Liu Xiaoyun could only nod helplessly, "It still hurts, so much so that I can't sleep at night. But my complexion is definitely better, and I've been eating well lately, which is probably why."
Everyone looked at Liu Xiaoyun and saw that although she sounded helpless, there was a hint of a smile on her face. She was no longer as cautious as before, and tears would well up when she mentioned Chen Tiezhu. Everyone felt much more at ease.
After saying a few more words, someone mentioned the fields outside.
Old Liu snorted irritably, "I thought you had all forgotten about that field. I spent all day outside chasing away sparrows. Those little things would fly away from one place and then fly back from another. I was almost exhausted."
If he hadn't been running around chasing away the sparrows, the seeds in the field would have been eaten up, and there would have been no seedlings to grow.
Liu Dayong was amused by his father and said, "I'll make some scarecrows tomorrow. With those things there, the birds won't come. After a while, when the rice seedlings grow up, everything will be fine."
Everyone nodded.
Old Liu choked, cursing inwardly, "Why didn't you say so earlier? I almost died of exhaustion."
He's been too excited these days and forgot about this.
Thinking it over, he still said unsatisfiedly, "The scarecrow is dead, but those birds are very clever. They won't be afraid once they see it. Even if you become a scarecrow, I will still go to see it every day."
Seeing that his father was being stubborn again, Liu Dayong didn't say anything more.
The meal was quickly finished amidst laughter and chatter. Liu Xiaoyun had to go back to feed Chen Tiezhu and left early.
Jiang Yimian and the others continued to sit in the Liu family's courtyard, watching the stars and chatting. It was a rare moment of tranquility and relaxation, and none of them wanted to leave.
"I wonder how our village is doing?"
Someone asked this question, and everyone fell silent for a moment.
Because of the wildfires and the deaths, everyone had been avoiding talking about the situation down the mountain, but once the topic was brought up, it got a little hard to stop.
Old Liu sighed and said, "What can we do? It's just that it's been occupied by those bandits. I don't know when this war will end, or if we'll ever be able to move back to Xinghua Village."
That was the place he had lived in for most of his life, and he still couldn't bear to leave it.
Liu Dayong's mood also dropped. The places on his body that had been hit had healed, but now they seemed to be aching again.
"How do you think those refugees got up the mountain? We blocked the road, didn't we?"
Everyone fell silent for a moment, knowing that the other person was asking if Wang Ergou had led the way.
If they could have confidently assured them before that the guy wouldn't have the guts, they were now less certain.
The mountain road is difficult to walk. Besides the main road, there are indeed many small paths, but those paths are either overgrown with thorns or narrow and rugged. One wrong step and you could fall off a cliff, not to mention the possibility of getting lost in the forest without a guide.
If it's only people from other villages, it's almost impossible for them to find the mountain.
The group remained silent for a long time without speaking again until the moon rose high in the sky, at which point they all went home to sleep.
*
More than a month passed, and the little sprouts in the field finally grew into green rice seedlings. Jiang Yimian and her group went to transplant the rice seedlings early.
The seeds that were sown grew quite well, better than Jiang Yimian had expected. She thought that only half of the twenty catties of grain seeds would be usable, but unexpectedly, most of them sprouted. Also, with Old Man Liu coming to chase away the birds on weekdays, not many seeds were eaten.
Aside from those that failed to sprout, the seedlings that did grow filled the entire acre of land, even the land originally intended for corn was planted with seedlings.
After working barefoot in the fields for several days, everyone was overjoyed to see rows of neatly arranged tender green rice seedlings planted in what was once an empty field.
Old Liu was filled with satisfaction. He owned several plots of land in the village, but they didn't even amount to a full acre. Now, with such a large plot of land planted with rice seedlings, he couldn't be more content.
Although not all the harvested grain belonged to his family, he had grown attached to the land after being busy for so long, and now treated it as if it were his own.
Zhao Xing'er was also beaming with joy, "I was thinking that we didn't have enough seedlings, but it turned out to be just about right. It's just that we don't have any space to plant corn and sorghum."
Her family still had some sorghum seeds that had been dried for quite some time. They had planned to set aside some land to plant them here, but they misjudged the situation and ended up flooding the fields and planting seedlings instead.
Liu Dayong just smiled and said, "It's okay, we've cleared out quite a bit of space in the low-lying area, we can plant the same things there."
Zhao Xing'er then nodded.
Seeing that the rice seedlings had been planted and the water in the field was plentiful, the group went home.
After planting the rice seedlings, everyone finally got a chance to rest.
Jiang Yimian was finally able to relax and go outside, so she took her sickle and basket and left the cave.
This time, instead of going into the dense forest, they headed towards the burned-out woods.
After walking for more than an hour, Jiang Yimian finally hid in a place where weeds had grown back halfway up the mountain.
Observing the situation down the mountain from afar.
Several new houses have been built near the original houses in Xinghua Village. Although they are simply built with trees and straw, they are still obviously new.
Jiang Yimian was somewhat surprised, not expecting that new houses had been built down the mountain.
It has only been a little over two months since the wildfire, and it is clear that a lot of changes have taken place in the village.
The large banyan tree that used to be at the village entrance has been cut down and replaced with a tall watchtower where people are looking around.
There is also one at the foot of the mountain.
Jiang Yimian frowned.
It seems Zhao Sandao really intends to make Xinghua Village his own stronghold; he's even built a watchtower.
If these bandits really consider Xinghua Village their stronghold, they should come here less often.
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