In the evening, the group passed through the forest, successfully bypassed Yongqing County, and returned to the official road.

Nowadays, no one gets excited when seeing the official road.

These experiences made them realize one thing: sometimes the official road is more dangerous than the mountains and forests.

"It's getting late. We have to find a place to camp before sunset."

Yang Lizheng was looking at the long and narrow official road. There was no open space around it, so it was not suitable for more than 30 families to gather together. If every family took turns going down, the distance from the beginning to the end would be too long. If something happened at night, there would be no time for timely rescue.

Wan Sanye's cheeks were red, his forehead was covered with sweat, his legs were shaking, and he looked at Su Yin for help, "Miss Su, when can we rest?"

The group of people started walking at noon and did not rest much. When they took a break occasionally, it was only for a short cup of tea.

This amount of time is of no use to him at all.

There was no way a group of people would slow down for him, so he gritted his teeth and persevered along the way.

Now the sun was about to set and the team showed no signs of stopping, which made him a little overwhelmed.

"Fatty, do you know of any suitable place for our family to camp in this area?"

"Let me think about it."

Master Wan San wiped the sweat off his forehead, thought for a moment, and then spoke, "Walk forward for another quarter of an hour, and you will see a small path. A little further in, you will find a mountain temple. You can camp at the mountain temple tonight. The temple is not big, but there is an open space outside the temple gate, which is just right for you to camp."

Su Yin told Yang Lizheng the situation, and the team immediately headed towards the mountain temple.

About half an incense stick of time later, the group arrived at the mountain temple.

Nowadays, the weather is bad and the mountain temple has been abandoned. The mud wall has collapsed in half and no one knows where the gate has fallen.

The mountain god temple is not big. The stone statue of the mountain god inside has long been dilapidated, and there are many holes on the roof due to years of disrepair.

There are more than 200 people in Xinghua Village, and the temple cannot accommodate so many people.

The elderly, the weak, women and children live in the temple, while the other young men live outside.

Master Wan San sat down on the ground, gasping for breath.

Second uncle Yang Dachuan found Su Yin.

"Yinyin, come here."

Yang Dachuan pulled Su Yin to the woods not far away, where both his uncle and younger uncle were.

"What's wrong?"

The uncle, nephew and his two nephews stood under a big tree. The branches and leaves of the tree were not dense, and many of the leaves had turned yellow.

Yang Dashan spoke first, "You can see now that among our group of people, only ten of us have preserved our belongings. Madam Xu's family doesn't have much, but the other families have relatively more."

"We are all from the same village, and now we are fleeing. On the road to escape, we need to help each other. They have no food or water. If we stand aside and watch, once we are in danger later, others will also stand aside and watch."

"The world is so chaotic now, and I don't know what I will encounter on the road ahead. One more person means one more help and one more chance to survive."

"It's like encountering bandits outside the city gate. If you only have one family, the bandits can easily kill your whole family. Even if you are powerful, you can protect yourself, but you can't protect your family."

"And the time we hunted the tiger, we had to rely on everyone's cooperation to take it down."

“Sometimes you can’t just look at the gains and losses in front of you. You have to look at the long term so that you can go further.”

After hearing what his uncle said, Su Yin naturally understood this truth.

"I came here to ask you, what do you think?"

He said all this for the good of his niece.

"Uncle, I understand everything you said. When the time comes, I will naturally not sit idly by. But not now."

"This is..." Yang Dachuan was suspicious.

Su Yin explained slowly, "I took note of what everyone had with them, and the things that were lost were mostly large items like pots, pans, and bowls. Although food was also lost, every household still brought some with them, so we don't need to rush to give them food."

"As for water, many people don't have it, so we have to help. The ten families we have only have so much water, and we can't open it up to everyone. Every household must make sure they can cook a meal."

What the people of Xinghua Village lack most at the moment is not food, but drinking water.

The three uncles nodded and agreed with what she said.

"Then do as you say. If they are short of water now, give them some first. As for food, wait until they run out of food, then give it to them."

"What do the other families of the Third Grandfather say?"

Yang Dahe said, "The third ancestor told us about this. He should have told the other families as well."

Su Yin thought about it and felt that the job of the village head for the third grandfather was difficult, as he had to worry about all kinds of things and run around for the villagers.

Back at the camp, Su Yin saw his second cousin Yang Hua and third cousin Yang Lin being ordered by Master Wan San to do this and that. He himself was relaxed, leaning against a tree, fanning himself and resting, chattering away.

"Oh, you are not building it right. Using a triangle is more stable. The height of the boiler should not be too high, otherwise the heat will not be good. About an inch is about right. Yes, that's it."

As soon as Master Wan San saw Su Yin coming back, he immediately shut up.

Su Yin walked up to him, glanced at him coldly, and turned to Yang Hua, "Second cousin, don't bother. Fatty is good at this, just let him do it."

The second cousin was an honest man, and he waved his hands, "No, no, my aunt said that Fatty is a guest, and it's not right for a guest to do it. I've already done it here, so don't dirty Fatty's hands."

Master Wan San smiled at Su Yin.

Su Yin fetched half a bucket of water and put it over to Yang Lizheng.

Several other households also took some water over so that the village head could distribute it uniformly.

Old Mrs. Zhang felt so distressed when she saw half a bucket of water being taken away.

"No, this is too much. We bought all this water with money." Old Mrs. Zhang grabbed Zhang Liangtian's hand and scooped a spoonful of water back with a ladle.

Seeing that his mother was about to reach out again, Zhang Liangtian grabbed her hand.

"Mom, if you keep scooping, the water will run out."

Old Mrs. Zhang didn't have a big picture view, and she said unhappily, "Why do you want my family to take out water?"

“They all took it.”

"If they take it, that's their business, we don't take it."

Old Mrs. Zhang tried to snatch it back.

"Mom, stop making trouble." Zhang Liangtian lowered his voice.

Yang Shuixian didn't care about this matter. If she had, her mother-in-law's anger might have been directed at her.

She tactfully pretended she saw nothing and made dinner with her two sisters-in-law.

No matter what Zhang Liangtian said, Old Lady Zhang refused to let go. In the end, it was Old Man Zhang who stepped forward and held her down.

Old Mrs. Zhang was so angry that she sat down on a pile of dirt and sulked.