Chapter Six: The Host

  "Uncle Wei, I want to eat meat, Uncle Wei, I want to eat meat."

  "Ah, Yingzi, you're awake." The next morning, Yingzi woke up first and immediately called out to Yang Wei. Yang Wei took a while to react before remembering that he had indeed crossed over and this wasn't just a dream - he really had crossed over.

  "Hey, isn't it supposed to be our turn to take the last shift with two kids? Why didn't anyone come to call us?" Looking at the window paper, it's already daylight.

  "Wei Zi, you're awake. What are you doing up so early?" San Zi lifted his head to glance at Yang Wei, then turned over and fell back asleep. "You all sleep, I'll go cook for you."

  "Hey, it's a bit cold. Who's on duty outside? Why didn't they call us? Let's go out and take a look." Yang Wei muttered to himself as he led Yingzi out.

  "Hey." Li Da and Hu Si were already asleep on the edge of the stove pit, this stove pit that had been burning all night, it was warm here, but elsewhere the cold air was starting to seep in. Looking again at the stove pit, it had long since gone out.

  "Hey, hey, get up, get up, go back to sleep in the house, I'm going to make breakfast." "Ah, Wei Zi you're awake, oh how did we fall asleep, this Wei Zi, sorry the stove has gone out," "It's okay, it's okay, you guys go back to sleep."

  "Shame on you, Li and Hu! You've both been staring at the stove pit until it's gone out." Yang Wei didn't pursue the matter further, but Yingzi couldn't help teasing them.

  "We... we..." Neither of them had anything to say for a while, "It's alright, you two go to sleep."

  To be honest, Yang Wei also made a mistake. He had originally planned to wake up early, but he thought too much last night and this body's biological clock has not been formed yet, so naturally he couldn't wake up early. If it were in his previous life, even if he was extremely sleepy, he would still be able to wake up on time after just one hour of sleep.

  "Uncle Wei, Yang Zi wants to eat meat, Uncle Wei, Uncle Wei." "Ah," Yang Wei suddenly came back to himself, it's time to cook, why did he space out again.

  "Yingzi, let's not eat meat for breakfast, how about we have congee instead?" "Okay, I'll listen to Brother Wei." Yingzi was quite obedient despite her young age. She agreed without even listening to Yang Wei's explanation, which made him punch the air in frustration - he had been thinking of a way to explain to her why they shouldn't eat meat.

  Relighting the fire, "Brother Wei, I'll help with the fire, I'll help with the fire." Yingzi saw Yang Wei light the fire and got very excited to help. This fire was actually easy to burn, just needing some dry grass to ignite it, then it would be burning straw. These straws didn't have big chunks of wood, all because Mother was ill, they were just branches picked up in the forest, cut into segments, and neatly piled up in the yard. The small twigs of straw Yingzi could naturally put into the stove.

  "Yingzi, stay away from the stove, don't let the fire burn you." "Uh-huh, I'll listen to Wei Gege, I won't let the fire burn me, it will hurt a lot if I get burned." It seems that Yingzi has been burned by fire before, and she still remembers how painful it is.

  When the fire was lit, some little friends were about to be frozen awake, but the room slowly warmed up again, and naturally they didn't wake up. Yesterday's labor intensity was not small, catching birds is not counted, but also dismantled a house, even the wood inside the house was transported back, naturally everyone was tired, plus eating well, this sleep was good too.

  Cooking, whether it was yesterday's sorghum rice or those bird meats, actually didn't have much flavor, but these little companions had never eaten like this before, so they naturally couldn't tell if the taste was good or bad. Even Yang Wei wouldn't be able to cook well today, he just prepared a simple sorghum porridge by adding more water and less sorghum, making it thin and watery for everyone to have a light breakfast.

  Even for the next meal, Yang Wei won't let his little friends eat too much meat food, mainly because he's afraid that their intestines and stomachs can't adapt.

  "Mmm, smells so good, Wei Zi has cooked a great meal." One by one, as the noise grew louder, the companions all got out of bed. "Wei Zi, why didn't you cook any meat?" Someone naturally started to complain, indeed, they saw a lot of meat last night, how come there wasn't any this morning.

  "Listen up, comrades! We have meat and we won't run out of it even in the future. The question is, do you feel comfortable with what's in your stomach right now?"

  "Uh-huh, Wei Zi, I wouldn't have understood if you hadn't said anything. I was wondering why I felt a bit nauseous and even thought the sorghum rice smelled good." "Uh-huh, yeah, what's going on?"

  "This is the reason, we all don't say that we haven't eaten meat before, in a year it can be said that very rarely will eat meat, naturally our stomachs are not used to eating too much meat, this is the reason."

  "Yes, when my father was alive, he also used to catch birds for me to eat. But after my father passed away, I never got to eat meat again."

  It's easy to understand that in this place, if it were old residents, there would be hunters inside, and naturally, the village wouldn't lack game to eat. But in Yang Wei's memory, this village was all outsiders, and hunting hadn't developed yet. Especially after years of war, people had a harder time, which is also why so many orphans appeared.

  …………

  "Everyone has finished eating, I have a few things to say to you all." "Wei Zi, go ahead and speak, from now on we are like brothers. Auntie said before she left that after she's gone, we must live together like real brothers and not quarrel with each other."

  "Alright, I'll say it. The first thing is that we need to take care of our personal hygiene. What is personal hygiene? First, we need to take baths and get haircuts. I saw that there are scissors in the basket over there. Each of us needs to tidy up our messy hair, but girls can keep their long hair."

  "Wei Zi, it's not working out, we also want to cut our hair like yours." "Yes, Wei Gege, I also want short hair." "Well, that's okay, since you're asking for it, there's no other way, but you don't have to be the same, you can just get a shoulder-length cut."

  Speaking of hygiene, mainly Yang Wei was bitten by lice last night while sleeping. This morning when he got up and looked at his clothes, he found many lice and nits in the seams of his clothes. It's been hundreds of years since I've had this feeling of being bitten by lice?

  Taking a bath is the first step, cutting hair is the second step, and washing all clothes including quilts with boiling water is the third step. Since the quilts were washed with boiling water, naturally, the children had no bedding to sleep in. So they could only raise the temperature in the room. Fortunately, the three girls had learned needlework from Yang Wei's mother, so they took charge of making clothes and quilts. This would basically be done within five days.