In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 68 Overjoyed

"Giggle."

As soon as you say "Little Black," it arrives. It happily runs to Chen Dao's feet and stops, rubbing its neck feathers against Chen Dao's calves.

Upon seeing this, Chen Dao immediately realized that this guy wanted to eat something.

So Chen Dao went back into the house and took out some grain to feed Xiao Hei and the yellow-feathered chickens.

In addition, Chen Dao took out bamboo leaves that he had collected in advance and gave them to Xiao Yuan to eat.

Watching the little animals happily eating, Chen Dao smiled and began to kill a chicken to practice his boxing.

After slitting the throat of a blood-feathered chicken to bleed it out, Chen Dao placed the chicken's carcass in the kitchen and had Li Ping cook it for him. He then returned to the front yard, drank the chicken's blood in one gulp, and began practicing the Tiger-Taming Fist.

Half an hour later, Chen Dao stopped his stance and exhaled a breath of stale air.

"My arm strength should now exceed 250 pounds, and the defense of my skin has also improved a lot."

Chen Dao pinched the skin on his arm hard and felt that it was very resilient. Even with his current strength, it would probably not be an easy task to break through his skin's defenses.

This is also a hallmark of a ninth-rank martial artist. Their skin is as tough as cowhide, which not only greatly reduces the damage from sharp weapons such as swords, but also acts as a buffer. When a blunt weapon strikes a ninth-rank martial artist, most of the force will be absorbed by their resilient skin, and the damage to their internal organs will be greatly reduced.

After finishing his boxing practice and eating chicken, Chen Dao took a cold shower and then joined Chen Cheng and the others to move furniture and livestock such as yellow-feathered chickens.

…………

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As Chen Lian walked home, she felt incredibly cold, but her heart was burning with warmth.

Upon hearing Chen Dao's promise to treat the entire village to steamed buns, Chen Lian didn't dare delay for a moment and hurriedly ran home.

The reason she was in such a hurry was because... her family was almost starving.

Chen Lian lost her parents at a young age and lived with her grandmother. In the current climate, it was obviously very difficult for the two women to make a living.

Fortunately, in peaceful years, other villagers who were related to her would help her out, so that Chen Lian and her grandmother would not starve to death.

However, with the arrival of the cold disaster, every household was struggling, and the villagers stopped helping Chen Lian's family. This caused Chen Lian's family's situation to deteriorate rapidly. If it weren't for the food they had stored up, Chen Lian and her grandmother would probably have starved to death at home long ago.

But the stored grain would eventually run out, and these days, Chen Lian watched the grain in the rice jar at home gradually decrease, and she was anxious.

The family was completely out of money; once the food ran out, Grandma and she would starve to death.

It was precisely because of her family's hardship that Chen Lian was extremely excited when she heard Chen Dao promise each villager two steamed buns. She couldn't wait to go home and tell her grandmother the good news.

Fortunately, Chenjia Village is not large, and Chen Lian returned home in less than a quarter of an hour.

"Grandma, grandma."

Upon returning home, Chen Lian immediately exclaimed excitedly.

Hearing the commotion, Grandma He Xuehua came out of the house and asked in confusion, "Xiaolian, what's wrong?"

"Grandma, let's go inside and talk."

Chen Lian helped her hunched-over grandmother into the house, trying to minimize her exposure to the cold wind.

After sitting down inside, Chen Lian excitedly said, "Grandma, I have good news! You know Daoge'er from the village, right?"

"Daoge'er?"

After thinking carefully for a moment, He Xuehua said, "Is he Chen Ping's son?"

Because of her advanced age and poor mobility, He Xuehua rarely goes out. However, she has heard of Chen Dao's reputation. There's no way around it; Chen Dao is now a celebrity in the village, and villagers can't help but mention him when they chat.

"it's him."

Chen Lian nodded excitedly, "Dao Ge'er said that their new house will be completed tonight, and they're going to invite the whole village to a feast!"

"Dining table?"

He Xuehua paused for a moment, a look of reminiscence flashing in her eyes.

The term "feast" is something from a very long time ago for her. In the past, during peaceful years, there would be feasts held in the village for weddings and funerals. But since the cold disaster, the custom of feasts has gradually disappeared from the village. Everyone is struggling to get enough to eat, so who would want to hold a feast?

"Yes."

Chen Lian said, "Brother Dao said that each villager can go to his house tonight to get two steamed buns to eat."

"Two steamed buns per person?"

He Xuehua was completely astonished. There were more than 500 people in Chenjia Village. If each person got two steamed buns, that would be more than a thousand steamed buns. Where did that boy in Chen Ping's family get so much grain?

"Yeah, yeah."

Chen Lian looked on with anticipation: "I've heard from people in other villages that steamed buns are especially delicious, but I've never had one before."

Looking at the longing on Chen Lian's face, a trace of sadness flashed in He Xuelian's cloudy eyes. Her son and daughter-in-law had passed away early, and the family had lost its able-bodied men, making life very difficult for them. Chen Lian was already an eighteen-year-old young woman, yet she longed for a steamed bun so much...

"Xiaolian, it's Grandma's fault for letting you down."

Tears streamed down He Xuehua's cloudy eyes. In fact, Chen Lian was not a lazy person at all; on the contrary, she was very diligent and managed the family's several acres of land very well, with excellent harvests every year.

However, because she had to take care of this old woman, she had to live frugally, often going hungry and doing a lot of work. Moreover, because she was a burden, she was even looked down upon when she got married. He Xuehua felt extremely sorry for Chen Lian.

"Grandma, what are you saying!"

Chen Lian reached out and wiped away her grandmother's tears, saying, "If it weren't for you taking care of me when I was little, I might not have survived. How have you ever wronged me?"

After saying that, Chen Lian added, "Grandma, don't cry! Today is such a joyous occasion, why are you crying?"

"No more crying, no more crying."

He Xuehua wiped away her tears and forced a smile, saying, "Let's go to Daoge's house for steamed buns tonight."

"OK."

Chen Lian nodded repeatedly: "I've smelled those steamed buns many times, and you can tell they're delicious just by smelling them."

After saying that, Chen Lian couldn't help but exclaim, "Dao Ge'er is such a good person! He's actually willing to share so many steamed buns with us."

Similar conversations to those in Chen Lian's home were playing out in one villager's house after another. In less than half an hour, the news that Chen Dao's family was going to hold a banquet and give each villager two steamed buns to eat spread throughout the entire village.

The villagers were thrilled, and cheers echoed from house to house. The whole village was filled with joy, just like during the Lunar New Year.