Han An Nuong looked at the two pieces of dried meat in her bowl, bit her chopsticks, and said softly, "Uncle seems a bit different after waking up."
"How am I different?" Tran Mac's expression changed slightly, but he said calmly, maintaining his composure.
"I... I can't quite say, just feel a bit different. But Uncle like this is very good." Han An Nuong pursed her lips, averting her gaze.
"Sister-in-law, hurry and eat..."
Tran Mac, while scooping his rice, studied the system.
The meat he just ate brought his Nourishing Blood Technique to (Entry 0.3/100).
That plate of dried meat was almost entirely eaten by him.
He estimated it was about three or four liang (based on one jin being ten liang), and the Nourishing Blood Technique progress showed 0.3. Doesn't this mean one jin of meat can only provide 1 point of experience?
To verify his guess, Tran Mac said, "Sister-in-law, is there a scale in the house?"
"Yes."
"Sister-in-law, take out the scale, come help me with something."
The cellar was under the brick bed in the original owner's parents' room; only family members knew. To enter the cellar, one had to lift the lid on top to get down. Its secrecy was very good.
It was just that getting in and out was relatively difficult.
Tran Mac took the scale and a cleaver into the cellar. Holding the cleaver, his strength reached "4+5".
It seemed the Thien Hop Saber Technique wasn't limited to saber-type weapons.
Tran Mac swung the cleaver with force. [Number of swings +1, Thien Hop Saber Technique experience +1.]
Indeed, a cleaver also worked.
The cellar space wasn't large. His action startled Han An Nuong beside him: "Uncle, what are you doing?"
"Nothing."
Tran Mac used the cleaver to cut off a piece of dried meat, weighed it with the scale; it was about half a jin.
Then he handed this half-jin piece of dried meat to Han An Nuong: "Sister-in-law, tonight take this piece of dried meat out to eat."
Han An Nuong didn't take it, murmuring, "Uncle, eating like this, the grain stored in the house won't last long."
Han An Nuong originally thought Uncle just wanted to eat a bit of meat to satisfy a craving, but now it seemed Uncle was determined to eat meat.
Let alone this year of great disaster, even before, they couldn't afford to eat like this.
"Sister-in-law, I have my reasons, just listen to me," Tran Mac said.
...
Winter was approaching fast, the sky darkened particularly quickly. Taking advantage before it got dark, Han An Nuong finished cooking dinner early.
The dried meat was scraped with a knife to remove the smoked surface, then washed with water, sliced, and steamed with wheat rice to be eaten.
Tonight, this half jin of dried meat, Han An Nuong didn't eat a single bite; Tran Mac ate it all. Nourishing Blood Technique reached (Entry 0.8/100).
"It seems one jin of meat really counts as one point of experience..."
The edible meat in the house was only a little over two jin left, completely insufficient to support him maxing out the experience.
Normally, a hundred jin of meat, slaughtering a goat would be about right.
But in this year of great disaster, it wasn't so easy.
The prices of pork, goat, and beef had skyrocketed. With his current family assets, he couldn't even afford a goat.
The other ways to obtain meat were only two. However, for these two methods, he first needed to restore his body to a normal person's condition.
...
Before the Hour of Xu (7-9 PM), the entire Phuc Trach Village was enveloped by night, falling into silence.
Nights in the countryside had no entertainment. To save oil, the Tran family wouldn't even light lamps at night, so they slept very early.
One reason was they still had to start work early the next morning.
Another was eating less; sleeping could reduce internal energy consumption.
Tran Mac, however, couldn't sleep, although he kept telling himself to take things as they come.
But as a "promising youth" of the 21st century—novels and games by day, drinking, disco dancing, and clapping by night—suddenly entering such a chaotic world where even eating meat was a problem, it was already quite something that he hadn't gone mad.
Closing his eyes, he could hear the wind outside the room.
Tran Mac forced himself to lie down and sleep.
Woke up when the sky was dimly lit.
Hearing movement in the courtyard, Tran Mac woke up. He wanted to rub his face but immediately found the hand that swung the cleaver yesterday was aching terribly.
"Not enough training..."
Entering the small courtyard, Tran Mac found Han An Nuong was already awake, a headscarf tied on her head, a wood-chopping knife at her waist, a typical village girl's attire.
"I'm going up the mountain to chop firewood. If Uncle is hungry, just cook for yourself." Seeing Tran Mac awake, Han An Nuong said.
Taking advantage while the sky wasn't fully bright, the sun not out, not scorching, was a suitable time for work.
Waiting until nine or ten o'clock, when the sun rose, then it would be unbearable.
To get through winter, they needed to prepare enough firewood.
"Up the mountain?" Tran Mac was stunned: "Sister-in-law, just you alone, not afraid of tigers on the mountain?"
Tran Mac had previously thought of two ways to get meat, one of which was to hunt in the mountains. However, wild beasts roamed the mountains; he couldn't deal with them for now.
And this reflected the original owner's lack of understanding of life.
According to Han An Nuong, last year when grain was insufficient, the able-bodied young men from several nearby villages had united to cross the mountain to hunt. Tigers, though fierce, also feared people. After going up the mountain several times, those dangerous wild beasts were all driven deep into the great mountains, and Han An Nuong only gathered some firewood on the outskirts to carry back.
And the original owner stayed at home all day, rarely went out, so naturally didn't understand.
"Then Sister-in-law, I'll take you," Tran Mac said.
"But if Uncle you go, who will watch the house?"
"Put all valuable things in the cellar, then lock the door well."
"But like this..."
"Losing some things doesn't count for much. Sister-in-law, your safety is more important. Wait for me a moment." Tran Mac returned to his room to pack.
When at home, people even dared to come to the door and harass Sister-in-law. In such a chaotic world, if Sister-in-law was targeted in the wild, Tran Mac truly didn't dare imagine what would happen.
Tran Mac didn't notice that when he returned to the room, a glimmer of joy appeared in Han An Nuong's beautiful eyes.
To say going up the mountain alone to chop firewood, not being afraid was definitely a lie, but winter was about to begin, and someone in the family had to go out to work.
Now with someone accompanying, Han An Nuong's heart felt much more at ease.
"Uncle is concerned about me..."
After Tran Mac finished packing, he went to the kitchen to get the cleaver. With a blade in hand, strength "4+5", his heart felt a bit steadier.
The mountain was called Dai Trach Mountain. On the way, Han An Nuong told him the mountains all belonged to the government; cutting trees oneself was illegal.
However, the government would come annually to collect firewood tax; this year they even collected it twice.
Besides firewood tax, there was also hunting tax. That's right, even hunting required paying tax. And it was compulsorily collected annually. Don't say if you don't hunt in the mountains you don't need to pay; the government doesn't care.
However, this wasn't the most unreasonable. The most unreasonable was also a head tax, called than dinh tien (poll tax) by the government. Every adult male in the family had to pay it.
And starting last year, even underage males in the family had to pay the than dinh tien.
The common people already lived with difficulty. With this tax and that tax to pay, it was even harder to survive.
After understanding, Tran Mac's face darkened. He finally personally felt that phrase from the history books: "Oppressive governance is fiercer than a tiger."
After going up the mountain, Tran Mac took the wood-chopping knife from Han An Nuong's hand, responsible for chopping wood, conveniently accumulating Thien Hop Saber Technique experience. Han An Nuong gathered firewood and was also responsible for tying it.
Unfortunately, on the outskirts, they didn't find any wild chicken or hare. Tran Mac originally wanted to hunt some game meat to supplement his meat intake.
As for the deep mountains, he didn't dare go for now...