Xu Dazhu and Xiaoman were disciplining the child, while Jiang Zhi listened nearby.
She silently recalled Xiaoman's tragic end in the original world, where she died in a battle, a situation that seemed similar to today's.
Only then did she realize that changing a person is harder than creating one; even though she had kept Xiaoman, she still couldn't change his personality.
When I first read the book, I viewed it from God's perspective, always thinking that I was the most clear-headed person in the world and that I could definitely do better than the characters in the drama.
Only when you are involved do you realize the complexities and intricacies of human nature.
Xiaoman was impatient and impulsive, which is why he ended up as cannon fodder.
Previously, he secretly went to pick up Chunfeng without telling the adults, but today he preemptively struck someone.
Although it seems that Xiaoman succeeds every time, there are too many variables that could cause him to fail and lose his life.
Moreover, such good fortune breeds a sense of complacency, and as he gets older, his murderous intent grows stronger, and his fearlessness leads to serious trouble.
Now that Xiaoman is a real person, Jiangzhi doesn't want him to develop a reckless personality and ultimately lose his life.
Xiaoman used to follow the male lead, and what she needed was ruthlessness.
Fortunately, with Uncle Xiaoman and Xu Dazhu guiding us, things will change a lot.
However, now is not the time to teach the children. We need to discuss immediately how to deal with the four refugees and how to handle the consequences.
"Xiaoman, bring Li Laoshi over here with his eyes covered!" Jiang Zhi said to Xiaoman, who had a long face.
Chunfeng had lived in the village before, and to avoid causing trouble, she couldn't let Li Laoshi see what was going on here.
Soon, Li Laoshi, who claimed to be an honest man, was brought over with his head covered.
He howled all the way, like a pig about to be slaughtered.
Li Laoshi knelt on the ground, trembling, repeatedly begging for mercy from his grandfather.
Jiang Zhi didn't hide her voice and directly inquired about the situation of the village's medical shed.
From being caught and tied to a tree to being brought here with his head covered, Li Laoshi was already terrified and answered whatever was asked.
He recounted in detail where he fled from during the famine, why he stayed in Xujia Village, and how he was chased up the mountain by Zhang Juntou because he knew a few herbs.
Seeing that no one expressed sympathy, Li Laoshi said pitifully, "All the other villagers on the mountain are dead. We thought the crops here were unclaimed, so we were looking for some vegetables to eat. We didn't mean to rob you!"
Jiang Zhi asked, "Who said everyone on the mountain is dead?"
Li Laoshi said, "It was Zhang Juntou who said it. Two people ran away when the medical tent was being built, one man and one woman."
They searched the mountain and found only a dozen or so burned bodies, the remains rotten to the bone. Commander Zhang said there had been a wildfire before, and there probably weren't any survivors on the mountain.
Grandpa Xiaoman sighed inwardly. Zhao Li's family had already been buried by their own people, and now only a few other families' bodies were still lying exposed outside.
Oh! What a terrible thing!
Everyone has their own destiny; life and death are determined by fate.
Jiang Zhi frowned. She noticed another piece of information: the body was decomposed, which should mean that he was killed in the wildfire at the end of February, but he ran away a month ago. Chunfeng left. Who was the man?
Beside them, Xiaoman and Xu Errui instinctively lowered their heads and squeezed their legs together...
Xiaoman was just reprimanded for acting rashly. If she knew now that the two of them were still hiding the murder, she would definitely scold them again.
However, since it concerns my sister-in-law's reputation and face, this matter must be kept to myself.
Jiang Zhi looked at the two awkward people and her eyebrows twitched involuntarily.
While they were asking questions, the little wild boar, having eaten its fill, didn't sleep and kept grunting as it walked around the house.
Seeing that there were strangers in the room, it came over and used its long beak to sniff and rummage through Li Laoshi's body, but didn't rummage through his clothes, only biting the corner of his clothes and refusing to let go.
Li Laoshi was already hungry and tired. With his face covered, he couldn't see anything. He could only feel something rummaging through his clothes, which scared him so much that he kept hiding.
He was too late to dodge. The little wild boar tore at his clothes, as if it had bitten out something, then turned and ran away wagging its little tail.
However, no one present paid attention. This was the little wild boar's favorite game, and everyone had had their clothes bitten by it because of its itchy teeth.
Having understood the situation, Li Laoshi was sent back to the woods by Xiaoman.
There was no food, because they had already eaten in the fields before they arrived.
This time, the people in the room rarely reached a consensus on how to deal with the four people.
You cannot kill someone to cover it up.
Given the pure farming mindset of Uncle Xiaoman and Xu Dazhu, they would never do something so bloody.
Jiang Zhi couldn't say those words either, and neither she, born in a peaceful era, nor the original peasant woman, would kill people indiscriminately.
Most importantly, none of the four men carried any weapons, and Li Laoshi had a medicine bag with herbs inside.
Li Laoshi said that the medical shed was short of medicine, and that he dug up houttuynia cordata and calamus, and that Physician Xu recognized horsetail as a substitute.
There were no flaws in these events, which shows that these people were indeed collecting herbs.
If someone who helps the medical clinic collect herbs goes missing in the mountains... there will definitely be a search operation, and it will be a murderous one at that.
The refugees may die and that's it, but the military can't do that.
In the past, even a single act of bandit suppression required a list to be submitted. Now, if the military senses hostility from someone nearby, they're simply killed without warning.
In this war-torn world, there's no one to seek justice for the dead; I can't be so reckless.
Besides, Jiang Zhi was only temporarily hiding from refugees and soldiers on the mountain, not hiding in space. She would still have to contact the outside world.
The mountain can be self-sufficient in food, but people's lives require social teamwork.
They needed oil presses, ceramics, and ironware.
Half a year has passed, and Qiaoyun and the others have to do needlework every day. Those needles break easily, and after a while, when they run out of needles, they will have to return to the bone needles of primitive people.
There is also grain.
Although the grain harvest on the mountain was successful and the yield appeared high, there wasn't much land available for cultivation. A family only had a little over 100 kilograms of grain, which was far from enough to feed them. In the end, they had to use oak flour as their staple food.
Jiang Zhi wants to eat white rice and white flour, so she needs to go down the mountain to buy grain.
According to Li Laoshi, there was no chaos in the prefectural and county towns, but the government did not allow refugees to enter the cities. Instead, it used grain to conscript soldiers from among the refugees.
The newly occupied areas have also begun to drive displaced people back to their hometowns to farm.
They stayed in Xujia Village because they were afraid of being robbed.
From this perspective, although things are still chaotic down the mountain, they are much better than they were at the beginning.
Another thing that Jiang Zhi needs to consider for a long time is that the salt she brought up the mountain can only last for three months at most.
When they fled the famine, everyone only took salt from their homes with them.
Grandma Xiaoman is an elderly woman who has a habit of buying enough salt for her family to last a year during the Lunar New Year.
Jiang Zhi's family also bought salt, but not enough for three months. They had to use salt stones they collected from the village to make up the shortfall.
It looks like there's a lot of salt, but the variety of meals has changed since we came up the mountain.
I used to eat a bowl of kimchi and sweet potato porridge every day, one bowl in the morning and one bowl in the evening. I didn't even need salt when I ate sweet potato chunks.
Now there are not only various kinds of meat but also cold dishes, so everyone's appetite has increased, and their energy expenditure has naturally doubled.
The two families now dare not add too much food to the kimchi jar, even if it is empty, because adding food requires adding salt, and if they don't add salt, mold will grow.
Going down the mountain is inevitable. I have a chance now that the medical shed needs someone to collect herbs. Once I miss this opportunity, I will never have such a good chance again.
However, this balance needs to be struck carefully; it requires both the support of the military and the prevention of oversight of the medical sheds.
Thinking of this, Jiang Zhi said to the grandfather and grandson who were still deep in thought, "Let these four go tomorrow!"
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