The Daily Life of Farming and Raising Children in Ancient Mountain Residences

Chapter 154: Selling Sons and Daughters

In the village of Shili, the first instance of human trafficking, forced out by the grain shortage that year, was dressed in the self-conscious guise of a marriage to maintain dignity.

Among the remaining ten or so households in the village, the Wang family married off their thirteen-year-old daughter to a widowed man aged thirty-nine. The bride price was a sack of soybeans and half a sack of millet.

Shen San looked at that sack and a half of soybeans and millet, his eyes turning green with envy.

Those weren’t the small bags he had when he divided the family assets with his elder brother; these were substantial bags that could hold a stone of grain.

As for the half-crying, half-dragged young bride being taken away by the widower and his family, crying bitterly, who cared?

Perhaps only the unmarried young women left in the village were shocked, their faces pale and shivering.

Shen San, and indeed a large part of those who remained in the village, looked on with envy, their mouths watering at the sight of that sack of soybeans and half a sack of millet.

After Shen San sold a few acres of land from his family at a low price, and with the little money Shen Jin had saved from selling wild chickens to merchants, Mrs. Li went to the county clinic for treatment and medicine. Now her health had somewhat improved; her cough wasn’t as severe, she didn’t need to stay in bed anymore, could sleep at night, and could do some light household chores during the day.

At this moment, she stood numbly among the crowd, watching this scene unfold before her, with a voice in her heart asking, “Is this the beginning of selling sons and daughters? Hold on a little longer, as long as we can make it to July, we can harvest the earliest batch of soybeans planted.”

But that voice was so weak that Mrs. Li herself dared not speak it aloud.

Two and a half months were too hard to endure. When the grain ran out, on that day of destitution, not just two and a half months, even one month could drive good people insane.

Their family’s soybeans were also running low. Absentmindedly looking up, Mrs. Li saw an old peddler picking his way into the village.

Mrs. Li had never dealt with the old peddler, but he was the only one who occasionally visited the village.

She didn’t show any different expression, just felt fortunate in her heart. After her health improved, the wild chickens and hares occasionally caught by Shen Jin were quietly exchanged for beans by that peddler, hidden outside.

But it wasn’t much. It wasn’t easy to catch wild chickens anymore because every family relied on wild vegetables to survive. As soon as they grew, the nearby hills where edible wild vegetables and grasses could be found were gone in the blink of an eye. The children in the village circled around every day, and whenever they saw something edible, they pounced on it. The adults went deeper into the mountains.

If they had to go deeper into the mountains for wild vegetables, let alone wild chickens and hares? With so many people going into the mountains, the wild chickens and hares had long fled deeper into the mountains.

These days, it’s not easy for people or livestock who want to live.

Mrs. Li watched the neighboring girl being covered by several brothers of the old widower, her mouth half-muffled, half-pulled, half-carried away, her cries becoming vague and indistinct, drifting away with the wind when they walked a little farther.

Turning her head again, the mother holding the two bags of grain looked like she was holding onto her life.

The onlookers didn’t disperse for a long time. Until the family woke up, guarded the grain into the house, and firmly closed the door, everyone gathered at the door, admiring or sighing, and didn’t disperse for a while.

Shen Jin took his younger siblings to wander around the mountains on the edge of the village. When they returned, they bumped into the old widower and his group.

The four siblings recognized the village girl, who seemed only two or three years older than Shen Ning. How could this be?

Shen Jin protected his younger siblings and took a step back. Then, gathering courage because they were still in the village, he called out, “Miss Wang?”

The old widower glanced at him, seeing that he was just an eight or nine-year-old child, and casually replied, “She’s our family’s bride,” without saying anything else. The four men lifted Wang Meiniang and hurried away.

Wang Meiniang continued to cry, struggling desperately. How could she resist several big men?

The sweet girl clung to Shen Tie’s leg and shrank back, whispering softly, “Brother, Sister Meiniang is crying.”

Shen Tie was a little scared himself and asked Shen Jin, “Brother, is this how marriages are done?”

In the village, it’s not uncommon for thirteen or fourteen-year-old girls to marry, and it’s also common for them to walk during the marriage. But usually, it’s all done with smiles and good spirits. When Wang Meiniang got married, why did it look a bit frightening?

Shen Jin didn’t quite understand either and urged his younger siblings, “Let’s hurry back to the village and take a look.”

The four siblings hurried back to the village. The people outside Wang’s house hadn’t dispersed yet. Shen Jin approached Mrs. Li, and before he could ask, he overheard others saying something about a sack of soybeans and half a sack of millet; the Wang family finally had grain.

He vaguely understood something, but he didn’t quite understand it either.

The Wang family closed their door, and the people outside muttered for a few moments before gradually dispersing. Without grain to eat, they either went to find wild vegetables or tended to their fields. During their spare time, they conserved their energy at home, so everyone returned to their respective households.

…

The three branches of the Shen family also started heading back.

Shen San glanced at the basket in Shen Jin’s hand and absentmindedly scratched at it. There was only a small bunch of shepherd’s purse, curly dock, and purslane, barely enough for a meal. Except for the year of famine, Shen San had never been so disdainful of wild vegetables in his life. Even though he had been eating these wild greens for the past two months, which had turned his complexion green, they were now hard to come by and hardly enough to fill his stomach.

Thinking of the sack of soybeans and half a sack of millet next door at the Wangs’, he couldn’t help but glance over at Tian Ya’er.

Just one look and he felt discouraged—she was too young.

In times like these, children were worth very little. If she were ten years older, she could be married off directly. At her current young age, no one would even consider buying her.

If they were talking about the best-selling—a girl would have to be at least seven or eight years old. Once she was taken in by someone, she’d be trained well and ready to be sold in a few years. A boy, meanwhile, would have to be at least nine or ten years old and capable of work. He could be sold as a laborer or even as a servant…

He glanced at Shen Jin, Shen Yin, and Shen Tie, his fingertips uncontrollably trembling.

These were his children…

Mrs. Li took the basket from Shen Jin’s hand and glanced inside. When she lifted her eyes, she caught Shen San scrutinizing his children with a pensive expression.

Her heart skipped a beat, hastily withdrawing her gaze, though her heart raced.

Selling sons and daughters… How could she forget? It wasn’t just the Wang family next door who could do such things.

Mrs. Li’s heart pounded fiercely. She lowered her gaze, trying hard to control her breathing until her complexion returned to normal, then dared to raise her eyes again.

After this, she closely observed Shen San.

Initially, she feared it might be Tian Ya’er, but Mrs. Li quickly noticed that Shen San looked most often at Shen Jin and Shen Yin.

She suppressed the cold feeling that seemed to penetrate her bones, the kind that made her tremble. When Shen San went out to the fields, she pulled Shen Jin and Shen Yin into the house and whispered, “We haven’t caught anything around the outskirts for several days, have we? Shall mother accompany you deeper into the woods?”

Shen Jin hesitated.

Since the land was sold and all the money saved was paid as taxes, the family couldn’t even afford salt. His mother had started hiding things from his father, like hunting mountain chickens or digging burrows. How come she was suddenly suggesting this?

Shen Jin paused, suddenly realizing something. He looked up in disbelief at Mrs. Li. “Mother, are you saying Father might… might…”

He couldn’t finish the sentence.

Mrs. Li squeezed Shen Jin’s hand, preventing him from saying more, and said, “Regardless, he needs to see what you and Yin’er can do.”

Only when they had value would they not be abandoned, not be traded for three or two bags of grain to fill their bellies.

Shen Yin hadn’t quite understood yet, but Shen Jin’s eyes welled up, tears streaming down his face.

His father must have had some thoughts, which Mother noticed, prompting her to react this way.

Shen Jin didn’t cry aloud, but tears welled up so quickly that his face crumpled, unable to relax.

He wiped away tears with his hand, smearing his face with wet streaks, alternating between hands, panting heavily. After a while, he choked out a few sobs.

Shen Yin, at a loss, belatedly realized what was happening. His eyes reddened, lips pursed, and he looked like he might cry with Shen Jin.

Mrs. Li embraced both of them, comforting them softly. “Not yet, not yet, it hasn’t come to that. You can hunt, so it won’t come to that.”

Mrs. Li couldn’t tell if she was comforting the children or herself, maybe both.

She wiped their tears and mucus one by one, her own eyes reddening.

“Mother will go into the mountains with you to check if the traps we set before caught anything. If they did, that’s the best. If not, we’ll go a bit deeper and set a few more traps. Whether it’s tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or in three or four days, we’ll bring something back home.”

Shen Jin wiped his tears and nodded. “Okay, let’s go now.”

He wiped his tears and headed outside. In the main room, he saw Shen Tie and Tian Ya’er. Shen Jin stopped in his tracks, looked up at Mrs. Li, and said, “Mother, should we take Little Tie and Tian Ya’er too?”

Mrs. Li didn’t think it necessary. Finding a buyer would take time, and during these hard times when every family struggled to get enough to eat, whether it was buying brides and laborers or picking out slaves, they still had to choose by age. Young children like these were safe for now.

She shook her head. “No need, it should be fine for these few days. We’ll be more careful in the future.”

She dared not take the younger children deeper into the mountains.

Although Shen Jin didn’t fully understand the business of buying and selling people, he had developed a sense of mutual dependence with Mrs. Li in recent months. He trusted his mother’s words and turned to get the basket and sickle with Shen Yin.

Mrs. Li told Shen Tie and Tian Ya’er to stay put and not go anywhere until their father returned. If he asked, they were out looking for wild vegetables.

Shen Tie glanced at his two older brothers, whose eyes seemed to have been crying, but they quickly left. Listening to Mrs. Li’s instructions, he nodded in agreement.

…

Mrs. Li had been chronically ill, and this was the first time she had ventured into the mountains with her two sons.

Led by the two children through twists and turns in the mountains, they finally found themselves in a secluded spot. There, in a place that appeared completely ordinary, the boys uncovered a hidden entrance and called for her to join them inside. She hesitated.

It wasn’t quite like the burrows she had imagined.

Inside the burrow, the cover above was closed. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Mrs. Li discovered that her sons had accumulated quite a bit. Although she couldn’t see clearly, she could make out jars, pots, and various utensils stored there. She reached out, opened a jar, and the aroma of dried meat and smoked meat wafted out.

In the middle, there was even a rough wooden rack with a small cloth bag on it. Mrs. Li pinched it and felt the soybeans inside.

Shen Yin said, “There are three burrows like this. We dug this one ourselves, and the other two were dug by Big Brother. Each burrow hides some supplies, and Big Brother also left us dried meat.”

Shen Lie had been gone for a long time, and the brothers were no longer afraid of revealing that he had returned. To ease Mrs. Li’s mind, they roughly explained the situation with the stored food.

Mrs. Li’s eyes welled up with warmth. Since the upheaval in their household, she had lost count of how many times she had silently thanked Shen Lie in her heart.

Of course, Shen Lie had long severed ties with her. He would never acknowledge her as an aunt, nor did he care for her gratitude.

But Mrs. Li truly felt grateful deep inside.

She held onto the small bag of grains, saying nothing. There was nothing she could say, just nodding silently, followed by a wordless silence.

Shen Jin took out the slingshot given by his elder brother and grabbed a handful of stones from the ground nearby, stuffing them into his pocket. Only then did he lead his mother and younger brother out of the burrow, sealing the entrance behind them, and heading deeper into the mountains.

The heavens seemed to favor these two brothers. Shen Jin had been quite lucky lately; for four or five consecutive days, they hadn’t caught anything. Even yesterday’s new traps yielded nothing, but they unexpectedly encountered a gray hare. Shen Jin used his slingshot, shooting several times until finally hitting it. The hare slumped over with a fatal wound.

Mother and sons rushed over. Shen Jin noticed the hare’s head bleeding, where the stone had embedded itself.

He swallowed hard, realizing for the first time the power of this slingshot.

Well, it was made from materials his elder brother had bought in the county; naturally, it was a good slingshot.

Mrs. Li was overwhelmed with emotion, her breath heavy. She had heard that the slingshot was also a gift from Shen Lie.

However, her thoughts of gratitude were quickly overshadowed by the joy of their catch. She watched Shen Jin and Shen Yin skillfully use grass to tie up the rabbit and place it in the backpack behind them, happily urging them to return home.

They didn’t venture too deep; Mrs. Li’s illness and the children’s young age meant they avoided going further. After hiding the slingshot, the three of them gathered some wild vegetables to cover the rabbit and headed home.

…

Shen San looked at the rabbit Shen Jin pulled out of the backpack and almost thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.

“Where did this come from?”

Shen Jin had become quite adept at keeping secrets from Shen San, but just thinking that his father had recently entertained the idea of selling him and Shen Yin made it difficult for him to speak. He kept his head down, and Shen Yin did the same.

Mrs. Li glanced at her two sons and continued for them, “After learning from their eldest brother for so long, I thought they hadn’t learned anything, but it turns out these two boys go to the mountains every day and actually bring something back.”

Looking at the bloody wound on the rabbit’s head, Shen San remembered how Shen Lie used to take those children to hunt every day, and his eyes lit up. “Have you really learned? Did your big brother give you the slingshot?”

Shen Jin knew he had to speak now.

He nodded, “He gave us one and taught us how to set traps, but we’ve tried many times without success until today, when we happened to come across this one and shot it with the slingshot.”

Shen San chuckled and lifted Shen Jin up in his arms. “Good son! Well done! We won’t be short of meat at home anymore, right?”

Mrs. Li’s face darkened slightly, but she forced a smile. “Yes, even if we catch one every seven or eight days, we can exchange it for some grain in the county.”

Shen San’s jovial mood stiffened, then he said, “True, there’s not much grain left at home.”

He looked at the wild rabbit and swallowed hard.

Hungry for meat, his stomach grumbled.

But he also knew that grain was essential now. Smiling again, Shen San put Shen Jin down. “Alright, it’s not even noon yet. We should sell this while it’s fresh. I’ll go to the county and see if I can exchange this wild rabbit for some grain.”

Since his previous registration at the office hadn’t expired yet, Shen San retrieved it from his room, loaded the gray rabbit into the backpack, and set off.

Once he left, Mrs. Li visibly wilted.

…

Dongfu Restaurant.

The old servant of the Xu family had just told Master Xu that there were rumors of families selling their daughters in the nearby villages. While sitting idle in the back alley, he noticed people in the lane selling something at a distance from the kitchen of another small eatery.

Who else but Shen San pulled a gray rabbit out of his backpack?

Upon seeing the rabbit, the old servant immediately guessed what had happened. He hurried back to the restaurant and informed Master Xu of the situation.

The master and servant duo observed Shen San from a private room overlooking the back alley. It was indeed him.

Once Shen San left, they sent Brother Dong to inquire at the small eatery across the street. They confirmed that a rabbit was indeed being sold, claimed to be hunted by themselves.

Brother Dong said, “I looked at the wound; it looks like it was shot with a slingshot.”

Master Xu understood immediately. It was undoubtedly the child of Shen Jin who had hunted it.

After sending Brother Dong away, Master Xu’s old servant kept watch for several days. Upon seeing Shen San heading to the county again with a backpack, and noticing that Shen Jin hadn’t exchanged anything with the peddlers for several days, their suspicions were confirmed. He then turned around and wrote a letter to Shen Lie.

Taking advantage of the early morning light, they sealed the letter in a bamboo tube, dressed the old servant and Brother Dong in tattered clothes, and quietly sent them into the mountains.

The letter detailed recent changes in the situation, Shopkeeper Xu’s concerns, the conditions in Shili Village, and how Li Shi and her children were coping.

As they were about to leave, Shopkeeper Xu called them back.

They couldn’t risk carrying grain now. There were many refugees hiding in the mountains, and three refugees with nothing to their names wouldn’t draw much attention. However, three with grain could be dangerous.

He had someone fetch nearly twenty pounds of salt from his private stash in the tavern’s storage, then they divided it into over twenty narrow cloth bags, very thinly packed and securely sewn shut. The old servant and Brother Dong wrapped these bags around their bodies under their clothes.

Their own supplies were quite sufficient, but they weren’t sure about the other families. They could at least bring a bit along while the weather wasn’t too hot.

Once they were gone, Shopkeeper Xu sighed.

Sending the letter was partly due to his unease about the recent situation and his subconscious need to share it with someone. Moreover, entrusted by Shen Lie, it concerned the situation of several children from the Shen family’s third branch.

As for whether Shen Lie would come to collect the letter and when, Shopkeeper Xu himself wasn’t sure.

Watching the disorder outside worsen day by day, especially with chaos approaching Heshou Prefecture, even though the county government, the military, and local strongmen had corresponding measures in place, Shopkeeper Xu’s pressure increased day by day.

He continued making preparations as best as he could, but the limitations were evident.

He wasn’t so worried about his wife and younger children who were with him now. It was his wife and eldest and second sons left in Heshou Prefecture that truly troubled him.

Because he couldn’t predict whether misfortune would strike them or himself, let alone when or how it would happen.

Every waking moment was torment.

He hoped only that the Wang family’s power would suffice for self-defense, at least to protect his wife and children. As for himself, he didn’t know when the Eastern House would relent and allow him to return.

Lost in these thoughts, there came a knock on the door. Shopkeeper Xu turned his head to see the accountant.

The accountant opened the door, his expression a mix of excitement or something else. Stepping aside, he said, “Shopkeeper Xu, look who’s here.”