On the way back, I saw a crowd gathered in front of the Wang family's house.

"That old woman Wang is really confused. It's not like we're really starving now. How could she have starved herself to death?"

With a deathly pale face, Aunt Qian continued, "Wang Pozi's family still has food. Even if they're really desperate, they can eat tree bark and grass roots. How can a living person just starve to death like this?"

But Granny Wang was stubborn because she had fled famine during a drought when she was young and knew how terrible it was.

To save as much food as possible for his eldest grandson, he went four or five days without eating a single grain of rice.

Another person nearby chimed in, "When my old man went in to help, he said that the creature's stomach was flat when it died."

Another elderly woman, who was nearly fifty or sixty years old, said, "I saw Granny Wang a while ago. She was talking nonsense about a drought and that there would be a lot of misfortunes this year."

"We might all die eventually, so why not die early and be reincarnated sooner?"

"Third Aunt, from what you're saying, it seems that Old Madam Wang is out of her mind. She probably doesn't want to live anymore."

The crowd fell silent after hearing this.

After a long while, a young man finally said, "Even if you don't want to live anymore, you should at least die a full-bodied death, instead of starving yourself to death."

"Sigh, I guess the old man wanted to leave food for future generations."

Because of this incident, the entire Taoliu Village was deathly still, and people from every household went to handle the funeral arrangements for Old Lady Wang.

When Su Muyao learned about this, she truly felt the pain that hunger brought to humanity for the first time.

Whether it was because the old lady of the Wang family no longer wanted to live, or because she had some lingering trauma from fleeing famine, it led to the current series of events.

But Su Muyao silently vowed in her heart that everyone in the village was kind to her.

With so much food in my own space, I will never let this tragedy happen again.

The drought must be resolved as quickly as possible.

Grandma Su had several young children living in the house and didn't allow them to go outside.

At that time, people in the countryside were very superstitious and were afraid of offending Old Mrs. Wang's spirit.

Most importantly, they were also afraid that their little one might get seriously injured from the fright.

The next day, the women were still sitting at the door chatting, while the men smoked cigarettes and boasted.

The children laughed and played in the village, and the cool breeze outside seemed to make all their worries disappear.

However, once you reach the village entrance, you'll see the coffin at Granny Wang's house, and all your troubles inexplicably return.

As long as it doesn't rain, this kind of thing could happen again.

Many elderly people feel like they are a burden.

Some families, knowing full well what's going on, will keep a close eye on their elderly relatives.

I'm afraid that one day, if I'm not careful, one of the elderly people in my family might do something drastic again.

When Old Man Su carried Su Muyao to the village chief's house, he saw the village chief's wife mending clothes with a needle.

“Your village chief didn’t sleep all night yesterday, and he’s still in the fields watching the celestial phenomena right now.”

Su Muyao didn't quite understand. "Grandpa, how do you interpret celestial phenomena?"

"We've been walking along this road without seeing a single cloud in the sky, which means it definitely won't rain tomorrow."

Su Muyao nodded; she understood.

When Old Man Su carried Su Muyao to the fields and found the village chief...

Then I saw the old village chief holding a book, muttering something to himself.

Su Muyao vaguely heard something, "The west wind comes, it goes south... when the clouds rise high, it will rain."

Su Muyao genuinely didn't understand a word of what he was saying, but after taking a closer look, she was instantly filled with shame. It was such a thick old book.

The village chief closed the book and sighed when he noticed them approaching.

"Sigh, there's probably no rain. What should we do? These crops aren't fully ripe yet."

Old Su said, "Brother, I have something very important to tell you, which is about digging the ditch that we discussed yesterday."

The old village chief nodded, but he couldn't guarantee how deep they would have to dig to actually reach the water.

Therefore, they dared not start blindly, lest they fail to find water and instead bring an even heavier blow to the villagers.

"Grandpa Village Chief, Little Wolf says they've found water on the mountain."

Upon hearing this, the old village chief looked at Little Lucky Star with great excitement.

But then I thought about the water on the mountain; carrying it down there would be exhausting.

However, having water at least prevents people from dying of thirst, which is good news.

Then Su Muyao continued, "The water in the mountain valleys looks like it has never been tapped; it must be very abundant."

If we divert the water from the mountain and channel it into the rice paddies, we shouldn't have to worry about storing grain this year.

Just then, the village chief's son suddenly ran over and said, "Dad, something bad has happened! There's no water coming out of our well!"

Upon hearing this, the old village chief's hand holding the pipe trembled.

There are only two wells in Taoliu Village. Once this well of his own dries up, only the newly dug well of Old Man Su's family will remain.

It won't last long anyway. Even if there's water on the mountain now, once it dries up, people can still drink some water, but there will be no harvest in the future.

With the surplus grain from each household, they simply couldn't survive; they would definitely have to resort to eating tree bark and grass roots.

The village chief's son, who had come over, roughly understood what they were talking about.

Although I know that Little Lucky Star has some skills, how come I didn't know when there was water on the mountain?

However, upon thinking of Little Lucky Star's capable master, he immediately refrained from revealing his thoughts, otherwise his father might have given him a good beating.

After discussing it with the old village chief, we plan to go and take a look tomorrow.

After all, we need to take care of Old Wang's funeral in the village first.

At this time, the village was abuzz with gossip, as people heard that the neighboring Liu family village was demanding a pound of cornmeal in exchange for half a bucket of water.

The village next to Liujia Village has run out of water. Now, each household has to exchange one pound of cornmeal or half a pound of rice for half a bucket of water.

"Those Liu Family Village people are really despicable; they actually took advantage of the chaos to loot."

"Auntie, you don't know yet, do you? I heard that when someone tried to reason with them, the people from Liujia Village kicked them out, saying that if they came back to exchange water next time, they would have to ask for three jin (1.5 kg) to exchange for half a bucket of water."

Those nearby were also furious. "This person can go two days without food and be fine, but if he goes two days without water, he'll really die."

Almost every household in the nearby villages has run out of food.

They all made a living by digging for wild vegetables in the mountains and making wild vegetable porridge.

Only their village was considered lucky; they not only earned some money by following Little Lucky Star.

Most importantly, a considerable amount of food had been stored up during the heavy snowfall several months earlier.

But ever since then, the earth has been baked by high temperatures.

It's been several months now, and everyone is filled with anxiety.

What happened at Old Wang's house yesterday was especially unsettling.