I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

The village chief sniffed, a hint of sadness in his voice: "Fengning County has been taken over by refugees."

The village head was stunned, and his eyes immediately reddened.

Seeing him like this, the village chief felt terrible.

"Fengning County...Fengning County has been occupied by refugees..." the village head murmured. "That...that Wangli Village..."

Wangli Village is probably not doing too well either.

Moreover, there are several elderly people in the village who stubbornly refuse to come and flee the famine together.

The village head returned to his unit with red eyes.

The village head's wife noticed his unusual behavior at first glance, but didn't point it out. It wasn't until after dinner, when the two were lying on the straw mat, that the village head sighed and told her the news.

The village head's wife remained silent for a long time, only gently fanning him.

"Chunfang, do you think I made a mistake? Should I have brought them out with me in the first place?" The village head felt a sharp pain in his chest.

Miao gently waved her fan and said slowly, "You've tried to persuade them for so long, but they still refuse to go with us."

Those who could be persuaded had already been convinced by the village head to leave together.

Only those three families… Miao Chunfang thought for a moment, those were the three oldest people in the village.

They fled famine with their elders to Fengning County, and later settled in Wangli Village.

"Perhaps they know how difficult it is to flee famine...or perhaps they are thinking about how they finally managed to settle down in Wangli Village back then."

Or perhaps they felt that setting out to escape famine at their age was a waste of time, and they might even die on the way.

A sense of grief lingered in the village head's heart.

The next morning, just as dawn broke and the city gates opened.

The village chief and the head of the village led a group of people to meet them.

A carriage was piled high with things, covered with an oilcloth, making it impossible to see what was inside.

The two horses seemed to be struggling, making it easy to guess that the cart was carrying heavy loads, either grain or silver.

People around the city were eager to act, but when they saw a dozen men with machetes standing guard nearby, their greed turned into envy, and then into jealousy.

With these carriages in hand, the village head and the village chief walked directly onto the main road. Not long after they got on the main road, the people of Wangli Village, who had been waiting for a long time on both sides of the road, silently gathered around them.

A group of men firmly blocked the view from behind.

They walked straight ahead until 11:00 AM, when they had already shaken off the people following behind. Only then did the village headman order the group to stop.

Today was the day to distribute grain. The village headman specially chose a grove of trees. Villagers pulling carts parked their carts by the roadside and arranged for their family members to keep an eye on them.

Each household sent one person, and the village headman said there was grain available today!

It was Ningning's mother who went to Zhao Ningning's house.

The carriage was bulging, and everyone in Wangli Village stared intently at it.

After everyone had taken their positions, the village chief and the head of the neighborhood committee glanced around and, seeing that almost everyone had arrived, the head of the neighborhood committee said, "The reason we are able to stand here today is all thanks to the eldest daughter-in-law and eldest son of the Shang family!"

The villagers nodded, "Of course! Without them, where would the villagers find such a large cartload of grain?"

The village head said yesterday that we couldn't get into the prefectural city, and there were more refugees chasing after us, so we had to keep going until we reached Huangshi County.

The Shang family will continue their journey north to escape the famine. There is still a long way to go, and the food they have today may be their life-saving food for the rest of the journey!

Thinking this, her gaze towards the carriage became even more blurred.

The two horses pulling the cart, under the watchful eyes of so many people, nervously buckled and snorted heavily.

"The price of grain in this cart is based on the purchase price, and it mostly contains coarse grains. Refined rice is 77 coins per jin, flour is 80 coins, unrefined rice is 70 coins, millet is 65 coins, sorghum flour is 60 coins..."

The village head read a long list, and the villagers below listened with unusual quiet.

A significant portion of the people had given all their silver to the yamen (government office) when they passed through Heqing County.

I'm really... broke.

They still had half left, and they did have some silver on them, but not much. They thought about going home to discuss with their families how to buy it.

When the wealthy families in the village heard that there was grain available for purchase, they were the first to step forward and bought thirty or forty catties of it.

If they weren't worried that buying too much would cause unrest among the villagers, they would have bought the entire truckload of grain.

"Seventy-seven coins, why don't they just rob someone!" Old Man Xi muttered to himself.

The person next to him overheard this and said unhappily, "You should be grateful! You can't even buy it in Heqing County if you wanted to; you should be lucky to be able to buy it now!"

How dare he complain about the price! People buy the grain from far away and bring it over, without them having to wait in line!

He knew all too well that this old man Xi had forced his second son, who was still recovering from an injury, to queue up in Heqing County to buy grain, and the sun there had made him faint!

"Why didn't you say you were charging? You've wasted my time queuing; I thought it was free!"

Old Man Xi waved his hand, "If this grain costs money, I wouldn't have come!"

He was shouting so loudly that not only the people around him could hear him, but also those further away.

Upon hearing this, Granny Qian nodded inwardly.

That's right! When she heard the news, she also thought it was the village head asking for grain for the elderly!

So as soon as she parked her car today, she quickly jogged over to grab a good spot!

The village head and the village chief, who were standing in the front row, also heard what Old Man Xi said.

Upon hearing this offer of freebies, the village chief sneered, "It's true what they say, 'In a big forest, you'll find all sorts of birds.'"

The villagers standing in the front row understood his veiled insult, and then they realized: "What are we doing now? We're standing right here in the woods!"

A few of the villagers who wanted to get something for nothing left, and the rest dutifully paid for the grain.

When it was Ning's turn, she handed over the money with one hand and the bag with the other. The village head's daughters-in-law filled the bag with grain using measuring cups and then handed it over.

Ning's mother carried the grain back home.

"Why!"

A voice called out from the side.

Ning's mother thought it was someone else calling her, so she continued walking forward.

"Zhou! I'm calling you!"

Granny Qian was furious. Ever since the family divided their property, her second daughter-in-law had shown no respect for her elders whatsoever.

When Ning Ma heard the name called out, she stopped and turned around to see Granny Qian, whose face was full of gloom.

"Did you call me?" Ning's mother asked.

"Why are you the one who went out to buy grain? Where is the second son?" Granny Qian was displeased. Zhou's attitude was really bad. She really missed the second daughter-in-law who used to let her beat and scold her... If they had known they were going to flee the famine, their family would never have bothered with the fifth daughter.

This way, there will be people on the road to catch the cart and people to gather firewood.

Instead of the current situation, where the two sons constantly shirk their responsibilities and the two daughters-in-law are getting worse and worse.

"You should know better than anyone that we don't let our second son go out to buy food!" Ning's mother retorted without hesitation. "Every time you see him in the village, don't you tear up and try to play the victim for him?"

What's wrong? You're upset because you couldn't get food by playing the victim when it was me today?

With her secret exposed, Granny Qian blushed with shame. Pointing at Ning's mother, she shouted, "Is this the attitude you should have towards your elders?!"

"Otherwise, what kind of attitude should we have?" Ning's mother saw Ning's father and Zhao Ningning coming over out of the corner of her eye, shoved the grain bag into Zhao Ningning's hand, rolled up her sleeves, and said, "Before, there were always some people in the village who didn't know their place and came to cause me trouble."

"Are you itching for a slap too, and want me to give you a couple of slaps to relieve the itch?"

Granny Qian was so angry her hands trembled. Seeing Zhao Lao Er standing beside her, she said with exasperation, "Lao Er, is this how you manage your wife? You just stand by and watch your mother be scolded?!"

Ning's father scratched his head: "Didn't you sign the marriage contract and kick our family out? Now you're going back on your word? Then give us twenty taels of silver, and we'll acknowledge you back."

As he spoke, Ning's father reached out his hand to her.

Granny Qian was so shocked by this that she was speechless.

She stammered "you" for a long time, almost fainting, and covered her face, crying to the people behind her.

The villagers standing behind her were so embarrassed that they stopped buying their food and ran to the back of the line to rejoin the queue!

Ning's mother found it amusing, took the grain bag from Zhao Ningning's hands, and the three of them walked back.

This was just a minor incident within the team.

Granny Qian pretended to cry for a while, but when she saw that no one paid attention to her, she looked up and saw that Zhao Lao Er's family had also left. She could only go to queue up to buy grain in a sullen mood.

Let alone twenty taels, even two taels! She wouldn't give it to Zhao Lao Er. In this world, it's only sons who give money to their fathers, not fathers who give money to their sons!

The grain on the horse-drawn carts gradually sold out.

The grain flowed like water into the grain bags of the ranks.

Knowing they didn't know how long the journey would take, each household, after buying the grain, divided it into small bags and hid them on their person and in various places on their vehicle.

Zhao Ningning's family bought a small bag of grain, which Zhou Jian saw. Zhou Jian ran back to "complain," and He Shi, without saying a word, made Zhou Jian take the bag of grain, which weighed about ten pounds, and, just like Zhao Qi and Ning's mother did, throw it directly onto the front of the cart and then ran away.

When Ning's mother saw this, she clutched her stomach and laughed nonstop.

She would keep the grain for now, planning to return it to the Zhou family when they had almost finished eating it.

The team rested until late afternoon before setting off again.

As soon as Zhao Ningning moved from the woods to the main road, the sun made her face burn.

Ning's mother hurriedly told her to go back to the carriage, where there were three curling stones, which were definitely cooler than outside.

"Mom...is the temperature getting higher and higher?" Zhao Ningning shook the ice curling stone in her hand. It was always filled with ice. When they first fled the famine, the ice could last until they rested and ate in the afternoon, but the time it took to cool off was getting shorter and shorter.

Zhao Ningning opened the lid of the curling stone, and sure enough, almost all the ice inside had melted!

It's only afternoon, and we've just set off. There are only a few thin flakes of ice left in the curling.

Upon contact with the sweltering air, these tiny ice flakes melted into ice water at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Zhao Ningning: "..."

The temperature has definitely risen! Absolutely!

It's already hot, and if it gets any hotter... I'm afraid I won't be able to travel during the day.

Zhao Ningning told her mother about the changes in curling, and her mother also felt that it was hotter than usual today.

It's not just their family who thinks this way.

The village head and the village chief thought the same thing.

He hadn't gone far when the village chief's throat felt like it was on fire, dry and sore. He wanted to talk to the village head, but when he opened his mouth, he could barely utter a word.

He felt a little better after taking a sip of water from the bamboo tube and said, "Old Wang, is there something wrong with the weather today?"

The village head wiped his sweat and nodded.

"Daytime is not a good time to travel."

Let's set off a little later tomorrow, otherwise, in this heat, everyone in the group will get heatstroke!

As the sun set, the group took a break.

Taking this opportunity, the village head announced: We will set off at midnight tomorrow, walk at night until 9:00 AM, then rest until 5:00 PM, and continue resting until early 5:00 PM. In this way, we will rest for three and a half hours, including half a morning and an afternoon.

After resting during the day, they set off at the beginning of the You hour (5-7 PM), walked at night until the beginning of the Hai hour (9-11 PM), and rested again after two and a half hours.

Sleep until the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), then set off again.

Traveling back and forth like this, although walking at night is slower, is still better than traveling in the sweltering heat.

When the decision was communicated, everyone in the village agreed.

Some men even shouted: "It should have been like this a long time ago. We could rest more during the day and not have to rush around under the scorching sun. We could sleep well and walk more at night."

Some people say that it's safer to rest during the day than at night, because it's bright and you can easily spot any bad guys.

Hearing their words, Ning's father scoffed: "Hmph, you're all too naive!"

At the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), when people were being called to get up, the villagers, feeling it was a novel experience, quickly got up.

Even those who were on the road started rushing on their way.

When the hour of Si (9-11 AM) arrives, which is usually a time for rest, everyone takes their usual break.

But when they tried to continue their journey at night, their energy waned the more they walked.

In the past, I could rest during the day and didn't have to walk so long at night, so I naturally didn't feel tired.

Now I rest during the day—but even though it's supposed to be rest, it's so hot that no matter where I sleep, it's too hot to sleep soundly.

Even when I got up, my head felt hot and throbbing.

But no matter what, resting during the hottest time is much better than traveling during the hottest time.

The villagers, who live with their backs to the sky and faces to the ground, are very adaptable. In just two days, they adjusted to the new environment.

But no matter how much she tried to adapt, the daytime temperature was still very high, and Zhao Ningning even developed a fever.

Her head felt dizzy and lightheaded. When Ning's mother saw that her daughter looked listless, she reached out and touched her head and realized something was wrong.

Ning's mother took out a packet of medicine for treating high fever that Ning's father had bought in Fucheng. After calculating the dosage, Ning's mother took out a new small earthenware pot, added water, and soaked the medicine.

Zhao Qi silently unloaded the pottery stove from the cart and lit it next to the cart.

After the medicine was soaked, Ning's mother placed the earthenware pot on the stove and began to boil the medicine.

It was daytime, a time for rest. Ningning's family had just finished boiling the medicine when He Shi smelled the aroma.

She came over and saw Ning's mother boiling medicine. When she asked, she found out that Ning was hot. She turned around and went back to get a bucket of water to give to Ning's mother.

Ning's mother declined several times before finally giving up on He's idea of ​​delivering water.

After the medicine was prepared, Ning's mother brought it to the carriage and called Ningning out of the space, asking her to drink the Chinese medicine.

Then she asked Zhao Ningning to take out some alcohol from her space. Ning's mother wiped her hands and feet, thinking that this folk remedy could cool her down.

After doing all this, Ning's mother sent her back to her space to rest.

As soon as Zhao Ningning entered the space, she immediately came out again.

Excitedly grabbing Ning's mother's hand, she cried, "Mom! It's unlocked!"