As soon as the mist lifted, snow particles drifted in the sky again.

Mrs. Xin let out a white breath and lifted the child tied to her chest up.

The fine particles of snow that fell from the sky fell on her head.

Fortunately, when her man was still there, the family was still well-off, and she and the children at home still had a jacket with rags on them.

It's still warm at this time.

But Mrs. Xin's heart was even colder than this day, and she didn't know how the family should spend the coming winter.

Thinking like this, her legs were numb when she walked, and Mrs. Xin came to the market.

Looking around, I found a shop with a special red banner.

A picture of a rice bowl was drawn under the banner.

It was an official grain store set up by the government.

After the battle of Lingzhi, the price of grain increased by various families led by the Lian family.

Within a few days, the price of grain skyrocketed, and Gongsun Yan wrote down these people in a small notebook.

Later, with the shop of Gongsun's family, in the name of the government, affordable grain shops were opened in various cities.

Xin Niangzi was a little apprehensive in her heart, she didn't know if this was really as the chief said, the price of food was very cheap.

The child in his arms had eaten a few mouthfuls of milk in the morning, but he was sleeping fairly soundly at this time.

Mrs. Xin patted him, opened the tightly held money bag, and shook out ten penniless coins from it.

This kind of copper coin, the text and outline are relatively blurred, the edge of the copper coin has been stolen and polished by the thief of the cutting wheel, so it is smaller than the ordinary five-baht coin.

The quality of such copper coins is very poor, and the shops usually do not accept them.

Since the war, Xin Niangzi's family has had no income, the grain tank at home has bottomed out, and even the firewood is almost gone, so I took the penniless money out to try.

She walked in with trepidation, and the person who saw the store was a young man with spirit.

Mrs. Xin immediately subconsciously showed a smile.

This young man was originally a servant of the Gongsun family, and Gongsun Yan felt that it was a waste to leave all these manpower idle at home, so he sent them out to work.

Since a guy who looks at the store thinks he has a high status, plays a score in the store and bullies people, and is sent to the Lulongsai Education and Reform Camp by Gongsun Yan, these guys have a good attitude.

He saw that Mrs. Xin had a certain color, and greeted her with a smile: "What does Mrs. want to buy?" ”

Mrs. Xin looked around, there were many big buckets in this shop, and a lot of grain was piled up in it.

Sorghum, millet, wheat, grain, and something the size of a yellow and clear little finger, Xin Niangzi has never seen it.

On the other side are two buckets of seasoned tempeh and one bucket of snow-white salt.

When Mrs. Xin passed by the salt bucket, she couldn't help but hold her breath from afar, worried that the snow salt grains would be blown away, and people would ask her for compensation.

The grains are marked with signs with Arabic numerals and capital letters.

Mrs. Xin didn't recognize it, so she had to look at the guy for help, and asked cautiously, "I don't know which one is the cheapest?" ”

She already regretted walking in, the precious salt in this shop was so big and large, and she didn't know how expensive the food had to be.

But the fellow was accustomed to such questions, and pointed them out to her one by one: "Rice is four hundred yuan a stone, millet is three hundred yuan, and the cheapest wheat, grain, and corn are two hundred yuan a stone." ”

Xin Niangzi showed a look of surprise on her face, and blurted out: "So cheap? ”

In the process of looking at the store, the young man can always get a trace of fun from people's surprised looks, and immediately said proudly: "Of course, the price difference is subsidized by Yan Niangzi." ”

Xin Niangzi is no stranger to Gongsun Yan's name.

Gongsun Yan is not the kind of person who does good deeds without leaving a name, and no one in the contemporary world knows how to hype up fame better than her.

Xin Niangzi unconsciously showed a smile on her face: "Yes, Yan Niangzi is benevolent." ”

The guy listened to her praise twice, and said with a smile: "As long as you can buy it with a talisman letter, it's just a limited amount, and you can only buy a maximum of two stones per person per month." ”

Mrs. Xin rubbed the corners of her clothes crampedly: "I only have ten dollars." ”

This guy didn't show any disdain, the last crazy one had already gone to Lu Longse to step on the sewing machine, and he was accustomed to saying: "It's okay, you can sell it for as much as you want." ”

Mrs. Xin handed over the ten penniless coins with some trepidation, ready to show a flattering smile.

The guy didn't react and took it directly: "Did you bring the letter with you?" ”

"Bring it." Mrs. Xin handed over the letter in her arms, and saw that the guy frowned.

When she was worried, she heard the fellow say, "Haven't you gone to change the new talisman letter yet?" ”

Seeing that Xin Niangzi was stunned for a moment, the guy immediately showed a look that ordinary people didn't tell him and said: "Go to Lifang to find You Yi to change, now change to a new talisman letter, register your household registration in detail, and everyone can receive a liter of wheat!" ”

Xin Niangzi's face showed a liter of wheat with joy, and the five people in the family were five liters!

More than she could buy with this money.

The guy took a deep look at her in her arms, I don't know if it was to look at the child or something, and then said: "I heard that the Salesian Workshop will be built soon, and when the time comes, in addition to sheltering orphans, there will also be some special nutritional subsidies for babies, all of which are donated by Mrs. Yan." ”

"You can pay attention to these messages."

"Now, this is your wheat." The guy went out of his way to find a hemp cloth bag for her.

Even if the surface of this bag is rough, it can be disassembled to make a wind-proof object.

Mrs. Xin was very grateful and thanked this guy again and again, and then carried the fluttering grain bag out of the grain store.

She stood in front of the grain store, perhaps because of the weight in her hand, or because she could receive a small five liters of rice.

The heavy stone that had been pressing on her heart seemed to move away a little.

You can always get through it!

She said to herself in her heart.

She remembered that she had a fire in the morning, except for the younger one, who ate two mouthfuls of milk, and the old people and the two older children in the family did not make morning food for them.

Xin Niangzi quickened her pace, thinking that she would go back and use this wheat grain mixed with the remaining beans to make a porridge.

Then I went to the gate and changed the letter of the rune.

The pace of the return trip was a little easier, and Mrs. Xin paid attention all the way, thinking that it would be good if she could find a job that could take her children to work.

The way home is getting closer, and the surroundings are becoming familiar.

Xin Niangzi suddenly smelled a puff of smoke, and there was a commotion in the distance: "It's on fire, it's on fire." ”

She looked up blankly.

A column of smoke billowed up, and that direction was ......

Xin Niangzi's heart was flustered for no reason, and she hurriedly ran in the direction of home.

The child on his chest was so jolting that he cried, and he didn't have time to take care of it.

The smoke was getting heavier and heavier, and when she finally ran to the entrance of the alley, because it was daytime, the fire had been extinguished by the wanderers in the workshop.

The wooden beams collapsed beside them, emitting black smoke.

The despair in Xin Niangzi's heart suddenly eased when she saw the figures of the old and the young sitting on the ground.

She heard her six-year-old daughter say, "I just wanted to paste more insoles when I was cooking porridge for my grandmother and brother, but I didn't want to burn it." ”

The shivering girl, her face covered with black ash was washed away by tears.

Mrs. Xin glanced at the charred ruins.

It was the home that their family relied on to survive and survive the cold winter.

She sat on the ground with her legs limp, and the food bag in her hand was soaked in the black sewage that had accumulated in the recesses of the ground after the firefighting.