I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

At the critical moment, the man clung to the edge of the nearby high ground and struggled to climb up.

The spot where I was just standing collapsed! The moment it collapsed, the person standing on it vanished!

The man felt a wave of fear wash over him. He sat on the ground and took several steps back before getting up and continuing to run.

The mountain was still shaking, and loose rocks kept rolling in from a distance.

Old Mr. Xi, who was lying on the cart, was shaken so badly that he fell off the cart and landed headfirst in the mud, covered in yellow mud and water, looking like a loach.

Xi Ershun, who was being pulled, paused and called out, "Father!"

Ignoring the cries, Old Man Xi used both hands to get up from the ground. As soon as his left leg touched the ground, a piercing pain immediately spread from his calf to his heart.

Gritting his teeth, Old Man Xi pulled Xi Ershun hard, and with the help of his second son, he limped forward.

—We have no choice but to run! We'll die here if we don't run!

He also wants to use gold to buy a big house and lots of land; he wants to live to be a hundred!

Xi Dashun had disappeared somewhere; only a few people with lots of luggage remained at the back.

Those people reluctantly threw away the firewood in their hands, and after running for a while, they threw away some more pots and pans, and soon overtook Xi Ershun.

As more and more people passed them, Old Man Xi couldn't help but tighten his grip on his second son's hand.

The force was too great, and Xi Ershun felt a bit of pain.

Old Man Xi was afraid; he was afraid his second son would abandon him here.

Behind us were rolling rocks and cracks that could appear at any moment.

The ground is shaking so badly that he would have difficulty walking on his own if no one was there to help him.

Old Man Xi swallowed hard and turned his head slightly to look at Xi Ershun.

Xi Ershun was intently looking ahead, watching his step, showing no intention of abandoning himself.

Turning his head back, Old Man Xi was single-mindedly focused on escaping for his life.

They fled, stumbling and sinking, as rows of trees on both sides toppled over. One second the road might be passable, the next it would suddenly disappear.

If you accidentally go the wrong way, there won't even be time to call for help.

The Zhao family.

As Zhao Laosan pulled the cart away, he shouted, "Mom! Let's not use this cart anymore!"

The bike was covered in mud, and it was going downhill, so I had to grip the handlebars tightly to keep it from tilting.

Not to mention that at this moment the whole earth is like a winnowing basket, and people standing on the ground are like beans in the winnowing basket, being tossed around.

It's impossible for it to stand still!

"No way!" Granny Qian refused decisively. "This cart is the lifeblood of the Zhao family!"

She sat in the car, next to Cao Rouan, whose face was deathly pale.

She's due to give birth in less than two months, and her belly is now as big as a basket hanging over her waist. Holding onto the carriage is no use, and she's bumped into things several times!

Outside, Zhao Laoda and Zhao Laosan had no choice but to desperately control the direction of the wedding car from both sides.

Whether it was the height of the carriage or the size of its wheels, they didn't fall behind when they were running.

Everyone ran forward nervously.

He Shi and Zhou Jian followed closely behind Zhao Ningning's carriage.

All I could hear were cries and screams.

Gravel kept falling in front of the cart, and the mule was pulled from side to side by the reins. Ning's father found the mule cart cumbersome, so he abandoned it and ran away with Ning's mother, each carrying a child.

I don't know how long I ran, I've even forgotten when I came out of the mountains.

The devastating earthquake came to an abrupt end, with only occasional aftershocks.

After putting the child down, Ning's father looked back and saw that most of the villagers had escaped the earthquake.

That only applies to the majority... a portion of people will forever rest in this mountain.

At the foot of the mountain, the village head felt as if something was tightly gripping his heart, causing him great discomfort.

"We're almost at the bottom of the mountain... We'll be out soon..."

There are only so few people left in the village!

The village chief comforted him from the other side, saying, "Old Wang, try to think positively. At least most of us... are still alive."

When they came out, there were 32 households; now only 12 remain.

Natural disasters are merciless!

Now is not the time for lamenting the passing of spring and autumn. This place is not safe either, as there are cracks everywhere in the ground. The village head led his people to continue forward.

Zhao Ningning was pulled along by her mother and walked with the group.

In their haste, they lost their mule cart—oh dear!

The mule cart following beside them looks like his.

Zhao Ningning rubbed her eyes, pointed to the mule cart by the roadside, and called out to her mother, "Mom! Mule cart!"

Following the direction she pointed, Ning's mother looked and indeed it was her own mule cart!

I don't know how this mule got here! It has several scratches on its body, and one of them is bleeding.

Ning's mother, holding Zhao Ningning's hand, led Ning's father and Zhao Qi down the main road and to the roadside to lead the mule cart onto the road.

Zhao Ningning and the others got back into the car and saw Zhou Jian and He Shi walking behind them. Ning's father called them over as well.

Zhou Jian stubbornly refused to sit down, and let He Shi sit down instead.

The group continued moving forward.

There were still aftershocks. Ning's father was worried about the horse he had released the first time, but he didn't dare to go looking for it. So he just made do and kept going.

At the back of the group, Old Man Xi managed to escape using his still-healing limp leg.

Having survived the ordeal, he felt excruciating pain in his legs and wanted to lie down but had nowhere to lie down.

After reaching flat ground, Old Man Xi found Da Shun, who had escaped, and asked Da Shun to squat down and carry him on his back.

Xi Dashun reluctantly squatted down, saying, "Why didn't we ask Ershun to carry it? It's all Ershun's fault! If the cart hadn't been stolen, we could have pulled it around!"

"We're lucky we escaped! What do we need a cart for!" Old Man Xi gritted his teeth. He wanted to lie down in the cart too, but now he'd been bounced off!

The cart was so heavy with mud on it; if you were pulling it, you might get swallowed up by the crack along with the cart!

The people in the group were still shaken by the large crevice they had just witnessed, and dared not linger on the mountainside. They walked without stopping for two hours until it got dark, at which point the village headman finally told them to stop and rest.

Although it was getting dark, the sky was not as dark as it had been a while ago; instead, it had a strange reddish-yellow hue.

You can see things clearly without even needing to light a fire.

I walked for two hours straight, and by now there were no more aftershocks.

If it weren't for the fallen trees along the roadside, everyone would have thought that the earthquake this afternoon was just their hallucination.

Because He Shi was there, neither Zhao Ningning nor He Shi dared to enter the space.

As soon as the carriage stopped, Madam He got out and took Zhou Jian to the side.

When they escaped from the car, they brought out three packages: one containing food, one containing their valuables, and a larger one containing their personal belongings.

Now that it's not raining, they spread tarpaulins on the ground and sleep directly on the ground at night.

Ning's mother couldn't stop them. Seeing that they had nothing left, she went into the carriage, took out the firewood from the space, and gave them half.

Seeing that they still had food, Ning's mother didn't give them any—it would just be a burden to carry.

When they fled for their lives, most of the villagers kept their food and threw away the firewood they had. Less than half of them managed to escape with their vehicles and belongings.

So when they stopped to rest, those without firewood had no choice but to venture out to the nearby area to find some.

Having just experienced an earthquake during the day, Zhao Ningning and her family had little appetite.

Ning's father went to cook, while Ning's mother, with her gentle touch, used alcohol to disinfect the mule's wounds.

Fearing that the wound would hurt during disinfection, Ning's mother moved gently. The mule only snorted a few times, enduring the slight pain and swishing its tail.

Now that the grass outside has grown, thinking that these past few days it has been Ning's father who has been going out to gather grass for the mule, Zhao Ningning diligently went to the roadside to gather grass to feed it. When she put the tender grass to its mouth, the mule turned its head in another direction.

Ning's father, who was cooking porridge, chuckled and said, "Ningning, you forgot, it doesn't like children."

Helpless, Zhao Ningning handed the grass in her hand to her mother, "Mom, you feed her."

Ning's mother took the grass, and before she could even put it to the mule's mouth, the mule came over and ate it in a few bites.

Zhao Ningning: "..."

—I'm about to explode with anger!

Out of sight, out of mind, Zhao Ningning went to help Zhao Qi tidy up the wooden planks.

After quickly wiping their faces in the car, Ning's parents rubbed off the dried mud from their clothes and dusted off the dirt to make themselves look cleaner.

When Zhao Ningning wanted to pull out the table to eat after the porridge was cooked, she discovered that the table had been broken at some point.

Not only the tables, but the entire carriage was damaged.

With a sigh, Zhao Qi said, "The planks are almost done. I'll patch them up tonight."

He has super glue in his room; he'll take a few templates from inside the carriage to fix it later.

Ning's mother shook her head, "We'll make it up tomorrow, let's eat first."

After each person finished a bowl of thin, watery porridge, wiped their mouths, and the four prepared to rest.

Unexpectedly, a commotion broke out outside.

Zhao Ningning climbed out of the carriage to look and saw that a group of people had gathered around the Wen family's convoy.

It turned out that the Wen family noticed that many people in the group had lost firewood, so they sent people out to search the forest and bring some back to distribute.

They wouldn't readily give away grain, but firewood, which is readily available everywhere, is something they can easily escape if they encounter any trouble while gathering firewood in the forest, given their martial arts skills and quick movements.

After the firewood was distributed, Wen Zichuan came over, nodded to Zhao Ningning, and asked Ningning's father, "Uncle Zhao, do you have enough firewood?"

Ning's father nodded, "We still have some in our carriage; the mule cart brought them out with it when it escaped."

Wen Zichuan asked in a low voice, "Is there enough food?"

They wouldn't give their grain to others, but the Zhao family wasn't considered "others."

"There's enough to eat. Isn't the nearest town only a three-day walk away? It'll be enough to get there," Ning's father politely declined.

"That's good." Wen Zichuan moved closer and placed the oil paper package from his sleeve into Ning's father's hand. "Uncle Zhao, you and Ningning can eat together."

Finally, he looked at Zhao Ningning and said, "Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival."

After saying that, he left.

After he left, Ning's father looked at Wen Zichuan's retreating figure suspiciously and asked Zhao Ningning, "Why is he being so polite? He wasn't like this before."

Zhao Ningning shook her head. "I don't know either. Maybe it's because of the holiday? Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival!"

Zhao Ningning had been so busy fleeing the famine that she had no idea what day it was, but Wen Zichuan remembered.

Ning's father opened the oil paper package in his hand, and inside was a round pastry.

It wasn't a mooncake; it looked pinkish, and Ning's father didn't dare shake his hand even slightly, for fear of scattering the cake.

Stiffly, she took it back to the carriage. Zhao Qi had already repaired the table and placed it on the table. Ning's mother took out a kitchen knife and cut the pancake into four pieces.

The outside is white powder, and the inside is red filling.

Each person took a piece, and Zhao Ningning said, "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival."

The other three said in unison, "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival."

Taking a bite, Zhao Ningning realized that this was a "mooncake" with glutinous rice on the outside and red date paste on the inside.

The jujube paste was sweet, and the four of them felt sweet inside as well.

After finishing the glutinous rice and jujube paste mooncakes, the four of them continued to rest.

In the distance, another long rumbling sound came from outside.

Zhao Ningning quickly got up and opened the carriage door to look outside within two seconds.

The outside is calm and peaceful, and it doesn't look like there are any aftershocks.

But the muffled thud, which sounded like an illusion, was indeed real; she wasn't the only one who heard it, many villagers outside also heard it.

"What's going on?" Ning's mother followed her out and saw Ning Ning looking at the sky with a serious expression, so she looked at her too.

The sky remained a hazy, yellowish-brown, with no other movement.

Zhao Qi, who followed him out of the carriage, took a deep breath. "Something's not right."

Danger hung silently in the air, and no one had the mind to rest.

"Xiao Qi, something's not right?" Ning's father sat on the hood of the car, looking out and then up at the sky, but he couldn't see any difference.

"It seems..." Zhao Qi closed his eyes, sniffed, "There's a strange smell."

Upon hearing the strange smell, Zhao Ningning's expression changed. "Could it be...?"

She and Zhao Qi blurted out in unison, "A volcano?!"

"Holy crap—a volcano?" Ning's father jumped up from the car, then stood quietly for a moment to discern the truth.

Sure enough, there was a faint, unpleasant odor in the air, the unique smell of gases after a volcanic eruption.

Ning's mother: "Old Zhao, we have to go!"

"I'll go tell the village head and the others!" Ning's father put the mule on the cart and handed the reins to Ning's mother.

After saying that, Ning's father went to tell the Wen family on the way, regardless of whether the villagers were planning to leave that night or not, he was going to run away!

Just kidding, that's a volcano! If you can hear noises from there, you're definitely not far from a volcano!

Putting aside everything else, the ash from the volcanic eruption is enough to fill a person's mouth, not to mention the acid rain that follows... Thinking of the acid rain, Ning's father worried for a moment for the people in the team.

I hope it doesn't rain.

Zhao Ningning woke up He Shi and Zhou Jian as well. Upon hearing that they were leaving, He Shi started packing without saying a word. She quickly packed the bundle and tied up the unused firewood with freshly twisted straw rope.

Zhou Jian and Zhao Qi helped load the goods onto the cart, and the mule cart started moving immediately.

"Boom—"

Another dull sound rang out, this time even closer!

Zhao Ningning turned around, and in the dim red sky, a huge mushroom cloud floated out, with red and black flames rising from the bottom of the cloud!

Zhao Ningning shouted, "It's a volcanic eruption! Run!"

No matter how severe the heat or floods are, people can still survive by the cracks in God's fingers. But volcanoes... once you touch the lava, you'll be instantly reduced to ashes!