Su Wanzhao's hand touched the bottom of the rice vat for the third time, and only a few grains of rice residue were rubbed on her fingertips.
"Wingzhao, water." Lin's voice was like a broken bellows. She was curled up on the straw mat, her lips chapped and bleeding.
Su Wanzhao broke the last half of the wild vegetable cake into pieces, mixed it with cold water and fed it into her mother's mouth.
"Mom, if you bear with me a little longer, Aunt Zhao said there is a way to survive in the neighboring county." She pulled at the drafty cloth, and the back of her neck felt so cold that it ached.
Outside the window, the wheat stubble gnawed by locusts turned white, and the wind carried soil particles and hit the broken window paper, making a rustling sound.
The door creaked open, and Mrs. Zhao squeezed in, wrapped in a patched gray cloth skirt, with a cracked pottery bowl in her arms: "Wanzhao, I just came back from the town -" she lowered her voice, "The grain in Zhouzhi County is spread out, and three buckets of rice cost five taels of silver!"
Su Wanzhao's hand shook, and the pottery bowl fell to the ground with a bang.
"Who in our village can come up with five taels?" Aunt Zhao patted her thigh, "I watched the carriage behind the grain store carrying grain south, saying it was to be sold to rich households in the south.
The disaster relief food allocated by the court just went into the pockets of corrupt officials! "
Mrs. Lin suddenly coughed violently. Su Wanzhao hurriedly patted her back, but her mother's ribs hurt when her palm touched her.
"Girl, take a rest?" At noon, the team stopped by the river, and Uncle Li with a white beard handed over half a piece of wild onion cake.
