Chapter 92 Encountering People When did you enter the mountains?
Aunt Chen sighed and said, "I was really panicked when Lu Xuan was leaving. I couldn't sleep the night before he left, tossing and turning, afraid that something might happen while he was gone."
Miao Jinfeng wholeheartedly agreed, “Who isn’t? Don’t even mention you, in our family, apart from my grandson, no one can rest easy.”
As it turns out, their concerns were not unfounded.
No sooner had Lu Xuan left than an accident occurred in the field that very evening, which was yesterday.
A wolf chased a wild boar into the field.
When they were reclaiming the land, they did try to build fences to protect it, but the area of eighty acres was already large, and they also had to avoid trees and rugged terrain, so the area covered by the fences was eventually more than that.
Such a large area couldn't be cordoned off in a short time, so in the end, the only option was to focus on cordoning off the areas with the most signs of animal activity.
Before, things were fine; only occasionally would pheasants or rabbits wander in, which the landowners or patrolling guards could easily deal with and supplement their income.
But yesterday, a wild boar broke in, followed by a wolf chasing after it, startling everyone in the nearby fields.
Fortunately, the guards heard the commotion and arrived in time. Coincidentally, the place was not far from the Lu family's land, and Lei Yan quickly took action after hearing the noise.
The women perked up at the mention of this.
"It's a pity I wasn't there at the time and couldn't witness Lei Yan unleashing his divine power with his magic!"
“Qing’er, tell us again how your Lei Yan killed the wolf yesterday.”
Lu Qing, who was chopping radishes, said helplessly, "He just killed it like that. His current level of immortal arts is still too low. He was just lucky yesterday and managed to kill that wolf with one strike."
Miao Jinfeng disagreed, saying, "How can it be just good luck? It's clearly due to strength! Lei Yan's immortal technique is lightning strike, which is already very powerful."
After saying that, he thought of Lu Qing's abilities and added, "Of course, your abilities are useful too."
Wu Yinyin nodded in agreement, "In the extremely hot season, water is indispensable. Although water-based magic is not as offensive as lightning magic, it is a good magic for saving lives."
The others nodded in agreement.
Lei Yan's lightning-based magic is indeed remarkable, but they are all ordinary people. They would never complain that Lu Qing's superpower is not useful. They just wish they could have it too.
Lu Qing laughed heartily, "I also really like my ability. If it weren't for Ah Xuan, I wouldn't have the good fortune to obtain immortal techniques. My Lei Yan's ability is quite useful, but his fur was singed after being struck by lightning, which is quite a waste."
Miao Jinfeng waved her hand and said, "That's a small matter. Animal fur isn't thick enough this season, so the quality isn't good. If it gets scorched, so be it. The fur that grows back when it gets cold is thick and soft, and it's especially warm whether you're making a padded jacket, cloak, or quilt."
Yesterday's incident was a close call, but the damage was minimal, except for a small portion of the half-grown rice seedlings being damaged by the wild boar.
What struck everyone most was that they had unknowingly developed sufficient self-protection capabilities all along.
Apart from the wolf, the wild boar was shot by the middle-aged villagers in Zhang Wende and Zhou Yunshan's guard team who arrived just in time.
Not only that, nowadays, in addition to hunting teams and guards, many of the women have switched to bows and crossbows or even machetes for self-defense.
When problems arise, they can exert considerable influence when they gather in groups of three or five.
Therefore, despite the unexpected incident, the villagers were not so frightened that they couldn't sleep at night; instead, they felt truly at ease.
With less anxiety, Miao Jinfeng, Aunt Chen, and other women were even more eager to see how much Lu Xuan would gain from this trip.
"Didn't Lu Xuan say he was planning to get some beef? If he really brings some wild buffalo, I'll have to trade with him for a few more pounds so my family can have some."
"With Lu Xuan's abilities, he can definitely get beef. Besides beef, he might also be able to find a lot of other resources."
"Now that you mention it, I'm getting impatient."
As they were talking enthusiastically, a villager came running back, panting.
The women in the courtyard immediately became alert upon hearing the footsteps.
Miao Jinfeng was the first to stand up and shout at the man, "Has something happened in the fields again?"
The villagers were on their way to the cave to inform the village chief when they passed by and made a startling statement: "It's not in the fields, someone has gone into the mountains! A living person besides us!"
"What--!?"
His words stunned everyone like a thunderclap.
The women stopped what they were doing and jumped up from their seats, their faces filled with shock and disbelief.
They wanted to ask for more details, but the villager who came to inform them had already run far away.
"Is he telling the truth? It's been so long since the catastrophe started, how could someone have run into the deep mountains?" The women were filled with doubt and surprise.
"If it weren't for Lu Xuan leading the way, we would never have been able to get into such deep mountains. I don't know how those people managed to find us all the way here in this weather."
"The person who ran into us must have lived at the foot of the mountain before. Could it be someone we know from a nearby village?"
"If so, there might be someone we know!"
With that thought in mind, the group said to Lu Qing in an urgent tone, "Qing girl, why don't we put the pickled vegetables aside for now and go take a look?"
Lu Qing put down the radish in her hand and nodded, saying, "Then let's go take a look together."
She was also a little curious about who was going into the mountains at this time.
In addition, she didn't know if she was overthinking it, but when the villager said that someone had gone into the mountains, her eyelids twitched inexplicably, and she had a bad feeling.
Just then, the village chief, who hadn't gone to the fields that day, and the other villagers who stayed behind came out. Lu Qing and the others followed the village chief and his group in the direction where they found other disaster victims.
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"Quickly, carry the person over here. The dry ice here was just put in recently, it's cool enough."
"If anyone has any leftover chilled mung bean soup, give them some."
“Mung bean soup won’t work. Anyone who has brought heatstroke medicine should give it to the most severely affected patients immediately. If this drags on any longer, it could lead to serious problems.”
The villagers of Yunlu Village carried or helped the group of disaster victims they had just met to the shade of their trees, feeding them water and medicine.
Some people even offered their own cooling patches to be applied to exposed areas like the forehead and neck to quickly lower the temperature.
Both heatstroke medicine and cooling patches have immediate effects.
Almost immediately after the villagers began their first aid, the condition of the disaster victims, whose faces were flushed and whose body temperatures were so high, visibly improved. Their rapid breathing quickly became calm, and their furrowed brows relaxed.
The people of Yunlu Village breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this.
Once everyone had recovered somewhat, I couldn't help but ask a few of the best-performing people, "How exactly did you get into the mountains?"
"Did you set off right after the major earthquake? How did you manage to get through that time? Do you know what the situation is like outside right now?"
The victims were momentarily dazed after realizing they had finally been rescued, only snapping back to reality when the questions became increasingly frequent.
After enduring grievances and pain for many days, the group finally had a chance to vent, and they cried and poured out their grievances.
They were a team of villagers from several villages surrounding Yunlu Village who survived the major earthquake.
The village where they lived was completely destroyed after the earthquake, and many cracks appeared in the ground. The survivors dared not stay in the village any longer.
In addition, the temperature rose rapidly after the earthquake. By the time they managed to salvage some food from the destroyed village, it was already too hot to live down in the mountains, forcing them to move into the mountains.
At first, they were all from their own villages and went into the mountains on their own. They met by chance in the mountains and decided to come together because they thought that many hands make light work.
The initial number of people gathered was about the same as the total population of Yunlu Village, more than 130 people. However, many of them were injured in the earthquake and died within a few days of entering the mountains due to wound infection, fever and other symptoms.
Later, as the temperature rose higher and higher, many people suffered from heatstroke, and some even died within two days. Along the way, they encountered herds of wild boars and even tigers more than once, and some of them got lost while fleeing in panic.
The last thirty-two people who survived and made it this far were the ones who encountered the villagers of Yunlu Village.
Those who have survived to this day are considered lucky, but their condition is equally wretched.
They were all covered in sunburn of varying degrees, their dark skin peeling and cracking everywhere. The elderly and children who survived were all emaciated. Even the originally strong men had lost at least 20 or 30 pounds and were only supported by their bones.
Many people's original cloth shoes were worn out, and they were now wearing straw sandals that had been worn thin.
Because the ground temperature was higher than the air temperature, the straw sandals were scorched. When you took them off, you could see that the soles of your feet had varying degrees of burns, and some were even ulcerated.
The sight of their disheveled and miserable state deeply saddened the people of Yunlu Village.
but……
Since they were originally villagers from villages surrounding their village, it naturally included people from Wangshan Village.
Zhang Chengming, who used to be Lu's neighbor, recognized Lei Shan's family of three in the crowd at a glance. He was surprised that their house was well preserved, but he couldn't help feeling conflicted.
I wonder how Lei Yan and Lu Qing will react when they arrive.
Lu Xuan is not here now. What if this family tries to take advantage of the Lu family?
A young, middle-aged disaster victim said with a bitter expression, "It's too hot during the day to travel. We can only travel in the early morning or evening when it's a little cooler, and we only dare to walk in the shade."
“Many of us have already run out of food. If we hadn’t met you today, without water or food, we would have been afraid of dying. If we had stayed any longer, several more people would have died.”
The people in Yunlu Village listened with a mixture of sorrow and relief.
No moment had made them realize more clearly than this one that without Lu Xuan's help, they would have faced a terrible fate during the catastrophe.
After the disaster victims finished speaking, they turned around and asked, "Are you from Yunlu Village? When did you come into the mountains? Did many people die in the earthquake?"
The people of Yunlu Village looked at each other, unsure of how to begin.
How many people died?
Can they say that none of them died?
Not only did it not die, it also eats and drinks well every day, with plenty of vegetables and meat, and unlimited cold drinks. Recently, it has even started to cultivate the land again.
I feel that telling this story would be enough to drive these disaster victims, who barely survived, crazy with anger.
But now that we've met, these things will be known sooner or later.
After thinking about it, the villagers explained the general situation to them.
Among these surviving victims were many who had initially laughed at them for listening to a fool and being ignorant.
Although their condition was indeed miserable, the villagers couldn't resist showing off and letting them see who was really the stupid one.
So the disaster victims soon listened to the people of Yunlu Village recount their experiences during this period, and the more they listened, the more distorted their expressions became.
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Author's Note: Happy New Year to all my darlings! I hope everyone achieves academic success, career success, and becomes incredibly wealthy in the new year! ~[Heart][Heart][Heart][Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers]
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