The village chief of Dashan Village excitedly patted Old Chen's arm. He originally wanted to pat his shoulder, but he was too short. He said excitedly, "The people in the team will remember your family's kindness."
The village chief of Dashan Village was surprised to receive such a big surprise. The water guard had just brought back half a pottery jar of water when the Chen family brought up a large bucket of water.
After putting the water down, Old Chen left. There was no point in hiding how much water his family had received; anyone with eyes could see it coming and going.
His father had also given him a hint: there was no need to hide it; his family had only received three buckets of water, and it wasn't just his family using them, but a whole group of people.
Now, everyone in the group knows that they've teamed up as a large group.
If the team members are not satisfied and still expect them to hand over all the water, then don't blame them for hiding all the good things they get in the future and not sharing any of them.
Everyone in the group was very content, especially the people from Anping Village. Given the Chen family's character, they were truly grateful that they had handed over such a large bucket.
The village chief of Dashan Village sent someone to say, "Take half of the water and use it to decoct medicine for the patients. Divide the remaining water in half again."
Then he turned to the crowd and said, “Bring all the people who have fainted from hunger over here. I’ll have someone feed them water and see if they can wake up. Each of you should prepare food.”
Soon, everyone carried over the people who had fainted from hunger from their homes, and they lined up to be fed water.
Among those who fainted from hunger were adults, the elderly, teenagers, children, and even infants.
In the group, an old woman saw the sick student from the Zhao family being helped over by his mother and frowned, saying, "You are not part of our group, so we will not give you water. Besides, your family member is sick, not starving, so we will not waste water on you."
A woman said, "Yes, let's go back!"
The old lady from the Zhao family wiped away her tears and said, "Please, please save my son. My son is dying. He desperately needs water and medicine."
After saying that, Old Lady Zhao ran to the three village chiefs, kowtowed and said, "Please, please save my son. He's dying. Please, I'll do anything for you from now on."
The three village chiefs quickly called for help to lift her up, but she refused to get up and kept kowtowing.
Seeing this, the village chief of Dashan Village had no choice but to say, "I'll give you half a bowl of the medicine I brew later."
Grandma Zhao said gratefully, "Thank you, thank you!"
There were more than 200 people in the team who fainted from hunger. Water was given to 80 people before the last person stopped. Those who were given water, along with acupuncture treatment from the doctor, all woke up.
As soon as these people woke up, they weakly cried out that they were hungry and thirsty.
A woman held her awakened daughter and wept with joy, saying, "Little girl, you're finally awake! Here, I saved a piece of sugarcane for you. It's very sweet. Here, have some."
The little girl was very weak and didn't even have the strength to bite the sugarcane.
Seeing that her daughter couldn't finish the food, the woman's hands trembled, and tears streamed down her face.
The old woman took three grass roots and put them into her granddaughter's mouth, saying worriedly, "Little girl, come on, eat this first."
She still had some strength to chew the grass roots and started eating them.
The woman said happily, "Eat more, and eat slowly, don't rush, don't choke, there's more."
The woman patiently fed her, and finally, after eating a bunch of grass roots, the little girl's complexion improved, and she had more energy to eat. After eating another bunch of grass roots, she was able to chew sugarcane.
The little girl ate the sugarcane and exclaimed happily, "Mommy, this sugarcane is so sweet and delicious!"
The woman said, "Our family will receive more tomorrow, so you can have it all."
After eating the sugarcane, the little girl finally had the strength to stand up.
His brother took out a piece of roasted Smilax glabra and said, "Here, little sister, eat this too."
The little girl looked at her brother and asked, "Brother, have you eaten yet?"
The boy laughed and said, "Don't worry, I ate two pieces of Smilax glabra, two phoenix eggs, and some roasted insects."
The little girl exclaimed happily, "Wow, you ate so much!"
The woman laughed and said, "Our family was lucky today. We dug up twelve pieces of Smilax glabra and five pieces of Vinegaraetrata root. The phoenix egg was given to your brother by someone else."
The boy said, "If you want to eat, I'll go and trade some bugs with them."
The families who didn't get water immediately surrounded the doctor.
"Doctor, please give my son a few acupuncture needles to wake him up."
"Give my family a few acupuncture treatments too."
"And my home, my home."
The doctor said helplessly, "You can't just stick needles in randomly. I've already used needles to wake you up. Now you all need to move aside, I still have other patients to treat."
In the end, it was the village chief who had people rescue the doctor.
The eldest son's wife, who had come to watch the commotion, quickly told the Chen family what had happened.
Old Man Chen heard that many people had woken up after being given water and receiving treatment, so he asked his eldest son to pour out half of the water from the bucket and send it over.
After dark, the adults gathered around the fire to weave bamboo baskets, straw sandals, and other daily necessities.
Old Mrs. Zhao suddenly arrived at the Zhou family's house. She said in a haggard voice, "My son has woken up after being given his medicine. Please lend me a bowl of water and two sugarcanes. He really needs to eat something. We will repay you in the future and will repay your family well."
The eldest son's wife retorted, "This isn't a loan, it's clearly an attempt to get something for nothing! You think you can just ask for something for free? There's no such thing as a free lunch! My family isn't even close to you, why should we lend you anything! What if you're no longer in the team and disappear without a trace? Then you can talk about paying it back!"
"Your son is so precious, always wanting to eat this and that as soon as he wakes up. Now, everyone else in the line who's just woken up is just eating grass roots to tide them over."
The old lady of the Zhao family blushed with embarrassment after being talked about, but being thin-skinned, she couldn't take it anymore and had to leave.
No sooner had the old lady of the Zhao family left than a boy in a grass skirt came over carrying a straw mat.
"Grandma Zhou, this is a straw mat that my family wove. We can use it to cover ourselves at night to keep warm. Could we exchange it for a sugarcane?"
The Zhou family agreed. Although it wasn't exactly a thermal blanket, covering the child with it would keep him a little warmer, especially since the weather was getting colder and the child was more likely to get sick from the cold.
After finishing their work, everyone went to rest in the thatched hut. The thatched hut, which was drafty on all sides, couldn't keep out much of the cold wind. When the wind blew, everyone huddled up in the cold.
"Hiss~ It's so cold~" Chen Nong cried out while hugging Chen Kai.
They were covered with straw mats and thatch, but they were still cold.
The next day, early in the morning, the Chen family discovered that everyone who had taken the fever reducer the night before was cured; the medicine really worked!
Seeing that everyone had almost left the thatched hut, Old Man Chen and the others told Xiao Bao to bring out the sugarcane. Since last night, under their timely supervision, Xiao Bao had harvested sugarcane twice, but he could only take out one portion and had to keep the other portion to exchange for seeds.
Now, the sugarcane can be harvested three times a day, but in order to save seeds, only two portions can be taken out each day.
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