Sold immediately after wearing it? I took my family and fled the famine.

The wind suddenly picked up in the afternoon.

It wasn't the usual mountain wind; it was the kind of north wind that was chilly and could blow right through a cotton-padded coat.

The wind blew in from the north, sweeping along the valley, making the branches whistle and making people's faces feel like they were being scraped by a knife.

People walking on the street hunched their necks, wrapped their clothes tightly around themselves, and walked forward with their heads down.

The refugees on foot suffered even more than those traveling by car. The wind blew directly at them, with nowhere to hide or escape. The cold wind seeped up from their trouser legs, into their collars, and into their cuffs, leaving them completely warm.

An old woman was blown off balance by the wind and fell. Her son quickly helped her up. The old woman's lips were purple and her hands were trembling violently. Her son took off his cotton-padded coat and put it on her, while he walked in the wind in just a thin shirt.

The child cried because of the wind. His mother held him and shielded him from the wind with her body. The child buried his face in his mother's arms and cried muffledly.

"The weather's changed!" someone shouted from ahead. "Hurry! Find a sheltered spot to camp!"

The group quickened their pace, but the wind was too strong to walk fast. Some people simply stopped and squatted by the roadside, waiting for the wind to subside before continuing. However, the wind showed no signs of abating and instead grew stronger.

Jiang Xing helped Zhang Shi into the carriage, and Xiao Niu also got on. They wrapped the two of them tightly in blankets, and she walked beside the carriage while her third uncle drove it. The two of them walked forward against the wind.

"Third Uncle, is there a place ahead where we can shelter from the wind?" Jiang Xing asked loudly, but the wind blew her voice away.

Third Uncle squinted at the mountain range ahead, then at the wind direction, and pondered for a moment: "Look at the direction of those two mountain ridges. The one on the north side is higher than the one on the south side. If there is a bend in the middle of the two ridges, it can block the north wind. Let's take it one step at a time."

He left room for interpretation in his words, but his tone carried a certain certainty, a judgment that comes from someone who has lived most of their life.

After walking for nearly an hour, the mountain range indeed narrowed into a bend ahead, just as Uncle San had predicted. It was blocked on three sides, with only the south side exposed.

The lead officer rode his horse around the mountain valley for a while, then returned and said, "We'll spend the night here! The wind is too strong, we're not going any further! We'll see how the weather is tomorrow!"

The crowd surged into the valley, each finding a place to settle down.

Jiang Xingjia was in the latter half of the group and walked slowly. By the time they entered the mountain valley, most of the good spots had already been taken by the people in front.

But she wasn't in a hurry. She led the oxcart around the valley and finally found a spot on the east side against the mountain wall. There was a large protruding rock blocking the view to the north, and although the south side was open, there was a clump of bushes to the west that could block the crosswinds.

The spot wasn't big, just big enough for an oxcart to park. The people in front thought it was too small and too close to a rock, making it inconvenient to get in and out, so they didn't like it. Jiang Xing thought it was perfect.

"Third Uncle, this is it."

She placed the oxcart across the south side, using it as a wall to block the wind blowing from the south. Stones blocked the north, bushes blocked the west, the cart blocked the south, and the mountain wall blocked the east, thus blocking the wind from all four sides.

The car was parked. "Little Niu, come with your third uncle to cut some hay. It's getting cold, and the cows can't eat fresh grass anymore. They need to eat hay. Cut a lot, not only to feed the cows, but also to weave a straw mat for them to keep out the wind."

Xiao Niu and his third uncle responded and left with their sickles and ropes.

"Grandma, you stay here and guard the oxcart and grain, don't let anyone near. I'm going to chop firewood."

"Okay." Zhang nodded.

Jiang Xing carried a machete and walked up the hillside.

There weren't many trees on the hillside, mostly shrubs and withered grass. She cut a few dry branches, bundled them together, and continued uphill.

She was still thinking about the ginger and mugwort in the mall, and she needed to find a secluded place to buy them and pretend she had dug them up.

When she reached a shady slope halfway up the mountain, she squatted down, pretending to search for something, but actually checking if anyone was around.

She was about to place an order from the online store when she parted a clump of withered grass and froze.

Beneath the withered grass, a large patch of wild ginger was exposed, densely packed together. Although the ginger stalks were withered, the roots were firmly embedded in the soil, bulging and full, indicating that the ginger pieces underneath were quite large.

Jiang Xing stared at the patch of wild ginger for two seconds, then reached out and gently pulled out a piece; the ginger was very fresh.

This patch of wild ginger is enough for her family to eat for half a month, but she doesn't plan to dig it all up.

If she digs up everything, the people behind her will have nothing left to dig, and if they get hungry, they'll come and steal from her. If she leaves some food, others will have something to eat, and her risk will be less.

She picked out the largest few plants, dug up about a third of them, covered the rest with withered grass, and patted the soil off her hands.

Just as I was about to get up, I bumped into something hard.

She looked down and saw a chestnut, brownish-red, with its husk still hanging on it, rolled out of the pile of fallen leaves.

Jiang Xing looked up.

Above us was a large chestnut tree, its trunk so thick that one person couldn't wrap their arms around it, its branches stretching out to block out half the sky.

Most of the chestnuts on the tree had already fallen, and the ground was covered with a layer of dead leaves and chestnut shells. She squatted down and sifted through the fallen leaves, and underneath were chestnuts, plump and round, some still in their husks, and some that had already rolled out.

There was more than one. She looked around and saw four or five chestnut trees scattered on the hillside. They were all old trees, standing in a row of varying heights.

There were so many chestnuts on the ground, they covered a layer, some were already spoiled, and some were still fresh.

Jiang Xing squatted down to pick them up. There were too many. She picked out the fresh and intact ones and filled her basket to the brim.

The rest is for those who come after.

She stood up, slung the basket over her shoulder, carried the firewood in one hand and held the basket with the other, and slowly descended the mountain, intending to inform the people of Jiangjia Village.

Several women were already digging for wild vegetables on the hillside, including Liu, who had arrived early and filled a basket to the brim.

Aunt Sun from Zhoujiazhai was squatting on the slope digging shepherd's purse when she looked up and saw Jiang Xing coming down the mountain, his basket overflowing with vegetables.

"Girl, what's in your basket? It's so full!"

"Wild ginger and chestnuts." Jiang Xing didn't hide anything. He stopped and lifted a corner of his basket to show her. "There's a patch of wild ginger on it, and a few chestnut trees. There are lots of chestnuts on the ground."

"Chestnuts?" Aunt Sun's eyes lit up. "A lot?"

"There's plenty, enough to pick up."

Zhao, the woman from Chenjiagou, also came over to take a look, then turned and ran uphill.

Aunt Sun stopped digging for wild vegetables and ran up the mountain with her basket. Widow Zhou from Lijia Village and Granny Zheng from Wujia Ridge followed one after another.

"We went chestnut picking on the mountain!"

"There's wild ginger too! There's wild ginger on it!"

The news spread like wildfire, and in less than a quarter of an hour, half the women in the camp had run up the mountain.

Jiang Xing returned to the camp with a basket on his back. He first told Shen Dehou that he had found chestnuts on the mountain and gave him the approximate location before returning to his home to rest and sort out the contents.

Wild ginger was wrapped in dry grass and placed in a cool, shady place. Chestnuts were poured into a large basket and covered with a cloth to prevent moisture and insects.

Third Uncle had already cut the dry grass and returned, and was squatting on the ground weaving a straw mat.

Zhang walked over, squatted down to look at the chestnuts, picked one up and squeezed it: "Xing'er, where did you pick these?"

"There are several chestnut trees on the mountain, and the ground is covered with fallen leaves."

"You haven't finished picking them up, have you?"

"No, I kept most of it."

Zhang glanced at her granddaughter, nodded, and said nothing more.