After eating, the group began their journey into the valley.
Although the Jiang family had many men, they also carried a lot of luggage. Now, the Jiang brothers had to take turns carrying Wei Ying, making the journey quite difficult. Naturally, they didn't walk very fast.
This made things convenient for Jiang Tangtang.
Throughout the journey, she kept the scanning system running, scanning for edible food nearby.
Except for Jiang Ba Mao and Jiang Jiu Mao, the two younger children who didn't help move things, all the other children in the Jiang family carried their own bags.
She didn't call any more children and simply did it herself. When she came across bird eggs in a tree, she asked Lu Shiyan for help.
Lu Shiyan also helped pick out the luggage, but every time he heard Jiang Tangtang's request, he would stop, jump up the tree, take down the bird eggs and hand them to Jiang Tangtang.
Lu Shiyan was more agile than the other children, and when they encountered prey, Jiang Tangtang would ask him for help to catch it as well.
What surprised Jiang Tangtang the most was that they came across a rabbit burrow along the way, and Lu Shiyan helped her catch five rabbits in one go.
Although they are all small rabbits, rabbits only need to eat grass and reproduce very quickly, making them very suitable for breeding.
Of course, besides Lu Shiyan's help, Jiang Tangtang also picked up quite a few things herself.
There is pine resin under the pine tree, or mushrooms, medicinal seeds, and even nuts stored in the pine tree.
In short, Jiang Tangtang didn't let anything useful go to waste. Anything she couldn't carry, she put into her storage space.
They walked and stopped intermittently until nightfall, when the group finally made it back to the valley.
Upon seeing the Jiang family, the people in the valley gathered around.
Some people asked Lu Shiyan how he met the Jiang family, others asked where the Jiang family had fled to and what the situation was like outside, and still others sought out the Jiang family to inquire about their daughters and relatives.
The Jiang family's village, Jiangjia Village, is not too far from Dawan Village, and the two villages often intermarry.
Some families' daughters married into Jiangjia Village, while others' wives married into the village from Jiangjia Village.
Right now, all these families are surrounding the Jiang family, asking about their daughters or their maternal relatives.
"Sister-in-law Jiang, how are my parents and brother?" Zhu Dong'e squeezed through and asked, pulling on Wang Shi.
"Why are you asking Sister-in-law Jiang about your Zhu family's affairs? The Zhu family isn't from Jiangjia Village," a woman who was asking Wang about her daughter said discontentedly.
Zhu Dong'e spat at the villager and said, "My parents live next door to Jiangjia Village and set off around the same time as them. Why can't I ask? What if Sister-in-law Jiang finds out? I didn't ask you, so why are you interrupting?"
A flicker of disgust crossed Wang's eyes.
They did encounter the Zhu family on their escape route, but she really didn't have a good impression of them.
Especially Zhu Sanmao.
On the road, he actually traded all his daughters for grain just to have a bite to eat.
After exchanging his daughters for grain, he eventually mortgaged his wife to someone else as well.
Thanks to the food that his daughter and wife exchanged, Zhu Sanmao and his parents survived.
But Wang despised such people.
She subtly distanced herself from Zhu Dong'e and recounted what she knew.
When Zhu Dong'e heard that her younger brother had exchanged several of his daughters for grain, she actually clapped her hands in front of everyone and exclaimed, "I knew my brother wasn't such a fool! How could he have been fooled by that spineless fourth brother? It turns out he had planned this all along! That slut and bastard deserved to die!"
Mrs. Wang looked at her daughter with a puzzled expression.
Jiang Tangtang scratched her head helplessly, unable to resist gossiping for a moment.
Upon hearing that the Zhu family's daughters were all the children of Zhu Sanmao's wife and Fang Laosi through an affair, Wang stared in shock, her eyes widening. After a long while, she whispered, "This is too chaotic."
Some people sighed, and others lamented, but soon everyone put the matter of Zhu Sanmao's family aside and asked about other things.
I heard that more than two hundred households in Jiangjia Village fled together, but less than half of them survived. When the Western Rong invaded, no one knew how many of those remaining families would survive, and many people wept.
While some villagers wept for their loved ones, many more villagers in Dawancun secretly felt grateful that they were with the Lu family.
If it weren't for Lu Shiyan, who promptly gathered information and led everyone to hide in this valley, they probably wouldn't be much better off than Jiangjia Village.
The villagers felt even more grateful to the Lu family and even more respect for Lu Shiyan.
"Alright, it's getting late. Sister-in-law Jiang and her family have just arrived in the valley. Don't block them here. Let them settle down and rest. If you have any questions, you can ask them tomorrow when it's light."
Village Chief Song gave a shout and called the villagers away.
After the villagers left, the Lu family's house became quiet.
Looking at the large Jiang family, Madam Su sighed inwardly and instructed her two daughters-in-law, "Go and get some food for your third brother's wife and the others."
Madam Wang quickly and politely replied, "Mother-in-law, there's no need to go to such trouble. These are special times, and everyone is having a hard time. We'll just have some dry food to eat later."
"Even in special times, we cannot neglect to send gifts."
Wang believed that her daughter-in-law's ability to find her family after going out must be due to divine intervention.
Moreover, according to the Jiang family, most of Jiangjia Village is gone, but the Jiang family is still alive and well, which must be due to divine protection.
Why are the gods protecting the Jiang family? It's all because of Jiang Tangtang.
If she's too stingy and treats the Jiang family badly, Jiang Tangtang will definitely be unhappy. And if she's unhappy, what if the gods stop protecting the Lu family?
Thinking this way, no matter how much it pained her, she had to take out the food to entertain the Jiang family.
Zhou Qiongniang and Su Shi had similar thoughts.
She was very envious of Jiang Tangtang.
She's truly a goddess's favorite daughter! Not only is she incredibly lucky, but her family and brothers have also been sent to her side.
With her husband spoiling her and so many brothers backing her up, who would dare to bully her in the future?
She became increasingly attentive to Jiang Tangtang, hoping that the gods would also bless her, given her kindness. She also hoped that her parents and brothers would all be safe and sound.
She smiled and asked Jiang Tangtang, "Third sister-in-law, we haven't touched the duck eggs you brought back yesterday."
We only had a few ducks, and we were worried they wouldn't keep well in the heat, so we stewed one. The other one, as you said, was marinated with salt and spices and pressed under the stone slab. Tonight, I'll roast a duck and cook some rice to make your favorite fried rice with eggs, how about that?"
The tone of her voice when she spoke to Jiang Tangtang could be described as ingratiating and fawning.
This stunned Cai Chunrong and her sisters-in-law.
After Jiang Tangtang married into the Lu family, they visited the Lu family several times. Jiang Tangtang didn't get along with her two sisters-in-law, and they all knew this.
It would be strange if my sister-in-law got along with me, given her personality!
Unexpectedly, Zhou's attitude towards Jiang Tangtang completely changed during this meeting.
Before the Jiang family's sisters-in-law could figure out what was going on with Zhou Qiongniang, they saw Luo Taohua bring up a bowl of something green and tofu-like.
With a fawning expression, she said to her sister-in-law, "Third sister-in-law, these are the leaves of the rotten maidenhair tree that I picked in the wasteland today. I made this 'fairy tofu' with my second sister-in-law, following the method you taught me."
I guessed you'd be back tonight, so I specially saved a big bowl for you. Eat some to cool down.
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