The night grew deeper, and the wind and snow showed no sign of stopping.
The survivors were settled in one of the few stone houses in the village that had not completely collapsed. Dozens of people huddled together, keeping warm by each other's body heat.
Although they had temporary shelter from the wind and rain, the biting cold and the unavoidable hunger dampened everyone's morale.
"Waaah... Mom, I'm hungry..." A four or five-year-old child huddled in his mother's arms, his little face purple from the cold, his lips chapped, and he cried weakly.
The young Tibetan mother held her child tightly, letting her scalding tears fall silently onto the child's cold little face.
She wanted to say, "Just bear with it a little longer, child," but the words caught in her throat from the bitterness.
Endure? What can we endure? All the family's food supplies are buried under the snow and rubble.
Even if everyone worked their hardest to dig out some food, it was just a drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of hungry mouths.
In a corner, several men sat huddled together, puffing on their pungent pipes in silence. Finally, a young man couldn't take it anymore. He slammed his pipe on the ground, his eyes red, and growled, "Are we just going to wait here like this? We'll freeze and starve to death here sooner or later!"
"What else can we do but wait?!" an older man beside him said in a hoarse voice. "The snow is harder than stone, and it's so dark. Going out is suicide!"
As the temperature drops, many of the injured and children have begun to shiver.
A feeling of despair began to spread once again.
The old village chief leaned on a wooden cane, his hunched body swaying precariously in the cold wind, his cloudy old eyes filled with lifelessness.
Even if they survived the avalanche, these hundreds of people would probably freeze or starve to death in this desolate place.
Looking at the faces, blue and bruised from the cold, filled with helplessness, Su Tang quietly tugged at Qin Ye's sleeve and whispered, "Luckily, I put those bandits' stockpiled food in my space beforehand, so everyone won't have to move it around. I'll move it to the cellar under this ice wall later, and you'll have to cooperate with me."
Qin Ye immediately understood. "I understand." Qin Ye nodded heavily.
He turned around, strode up to the group of Tibetan men who were sighing and groaning, and pointed to a wide-open snowfield outside the house: "You guys, come with me, dig here."
"Huh?" The young man was stunned, looking completely bewildered. A young Tibetan man was also stunned. "Brother Qin, are you sure you're not mistaken? There's nothing there, just a rock-hard frozen ground... Why would you dig that?"
Qin Ye: "Stop talking nonsense, just dig."
No one dared to disobey, after all, this Brother Qin was the village's savior, and he must have his reasons for asking them to dig.
Taking advantage of the moment when no one was looking, Su Tang had already moved dozens of large bags of barley flour, potatoes, and dried meat that she had stockpiled in her space to the empty cellar.
To the Tibetan man's surprise, the snow was very soft, and after a few shovelfuls, he dug down solid ground.
After digging another half meter deep, suddenly, with a "clang," the shovel seemed to have hit something hard.
"There's something there!"
The young men perked up and immediately began digging with their hands.
Soon, a large package wrapped tightly in oilcloth was revealed!
They hurriedly dragged the package upstairs and opened it to take a look.
Everyone gasped in shock!
Neatly stacked bags of barley flour, along with cured meat and dried beef and mutton!
It's enough to feed the entire village for a month.
"Food! It's food!"
"Heavens! The mountain god hasn't abandoned us!"
With food, people's hearts are at ease.
Su Tang immediately organized the women, found some usable pots and pans, put them on the fire, and used clean snow to boil water and cook hot barley porridge.
On the other side, Qin Ye directed the men, who had regained some strength, to move all the cloth, planks, and kitchen utensils they could find from the ruins to the temporary shelter, and to reinforce the doors and windows to protect against the wind and snow.
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