Chapter 155
The locusts covered the sky, and the sunlight seemed to be swallowed up. Everything was dark, and the distant crying sounds echoed in my ears, sometimes far and sometimes near.
Jiaojiao stood under the camphor tree in the yard, looking up at the locusts in the distant sky. Not a single locust stayed on the camphor tree next to him.
Feeling inexplicably down, Jiaojiao swung her hands and ran to Qin Mianmian, who was staring at Youyou, and asked, "Brother Mianmian, why are my uncle and aunt crying?"
Seeing that her younger brother Jiaojiao was asking her, Qin Mianmian looked away and thought carefully for a moment before saying, "Because the locusts have eaten all the crops in their fields, they are going to starve, so they are crying."
Jiaojiao opened her mouth in surprise, looked down at her belly, reached out and poked the flesh on her belly, and said seriously: "It's uncomfortable to be hungry. Locusts are really bad."
Qin Mianmian nodded in agreement: "It is indeed uncomfortable to be hungry."
He had never been hungry before, but after he was kidnapped he knew what it felt like to be hungry. He was so hungry that he often curled up holding his stomach and crying quietly at night.
"Jiaojiao, I miss home a little bit." Qin Mianmian suddenly thought of something and squatted on the ground, drawing circles with a branch: "I haven't seen my parents for a long time."
"Then why don't you go home?" Jiaojiao asked curiously.
"My home is so far away from here. The kidnapper took me for a long time. I don't know how to go back and I can't find the way home." Qin Mianmian's eyes unconsciously turned red as he spoke, thinking that he might never see his parents again.
Seeing him crying, Jiaojiao raised her little paws to pat his head to comfort him, but she was too short and couldn't reach him even when squatting. Jiaojiao had no choice but to take two steps forward and opened her arms to hug Qin Mianmian reluctantly: "Brother Mianmian, don't cry. Your daddy will come to find you."
"Really...really?" Qin Mianmian sniffed and looked at Jiaojiao who was holding her with great effort.
Jiaojiao looked at his tearful appearance, then glanced at Youyou who ran over and squatted beside her, and suddenly curved her eyes and said, "Mianmian, you and Youyou look alike."
Hearing this, Youyou and Qin Mianmian, one deer and one deer, looked at each other, then turned away in disgust at the same time: "Not at all."
"Yo~ Yo~"
Jiaojiao blinked her big eyes and whispered, "They look very similar."
Qin Mianmian stopped crying after being interrupted. He looked at the locusts in the sky and said worriedly, "Will we starve too?"
"I don't know." Jiaojiao was also a little worried. Seeing her father coming out of the inner room, she quickly got up from the ground, ran over with her short legs, hugged her father's legs, looked up and asked, "Dad, will we be hungry?"
"No." Yin Zheng picked up Jiaojiao and held her in his arms. He walked to the lounge chair under the tree and sat down. He reached out and touched Jiaojiao's belly. Seeing that she had gained a lot of weight, he felt very satisfied.
He had never counted on the two acres of land to make a living, and there were signs of war this year, and later it was obvious that there would be a drought. Every time he went to town, he would try to buy as much food as possible. Now the food at home was enough for them to eat for a long time.
Hearing that she would not be hungry, Jiaojiao breathed a sigh of relief and turned over to lie in her father's arms to bask in the sun. However, the sunlight was blocked by the locusts, and Jiaojiao did not get the sun she wanted.
Yin Zheng, holding Jiaojiao's little hand, looked at the camphor tree above his head which was not eaten by locusts. He suddenly frowned, stood up, put Jiaojiao down from his arms, and strode out.
Yin Zheng came to his two acres of land and looked at the wheat and melons that were not eaten by locusts at all. His face darkened. It seemed that the locusts in the sky were consciously avoiding the two acres of land.
Although he didn't know what caused this scene, Yin Zheng always subconsciously felt that something was wrong.
Fortunately, the villagers were busy killing locusts and their attention was focused on their own fields. They had no time to pay attention to other people's fields, so they didn't notice this magical and strange scene.
Yin Zheng turned around and went back to get a sickle and a backpack, intending to harvest the melons and wheat in the field before the villagers noticed.
Knowing that her father was going to work in the fields, Jiaojiao was eager to help. Yin Zheng, who had always been unable to refuse him, was unable to refuse him this time and had no choice but to take the two of them and the deer with him.
Amidst the locusts all over the sky, Jiaojiao and Qin Mianmian were picking winter melons in the field with their butts sticking out.
Compared to Qin Mianmian who could walk with the winter melon in her arms, Jiaojiao, who was less strong, could only put the winter melon on the ground and roll it around. After carefully rolling the winter melon to the side of the backpack, Jiaojiao continued to run happily to roll down the next winter melon.
It was Youyou who bit off the vines of Jiaojiao's rolling winter melon. Because Jiaojiao was too weak, he couldn't pick the winter melon even with his teeth clenched tightly. Just when he was struggling with the vines, Youyou suddenly ran up and bit the vines in half.
In this way, Jiaojiao and Youyou cooperated very smoothly, one rolling the cold melon and the other biting the melon vine.
Yin Zheng harvested the wheat very quickly, and it only took him half an hour to finish harvesting the entire acre of wheat. He bundled the wheat, ran back and forth twice to carry the wheat back, and then went to the melon field to prepare to harvest the melons.
When Yin Zheng arrived, Jiaojiao, Qin Mianmian, Youyou and the deer were leaning back to back, breathing heavily, and it was obvious that they were very tired.
Yin Zheng stepped forward and tidied up Jiaojiao's messy hair. After removing two melon leaves from it, he picked up a cold melon from the ground, broke it open, and handed it to Jiaojiao and Qin Mianmian. Of course, he did not forget Youyou.
Yoyo, who had the winter melon to eat, came forward and bowed to Yin Zheng in gratitude before she started eating the winter melon.
Jiaojiao held the winter melon and handed it to her father: "Daddy, have some."
Yin Zheng lowered his head, took a bite, and then turned to collect the winter melon.
Jiaojiao followed her father holding the melon. She took a bite and gave it to her father. She ate with her eyes squinted with joy. Uncle Huaizhi didn't lie to Jiaojiao. It was really delicious!
It took some time to bring all the winter melons from the field home. Yin Zheng immediately scooped up some water to wash Jiaojiao's muddy hands, and also washed Qin Mianmian and Youyou.
After washing them, I took off their clothes that were covered with mud and washed them.
After changing her clothes, Jiaojiao ran over and squatted beside Yin Zheng. She picked up a sleeve and rubbed it. Seeing her father looking over, Jiaojiao said crisply, "Jiaojiao will wash too."
Yin Zheng's dark eyes softened, and he couldn't help but poke Jiaojiao's chubby face.
Seeing this, Qin Mianmian ran over and said embarrassedly, pursing her lips: "I can wash it too."
As he said that, he squatted down, picked up the other sleeve and started scrubbing it awkwardly.
Yoyo also ran over, stretched out his deer hoof and was about to put it into the wooden basin, but was stopped by Yin Zheng.
The locusts passed through the north, which was already suffering from drought, and the harvest was completely lost. Seeing that the stored food was about to be eaten up and there was no new food to come, Chen was so worried that her brows were furrowed so much that they could kill mosquitoes. She looked at her growing belly and felt very anxious. She saw that the family was about to have three more mouths to feed, so how could such a thing happen?
Feng in the yard also kept looking outside, feeling very nervous, not knowing whether Li Er and her father-in-law could buy food in the town.
Hearing the commotion outside the yard, Feng hurriedly ran out, holding her belly and asking, "What's up? Did you buy any food?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she saw that her father-in-law and Li Er and others were empty-handed, and Feng's heart skipped a beat.
"I didn't buy anything. All the grain stores in town are closed. They say all the grain in the stores has been looted." Li Er went forward to support his wife and comforted Feng Shi: "Don't worry, this is a disaster, and people in town have never had the habit of storing grain. They went to the grain stores to buy food immediately. It's normal that the grain stores are closed because they are running low. Dad said we'll go to the county town tomorrow to check. The grain stores in the county town are always bigger than the ones in town."
Feng wanted to say something but stopped herself, feeling extremely panicked. The people in this town had no habit of storing grain, and the people in the county town had even less. Although there were several grain stores in the county town, there were also many people there.
However, seeing the worry in her husband's eyes, Feng swallowed her words and comforted him instead, "Don't panic. We still have some food at home. If we really can't buy food, we can just eat sparingly and dig some grass roots in the mountains. It will be hard, but we won't starve to death. The government won't really ignore us either. We just need to wait until next year."
"Yes, the higher-ups will definitely not ignore us." Li Er kept repeating this to himself and walked into the house.
That night, the village chief's family drank thin porridge, which was so thin that you could see a person's reflection in it. No one at the table was dissatisfied, and everyone drank the porridge in silence.
Li Da drank half a bowl and poured the remaining porridge into Chen's bowl. He raised his hand to stop Chen from pouring it back and said, "You are a double now, eat more."
Chen said anxiously: "How can this be possible, you..."
"It's all right." Li Da interrupted her. "Now that we don't have to work in the fields, it's not a big deal if we just sit around and eat half a bowl of porridge all day."
Li Da just listened to what he said. Although he didn't have to work in the fields, there were still many miscellaneous things to do, and they were not necessarily easier than working in the fields.
However, his attitude was very firm, so Chen could only drink all the porridge. She felt both sad and soft in her heart, and was very glad that she married a good man.
The next day, the village chief took the villagers to the town to buy food, while Li Da led the rest of the villagers to kill the locust eggs in the fields.
Pick up the insect eggs in the ground and bring them back to feed the chickens and ducks. Then use a stone roller to roll the ground flat and rake the ground repeatedly. This work is fiddly and tiring, but it must be done to prevent locust plagues next year. Fortunately, the four or five-year-old children in the village can also help kill locust eggs in the fields.
Jiaojiao also followed Tiedan and the others to search for insect eggs in the fields. Qin Mianmian was a little resistant at first, but after seeing it more often, she joined the team to pick up insect eggs.
Yin Zheng turned the soil the fastest and deepest, so Jiaojiao took Tiedan and the others to follow behind their father to pick up the insect eggs. Jiaojiao gave all the insect eggs she picked up to Tiedan to take back and feed the chickens.
Yoyo was not idle either. He followed behind Jiaojiao and bit an insect egg with every kick of his hoof.
I was a little rushed writing to meet the word count~
This is the first time I'm trying to meet the word count on the list. I've always exceeded it before, so I'll start making up for the missing chapters tomorrow.
Humph~ arms akimbo (I'm awesome~)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
