Therefore, in order not to delay the journey, the village chief did not let everyone rest for a moment and led everyone on a long and arduous journey.
By noon, we finally arrived at our destination and saw the people of Dashan Village.
The village chief struck the gong and instructed, "Everyone, take a break and give your donkeys some water. We'll continue on our way shortly."
This means the break won't last long, and there won't be time to prepare food; we'll just have to eat some dry rations to tide us over.
Everyone stopped, and the first thing they did was unload the vehicles, let their donkeys rest, and give them some water and fodder.
Donkeys are very precious to everyone. They will rely on donkeys to help them pull things in the future. When they are tired and want to rest, only donkey carts can let them rest. So they take very good care of donkeys.
They were also afraid of tiring their donkeys on the road. Unless they were really too tired to walk, they didn't want to add any burden to their donkeys and would rest on the donkey cart.
The Chen family had a lot of livestock, and feeding them took up two large buckets of water.
Old Man Chen said worriedly, "I hope we can find a water source to replenish our supplies when we meet up to rest in the evening."
Zhou comforted her, "We'll find it. Let's eat something first, we'll have to keep going soon."
Back on the mule cart, Zhou asked Chen to take out the food from the buns.
Steamed buns, mantou (steamed bread), dumplings, sesame seed cakes, cornbread...
They're all warm.
After distributing the food, Zhou instructed Chen Nong not to take any more food out, and then took a basket of food covered with a cloth to find her brothers.
After a while, the sound of a gong rang out, and the village chief began urging everyone to set off.
Zhou led Chen Nong to a donkey cart and covered him.
"Give it a try."
Chen Nong touched the stone mortar with his hand, tried it, and then easily put the stone mortar back in.
After finishing his business, Chen Nong happily returned to his car and asked Chen Kai for praise.
Chen Kai didn't hold back, saying, "Chen Nong is really amazing!"
Chen Nong took out the food and distributed some of it, which freed up some space in his buns. Zhou Shi was not about to let it go; she wanted to stuff anything she could into the buns.
So Zhou took Chen Nong with him to see if they could put the stone mortar inside.
The mortar is quite heavy; if it could be stored away, it would save his donkey a lot of effort.
Fortunately, the mortar and pestle were put away. When it was time to cook dinner in the evening, the mortar and pestle would be taken out again. From then on, whenever Baozi had time, the mortar and pestle would be put away, so that his donkey wouldn't get tired.
It wasn't just the Zhou family who had this idea; the village chief's family did too. Whenever there was space in the eggs, they would stuff something into them, never wasting anything, after all, they had spent so much money.
The procession continued forward, this time with more people.
There aren't many donkey carts in Dashan Village; most people push handcarts, and not only the men, but also the women help push the carts.
Older children push strollers with babies and luggage on them.
Because Dashan Village and Anping Village have a good relationship, they have many other means of transportation besides donkeys.
Many children in Anping Village were exhausted from walking. They had been walking for most of the day and had only just taken a short rest. Although they usually have a lot of energy, walking non-stop like this was really tiring. Some of the children had started to cry and throw tantrums.
The adult pointed at the children in the mountain village and said, "Look at the others. They are the same age as you, but they have to push strollers and take care of their younger siblings. You only need to walk. Even so, you can't compare to them."
The children blushed with embarrassment after being told that, and immediately stopped making a fuss, occasionally glancing furtively towards the mountain village.
Chen Kai lifted the curtain in the carriage to observe the convoy.
Besides their village and Dashan Village, there were many other people on the road.
There were seven or eight people walking together, carrying bundles on their backs, hurrying along.
There were also groups of dozens traveling together, gathered together, carrying long sticks in addition to their luggage. Among these people were no elderly, weak, sick, or disabled, nor women, children, or infants; they looked fierce and menacing, clearly not to be trifled with.
There was also a small group of people, with their families, who looked emaciated and pale. The children inside would beg for food while others were resting.
Although Dashan Village didn't have as many donkey carts, it still managed to keep up with Anping Village's pace.
As Chen Kai looked around, he felt very worried. To outsiders, their team seemed to have an easy life that made others envious, and their supplies were so plentiful that they were the envy of everyone.
But this is tantamount to brazenly announcing to everyone, "I'm a fat sheep, come and slaughter me!"
This reckless behavior is sure to draw the most hatred.
The village chief was also worried about this, so before setting off, he strictly forbade everyone from bringing live chickens, ducks, and geese on the road; they had to be slaughtered before they could be taken along.
The food and water in the vehicle had to be completely covered with straw mats and burlap.
When resting and eating on the road, try to avoid eating in a way that is discreet.
The most important point is that you should not give food and water to others indiscriminately.
Inside the carriage, Chen Nong saw that Chen Kai was still staring outside, so he told him what he had heard: "Uncle, Bai Chuan said that there is a group of people following our team. They are the same people who used to loiter at the entrance of our village, exchanging water for food, and those annoying guys are still here. I heard that they have been following us ever since we left the village."
Those whom Chen Nong disliked were all people who had clashed with the villagers. Therefore, the group following behind them included both the well-behaved and the restless.
Chen Kai rested his chin on his hand and asked, "Approximately how many people are there?"
Chen Nong said unhappily, "I heard from Bai Chuan that there were originally more than forty people in the morning, but after the lunch break, their team size increased to more than fifty."
Sanya disliked those people, who were always eyeing their food. She frowned and said, "Why doesn't Grandpa Village Chief chase them away? Why does he let them follow us?"
Chen Nong sighed and said, "Bai Chuan said that the group of people stayed far away from us and didn't approach us. They just followed us from a distance and rested with us when we rested. Since we didn't run into them, Grandpa Village Chief couldn't very well chase them away."
If it weren't for the village chief's caution, who had people keep a close watch around the area, we wouldn't have noticed that those shameless people were following us.
Chen Kai said, "Since they're following us on the official road, they must have something to gain. We'll run into them sooner or later, and then we'll deal with them properly."
Chen Kai didn't have a good impression of that group of people either. They were able-bodied and, although the drought had caused the grass and plants to wither badly, they could still dig up some tuberous food.
Even in Anping Village, where there is some stored grain, people still carry baskets on their backs and trek over mountains to find food. They dig up anything that is edible but not poisonous.
Children like the Chen family are the envy of all the kids in the village, but none of them are spoiled. They still brave the scorching sun to search for food all over the mountains and fields, and they've eaten all kinds of wild vegetables.
Those people would only follow behind them, stealing the water they had painstakingly found when no one was looking, and then using it to exchange for food. Occasionally, they would even go further.
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