Rebirth in Famine: She Thrives by Lucky Space

"I’ve got some at home, but not much left. I’ll bring some over this afternoon."

"It’s alright. In a couple of days, we’ll go to the city to buy some. I should have enough. Sis, did Aunt agree to let you go to the city?"

"She agreed, but given your situation, you can’t go now. We’ll talk about it later."

"Yeah, I have to wait for a few days. I really have no energy right now."

"Xinyu, do you think the village chief will give us an introduction letter?"

"He should be able to. Once I’m better, we can go and ask."

"My mom told me that women have to be careful during these days, should avoid anything cold, or else it’ll hurt terribly each time.

Also, my mom is nice to me, she always lets me use toilet paper, but in our village, many people use ash."

Jiang Xinyu shuddered and dared not think further.

After Wang Ailing left, Jiang Xinyu used the remaining hot water in the pot to wash, then put on a sanitary pad. She also drank a cup of thick sugar water.

Her stomach felt less painful than earlier. In her past life, she was healthy and never experienced menstrual pain. Since coming here, she was particularly careful as she had not started menstruation at fifteen. She rarely touched cold water, hoping to take care of herself, as this is a lifelong matter.

She wanted to try living a married life, something she didn’t get to experience in her previous life.

She lay out the bedding and soon fell into a deep sleep.

Upon waking up, feeling much better, she boiled some water and drank a big bowl of sugar water. Her body naturally had low blood sugar, and her blood pressure was likely low, too. Now with her period, she needed a good supplement. Red sugar would be perfect.

This is how Jiang Xinyu spent her days in almost pig-like comfort; Wang Ailing didn’t have much time to always be with her. Fortunately, she’d picked up some books from the city last time; otherwise, she would have been too bored.

Having been accustomed to life online, the lack of entertainment here made Jiang Xinyu genuinely uncomfortable.

For a month prior, she was busy improving her life, anxious about the future, always occupied, never contemplating any worries. Now idle, she found time difficult to endure. Wang Ailing didn’t come every day, just visited Jiang Xinyu in the morning and evening to help draw water, providing someone to talk to.

Five days later, Jiang Xinyu finally got through it. People are just strange; when feeling overwhelmed by work, she thought a day off would be nice.

But when she actually stayed inside for days, she didn’t feel comfortable.

"Xinyu, you’ve changed again."

"What do you mean?"

"Next time, buy a mirror. I can’t quite explain it, but you seem like a grown lady."

Jiang Xinyu, due to her previous life’s looks, never bothered to prepare a mirror. After crossing over, there was no time given, so she hadn’t really taken a look, only seeing her reflection in the water when washing her face.

"Really?"

"Yeah, and you’ve actually grown taller. You used to be half a head shorter than me, and now we’re just a finger’s width apart."

Jiang Xinyu chuckled foolishly, "Seems like the good stuff didn’t go to waste."

Having suffered appearance-wise in her previous life, if she could become moderately beautiful in this life, that would be perfect.

"Sis, let’s go find the village chief for an introduction letter. Tomorrow we’ll stroll around the city."

"It’s almost dark, let’s open the letter tomorrow and visit the day after."

"It’s fine, it’s better to go at night. Do you have plans tomorrow?"

"No, let’s go." Actually, Wang Ailing didn’t like going to the Kong family. The second brother of the Kong family used to bother her, and there were small conflicts between the two families, so she tried to avoid them.

Jiang Xinyu didn’t know about Wang Ailing’s situation; if she did, she might understand why the books depicted Wang Ailing in such a bad light.

The two arrived at the Kong family, the main gate was open, and Jiang Xinyu called out loudly from outside, "Is the village chief home?"

"Here, Xinyu, Lingzi, come in." Kong Zhongyou heard the call and came out to see the two, warmly inviting them inside.

"Village chief, we’ve come so late. We’d like you to prepare an introduction letter for us. We want to visit the city.

Last time, I bought ten pounds of food from the city, and I still have ten pounds of food tickets. I was thinking of seeing if there’s still any food for sale."

"Are both of you going?"

"Yes, village chief, I’m going to the city to buy some things," Wang Ailing spoke up now. She couldn’t let Xinyu speak alone when asked.

She wasn’t afraid of the Kong family, just genuinely didn’t want to interact with them.

"Xinyu, you’ve eaten up the ten-plus pounds of food over these twenty days, haven’t you?" Otherwise, she wouldn’t be thinking of buying more food. Really not prudent, knowing that the county head gave her twenty pounds of food tickets, yet unaware of saving and rationing.

"Yeah, ate it all up. If I don’t buy more food, there won’t be even porridge to drink the day after tomorrow."

"Alright, I’ll prepare one letter for both of you."

"Thank you, village chief."

The room was dark, so Kong Zhongyou lit an oil lamp, took out paper to write the introduction letter, stamped it with the village seal, and handed it to Jiang Xinyu.

"You two girls need to be careful for your safety."

Jiang Xinyu received the introduction letter and happily nodded, agreeing to the advice.

The two parted ways on the road after leaving the Kong family, each heading home.

Jiang Xinyu was quite excited about going out tomorrow. Even though she knew there wasn’t much to buy, she was still very eager.

Because of excitement, she woke up at six the next day. Today, she didn’t lounge in bed, got up right away. She boiled water for washing, heated two corncakes, cut some pickled vegetables, and waited for Wang Ailing to come over to eat together.

At six-thirty, her buddy arrived. "Sis, eat up, I’ll go make the milk powder."

Wang Ailing looked at the two bowls with golden corncakes on the table, genuinely wanting to eat.

It’s been over two months since she had any.

"Don’t just stand there, hurry up. After eating, we still have to walk to the township to catch the bus."

The excuse on Wang Ailing’s lips was swallowed back. Ultimately, she couldn’t resist the temptation of good food.

After they finished eating and cleaned up the house, Jiang Xinyu stuffed a few yams into her basket, planning to see if she could exchange them for tickets.

"Xinyu, why are you bringing yams?"

"No particular reason, just thought if I could trade them for something or sell them, it’d be great."

"Does anyone want them?" Wang Ailing asked uncertainly.

"Try and see, and besides, you’ve eaten them before. They can be food substitutes."

"Xinyu, if you sell the yams, what will you eat later?"

"It’s okay, I’m not planning to sell much. Just thinking about buying stuff in the city, and I don’t have tickets. If the yams could be exchanged for tickets, that’d be perfect."

Now Wang Ailing didn’t object; Xinyu was speaking the truth. If the yams could really be exchanged for tickets, then maybe her brother could get married this year. Last time, her brother seemed quite fond of that girl.