Song Ci rambled on for a long time, making the entire porridge shelter go quiet.
The man who wanted to cause trouble felt a bit uneasy. Damn, this old lady from the Song Mansion has a mouth like a machine gun; he says one sentence, she retorts with ten, like firecrackers.
"Madam, we’re not afraid of eating coarse rice, as long as we can eat our fill!"
Someone shouted this out, and soon others followed suit, all of them expressing words of gratitude.
In the middle of this winter, the more warmth we need, the better fine rice is, but it doesn’t cook thick, and you get hungry quickly. Coarse rice can fill the stomach and stave off hunger, which makes it a bit easier.
Actually, if the man hadn’t said anything, they wouldn’t have thought that this porridge shelter uses coarse rice, but that the porridge here is thicker than elsewhere.
Seeing this, Song Ci raised her hand and pressed it down gently. This gesture was very strange, but inexplicably, the shouting refugees understood and quieted down.
The old lady is going to speak again!
"Fellow villagers, I too have lived through bitter times. Everyone knows the Prime Minister’s Mansion came from a Poor Family. Many years ago, I ate chaff and bark just like all of you, and even then, coarse rice was hard to come by." Song Ci spoke with the confidence of an orator: "Why doesn’t the mansion use fine rice? It’s because coarse rice is more filling and helps maintain the warmth we need. You must have thought, during the winter, doesn’t the colder it get, the more you want to eat?"
Everyone was taken aback. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel(ꜰ)ire.net
It seems true that in the cold days, the stomach gets hungrier, and you eat a lot more than in spring and summer.
"Wanting to eat more in winter isn’t because our mouths are greedy, but because our bodies instinctively need it. The body’s temperature drops in winter, so it needs to supplement energy, which comes from food; that’s the energy our bodies need. Eating it, you won’t feel cold. Coarse rice may be harder to swallow than fine rice, but it’s more filling and keeps hunger at bay."
"I didn’t think much about it; I just thought to let the villagers eat their fill as much as possible, stave off hunger longer, and safely get through this winter and return home. By next spring, we’ll farm and reap the harvest by summer; then we’ll enjoy a fragrant bowl of fine rice, how about that?"
Silence, a strange silence.
Seeing no one responding, Song Ci felt a bit awkward. Uh, was there too much chicken soup? Did everyone get too dizzy?
Suddenly, a cheer resounded, and applause erupted.
Song Ci smiled, tilting her head to see her maid Hong You and others excitedly clapping and wiping away tears.
Nanny gave her a thumbs up, saying she spoke well.
Song Ci felt proud, a small smile appeared.
Brainwashing and indoctrination, one of the essential routines for opening the correct way of Su Wen’s heroine!
"Madam is a good person. As a common woman, I bow to Madam. If not for Madam’s great kindness, sending my child to the medical clinic and helping us find a shelter, my child would have died of illness long ago. I must set up a longevity tablet for Madam, wishing her long life and good health." A woman suddenly squeezed through the crowd, walked over, and knelt down to Song Ci with a thump, knocking her head in gratitude. She held a child in her arms, with two young girls following behind her.
Song Ci took a moment to recognize her; she was the refugee who stopped her carriage that day.
"Get up, get up, don’t scare the child." Song Ci said smilingly: "As long as the child is well, that’s all that matters."
The crowd inquired about what had happened, and once the woman spoke, they understood the reason and couldn’t help but feel admiration.
The man causing trouble saw the situation wasn’t right, and had long slipped away, only to be stopped by the guards of the Prime Minister’s Mansion just around the corner.
Trying to sneak away after stirring trouble? No way!