Gu Zhou spoke sincerely, but Li De and Wang San San had already guessed his plan. Living in a cave wasn't out of the question. They just needed to be more careful in the future. In fact, their own food supplies were almost gone. They weren't worried about what the others might see.

After exchanging glances, the group nodded to each other.

That afternoon, Wang Lanying happily moved out. Her family occupied the other side of the Wang family's residence in the cave. Wang Nana even kindly gave them two tattered bed sheets.

This way, everyone has privacy.

In the afternoon, Wang Xiaosi and his aunt picked a lot of wild vegetables and brought them back. For the next few days, everyone drank wild vegetable soup every day, and nothing much changed.

Wang Lanying and her mother privately remarked how comfortable it was to live in the cave; the temperature was much lower. The heat rash on their child had finally subsided, and the child no longer whimpered at night.

Yesterday, a fish was found swimming in the water. However, Wang Lanying didn't say much about it. It seems there are fish in the water, but not many, just a few here and there.

That evening, Wang Lanying held the child and played with him. Wang Lili, feeling envious, sat down beside her to watch. The child still looked malnourished, but his condition was much better than when she first saw him.

Perhaps it was maternal instinct that triggered Wang Lili, who asked Wang Lanying if she could hold the child, and Wang Lanying agreed.

Wang Lanying's mother was altering a baby shirt for the child using adult clothes. The Gu family members were waiting for the Wang family to cook first before they cooked for themselves.

They still know proper etiquette.

The Wang family still makes wild vegetable soup, but they add some rice. So when it's cooked, it tastes much better.

However, after Wang Nana finished cooking, she stopped Wang Lan from cooking and said, "We'll all eat together from now on. I was just about to tell you all that."

“No way! Your family eats better than ours. We can’t take advantage of you,” Wang Lanying refused.

People are pragmatic; one or two meals a day are fine. But if it happens too often, even the kindest person will complain.

"Sister Yingzi, we've discussed it. Why don't we all contribute grain per person, and cook everything together, no matter what kind of food it is? This will save us trouble and conserve some grain."

Let's eat together to mark the beginning of our partnership. After we finish eating, we'll discuss how we'll eat from now on, and how much grain each person will contribute.

“…Okay!” Wang Lanying didn’t hesitate and agreed to eat together, knowing that her family would benefit from the meal.

We cooked a lot of vegetable soup and porridge, and everyone ate a big bowl, with bits of rice in every bowl.

After dinner.

"San San, Li De, you should know that this proposal is somewhat advantageous to us. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"That's good. Since we're living together, we should help each other out in the future, so let's be more open and honest with each other."

I mainly think that Brother Gu and your family are all kind-hearted.

Brother Gu, you're strong, so you'll definitely have a lot of work to do in the future. Besides, Auntie and Sister-in-law are both capable workers.

Putting everything else aside, we can't even match the old lady's skill in identifying wild vegetables.

Things we didn't dare to eat before, we can now eat recently.

If only we had known about these things earlier, we could have eaten wild vegetables every day when they were still tender!

"Well, Brother-in-law Wang, your aunt is really not being modest."

When we were kids, we survived on wild vegetables. Sometimes we even ate tree bark and mice.

What wild vegetables? Are they edible or not? I don't recognize them.

"From now on, I'll take care of finding wild vegetables."

"Yes, the wild vegetable soup that the old lady makes is delicious too. We should all help each other out in the future," Wang Nana chimed in, offering her compliments.

"Okay, okay, let's all work hard together from now on."

In less than half an hour, everyone had drafted a simple standard for the amount of grain each person needed to pay.

There were twice as many men as women. Everyone started with wild vegetables. The fish from the mountain cave and river were shared among everyone, as was customary.

Furthermore, from now on, whenever we see a fish, we'll catch it immediately, process it into dried fish, and eat it slowly when we're hungry.

The main problem is that you never know where the fish in the river might swim to, so catching them as soon as you see them is the wise thing to do.

The next day, several women and Wang Xiaosi were at home.

Gu Zhou's mother-in-law, Aunt Zhang, and several other men went out to find something to eat.

This time, the group headed in the opposite direction to the mountaintop, a direction they rarely visited.

There were many people this time, so no one was afraid. Wang San San and his group also took weapons.

The previous earthquake caused landslides in many places, which has significantly altered the terrain of the mountains.

"Huh... what is this?" Aunt Zhang asked the old lady next to her, looking at what was sticking out of the yellow soil.

"Yam! Little sister! Come and see quickly!"

The steep slope, mixed with rocks, mud, and loess, had been opened up by the previous earthquake, and whatever was growing inside was easily exposed.

Aunt Gu quickly climbed up the steep slope and dug up a nearby stalk. It was fuzzy and the root was oddly shaped, unlike the fresh and straight ones she had bought before.

Wang San and his three companions arrived at the steep slope. Each of them carried a sickle and a hoe, and together they carefully began to dig.

"Brother-in-law, it really is a yam." Wild yams look very similar to the yams we used to eat, so they're easy to recognize.

"Yes, thanks to Auntie and Grandma today. We've been here before, but we never noticed."

“They hadn’t grown before. Everyone, look carefully. If you see these, there might be more nearby!” Gu Zhou’s mother-in-law reminded them.

“I’ll climb up and see what the leaves look like. You guys dig first, I’ll look around nearby,” Li De said.

The group dug until noon, filling several sacks in just this one spot!

Moreover, Li De found another patch not far from the yam nest.

Then, Wang San San and Zhang Yi began carrying the dug wild yams into the cave.

Before leaving, they instructed Wang Xiaosi to seal the cave entrance tightly. They were told not to open the door until they returned home. Otherwise, Wang Xiaosi alone couldn't protect the women and children.

"It's me, open the door quickly," Wang San San called out softly as he knocked on the door.

"Brother, what's going on here?"

"Wild yams. Put them in quickly, we still need to go haul them away."

"Okay, okay." This time, Zhang Yi stayed at home, and Wang Xiaosi went to haul the yams.

After another batch was delivered, Li De was allowed to rest at home.

Zhang Xiaosi and Gu Zhou went.

The group was so excited that they didn't even have time for lunch. They worked until the afternoon before dragging their exhausted bodies and carrying sacks home.

In the evening, I cooked a large pot of yam porridge. Although it only contained a handful of rice, it was cooked for a long time, mainly because wild medicinal herbs take longer to soften. However, it was sticky, chewy, and delicious.

fragrant!

Even the little baby is completely satisfied with it.

"Hehehe, I'm really full today!" Wang Xiaosi said.

"There's food for you. We'll take all the yams out and pile them in the corner, then bury them in the soil. They'll last a long time without spoiling," Gu Zhou's mother-in-law said with a smile.

"That's great! I'll go out and look again tomorrow. I don't believe there are only two yam bushes on this mountain!" Wang Xiaosi said excitedly.

"Okay. Let's go together. There are lots of treasures on the mountain."