Gou Dan took the Smilax glabra and looked at Chen Nong and the others, asking, "Do you want some?"
Chen Nong and the others shook their heads and said, "No, we have some at home too, you eat it."
As soon as they finished speaking, their stomachs started growling.
The room fell silent for a moment, then the children burst out laughing.
Zhou Kai said, "Goudan, eat quickly, and then come with us to find bugs."
Xiao Bao said, "You're really good at finding bugs. I searched for so long and only found two. You have to teach us how to find them later."
Dog Egg happily replied, "Okay!"
Dog Egg ate the sugarcane, his eyes squinting happily. "Mom, it's so sweet and delicious. You should have a few bites too."
Dog Egg's mother kept being urged by her son to try a bite, so she reluctantly took one. It was really delicious and sweet!
The gifts bestowed by the Chen family's ancestors are truly wonderful. She wondered if she should bring Gou Dan along to pay respects at the next Chen family ancestral worship ceremony.
In the evening, when everyone returned to their resting place, they saw that someone had touched the water that Xiao Bao had brought. Zhou Shi pulled the child out and started whipping them with a tree branch.
"You're itching for a beating again, aren't you? You think there's too much water? Then give it to others to drink!"
The children were whipped and ran around in all directions, crying and screaming for their parents.
"I'll never do it again, I'll never do it again, waaaaah—"
Just then, Gou Dan's grandfather came over carrying a bundle of bamboo. After putting the bamboo down, he said, "Chen family, don't hit the child. They meant well. Thank you for saving my grandson. This is the bamboo I cut back. Please don't mind it. Tomorrow, we'll bring over a pair of carrying baskets."
Upon seeing the bamboo, Zhou's anger subsided considerably. "Your family must remember the kindness my family has shown you!"
Grandpa Dog Egg: "Definitely!"
After Grandpa Gou Dan left, Zhou Shi stopped beating the child.
Their family is short of bamboo. Although they have rattan baskets, rattan baskets are not as convenient and durable as bamboo baskets, and they cannot hold heavy items.
His family also wanted to weave a few carrying poles and baskets so that when the children couldn't walk anymore on the road, they could carry them on the poles.
They need it not only for weaving bamboo baskets, but also for making bamboo tubes; it's needed in every aspect.
Old Master Chen said, "Tomorrow I'll go with them to cut some bamboo. I heard it's not far, only an hour's walk. I'll set off early tomorrow."
The fourth brother said, "I'll go too, and cut down a lot more."
Despite their large group, they didn't have many male laborers. Apart from the Chen family, almost everyone was injured by arrows and couldn't do heavy work.
Just then, a boy from Lotus Village returned carrying a shoulder pole and called out, "Uncle Chen, you don't need to go and cut bamboo. Just tell us how much you need. Our village has cut a lot of bamboo and it's still on its way."
After putting down the carrying pole, the boy pointed to the bamboo products inside the basket and said, "Look, these are freshly woven bamboo baskets. See if you need any."
Xiao Bao and the others never learn their lesson. Soon they all happily gathered around, chattering, "I want a little bamboo basket! I want a little bamboo basket!"
Daya walked over, picking through the fabric as she asked, "Why did you weave so many?"
The boy laughed and said, "When the people in our village heard that bamboo had been found, they all took their tools and ran to the bamboo forest. Since they didn't want to carry the bamboo around, they just used the bamboo in the forest to make bamboo products. They've been busy there all day."
Zhou pointed to his carrying pole basket and said, "One pair of these carrying pole baskets can be exchanged for five sugarcanes and a bundle of sugarcane roots. My family needs twenty-six pairs for now. If you have any, please send them over."
The boy happily replied, "Okay!"
They wanted all the bamboo products in the boy's carrying basket, and Zhou gave him eight sugarcanes and six bundles of sugarcane roots.
There were so many of them, and these bamboo products weren't enough to go around, so they needed more.
The boy said, "Today we encountered several groups of refugees fleeing famine in the bamboo forest. They all said that the mountains in this area are not safe, and bandits often appear."
We were lucky today; we found people from two of our teams, and they also found several people who had gotten separated from them in Lijia Village.
The three village chiefs of their team still refused Li Family Village's request to join the alliance because they had not spent enough time together and planned to observe for a while first.
"Dong dong qiang—" The sound of the gong rang out, signaling that they could go and collect their food.
Daya said happily, "Let's go get the food."
Their family contributed so much, they definitely deserve the food distributed by the team.
The three village chiefs each selected three respected elders from their own villages to distribute the food.
Food was scarce, so it was distributed to households rather than per person.
In order to exchange for more food, everyone handed over some of the household items they had woven that day.
Today, the food distributed to the team includes: sugarcane, Smilax glabra, phoenix eggs, various kinds of roasted insects, and grass roots.
Except for the insects, which were cooked, everything else was raw.
When it was Daya's turn, an old man gave her two small pieces of Napier grass stalks, a piece of Smilax glabra, a "phoenix egg", and four roasted insects.
The people in line looked on with envy when they saw how much food she had received.
The boy still had several bandages on his body. When he saw the food that Daya was getting, he shamelessly pleaded pitifully, "Daya, you've already eaten so much sugarcane, can I have these two pieces? You girls don't like eating worms, right? Give them all to me."
Da Ya still felt a little guilty about what happened last time, after all, so many children were injured and she was responsible for it. So she gave him the sugarcane, saying, "I won't give you the roasted insects, Chen Nong and the others like to eat them."
Daya returned to their territory, handed over the Smilax glabra, and recounted what had just happened. Zhou scolded her a few times.
Daya ignored her grandmother; she was used to it. She happily took the remaining food and went to share it with everyone.
Their family has a rule that from now on, except for a few special individuals, everyone in their group will only eat one meal at noon. The adults must hand over all food they find, regardless of when it is found.
In the evening, depending on the actual situation, some grass roots would be given to the adults to fill their stomachs.
Children, hand over all the food you find in the morning, and hand over half of the food you find in the afternoon, keeping the other half.
After eating three roasted insects, Chen Nong felt a sore throat and cried out, "Grandma, I want to eat sugarcane! I want to eat sugarcane!"
Zhou said, "We'll divide it up tomorrow. You've all finished your portions for today."
When the second son's wife saw that her son was clamoring for sugarcane, she took one out of the basket, broke it in two, handed one piece to him, and ate the other piece herself.
Seeing this, Zhou said nothing.
After finishing a few roasted insects, Chen Laowu was about to help weave baskets when he suddenly heard a strange sound.
"Host successfully locked, lottery system successfully bound. Would you like to activate it?"
The fifth brother was taken aback at first, then looked at the reactions of the people around him. Seeing that no one seemed to have heard him, he was overjoyed and so excited that he couldn't speak.
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