Xu Dazhu leaned over and said, "Nini, call out again!"
Nini's face flushed red, and she pursed her lips and whispered, "Mommy, have some water!"
Chunfeng took the bowl, her voice excited: "Okay, Mother, Mother, drink!"
Since she came home, Nini has wanted to eat what she gave her, let her hold her, and liked to stay close to her, but she has never called out "Mom" once.
Hearing her daughter's innocent voice calling her name, Chunfeng was moved to tears. She couldn't get enough of hearing it and hugged her daughter tightly, saying, "Nini is such a good girl!"
Nini touched Chunfeng's hand and said earnestly, "The snake is dead, so Mom isn't afraid, Grandma Jiang isn't afraid, and Nini isn't afraid either, because Dad is here!"
His movements and tone were exactly like Xu Dazhu's.
Ha ha ha ha!
Everyone laughed. Xu Dazhu felt a little embarrassed, while Chunfeng blushed and hugged her daughter, giving her a kiss.
It turns out that Chunfeng was disgusted by the smell of snakes after she returned, and Nini misunderstood that she was scared, so she imitated Xu Dazhu and brought her water to comfort her.
The night wind blew, the bonfire blazed in the courtyard, and a pot of snake soup was devoured.
Amidst the cheers and laughter of the crowd, the little wild boar was frolicking and running around them.
"Mom, Pork Belly is getting bolder and bolder!" Xu Errui, being mischievous, kept grabbing the little wild boar's tail.
Even though the little wild boar was small, it was still very wild. When Xu Errui grabbed its tail, it became furious, snorted, turned around quickly, and bit Xu Errui's hand.
Although the bite was fierce, the tiny baby teeth didn't hurt, and Xu Errui tugged at his ear again.
The little wild boar got even angrier, and charged headlong into the enemy with great ferocity.
Unfortunately, it was too small, and when it bumped into someone's leg, it ended up lying on its back, which brought even more laughter.
Ha ha ha ha!
Everyone laughed again.
After being raised for half a month, the wild boar became more familiar with people and grew bolder. In this mountain where there are no cats or dogs, it's quite interesting to have such a lively character to amuse us.
The little wild boar, having suffered a loss at Xu Errui's hands, quickly ran to Jiang Zhi's side and grunted, clearly dissatisfied and wanting to complain.
Jiang Zhi reached out and scratched its itch: "From now on, call it Peppa Pig, instead of Pork Belly."
She now feels that she might as well keep raising the wild boar. After all, with the swill from both families, sweet potato vines, oak powder, and grass from the mountain, raising one pig is not too bad.
As for when we can no longer afford to raise them, it's not too late to eat meat then.
"Grandma Jiang, what is Peppa Pig?" Nini ran over and tickled the little pig, asking curiously.
“Peppa Pig… she’s a little pig who loves to stomp in mud puddles…” Jiang Zhi told the story in detail!
……………………………………………………………
The corn on the hillside is finally ready for harvest!
Despite enduring torrential rain, rabbit attacks, and devastation by wild boars, the remaining corn stalks still stand stubbornly.
There are only a few here and there, in groups of two or three, or small clusters of four or five, with the best ones numbering only a hundred or eighty.
On the open hillside, it's like leftover scraps, completely lacking the grandeur of a bountiful harvest in fertile fields.
However, everyone was happy with the grain, because the hillside area was large, and if it was all harvested, it would be a very good harvest.
The group split up, with some people going ahead to break the corn cobs off the stalks, while the others cut down the stalks, bundled them up, and carried them away.
There's no shortage of firewood on the mountain, but these corn stalks are still useful; they'll make it easier to build a shed for guarding the land later.
We carried the golden corn cobs back and laid them out in the yard to dry in the sun, letting the moisture evaporate from their surface.
At night, the moonlight is so bright that there is no need to light lamps when working outside.
The two families sat together, first peeling the cotton bolls they had collected that day, then peeling the corn cobs, and chatting about everyday things.
Such a scene, which should be common in rural areas, becomes incredibly precious at this moment.
This time, Xiaoman wasn't in the mood to express his love for grain; everyone was asking Chunfeng about what was happening outside.
Today, Xiaoman went to check on the situation in the village again and found that there were a lot of newly arrived wounded people in the past two days, and many of them had set up wooden frames to sleep outdoors.
Even from a distance, one could hear the physician's furious curses, and the laborers, their clothes stained with blood, hurrying to and fro carrying medicine.
These are wounded soldiers who were sent here because the fighting has intensified somewhere.
The only downside to living in the mountains was the lack of information; neither family knew anything about the outside world.
All that is known is the disappearance of Xu Youcai's family and the tragic fate of Zhao Li's family, which has left both families in a state of panic and fear to this day.
Although Chunfeng had briefly mentioned the village's affairs when she returned some time ago, it was inevitable that the topic would be brought up again now.
Previously, Chunfeng had briefly recounted her experience of fleeing the famine.
Her family home wasn't far from Xujia Village; it was a small village in the mountains. The family she remarried into was from the same village, just a little further away.
When rumors circulated in the village that there would be a massacre, her family left without informing her.
When the alcoholic mother and son learned they had been abandoned, they beat and scolded her, then hastily packed some things and set off on their journey. They missed traveling with the villagers and had to mix with people from other villages.
It was precisely because she was with strangers that Chunfeng had the opportunity to escape.
On her journey to escape the famine, she heard that the new army had occupied all the surrounding prefectural cities and that people had died.
Chunfeng couldn't say for sure who had died.
All she knew was that everyone was following the demon, crowding together on the main road and walking nonstop.
I don't know where I'm going or what my goal is. I'm just like a flock of sheep, and I only feel at ease when I follow others.
Instead of encountering the new army that was supposed to "kill" them, they encountered a rainstorm on the road, as well as robbery and disease, resulting in the deaths of many villagers and causing them a great deal of suffering.
A few days after she returned to Xujia Village, the garrison began building a medical tent in the village, and that's what Jiang Zhi and the others saw.
Chunfeng didn't get much information from the medical shed either.
Xiaoman couldn't help but ask, "Sister-in-law, did those new soldiers really not kill anyone? Were they good people?"
For ordinary people, distinguishing right from wrong is very simple: they distinguish between "good people" and "bad people".
It has been almost two months since the medical clinic was set up in the village, and no one has come up the mountain to harass them, nor have the two families been frightened again.
The initial tension and anxiety gradually faded, and I became somewhat curious about the outside world.
Especially after Chunfeng escaped to the mountain, she said that those new soldiers were not the frightening blue-faced fanged men in the rumors. They were all farmers, and some of the soldiers were even from the county.
Through her observations of the village's medical shed over this period, Jiang Zhi confirmed that she did not witness any soldiers indiscriminately killing innocent people.
The most despicable are the refugees, who appear pitiful on the surface but are actually vicious and ruthless, capable of bullying the weak and fearing the strong.
In chaotic times, the absence of moral constraints exposes the ugliness of human nature.
This is what Jiang Zhi witnessed when he went into the village to carry lime, and it was also Chun Feng's personal experience.
Looking back now, it was really absurd to flee the famine!
For ordinary people, it doesn't matter who the emperor is; they will always have to rely on their subordinates to farm, pay taxes, and perform corvée labor.
Neither side in a power struggle would aim to kill ordinary people.
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