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

Before dawn, the cave entrance was already bustling with activity.

The teams from each village were almost complete. Jiangjia Village sent twenty-one people, with Shen Dehou standing at the very front, a sickle at his waist and two empty sacks slung over his shoulder.

Wangjiagou produced eighteen, Zhoujiazhai produced fifteen, and Wujialing and Chenjiagou each produced about ten.

More than seventy people crowded at the entrance of the cave. Some carried shoulder poles, some carried bamboo baskets, and some rolled up burlap sacks and tucked them under their armpits. Everyone had a machete hanging from their waist.

When Jiang Xing reached the cave entrance, his gaze swept across the crowd and paused in a corner.

Yang Cuihua huddled on the outermost edge of the crowd, her head wrapped in a dusty old cloth, clutching a crumpled burlap sack in her hand, desperately trying to hide behind.

Standing in front of her were He Daliang's two sons, He Youtian and He Youliang, both carrying hoes and with expressionless faces.

Yang Cuihua's eyes met Jiang Xing's for a moment, and she suddenly lowered her head as if she had been electrocuted, shrinking behind He Youtian, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the sack.

Jiang Xing withdrew his gaze, his expression remaining unchanged.

Before the team could even set off, another incident broke out.

The leader of the Yongzhou refugees emerged from the cave, followed by seven or eight others, all carrying hoes and sacks, standing silently beside the crowd.

Qiu Mazi from Jiangjia Village was the first to step forward, carrying a shoulder pole and blocking the way: "What are you doing here?"

"Digging yams," the leader said, not saying much.

"Miss Jiang discovered the yams, and she's one of our team!" Granny Zhao retorted in a shrill voice. "You're not part of our team, so what right do you have to dig them? You took a handful of our grain that day, and you've been hogging the cave, refusing to move. Now you want to take advantage of us? Where's your shame?"

The faces of some of the refugees from Yongzhou changed.

A young woman took a step forward, her eyes red-rimmed, her lips trembling as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

"That Doctor Gu is also from Yongzhou!"

She finally managed to utter a sentence, pointing at the old doctor Gu standing next to Jiang Xing: "Dr. Gu also saw the yams, so why can't we go?"

When Dr. Gu's name was called, his white beard twitched. He stood between the two groups of people, carrying his medicine box, looking left and then right, rubbing his hands together. He took a step forward, about to say something, when Ma Dadan pressed down on his shoulder with one hand.

Ma Dadan took a step forward, his broadsword resting on the ground, the scabbard striking the stone with a dull thud.

His gaze swept from the faces of the refugees in Yongzhou to the faces of the villagers in Jiangjia Village. After a full scan, everyone he saw fell silent.

"Shut up, all of you. It was indeed Miss Jiang who found the yam. She also said that everything on the mountain is unclaimed and belongs to whoever digs it up. We can't stop people from Yongzhou from going up the mountain."

"But let me make this clear: once we're up the mountain, everyone digs their own yams. If anyone tries to play tricks, steals someone else's yams, or snatches someone else's sack, don't blame me, Ma Dadan, for being ruthless with my knife."

No one spoke again. Qiu Mazi put his carrying pole away, and the leader of the Yongzhou refugees nodded to Ma Dadan, leading his men to the back of the group. The two groups were about ten paces apart, neither looking at the other.

Jiang Xing walked in front, with Doctor Gu beside her.

When she arrived at the dense forest where she had found the yams the day before, she walked around a clump of bushes and stood under a pine tree with yam vines twining around it. She squatted down and used a short knife to dig through the decaying leaves and loose soil.

With a few cuts, the grayish-brown skin of the yam was revealed. She dug down almost a foot deep along the root and pulled out a thick yam intact, its skin covered in mud and milky white sap oozing from the cut.

She held up the yam so everyone could see it clearly.

The crowd was silent for a moment, then erupted.

"This is it!"

"My God, it's huge!"

"Hurry up and dig! Stop standing there like idiots!"

As if some rope had been untied, the seventy-odd people scattered in a rush.

Li Shitou was the first to find a pine tree entwined with old vines. With one stroke of his hoe, he hit a hard yam root. He squatted down and started digging with his hands. The first yam he dug out was as thick as a child's arm. He grinned as he held up the yam.

Women work harder than men. In Wangjiagou, a woman in her forties tucked her skirt into her belt, squatted on the ground, and dug at the dirt with both hands. Her fingernails were filled with mud, and she didn't even bother to wipe the sweat dripping down her forehead.

The refugees in Yongzhou weren't idle either. The leader was strong and wielded his hoe steadily and fiercely, able to dig up a large patch of soil with a single stroke.

Before I knew it, I had even forgotten the cold. The lifeless silence of the past few days seemed to have been swept away by the mountain wind, replaced by a lively atmosphere tinged with the smell of sweat.

(I've thought of something fun. Anyone want to make a cameo appearance? Let's start a thread and leave our names here.)