Fang Dayong slumped to the ground, dejectedly saying, "Is God not giving us a way to survive?"
He really regrets it!
If only he hadn't followed Guo Xuantong out of the valley at that time.
If he hadn't been so gullible to Guo Xuantong and hadn't coveted things that didn't belong to him, he wouldn't be in this predicament today.
But it's too late for regrets now.
The crowded house was enveloped in a deep sense of despair.
Although no one stepped forward to support Fang Dayong's escape plan, many people were secretly watching the situation unfold, not daring to hold out hope, yet secretly hoping for a way out.
Even those men who pretend to sleep with their eyes closed can't actually fall asleep. Although they know they shouldn't have any hope, they can't help but secretly yearn for it.
But at this moment, hope was dashed once again.
Suddenly someone stood up and angrily banged their head against the wall, saying, "Since I'm suffering anyway and can't escape, I might as well die."
Fang Dayong, who had been sitting on the ground listlessly, immediately stood up when he saw someone contemplating suicide. He grabbed the man and said, "Brother, you can't say that. Nobody knows what will happen in the end until the very last moment."
Fang Dayong pulled the man back, preventing him from crashing into the wall, but he burst into tears. Hearing the man cry, many other men in the room also couldn't help but cry.
It is said that men do not easily shed tears, but that is only because they have not yet reached the point of being heartbroken.
Most of them came from impoverished families, their lives already miserable enough, and then they were brought to this iron mine to suffer torment every day. Even a grown man couldn't endure it!
Fang Dayong originally wanted to cry, but seeing everyone crying, he somehow thought of how Lu Shiyan calmly solved problems whenever they encountered difficulties.
He even thought of Jiang Tangtang's usual eloquent way of talking to the villagers.
For some reason, he couldn't cry anymore.
Instead, they subconsciously began to imitate it.
He said, “Let me tell you, this time when we fled, we had no food and there was a drought. We even encountered bandits on the road. And then things got even worse, the Western Rong attacked. I originally thought we were going to die, but unexpectedly, we found a valley. In that valley, there was water and land…”
He recounted the days he spent settling in the valley after fleeing the war.
He didn't mention that Lu Shiyan had found a way to get food from outside. But he did mention that everyone was clearing land and building houses in the valley, and digging for wild vegetables.
Even if the fact that the people in the valley had rice to eat was omitted, and it was said that they all foraged for wild vegetables to survive, it still made everyone envious.
Before they knew it, everyone was engrossed in the story, and the crying gradually subsided. Someone couldn't help but ask, "Does such a place really exist in this world?"
Lu Fusheng glared angrily at Fang Dayong, "How dare you say that? If you hadn't refused to take me, we wouldn't be in this situation."
Lu Fusheng's question can be said to have voiced the question in everyone's mind.
Since that valley was so wonderful, unknown to outsiders, and a place to escape the chaos of war, and they even built houses there using red bricks, why didn't they live there instead of ending up like this?
Fang Dayong originally felt ashamed that he had been deceived by Guo Xuantong and that he was disgusted by her, so he was too embarrassed to mention it.
But now there is no hope of escaping, and no one knows how long they can live.
It seems there's nothing that can't be said.
"It was my own ignorance and arrogance that led me to fall in love with a young lady from an official family, and to covet things that were not meant for me. I was swayed by her words, and I took her out of the valley and sent her home. But on the way, she met a man who was more capable than me, and she went with him. I was knocked unconscious and captured by human traffickers on the way back to the valley."
Upon hearing Fang Dayong's story, everyone showed expressions of sympathy.
Being rejected by the woman he liked, and then her leaving with another man right in front of him, was bad enough. But being knocked unconscious by human traffickers and forced to do hard labor in an illegal mine was the worst of the worst.
Even Lu Fusheng, whose face was no longer angry, sighed with sympathy.
The man who had tried to kill himself but was stopped by Fang Dayong instead comforted Fang Dayong, saying, "A woman like that is not a good person. It's your luck that you saw through her character so early, brother."
The man then realized his words were rather harsh. After all, the person's situation was far from being due to good luck.
He changed his tune, saying, "If you say that valley is real, and if one day I am fortunate enough to escape from here, I hope to settle down in your valley."
As soon as the man finished speaking, everyone echoed his sentiments. They all expressed how wonderful it would be to settle down in that valley.
Others took the opportunity to share their own experiences.
Some people, like Fang Dayong, were refugees fleeing from their hometowns who were caught on the way and brought to illegal mines.
However, he was arrested last year, and the reason he fled was different from Fang Dayong's. He was forced to flee with his family because the imperial court not only failed to provide disaster relief but also increased taxes.
After this person spoke, everyone else followed suit and shared their own experiences.
Although everyone lived in the same room before, they were like puppets on strings, either mining and transporting ore or eating and sleeping, and they didn't communicate much.
They were unaware of each other's experiences.
This made them feel a little closer to each other.
Perhaps because Fang Dayong told them about the valley, everyone is no longer as desperate as before.
After sharing their experiences and hopes, the conversation eventually returned to its starting point.
That is, how to leave this place.
Someone looked at Fang Dayong with hope and said, "Brother, your cousin and his wife are so capable. If they find out you're missing and come looking for you, do you think they'll find this place?"
Just now, Fang Dayong subconsciously omitted the fact that Lu Shiyan had led people to retrieve grain from outside, but he had talked a lot about how wise and capable Lu Shiyan was, how Jiang Tangtang was a lucky star, how she taught everyone to extract salt from the sumac, how she detoxified cassava, and how she taught everyone to make bricks.
In everyone's mind, Jiang Tangtang and Lu Shiyan are both very capable people.
Although Lu Fusheng felt that Lu Shiyan and Jiang Tangtang, as described by Fang Dayong, were completely different from his impressions, he didn't doubt it much, considering that Lu Shiyan was an official in Puzhou. At this moment, he looked at Fang Dayong expectantly, just like everyone else.
The room was dark, but Fang Dayong could clearly see the gleam in everyone's eyes.
It seemed that in that instant, everyone was suddenly injected with energy, and came back to life from that expressionless, lifeless person.
Fang Dayong opened his mouth several times, wanting to say that he was not popular in the valley and that no one would come looking for him.
But when faced with everyone's hopeful eyes, he just couldn't bring himself to say those words.
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