"Okay, you can figure it out," the village chief touched his chin, looked down and saw the golden grilled fish in Yan Yan's hand, and couldn't help but swallowed, "You grilled the fish well, hehe..."
Yan Yan raised the grilled fish in front of him, "Grandpa, village chief, want to take a bite?"
"No...what about that? You guys pack your things and get ready to leave. I'll go notify the others."
The village chief ran away with a fake smile on his face. When he got to a place where Mrs. Shu and others could not see him, he took a deep sip of saliva.
It was so dangerous that I almost drooled on Xiaotuanzi’s grilled fish!
*
After eating and drinking water, everyone felt refreshed and walked much faster. Soon they walked through the woods and arrived at the main road mentioned by the village chief.
This road was much wider than the previous path, and the ground was flat. The donkey cart that had been squeaking all the way under Yan Yan finally stopped.
Looking forward along the gray road, there were quite a few refugees on the road who were preparing to seek refuge in the south like them.
Some of these people, like the people in Yaoshui Village, came from nearby villages. They formed groups of three or five families, pushing carts and carrying a lot of belongings with them.
Others came from further north. They had already run out of food and were walking along the roadside carrying tattered bundles and holding dolls as skinny as sticks.
Among them was a girl who was about the same age as Yan Yan. She was wearing clothes of an indistinguishable color. Her face was completely gray, and her eyes were embedded in deep-set eye sockets, which made her look extraordinarily large.
The little girl must have been begging for food along the way. When she saw the people with carts coming, she knew they had food in their hands, so she quickly knelt down on the roadside and kowtowed.
"Dear kind-hearted grandmas, grandmas, uncles and aunts, please give me some food. Just a little will be enough. I beg you."
The child was sincere and kowtowed without any pretense. His little head hit the ground with a clang, and the skin on his forehead was broken after a few hits.
Yan Yan was watching from the side, holding her grandmother's fingers tightly with her little hands, and her tears fell down as she looked at them.
Xiaotuanzi moved his lips, wanting to tell his grandmother that I won't eat tonight, so please give her my dinner.
But then I thought about it, my grandmother loved her so much, how could she be willing to let her starve? It must be my grandmother who was hungry in the end.
Thinking of this, she was reluctant to give away the food. The young lady was pitiful, and the grandmother was also pitiful when she was hungry.
"My dear, we won't watch anymore." Mrs. Shu covered her eyes, turned away and quickened her pace.
Not far away, another teenage girl rushed over. This time, instead of kowtowing to each other and asking for food, she rushed directly into the team and hugged Shu Mingli's arm.
"Brother, I will be your wife. Can you please save my mother? My mother hasn't eaten for three days. She is going to starve to death. I beg you!"
Shu Mingli was frightened by her. He let go of the carriage and hid behind Old Man Shu, "Little girl, please don't fool around. I don't think you are tall. Are you fourteen?"
"I'm sixteen, sixteen!" The girl knelt down in front of Old Man Shu and kowtowed, "Brother, if you don't like me, I can still serve you as a maid and serve you tea.
Water can be used as a cow or a horse! Please save my mother and give her something to stutter!"
Mrs. Shu pulled her up with red eyes, "Girl, don't be like this, we really can't help, there's nothing we can do, you can think of other ways."
At this time, a boy of five or six years old ran over crying, "Sister, my mother is out of breath, my mother is out of breath..."
"Mother!" The girl cried out in pain and staggered towards a haystack not far away. In the haystack lay a similarly skinny woman.
Mrs. Shu only glanced at it and turned her head away, not daring to look again.
Everyone else in the team also had red eyes.
Ever since the drought happened, everyone cried out about poverty when they met, fearing that the crops in the fields would die of drought and that their families would starve to death.
After embarking on the road to escape and meeting people who were worse off than themselves, everyone began to feel happy again.
They still had food to eat and their whole family was around them. These two points alone made them win over most of the people on this road.
So what else is there to complain about? No matter how hard it is, grit your teeth and work your way to the end.
As for these poor people who are kowtowing and begging, I'm sorry, it's not that they don't want to save, but that they really don't have the ability to save them.
The journey of escaping has just begun, and we will encounter more poor people later on. We have to save them one by one. Even if we kill them, we won't be able to save them.
And if the weather is like this, I don’t know what will happen in the future. If they encounter trouble and are delayed on the road, they may not have enough food to eat.
If they really get that far, they can only kneel down and beg for food like these people.
In short, if you don't have diamonds, don't take up the porcelain job. If you are extremely poor, don't overflow with compassion and be a good person.
A group of people were determined not to pay attention to the refugees begging along the road, and their journey speeded up a lot.
That night, a group of people couldn't find a place with water, so they had to find an open space to set up camp.
There were hungry refugees everywhere. At this time, it was not safe to light fires and cook. The village chief specially selected an open space and asked a few men to surround it with hoes. The women in the village were making dinner in the circle.
Mrs. Shu was extremely lucky that she asked the third child to fetch more buckets of water. Otherwise, she would have choked people to death if she had eaten dry food and chewed dried meat.
Sun and Yang built two fires next to them. One was used to boil water for drinking, and the other was used to cook porridge, dried meat, beans, rice, millet...whatever, it was all connected to the pot.
Throw it in.
Although the porridge cooked in the end didn't look very good, it was so thick that one bowl was better than two bowls elsewhere.
Moreover, there is bacon in it, so you can drink a mouthful of porridge and chew two mouthfuls of meat, enjoying the bitterness, which is also strangely beautiful.
Other families also left some water. For those with more, they cooked a pot of porridge and drank it to warm their stomachs, just like Mrs. Shu. For those with less, they could only cook yam beans and drink some boiling water to avoid choking.
The two brothers Shuanzi and Zhuzhu still didn't make a fire. They went to this house to ask for saliva, and to that house to ask for yam beans. Even after being scolded, they continued to ask for it with a shameless face, relying on their shamelessness to get through the world.
But after waiting for a long time, few people were willing to pay attention to them. My own family didn't have enough to eat, so I still care about you, an outsider. Are you stupid?
After eating, the village chief gathered everyone to make a summary of today's journey. First, he praised everyone for their spirit of not being afraid of hard work. They walked more than 40 miles on the first day. Maybe they can get to Qizhou City next month to live a good life.
It’s been a long time.
Then he mentioned the issue of refugees blocking the road to beg. He had the same idea as everyone else, that is, he must not be soft-hearted and must guard his food bag no matter what.
Considering that he might encounter hungry and anxious refugees in the future, he specifically told the men in the village to keep their hoes, rakes, kitchen knives and other sharp tools at hand, and to fight back immediately in case of special circumstances.
Another problem is drinking water. It is very dry and they are not familiar with the outside environment. They may not be able to find a place with water after walking all day.
What should we do? We can only take precautions in advance. When we get to a place with water, we can get more water. We usually save some water and we can get through it after a while.