The next day, Tian An was awakened by a fragrance.
When the tent was opened, Zhao Yiming was sorting his bow and arrow not far away.
As soon as she moved, Xiaokang and Xiaoqi also woke up. Tian An took his two younger brothers to the stream to wash their faces with the stream water. When they came back, Chunxi had already led the others to pack up the tents.
The two younger brothers went to find some younger ones to play with, so Tian An walked towards the pot. Looking at the two extra pheasants in the pot, Tian An rubbed his eyes in disbelief, "Wasn't there only one chicken last night?"
Chunxi smiled and said, "The master felt sorry for you not having meat to eat yesterday, so he went out to hunt for meat in the middle of the night."
Qiu Shan also jumped out and teased, "My brother Danniu is so good to you. I've never seen him be so nice to anyone."
The village head's wife and several aunts who had just returned from picking wild vegetables also said, "An An is so lucky!"
"Yes! It's hard to find a husband as good as Daniu even with a lantern."
"Yes, he can hunt, he can read, and most importantly... he can also care for people!"
Tian An's face turned red due to the constant teasing from the aunts.
Seeing Tian An blushing, the village head's wife continued, "Our An An is not bad either! She's beautiful, gentle, kind, and good at managing the household."
Dashu's mother, Yang, also said, "In my opinion, An'an and Daniu are the perfect match as the storyteller said."
Dashu reminded her mother, "Mom, are you trying to say they are a match made in heaven?"
The tree lady nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, that's what I want to say."
Xiao Feng's mother also agreed: "That's right! These two children are a perfect match no matter how you look at them."
Tian An's face turned even redder. "Aunts, you just know how to tease me. I'll eat a few more pieces of meat later, so that you won't have anything to eat."
The village chief's wife waved her hand and said, "Eat! You really have to eat more. If you eat less, you will be sorry for the kindness of the great man."
Then, during the meal, Tian An was persuaded by everyone to eat two large chicken legs.
After eating and getting ready, everyone continued on their journey. It took three days of hard work and haste before the group finally left Jinning County.
Since leaving Jinning County, Tian An found that more and more people were fleeing. Before, when they were walking on the official road, they occasionally met people with their families, and sometimes they would encounter carriages from wealthy families, but they soon passed each other.
But once you leave Jinning County and enter Anyang Prefecture, there are more people. From time to time, you will encounter refugees. Most of the adults and children are pale and thin, and their clothes are tattered.
Not to mention those like Tian An and his friends who had ox carts and donkey carts pulling food, some of them didn't even have a bag, and even worse, the straw that tied their sandals was about to break.
When they saw Tian An and his group, they kept glancing at their ox carts, donkey carts, and the backpacks they were carrying, and then they walked towards them.
We were supposed to find a place to stop for lunch, but Zhao Yiming asked everyone to speed up and continue on their journey.
Fortunately, the children were all on the ox cart at this time, but Grandma Qin was walking by herself. She couldn't adapt to the sudden increase in speed, her breathing became rapid, and her face gradually turned pale.
Mr. Han watched his mother's face grow increasingly pale, and he felt extremely anxious. But looking at the naked gazes of the refugees, even a fool would know what was going on. He absolutely could not stop at this moment.
Zhao Yiming and Chen Feng also noticed the situation here, and when they were in a dilemma, they suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves in the distance.
The refugees paused and looked back collectively. Chen Feng hurriedly threw the rope to Deng Xue, turned around and ran to Grandma Qin with Zhao Yiming. Together they exerted their strength and drove Grandma Qin onto the ox cart.
After Granny Qin's problem was resolved, Zhao Yiming once again ordered everyone to speed up. The entire team instantly broke into a run.
Zhao Yiming turned his head to look at the carriage behind him. It had been forced to stop by the refugees. Everyone could also hear faint screams, threats, and smashing sounds coming from behind.
In an instant, his legs, which had been sore and numb, began to swing rapidly again.
They ran two miles in one breath, and then walked for another half an hour before they dared to stop to catch their breath. There was no other way, the ox could no longer walk, and if they didn't stop to catch their breath, they would be exhausted to death.
After taking a quick break for a quarter of an hour, Zhao Yiming announced that they would continue their journey. They couldn't stop for lunch, but luckily they had all prepared some dry food that morning, so they could just take out some bread and eat as they walked.
They kept on walking all day, blisters formed on their feet, which were then broken, and their socks were soaked and stuck to their feet, but everyone still persisted.
When it was completely dark, they finally found a remote village. Or maybe it couldn't be called a village, because there were only five thatched houses, and one of them had collapsed.
Of the remaining four houses, two had only their roofs collapsed, and two had half of their roofs collapsed, leaving only two of the original four rooms. The houses were built in a circle, with a well in the middle, which successfully solved their water problem.
It was already very late, and everyone was tired and hungry. After making sure that there was no one here, the men carried out the collapsed beams in the house, chopped them with axes, and set up a pot in the yard to start cooking.
There was no way to go digging wild vegetables at this moment, and eating dry rice would easily cause choking. Besides, everyone had been hungry for the whole afternoon, and their stomachs were at their most fragile. Tian An asked Chun Xi to take out two strips of bacon and cut them into cubes, and peeled and cut the potatoes into cubes, and then put them into the pot with rice and corn kernels to cook into two large pots of porridge.
Qingmei and Qiao Niang used another pot to knead dough and steam buns.
While the women were cooking, the men were not idle either. They carried out the heavier collapsed objects in the house and cleaned it up simply so that they could live there at night.
After the room was cleaned, the porridge and steamed buns were ready. Regardless of the heat, everyone blew on them a few times and then began to wolf them down.
After a few mouthfuls of hot bacon and potato porridge and half a steamed bun, they felt alive again. This was more difficult than a day's work in the mountains!
After dinner, Chunxi and the others boiled three large pots of hot water. Soon, Mangzhong brought a basin of hot water for Tian An to soak his feet.
The blisters on her feet were all rubbed open, which saved her the trouble of picking at the blisters. She endured the pain and separated her socks from her feet. The moment her feet entered the hot water, a piercing pain instantly spread from the soles of her feet to every part of her limbs. The pain was so severe that it almost killed her.
Except for when she first came here, she had never suffered such suffering.
Tian An was relatively lucky. Her family was well-off and they were willing to use cloth to make the soles of her shoes. The soles were relatively thick and she only got blisters on her feet.
The soles of the shoes of the other families were thin, and after a whole day of walking, their soles were almost worn out, and their soles were red and swollen. They howled as soon as they entered the hot water.
For a full half hour, every room was filled with various suppressed hissing sounds...
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