle of firewood and a sack of wild herbs.

The sack contained wild herbs, fungus, some wild mushrooms and a few wild fruits.

There was not much, perhaps a few more mushrooms.

In terms of game, there was only one pheasant and two other birds.

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Even Gu Qingyao could not identify these birds. But since Gu Yunshen had brought them back, they were definitely edible.

Gu Yunshen had returned to see Gu Ruoqing was.h.i.+ng clothes by the well. He was somewhat surprised, but did not say anything. After all, the Gu family could not continue to support her freeloading.

In the past, she had listened only to him. Now Gu Ruoqing was actually working when he was not at home. Gu Yunshen was very pleased.

He handed the things to his younger daughter in the kitchen, then went outside to boil water to clean the pheasant and the other two birds.

There was a large ceramic jar under the eaves outside. They had built a platform and used it to cook, and it was very convenient.

Gu Ruoqing was very angry when she saw that her father did not pity her at all when he returned to see her working.

1

Gu Qingyao quickly finished cooking dinner. By then, Gu Ruoqing had finally finished was.h.i.+ng the clothes.

She seldom worked and now she had washed so many clothes. She also had not eaten all day and she was so hungry that she was seeing stars, and so tired that she ached all over. When she saw that dinner was ready, she quickly hung the clothes and went over to eat.

Gu Yunshen also called Gu Chonghua and Wen Ruyu to come over. Everyone washed their hands and prepared to eat.

Dinner was wild herbs, sorghum bread and dried sweet potato porridge. For vegetables, they had dried radish and vegetables fried with mushrooms. There was a little more of the latter, but not enough for so many people.

Gu Ruoqing was unhappy when she saw there was no meat.

“Where's the meat in the house? How am I supposed to eat this? It's tasteless.”

Under normal circ.u.mstances, Gu Ruoqing naturally would not object too much to food like that. After all, in times like these, it was enough to have food to eat. They could not afford to be picky.

But the Gu family did have a few members in the military, and usually had slightly more resources. Zhang Xiaohui had also doted on her, so she was rather sheltered and spoiled compared to the others.

Today she had worked all day, and still had to eat this stuff. She was immediately unhappy.

Especially when she knew there was so much meat in the house, yet she could not eat it. This made her even more dissatisfied with the food.

Gu Qingyao said, “Why can't this be eaten? Consider yourself lucky to have food. Many others are going hungry!

“We just ate meat yesterday. We should save the rest for the new year. We can't eat meat every day. Where would we get so much meat? Also, your mother brought a lot of meat to the Zhang family, or there would have been enough for several meals for the entire family.”

Gu Ruoqing opened her mouth to answer back, but Gu Yunshen glared at her and said, “Eat!”

Gu Yunshen's single word frightened Gu Ruoqing so much that she did not dare to say anything.

In this family, she was most afraid of her father, and not her grandparents. Even her mother was most afraid of her father.

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Her hairs stood on end every time her father glared at her with his dark eyes!

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Gu Ruoqing did not dare to say anymore. She bowed her head and ate.

Gu Qingyao had seasoned the mushrooms and vegetables well, so they were quite tasty, and they ate all of it.

When Gu Ruoqing tried to fill her bowl with a second helping of porridge, she realized there was no more.

She was immediately stunned. “Gu Qingyao, where's the rice? Why isn't there anymore?”

Gu Qingyao blandly said, “Haven't you already eaten some? Why eat so much late at night? It's enough as long as you don't starve.”

Gu Ruoqing: “…”

Everyone: “…”