Chapter 321 has been adjusted, and the following part is a flashback
There hasn't been a drop of rain for several months. As soon as April arrived, the weather was so hot that it was hard to breathe. The scorching sun came one after another. There were no clouds in the sky during the day and a bright moon in the sky at night. The alternation of day and night made people feel hopeless.
In the evening, most of the members of the Xiangshuigou Production Team stayed by the small river in the team that had long dried up and was without a drop of water. It seemed that only by staying here could people have some hope of survival.
"Captain, how are we going to survive? Will the relief food from above still arrive? The crops in the fields have all died. It's already April, and the grass won't grow, and the leaves won't come out. I haven't been able to poop in days. If this goes on, I'll suffocate to death before I starve to death."
As soon as Wang Changshun finished speaking, Captain Hu Xinghong began to sigh: "You are lucky to have made it this far. In this situation, anyone who can make it is considered lucky. What else can I say? Being able to hold on is lucky. I am even more worried now. My wife is about to give birth, and there is no water or food. I don't know what to do!"
Life was already difficult, and with a bad harvest, it was even harder. But he was just a production team leader, not a god. He couldn't just raise his hand and make food appear for everyone to eat, nor could he just wave his hand and make it rain.
Several people were gossiping and sighing, but only Li Guangyuan and his brother remained silent. Unlike the others, they did not gather together to chat, but sat apart from their brothers, and when they spoke, they did not dare to speak loudly, so that only the two brothers could hear.
Their family background was not good, and even though their land and houses were taken back and distributed to the poor and lower-middle peasants in the team, these people still hated them and no one wanted to associate with them.
Tormented by the weather, he didn't like to talk much, nor did he want to join in the fun. It was just that the weather had been dry for too long, and he subconsciously wanted to walk to the river. Even though the river had dried up and cracked, he still felt that the riverside was cooler and more comfortable.
A group of men in ragged clothes, so dirty that their facial features were almost unrecognizable, looked at the sky, which was as clean as if it had been washed by water, with sorrowful faces. In the face of the natural disaster, no one could think of a good solution.
The drought wasn't just this year, but even just these past few months wouldn't have been this bad. The weather was just like this for the past two years. When it should have rained, there wasn't a drop of rain for two or three months, and when it should have been sunny, there wasn't a single full sun for three or two months. This also meant two consecutive years of no harvest. The team had already replenished their grain reserves the previous year, and after finally getting through one year, they were counting on the next. But who knew the weather wouldn't cooperate, causing one disaster after another?
How could they get enough food without it? The production team, with over a hundred people, young and old, went up and down the mountains and rivers, scraping back whatever they could eat, like crazy. Even so, the rice on the team's big stove became thinner and thinner day by day, less and less with each meal. They could slurp down a spoonful without even taking a breath, and then pee it all out.
The most important thing is that it is dry today. Not only is there no dry food, there is no water either. There is a lack of food, and getting enough water has become a luxury.
Life was originally difficult, but at this time of year, the palm tree buds, the mountain ferns, the thorn root sprouts, and all kinds of edible weeds were brought to the team as much as possible to fill the gap. But this year, the dry leaves could not sprout, there was no water, and people were not human anymore. How could we see these things?
Some people saw a kind of white soil in the forest that looked like white flour, so they brought it back to eat. However, problems arose as they ate it.
It’s no big deal if you can’t poop. There were several people who were so hungry that they secretly ate that stuff and ended up dying from it.
Hu Xinghong sighed repeatedly. "Ask me, and I'll just stare blankly. You all know what's going on at home. The drought isn't limited to our team; other production teams are suffering as well. I heard it's the same here in Cen'an. We're at least backed by the mountains, so we can scrape together anything to survive. It's frustrating down there in the plains, with neither mountains nor water. I wonder if other places besides Cen'an are suffering from this kind of drought. You're talking about waiting for relief food. With so many places suffering from drought, how much can the government help?"
"What are we supposed to do? Just wait to die day after day? The tree buds are dried up and can't sprout. There's no water. We eat grass roots and tree bark and can't even poop. We can't dig it out with our hands. So many people have died in the team in the past year or two. I wonder if God is just going to kill us all."
"There's nothing we can do. If humans can't kill each other, and if Heaven can't kill us, nothing will happen. If Heaven wants to destroy us, there's nothing anyone can do. You can't just lift a rock to hit the Heaven!"
As they were chatting away, a shrill female voice rang out from the edge of the field: "Hu Xinghong, where have you been? Your wife is about to give birth, why don't you hurry back!"
Hu Xinghong stood up suddenly and ran back.
Playing ball, this is really what I said, it's really going to happen, I'm really going to give birth.
Maybe it was because he was running too fast, he felt that he was creating the wind, and he didn't notice the clouds pressing down silently from the sky above his head.
Hu Xinghong's home is located against the mountain, not far from a small river. A row of thatched-mud-walled tiled houses and stone-slab houses are scattered high and low in the valley.
This row of houses didn't originally belong to Hu Xinghong, but to Li Guangyuan, whose surname was Li. His family was once landlords, and they owned not only these houses but also most of the land on both sides of Xiangshui Village and the fields in between.
It was only later that they were divided into individual families.
Hu Xinghong's father participated in the Anti-Japanese War and his family background was very good, so he was assigned to live with Li Guangyuan's family at that time to educate and supervise bad guys.
The Hu family occupied three houses, two tiled houses and a stone house next to them, and next to the tiled houses was Li Guangyuan's house.
There are only two rooms in Li Guangyuan's family of five, one for the old couple and one for the two brothers. After Li Guangyuan got a girlfriend, he could no longer live in separate rooms. He wanted to build a new one but couldn't and didn't dare to. He could only put up a straw curtain under the window and prop it up with sticks. It was not even a shack, but at least it could accommodate one person.
It was fate. Hu Xinghong's wife had given birth to three children, and she was empty for several years in between. But she got pregnant again the previous year. Li Guangyuan finally managed to get his new wife pregnant around the same time.
It's about to break out now, and both the front and the back will break out at the same time.
Some people called out for Hu Xinghong, but no one called out for Li Guangyuan. Li Guangyuan's wife, Song Xiaoqin, had fled from famine in other places and was picked up by the Li family. No one who knew her family well dared to marry her into the Li family.
Li Guangyuan finally got a wife, and the relationship is pretty good.
But no matter how good it is, it cannot withstand the hardships of life.
The old couple had experienced many ups and downs in their lives, suffered great changes, and were bullied and looked down upon by others. They were like the walking corpses. Even such a big thing as their daughter-in-law carrying on the family line seemed to have no problem with them.
At this time, most people had eaten and gone to bed. Since her husband was not there, Song Xiaoqin went to bed alone. After a while, she felt a stomachache.
This pain was very similar to the feeling of wanting to poop after eating but not being able to, so she didn't take it seriously at all.
Later, the pain became severe, and she felt the lump in her stomach was falling down. Then she thought of the child, and hurriedly got down to the bed holding her belly. In the dark, she groped her way to the door and shouted, "Mom, I think I'm going to give birth!"
After shouting several times, there was movement in the house in front. A rare light appeared on the window. Li Guangyuan's mother, Wang Po, came out of the house barefoot and hunched over, holding a kerosene lamp.
"Are you going to give birth?"
Song Xiaoqin held her stomach with one hand and held the door frame with the other, and she was unable to stand.
Mrs. Wang glanced into the room and asked, "Where's Guangyuan? He's not in the room?"
Song Xiaoqin was in so much pain that she didn't say a word. She gritted her teeth and shook her head. She was sweating from the pain of falling.
Mrs. Wang called out to Li Guoping, "Go boil some water." The river had dried up, and neither had the well near the gate. The water was dredged up bit by bit from deep pits dug in the ravine by several families. They had to wait until everyone else had scooped out their water before it could reach them. The water was muddy and sandy, and it would slowly settle there.
A family of five depends on that little bit of water to survive, and they dare not waste even a single bit.
But at this moment, we have to waste it. The child must be washed after it is born.
Li Guoping responded and groped his way to the back of the house with the help of the light in her hand.
Only then did Mrs. Wang turn to her daughter-in-law and said, "Giving birth is painful. It hurts everyone. Walk around the room. If you really can't bear it anymore, just lie down on the bed."
Song Xiaoqin felt that she could no longer bear it and started to cry out "Ah, ah, ah".
But Mrs. Wang didn't even frown.
The wife of the Hu family next door is not in a good situation at the moment. She had given birth to three children before, and there were a few years in between. Now she is in her thirties and approaching forty. It is not easy to get pregnant at this age, and it will not be easy to give birth either.
Hu Xinghong ran back in one breath, but before he even set foot inside the house, his mother stopped him and said, "Go away, stay outside! What are you doing in here when a woman is giving birth?"
Hu Xinghong stood outside staring at his three sons, listening to the suppressed cries from inside the house.
Over there, Li Guangyuan and his brother sat by the river for a while, and waited until everyone had left before slowly returning home.
"Brother, look, the clouds are rising."
Li Guangyuan glanced up at the sky, but it was not just clouds. The full moon of the fifteenth day of the lunar month, which had just been hanging high in the sky, was now invisible.
There were bursts of rustling sounds coming from the distance, and the dry and curled willow branches on the roadside began to sway.
Li Guangwen was so excited: "Brother, brother, the clouds are rising and the wind is blowing. Is it going to rain?"
Li Guangyuan said nothing. It was raining! He wanted it to rain, but deep down he didn't want it to rain.
When it rains, everything comes alive, and people's hearts come alive too. Their family will not be better off because of the rain, it will only make them more miserable.
There was no moon, the sky was pitch black, and the familiar path was not so easy to walk on.
When I arrived at the door of my house, I found that no one was asleep yet, and I could hear people calling out from the house from time to time.
Hu Xinghong's wife was giving birth, so she must have been screaming, but why was his own wife also screaming?
Li Guangyuan was stunned for a moment, then he reacted and ran into the house. Just as he reached the door, he was startled by Song Xiaoqin's cry from inside the house.
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