When Yu Lanhua and Zhang Dacui exchanged damp rice for dry rice with everyone, they knew that Lin Rui was a man who clearly distinguished between public and private affairs and would not show favoritism. It would not work with him to act like a rogue. Compared to Lin Pingmao, they dared not act rashly in front of Lin Rui.

Now that Lin Rui has given the fruits he found to his family and then to his own children, it is already a pleasant surprise. After all, there is nothing wrong with keeping other people's things for himself to eat.

Dunzi, Niuniu and several other children were eating the cracked apples with relish. The sweet and sour juice flowed down their throats, and they were all smiling from ear to ear while eating.

The parents at home were very happy to see their children eating happily. After finding water and relieving the water pressure, they worked harder.

After Lin Rui's five buckets of water were dragged back by everyone, Lin Changfa and others looked at them with envy. After Lin Rui sat down to catch his breath, he asked, "Brother Rui, where did you find this water?"

"I was lucky enough to find it in the small puddle over there in the pine forest. It's a little dirty, though. Let's just make do with it. Great-grandfather, uncle, third uncle, uncle Changtai, and uncle Changshou, please bring the buckets in your homes so we can each share some and hold on for now." There was still water in the water pipes in Lin Rui's house, and it hadn't been used up yet. Judging from the frequency of the house's renovations, more water would be added tomorrow.

The water in the tap in the house was clear, but the water in the puddles in the wild was turbid. He could not explain why he carried such clean water out. In order to make everything reasonable, he opened the caps of five plastic buckets before coming back, grabbed some soil from the ground with his hands, sprinkled it in and shook it evenly, so that the soil and tap water mixed and appeared dark yellow muddy water.

It is a bit dirty, but in the wild, water of this quality is absolutely unbeatable.

"Rui Ge'er is so awesome. Fortunately we found the water, otherwise we would all die of thirst!" Yu Lanhua said as she sprinkled a layer of husks into the bowl of water and handed it to her husband and son.

Feng Zhenniang and Zhang Dacui followed suit. Lin Rui took the water and was puzzled: "Mom, what are you doing?"

"You've been thirsty all day. If you drink water in big gulps rashly, something bad will happen to your body. This is a trick the older generation came up with to prevent young people from drinking water without restraint. Avoid spilled husks when drinking water, and drink in small sips." Feng Zhenniang said as she carefully filled the water without spilling any.

Everyone had to drink it carefully. After the throats of adults and children were moistened by the water, the pain of dry throats that were about to tear was finally reduced, and people felt more energetic.

About half of the five buckets of water were drunk. If the remaining water was drunk sparingly, it could last for about two days. People can go a whole day without drinking water, but animals cannot. The three blue cows were the main consumers of water every day, and they had to carry a large amount of bedding.

There was less and less food, and each family had more and more empty grain bags, especially Zhang Dacui's family, which had suffered heavy losses due to mold caused by heavy rain. Now they had to eat taro porridge twice a day, and occasionally throw in a few pieces of bacon to cook for a bit of oily flavor.

Lin Rui's family no longer has enough food. Sanliang is the one who carries the most weight every day except Qingniu. Everyone would rather eat half full than not eat too much. Sanliang is strong and has a good appetite. Even though he knows that the food pressure of his master's family is very severe and he repeatedly restrains his food intake, his daily food intake base is there. If he is not full, he can't push the wheelbarrow full of things at all.

More than thirty people have to eat at least ten pounds of food every day, including corn, coarse grains, taro, and bacon.

The ten pounds of wild boar meat that each family had previously pickled had been eaten bit by bit on the way before it was even dried. The hot little wild boars were also eaten by everyone on the same day because of the limited amount of salt.

The weather was so hot that no animals could be seen in the woods. The air seemed to be baked into layers, and people would sweat immediately if they moved. Zhao Qing, Lin Zicheng, Lin Zijun and others walked for a long distance while the team was resting, but they didn't see any prey. The whole mountain seemed to have become a dead mountain.

I went out facing everyone's expectant eyes and came back covered in dust. On rainy days, I used to bring back wild rabbits and pheasants to satisfy my hunger. Now I have nothing and I have to come back to drink more water because I can't stand the heat.

Now everyone finally had some deep understanding of fleeing famine. Before, they hid in the mountains under the leadership of Lin Rui and Lin Pingmao, and marched out of the mountains. Along the way, they encountered wild boars, black pythons, pheasants and rabbits, which were delivering food. Everyone was even picky about wild boars, pythons and rabbits. It didn't seem like fleeing famine, but more like traveling.

Now, as they were about to cross the last mountain, the weather was abnormal and the food they brought was consumed along the way. In addition, when it rained heavily a few days ago, each family had some food that was about to go moldy. In order to avoid waste, they had to eat it up quickly. This caused the food that was enough to last them until they reached Huangmo Pass to be in extremely short supply.

There are still two cities left. How are we supposed to survive?

Now he could only take things one step at a time. Thinking of the nature of his own house, Lin Rui would quickly go in during the breaks when everyone was having water distribution, empty all the rice in the rice bucket, throw it on his own ox cart, and hide it secretly.

A 50-kilogram bucket of rice can probably last him more than two months, and sometimes he would just throw it away because he cooked too much. Now he really understands what it means that every grain of rice is hard-earned, and wasting food is simply a punishment from God!

Children like Niu Niu, Xiao Zhan, Xiang Xiang and Dun Zi all knew not to let rice fall on the ground. Even if it fell on the ground, they would pick it up and eat it with their hands. In the era of food and clothing shortages, there was no right to pay attention to hygiene, and it was very difficult to fill their stomachs.

He had originally intended the rice in the rice bucket to be his last retreat in this ancient time, but after staying in ancient time for too long, he couldn't give up his parents who looked exactly like his previous life, and his two sisters who suddenly appeared and treated him with all their heart. He couldn't bear to see his family and his two children, Niuniu and Qingqing, starve to death.

He had already taken most of the snacks in the refrigerator, including salt-baked chicken legs, roasted chicken legs, pickled chicken feet and luncheon meat, and put them in the car. He packed them in the camphorwood box that my mother had brought as a dowry when she was young, and locked it himself. He kept the key.

His bottom line was the Lin family. If he could, he wanted to protect them. In ancient times, clans banded together for warmth, far more than a single family fighting alone. He hadn't encountered anyone on his way to escape the famine, but refugees and bandits in times of famine were more ferocious than wild wolves in the mountains. If he didn't gather more people, he might end up in their pot one day.

"Brother Rui, what are you thinking about?" The snake venom in Lin Pingmao's body was slowly metabolized, and he looked much more energetic.

Lin Changtai and Lin Changshou squatted on the roadside and ate whole grain cakes. They took a bite and moistened it with saliva before swallowing it, otherwise it would be too hard to even go down their throats. Hearing this, they looked at Lin Rui and said, "What's wrong, Rui'er? Why... why..."

He wanted to find a word to describe it, but he had only studied in a private school for two years and could barely recognize a few words, so he had no knowledge at all.