Chengchun said nothing, and put the luggage on the ox cart together with Hong Dou: "My carriages have been requisitioned, and the cart drivers have gone back to rest. Now there is only one old scalper in the cart shop. With the chaos outside, I am the only one."
I’ll give you a ride!”
"I still have to thank the shopkeeper!" Cheng Chun said with a smile, maybe because of the makeup, his eyes looked a bit dull.
Shopkeeper Ma always felt that he had seen it wrong, so he took a few more glances, but found that her eyes were indeed a bit dull, so he felt a little disappointed, but did not show it. He just stood up and said, "Get in the car, I
After calculating the itinerary, if we go from here to Hangzhou City by horseback riding day and night, we will get there in about two days. If we go by oxcart, it will be much slower, about three or three and a half days, and this does not include the rest we took in the middle.
when!"
Chengchun nodded: "Okay, I understand!"
The oxcart had been cleaned and had a light woody smell. Hongdou piled all the baggage in the back and asked Chengchun to lean on it when he sat down.
"Set off!"
In fact, the ox-cart is not very slow. It is just slower than the horse-drawn carriage, but it is more stable and practical. The closer to the city gate, the more Chengchun can see scattered people sitting on the roadside.
of refugees.
Occasionally, a few brave people would rush up to them and ask them for food or money. Shopkeeper Ma would not let them get close, and most of them would directly scold them and tell them to move away.
"These refugees are very pitiful!" Shopkeeper Ma said while driving the bullock cart. "They are homeless and have no food to eat!"
"Then you are still so cruel to them?" Hongdou couldn't help but said.
Shopkeeper Ma laughed: "Do you know how terrible things a person can do in order to survive? Look at the refugees. As long as you reach out to someone, there will be countless hands to pull you away.
They will drag you down, but you don’t have so much to share with them. What do you think you will become in the end if you hold out your hand?"
Hongdou was silent.
Chengchun on the side remained silent. She came from a poor background and knew the importance of fields to farmers. She also understood that a flood would not only result in the separation of wives and children, but also the possibility of annihilation of households.
There is enough capital in her baggage to survive for a lifetime. A little bit of it can give someone a way to survive. But there are too many people here. She can't help so many people, and she may drag herself into trouble, so she clearly knows
Those people were very miserable, but Chengchun just secretly took out two buns and gave them to the miserable mother and daughter.
Shopkeeper Ma outside saw that Cheng Chun was silent, so he couldn't help but asked: "Hey, why don't you feel sorry for me?"
"If you are poor, you can help yourself; if you are rich, you can help the world!" Cheng Chun said lightly, "It can't help their sympathy. It has no effect except making myself feel the pain of being powerless!"
Shopkeeper Ma raised his eyebrows slightly and praised this beautiful girl a little more: "You haven't told me what your name is yet?"
"Call me Ahua!" Chengchun laughed.
Shopkeeper Ma raised his eyebrows slightly. He felt that this name did not suit her temperament, but as a person, there are many people who use their real names when they go out, so he did not ask more questions and just responded: "You see very well.
It’s so transparent, since we can’t help anyway, we shouldn’t let them come over, otherwise we’ll give them hope, and if we let them down, that’s really despair!”
Hongdou looked at Chengchun and saw that she lowered her eyes and said nothing, so she understood what she meant.
As we drove all the way south, we could see ragged homeless people everywhere on the road. From time to time there would be wailing and crying, and people would come up and want to hitchhike. Shopkeeper Ma refused them all and did not dare to stop the car along the way.
I was afraid that as soon as I parked my car, there would be a crowd of homeless people.
"I thought I would meet a lot of refugees on the road, but I never thought there would be so many. Didn't they say that Huizhou has been closed down? How did they get out?" It's rare to stop and rest in a deserted place.
Shopkeeper Ma complained while eating.
Hongdou handed the water to Shopkeeper Ma: "Shopkeeper Ma, after you finish eating, go to sleep for a while. The girl and I will watch the cows for you outside!"
Because there were refugees everywhere on the road, Shopkeeper Ma had already been driving for a day and a night, and his eyes were already red from the heat. He finally reached the foot of this deserted mountain, and he was told to have a good rest first.
Shopkeeper Ma really couldn't bear it anymore, so he went to find a place aside, covered it with a bamboo hat, and went to rest.
The cattle happened to stop and graze on the edge, and Chengchun and Hongdou were also active here.
Chengchun was walking at the foot of the mountain. When he turned around, he saw Hongdou carrying a kettle to scoop water from a nearby ravine. He quickly stopped her and said, "Hongdou, don't go!"
Hongdou was a little confused: "What's wrong, girl?"
"This is raw water. It has just become flooded, so don't drink raw water! I remember there was a teapot in the carriage. We boiled the water and put it into the kettle." Chengchun walked to Hongdou and whispered softly.
said.
Although Hongdou didn't understand why, she didn't ask much. After all, when they were in the capital, they didn't drink raw water very much. Even mountain spring water had to be boiled before drinking.
Where Hong Dou made a fire to boil water, Chengchun picked up a lot of dandelions and some purslane that had just sprouted from the surrounding area. She cleaned them by the river, and then returned to Hong Dou: "Boil another pot of dandelions.
Tea!”
"Ah?" Hongdou had just boiled a pot of hot water and saw Chengchun coming back, "Don't you girl dislike these medicinal teas the most?"
"We encountered so many refugees along the way, and we don't know what the situation is like in Huizhou City. If there is really a plague, we have come into contact with so many people. It would be good to drink some refreshing and detoxifying tea to be prepared."
Chengchun said, putting the cleaned dandelions into the pot.
While they were talking, a couple staggered over not far away.
"My boss, my boss, wake up, my boss!" the woman wailed.
Hongdou looked at it and stood up suddenly: "Don't faint from hunger, I'll get something to eat..."
"Don't go!" Chengchun grabbed Hongdou's hand.
Red beans are a bit inexplicable.
"Didn't that man faint from hunger?" Cheng Chun said softly, "Look at his gray face and black and purple lips, he must be sick!"
Anko's feet trembled.
But even so, the woman still set her sights on them and ran towards them crying: "Girl, girl, please save us, please save us!"
After a flood, a plague is most likely to occur. At this time, no one dared to approach a refugee who was about to die of illness. Hongdou was also frightened and took a step back.
"Don't come over here!" Chengchun scolded him coldly.
The woman was probably frightened and stopped in her tracks: "I..."
"If you want food and drink, I can give it to you, but if you want me to save your husband, I can't. Looking at him, he must have been sick for a few days. You have to go find a doctor."
!" Chengchun said, throwing a kettle that was already filled with water.
After listening to Cheng Chun's words, the woman burst into tears: "Doctor, how can any doctor be willing to treat him? When he heard that we came from Huizhou, he felt as if he had seen some poisonous snake and beast. He wanted to pour realgar wine on us.
After a while, who dares to treat him!"
"If the fever persists, you can try digging some nepeta and dandelion for him to eat, which are cooling and detoxifying! If you can find plantain, use the plantain to boil water for him!"
Cheng Chun looked at the wailing woman and felt a little unbearable, "I see you have brought pots and pans, boil more water for him to drink, but... we can't help you either!"
When the woman heard Cheng Chun's words, she seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw: "I know both nepeta and dandelion, what is plantain?"
"It's the bugloss you usually call!" Chengchun looked at the woman and said helplessly, "We can't help you with anything, you can only ask for your own blessings."
But even so, the woman was extremely grateful.
She settled the man down and went to the mountains to find herbs. Hong Dou looked at it with a bit of sadness: "Girl, can he still be saved?"
"It depends on him. If it's really an epidemic, I'm afraid not many people can cure it. But if it's just an ordinary cold and fever, although these medicines are a little rough, they can cool and detoxify and reduce the fever!" Cheng Chun said softly!
said.
Hongdou couldn't help but sigh: "What's wrong with this!"
About two hours later, the woman worked hard to boil water and gave the man several bowls to drink, but she couldn't take a sip.
Chengchun and Hongdou took out the steamed buns to eat. The woman kept swallowing her saliva and didn't come to ask for it. She just looked at it timidly.
Cheng Chun finally couldn't bear it, so he wrapped five or six steamed buns in a clean handkerchief and threw them over: "We don't have many, so we can only give you these. You should also drink more of the water. After all, you have been staying together!"
Women are naturally grateful.
Chengchun and Hongdou did not stay there forever. Not long after, shopkeeper Ma had enough sleep, got up and drove away. When leaving, Chengchun saw that the man's face had improved a lot, and he didn't know that he had taken medicine.
I still ate the steamed buns, it felt better after all!
It is not an exaggeration to say that the next journey was filled with hunger and death. There were wailings everywhere. Some mothers lost their children, some husbands died and their wives died. Chengchun and Hongdou never opened the curtain again. It seemed like this, just watch
Avoid external disasters and human suffering.
Shopkeeper Ma also changed from talking and laughing to becoming silent. The closer he got to Hangzhou, the more refugees there were. And they were stopped in a small town in front of Hangzhou: "Do you have a fish sign?"
Chengchun looked at the person guarding the door and handed out his fish tag: "I am not a refugee, I want to go home!"
The guard looked at Cheng Chun for a long time: "You really picked a good time to go back!"