"An An, wake up quickly, we should hurry."
Tian An rubbed his eyes and stood up with Zhao Yiming's hand, "How could I fall asleep?"
"It's good to get some sleep so you'll have energy to travel in the afternoon." Zhao Yiming said as he put a lush vine hat on her head.
Tian An touched the vine hat on his head and asked, "Did you weave this?"
Before he could answer, Xiaokang and Xiaoqi ran over, each wearing a vine hat.
"Brother Dashu taught us. Brother Yiming is very good at weaving. I tried several times but couldn't learn it, but he succeeded after just one look." Xiaokang said excitedly.
"He made one for all of us, sister...Oh no! Brother An An's is the best looking." Xiao Qi accidentally let the cat out of the bag and quickly changed her words.
"Okay, let's pack up and get on the road." Zhao Yiming quickly interrupted the two chattering children. He thought to himself, "If An An wasn't afraid that she wouldn't see you when she woke up, she would give you her own. Who would want to weave it for you?"
Everyone quickly packed up their things. Tian An and Zhao Yiming once again carried their empty backpacks and led everyone on the road to escape to the capital.
The vine hats were cool, but they also attracted a lot of attention. This group, especially, was wearing the same hat. They were simply the most stylish people on the road. Someone who didn't know them would have thought they were on a picnic instead of fleeing.
However, as they walked, they discovered that some other teams had taken a break and gone into the woods. When they came out again, they were suddenly wearing the same vine hats as theirs.
Tian An: "...This is blatant plagiarism!"
In the afternoon, even though the sun was still hot, everyone had a good rest at noon and was no slower on their way than in the morning.
After walking for a while, Granny Qin stopped to rest and got on the oxcart. She got off again and walked a little further. She walked and rested, drinking some light salt water from time to time, and by the afternoon she was still in good spirits.
Time slipped away quietly as everyone was busy on their way, and when the sun was about to set, Zhao Yiming began to look for a place to stay for the night.
The best option would be to find a dilapidated temple or house, which could at least provide shelter from the wind and rain. However, the earthquake was followed by a flood, and I'm afraid there wouldn't be even a single tile left.
Sure enough, when the sun completely set, Zhao Yiming still hadn't found an ideal place to stay. Seeing that it was getting dark, he had no choice but to lead everyone back into the woods.
With the experience of living in the mountains for some time, everyone had some experience in entering the forest. When Zhao Yiming said that he wanted to go into the forest and let Chen Feng and Deng Yuan go to explore the way first, everyone was making preparations.
The strips of cloth had been prepared beforehand. After taking them out of the backpack, I quickly used them to wrap them around the socks and trouser legs, not leaving out the cuffs.
This is something Tian An learned while hunting with Zhao Yiming in the mountains. It helps prevent insects from getting in through the cuffs of pants and biting people. The villagers had suffered a lot in the mountains before, but after seeing Tian An and Zhao Yiming doing it, they followed suit. It really helped.
Tian An finished tying her own and was about to tie her two younger brothers'. Zhao Yiming frowned and took the cloth from her hand, "Let me do it!"
Tian An's job was taken away. He looked at the mosquitoes gathering in the sky, and his scalp tingled. He glanced at the wormwood growing well at the edge of the woods. Tian An quickly grabbed a sickle from the ox cart and began to cut it.
When the maids saw Tian An cutting mugwort, they didn't ask why. They took the tools and started helping him quickly. Soon, there was a pile of mugwort at everyone's feet.
Tian An saw that they were almost there, so he asked them to stop. At this time, Deng Yuan and Chen Feng also came back. After they went in, they looked for places separately. Deng Yuan didn't find much, but Chen Feng found a stream that was just right for them to stay for the night.
The maids skillfully tied the mugwort to the ox cart. One of them led the ox and donkey in front, and the other men helped push from behind, and in this way, they pulled the ox cart and donkey cart into the woods.
There was no road in the forest, and it was difficult for the oxcart to enter. It took a lot of effort for everyone to reach the place Chen Feng mentioned. At this time, there was only a ray of light on the horizon.
After unloading the ox carts and donkey carts and settling the oxen and donkeys aside to eat grass, the men quickly picked up firewood around.
Chunxi was about to fetch water from the stream to cook with Mangzhong, but was stopped by Tian An.
Tian An pulled a small, stiff piece of paper from her backpack and dipped it into the stream. After a moment, color appeared on the card. Tian An glanced at the card and said to the two, "You can now draw water."
The village chief looked at Tian An in confusion as he put the wet piece of cardboard back into his bag. He couldn't help but ask, "An An, what were you doing just now?"
"Test the water quality!" Tian An said as a matter of course.
"Test the water quality? Does it mean to see if the water is clean?" The village chief looked down at the stream in front of him again. Although there was not much daylight left at this time, he could still be sure that the stream in front of him was crystal clear and clean.
"This water looks very clean!" said the village chief.
"You can't tell whether the water is clean or not by looking at its surface. You see, we don't know where this stream water comes from! There were earthquakes and mountain floods some time ago, and a lot of people died!" Tian An asked.
How could the village chief not know? Many people died in their village too! "But what does this have to do with whether the water is clean or not?"
Tian An explained: “We don’t know whether this stream flows from underground or branches off from a nearby river.
What if there was a flash flood upstream of this stream and people were drowned?
When Tian An said this, the village chief understood. His face turned pale instantly, and he pointed at the stream in front of him with a trembling finger and said, "You mean this stream..."
Tian An shook his head. "We're lucky this stream is clean, otherwise I wouldn't have let Chunxi and the others fetch water!"
The village chief breathed a sigh of relief, and the people who were watching this place not far away also breathed a sigh of relief. However, after hearing what Tian An had just said, everyone felt uneasy.
"What kind of paper did you use just now? How can you tell whether the water is clean just by putting it in the water?" asked the village chief curiously.
Tian An casually said, "That was the paper I soaked with medicinal herbs when I accompanied Brother Yiming to the exam. It was used to test water in the wild."
When the village chief heard Tian An talking about medicinal herbs, he stopped asking. This was his specialty, and it was not appropriate for outsiders to ask too many questions. Besides, even if he did, he wouldn't understand, and it would be a waste of time to annoy him.
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