Now when they go to the back mountain to check the situation, they dare not stay overnight there; they go and return on the same day.

These past few days, they brought the crossbows they had made to the mountain and tried them out, and actually managed to hunt a few wild rabbits.

This sparked an intense enthusiasm among the village's young people for crossbows, with everyone vying for the right to use them.

"Without practice, even if you have crossbows, they're just decorations. When you go back, practice hard. After a while, go back to Yaojia Village to pick up the parts we ordered earlier, and we can assemble more. We'll distribute them according to everyone's accuracy." Seeing that their arguing and fighting were getting a bit out of hand, Si Cheng simply dangled a carrot in front of them.

"Brother, when are we going to Yaojia Village?" The mention of it reminded everyone that Yaojia Village still owes the village many parts.

"Let's go there in a few days, while the water sources along the way aren't completely dried up yet." Now that the crossbow can be assembled, it's time to retrieve the spare parts.

"Brother, let us go with you when the time comes!" Hearing that they could go out of the village with them again, many people quickly gathered around, vying to sign up for a spot.

"We'll have a competition in the village in a couple of days. The winner can go out with us." Si Cheng hasn't agreed to anyone yet. He's sticking to what we've discussed before: if he wants to go out with everyone again, he'll have to put in some effort.

"I'm doomed. I've been so exhausted lately that I can't even move. I haven't been to the square to train in ages."

“Then it will be very difficult for us to go out in the future. With our physical strength, how can we compare with those older brothers?”

"There's no hope now."

Many people started lamenting that they shouldn't have slacked off for a day, and wondered if it was too late to start training now.

"You guys were only working sporadically, now it's too late to regret it." Wu Yong looked at them with a hint of schadenfreude, especially since these people would have even less of a chance once his older brother and his group returned from the county town. But for now, it was best not to tell them, otherwise it would be too discouraging for them.

After several days of searching, they only managed to catch some small animals because they didn't venture deep into the mountains and were instead checking the area around the village.

"I wonder where all these animals were hiding before. Now even pheasants are out." The monkey carried the pheasant he had just shot back into the crowd.

“You probably rarely look up at the sky, but now many birds have flown back. I wonder if it's because there are more insects and ants in the mountains, because these little birds are circling around the back of the mountain.” Big Bear, who is usually quite observant, shared his observations with him and pulled out a cloth bag from his waist, indicating that he should put the pheasant inside first.

"I really didn't notice. I'm already busy enough with work on the ground, so I don't have time to look up at the sky. Besides, the sky is so gray now, it makes me depressed every time I see it." The monkey felt that every time he looked at the gray sky, he couldn't help but think of the blue sky and white clouds of the past, so when he had nothing to do, he preferred to look into the distance rather than look up at the sky.

“But the trees on this mountain haven’t grown at all, and many of them have already started to rot. If this continues, we’ll really have trouble even getting firewood.” Yun Xun used a machete to pry open a tree stump next to him and found that it had already started to be hollowed out by borers.

"Looks like I'm going to have some work to do again." Yun Tao peeked out and started thinking about how to stock up on more firewood for the family. Although every household still had a yard full of firewood, it was currently the main source of firewood. If the firewood rotted away one day, they would really be devastated.

Si Cheng stood to the side listening to their discussion. He knew that the tree remains on the mountain would become fertilizer for the soil. After the drought, the plants on the mountain would grow wildly, and everyone would be like being in a primeval forest. At that time, there would be more dangers around, and there would be no need to worry about firewood. However, it was not unreasonable for them to collect some now, so he did not speak up to argue or stop them.

"Brother, look ahead!" Yun Qiao exclaimed in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Everyone was drawn to him and looked in the direction of his gaze.

"My God, there are trees there, and they're even in bloom."

At this moment, everyone saw several trees, each over a meter tall, growing beside a puddle not far away, with a few small flowers blooming sparsely on them.

"This is the original orchard. It was probably next to a puddle, so the fruit trees have grown back." At this moment, someone realized that they had unknowingly walked to the original orchard. However, now the orchard was only covered with weeds and a few fruit trees of unknown name by the puddle.

Everyone rushed to the edge of the puddle and looked at the fruit trees in front of them with curiosity.

"Is this a persimmon tree?" Some people looked at the shape of the leaves and felt that it looked somewhat like one, but not quite.

"It should be. The leaves are all about the same shape, but they are yellowish and small, probably because they lack sunlight."

"I wonder if it will bear fruit. It's been so long since we've had any fruit."

"Even if they bear fruit, these few small fruit trees in front of us won't be enough for everyone to share."

"As long as there are fruit trees, there is hope. Even if the whole village takes turns eating them, we will still get a turn."

"We were so ungrateful before. We would leave fruit to rot without even thinking about eating it. I never thought that we would be drooling over these little fruit trees now."

"That's right. Sometimes when I'm really craving tomatoes, I'll go to the greenhouse and pick a few to satisfy my craving. But because of that, my elders at home will nag me, saying that it's too extravagant and that these tomatoes should be used for cooking."

Seeing everyone gathered around a few fruit trees that might not even bear fruit yet, discussing animatedly, Si Cheng ignored them and instead began to examine the surrounding environment around the puddle.

Back then, they set traps here and caught quite a few animals. I wonder if there are still so many wild rabbits around here now.

"Come over here and take a look." It turned out that when Yun Jianying and the others arrived, they didn't go to discuss the fruit trees with everyone, but instead checked the traps they had abandoned earlier. Although some of them had been filled in, a small pit was still left.

When everyone gathered around, they discovered that the small pit was teeming with snakes. It seemed that these snakes used this place as their gathering place. Moreover, they found some small animal fur on the edge of the pit, indicating that it was also one of their hunting spots.

"These little wild boars in the trench are going to have a good meal. They've been eating wild vegetable heads every day and they look so thin." Yun Qiao now felt sorry for the wild boars in the pit, just like her fourth aunt.