Everyone in Zhang Dacui's family who had eaten the pheasant received two or three pieces of chicken. Even so, Zhang Dacui still saved a chicken leg.

Lin Zicheng put his chicken into his wife and daughter's bowls, and put his daughter's leftover chicken bones into his own bowl, chewing and swallowing them. Seeing that his mother had specially saved a chicken drumstick, he couldn't help but ask, "Mom, why are you leaving something? There's not enough for everyone."

Lin Changhe glanced at his son and said, "Isn't eating all you think about every day?"

Lin Zicheng nodded honestly: "Yes, it's not a pleasant feeling to be full one meal and hungry the next."

Zhang Dacui wrapped the chicken leg in hay leaves and stood up to go to Lin Changxi's house. Lin Zicheng saw what his mother meant and looked at Lin Changhe: "Dad, are you sending the chicken leg to the clan leader?"

Lin Changhe nodded happily. "Yes, we were able to get here thanks to the clan leader. It's been so many miles from Linjia Village to the last ridge of Lianshan. Do you think any of our families have starved to death?"

That's true.

At this moment, Zhang Dacui handed the chicken leg to Lin Rui, feeling a little reserved, as if she was embarrassed to do such a thing: "Chief..."

Lin Rui looked at the hay ball his aunt placed in front of him. He knew from the aroma of meat that it was also part of the roast chicken. "Aunt San, what are you doing?"

"This is for you, take it and eat it!" Zhang Dacui had never been to school and was illiterate, so she had no idea how to say those sentimental words. She simply put the wrapped chicken leg into Lin Rui's arms and ran back to her resting place.

Lin Changhe and Lin Zicheng smiled at his surprised eyes.

Lin Rui...the hay ball wrapped with the chicken leg in his arms was still hot, like the chicken just taken off the grill. The fragrant smell of the meat made him, a person who occasionally avoided the group to enjoy a feast, swallow his saliva.

After Feng Zhenniang looked at it, she said to him, "Rui'er, since it's your Third Uncle who gave it to you, just take it and eat it. Don't be polite." Finally, she whispered, so that only the family could hear, "This is what you deserve."

There were only a few families living nearby, so Zhang Dacui's actions naturally could not avoid other people's attention.

The old village head's family didn't care. After all, the clan leader had done everything for them along the way, and if they found anything good, they would also remember the clan leader's family.

Yu Lanhua looked at Zhang Dacui and curled her lips. "Look at how eager she is to do this. She must be trying to make up for not getting the upper hand last time and offending the clan leader!"

Lin Changfa tapped the edge of her bowl with his chopsticks. "Alright, alright. There are only four families here. What's there to nag about? I think you're really tired from the day. If you have time, I'll weave straw sandals next time and you can go out and fetch water."

Yu Lanhua stopped talking immediately. Her two sons, Lin Zijun and Lin Zikun, laughed secretly, but their mother found out and glared at them.

Lin Rui originally wanted to give the chicken leg in his arms to his second sister so that she could eat more and have more milk to feed Qingqing. But when he turned around, he saw Niuniu and Mu Tou looking at him eagerly.

He now understood the contradictory feeling of having flesh on both sides of his hand. Finally, he gritted his teeth and decided to eat it himself. What difference would it make if the already limited nutrition was divided into three parts or not eaten at all? Besides, if he gave it to one person and didn't give it to the other, the other two would feel disappointed.

After eating full meals these days, everyone's burps smelled of meat. Except for those who were on night watch, everyone slept soundly at night. It was finally a sleepless night without going hungry.

For the last uphill climb, everyone put out the fire halfway up the mountain early in the morning and continued climbing.

Lin Pingmao walked beside Lin Rui on crutches. He glanced at the towering mountains and asked, "Chief, do you think there are people fleeing with us on the other side of the mountain?"

Lin Rui didn't look up, but replied firmly: "It will happen.

He turned to look at the Lin clan members marching behind him in a mighty procession and took a deep breath. "Traveling through the mountains, the torrential rain and scorching heat we encountered were our battles against the elements. Once we cross this mountain, we'll encounter hordes of disaster victims and bandits. We'll have to fight them ourselves."

"I still say the same thing, everyone should clean up the snow in front of their own door and not worry about the frost on other people's roofs."

Lin Zicheng and Lin Zijun, who were standing behind them, scratched their heads and said, "Chief, we haven't been to school yet. What do you mean by that?"

Lin Rui's brewing feeling was immediately destroyed by the two fools. He said angrily, "Just stay out of my business! We have limited food. You know all along the way, except for the heavy rain when we could still eat our fill, after the hot summer when the sun came out, everyone just had to eat porridge to survive. Especially my third aunt's family, the porridge they had was so thick that you could count the grains of rice in the bowl."

"Providing disaster relief to the people is the responsibility of the imperial court. All we can do is to save our own lives. Don't give any food to anyone who asks you for it. Always say that you have no food. Don't give yourself away and expect charity. If we are targeted, more than 30 of us will not be enough for them to kill."

Lin Pingmao was leaning on a crutch, looking at everyone with a serious expression: "Fellow clansmen, our grandfather's generation fled famine to Linjia Village. It took several generations for them to gain a foothold here. The clan leader always exaggerated. When they fled famine, they had nothing to eat. They ate grass roots, tree bark, and Guanyin soil. Later, everywhere we looked, there were people who died of bloating and starvation."

"At that time, robbing people for food was nothing. The most frightening thing was that when the food was gone, they would start robbing people. Why would they rob people? To eat! Eat people!"

"Some people who had just died were dragged back by the starving people while their bodies were still warm, drained of blood, and eaten. The eyes of the people who had been eaten were red and watery, and they looked like giant mountain beasts."

"We finally managed to escape from Linjia Village with food, not to be used as food on the road."

Zhang Dacui, Feng Zhenniang, Lu Suzhen and other female relatives had never heard such horrifying words before, so they immediately said that they would never reveal the truth, never give in, and never bring trouble to everyone.

Lin Rui was very pleased to see that everyone had such awareness. He was afraid that people like the Virgin Mary and the Holy Father would appear in the team he led. If that happened, it would not only kill him, but the entire team would be dragged down by him.

Lin Changhe, Lin Changfa, Lin Changtai and other uncles all expressed their opinions one by one: "Don't worry, clan leader, we will definitely keep an eye on our family members and prevent them from doing anything wrong."

"Okay, now that we've come to this point, let's not talk too much. Save some energy and continue on our journey."

The sun was still scorching hot at noon, and the slope was getting steeper and steeper. In some places, the slope was almost 70 or 80 degrees. We had no choice but to give up the steep slope and take a detour to another gentle slope for the sake of the ox cart.

The mountain road that should have been crossed in two days was delayed until the fourth day.

At noon on the fourth day, Lin Rui and others finally arrived at the junction of the highest point and overlooked the scenery at the foot of the mountain.

As a result, I didn't see any beautiful scenery, but I smelled an indescribable stench of decay.

Lin Changtai pointed to a place at the foot of the mountain and shouted with a pale face: "Dead people! So many dead people!"