Zhou: "See if you can fit this bottle of water in."
Chen Nong tried to put the 2L water bucket in, but it wouldn't fit.
Zhou brought over another small bottle of mineral water. "Would you like to try again?"
Chen Nong tried it and managed to put it in.
Zhou continued to try smaller things, eventually even stuffing in grass roots one by one until no more could be stuffed in, without wasting a single thing.
After Zhou's tidying up, half of the cart pulled by his dairy cows was now empty.
The vacant space was rented to Lotus Village, where all they had to do was provide water for their dairy cows.
The team continues its journey!
After returning to the main road, they learned that more refugees had come to rob them, but they were lucky to have escaped.
The village chief felt a chill of fear and urged everyone to hurry on their way.
Just then, a patrolman came over and reported, "Village chief, there are a few people outside the procession who want to trade handcarts with us. They said they'd trade money and water. Ten taels of silver for a handcart, or half a bamboo tube of water for a handcart."
He then frowned and said, "I think they must have stolen money from the dead."
The village chief said, "Ask the villagers if anyone wants to trade, and let them make the deal. You keep an eye on things."
Sooner or later, they would have to face these things on their journey of fleeing famine, and who knows, one day they might also be reduced to stealing money from the dead against their conscience.
The village chief's son said, "Dad, we have three empty handcarts. Do you want to take them over and exchange them?"
Although they had a donkey cart, no one would complain about having too many supplies. When the donkey cart was full, the supplies were put on a handcart. After traveling for so many days, the supplies on the handcart were long gone, but they couldn't bear to throw them away.
Village chief: "Take it and exchange it for some water."
When the village chief's son arrived, the water was gone. These people were now only exchanging silver for water. Only two households in the team managed to get water, so he had no choice but to exchange silver, since his family's eggs in Baichuan would be useful anyway.
After the group of people moved to the cart and left, some more refugees came over.
"A bamboo basket of grass roots, in exchange for a handcart, shall we?"
No one in the group said a word.
The old woman gritted her teeth and said, "Then add another half bamboo basket!"
Someone looked up and sized them up, but no one spoke.
The old woman sighed, "Those two bamboo baskets!"
Aunt Wang said, "I'll get it replaced!"
Then someone else spoke up: "A bundle of grass roots, in exchange for a clay pot, would you trade?"
Everyone looked at the bundle of grass roots in his hand, which was quite large, and they were all happy to trade.
Soon it was evening again, and they moved off the main road to rest in a spacious field not far from the dried-up river.
Since they were lucky enough to avoid the refugees last time, they never dared to stay too close to the main road when they camped out, preferring to go a little further rather than take the risk.
Not far from the resting place, children were digging things everywhere on the dry riverbed.
They stopped thinking about water and decided that digging up some insects to eat would be good, and if they could find some river clams, that would be even better.
The village women used bamboo mats to create a space for the woman to use the toilet.
Da Ya and the others are in line.
At this point, most people had found stones, built stoves, and started cooking.
Just then, a patrolman ran over, shouting, "It's bad! Migrants are coming! Retreat!"
Upon hearing that the refugees had arrived, everyone hurriedly packed their belongings and left.
The village chief banged on his gong and said urgently, "Forget about what's on the ground, quickly load it onto the cart and get out of here!"
No sooner had the village chief finished speaking than a large group of refugees, brandishing knives, charged toward them from not far away.
Everyone was so scared that they didn't even bother packing their things and quickly hitched up the car and drove off.
They had already used up all the smoke bombs they had seized, and now they couldn't even throw them away.
There were already enough wounded in the team. The village chief didn't want anyone else to get hurt, so he decided to stop fighting and let those who could run away do so.
The patrol leader took the Molotov cocktail from the village chief, rushed towards the refugees, lit it when he was almost there, threw it forcefully, and then ran away.
"Oh dear, this medicine I've brewed!"
"I just made this thick soup!"
"No, run!"
Some quick-thinking individuals used folded thick cloths to place the medicine pot and the half-cooked porridge onto the donkey cart.
After a group of refugees were injured by the Molotov cocktail, they paused for a moment, then continued running forward with their knives in hand.
The villagers fled quickly, and by the time the refugees reached their resting place, the group had already left.
Because there was food at the rest stop, the refugees quickly began killing each other for food.
A small group continued to chase after the group. Seeing that these refugees were chasing them relentlessly with knives in hand, Old Man Chen took out the last Molotov cocktail and told Boss Chen to light it and throw it away.
The Molotov cocktail was thrown, and with a "bang," that small group of people instantly fell down. Most of them were blown to death, and those who didn't die were burned and rolled on the ground in pain.
The refugees' weapons were sickles and machetes, which they had to abandon even if they wanted to, in order to escape.
"Oh no, the soup I was only halfway through cooking is all gone!"
"I also threw away the medicine I brewed; it was too hot, and I didn't prepare a thick cloth."
“I left a straw mat there, and I didn’t have time to roll it up.”
“I also left a straw mat there, and a bamboo mat as well.”
“I left a clay pot there, and I forgot about it in my panic.”
"I left several bamboo baskets there."
"How did these damned refugees find their way here?!"
The Chen family also left a straw mat there, but they didn't have time to roll it up.
The medicine was put on the oxcart in time, but because we were moving quickly, the cart jolted and the lid slipped off, spilling most of the medicine.
Some of the mushy soup was spilled, and it wasn't fully cooked yet.
The next day at noon, the village chief received good news: there was a water source on the mountain, which was located north or south of the main road. However, it was guarded by many people. They could exchange supplies for water, and the amount they could get depended on the items they brought.
The village chief struck the gong, "Let's hurry up and go get some water."
The Chen family had run out of water. Before setting off this morning, they mixed the last bit of water with grass roots and fed it to the cattle, donkeys, horses, and mules.
Because their livestock were already showing signs of drought, the Chen family was afraid they would die of thirst, so they gave them the last bit of water.
After inspecting the supplies, Zhou took out the six newly made pairs of denim shoes, and then took out the cloth she had previously received, along with the several bolts of linen she had brought with her.
Sanya's heart tightened, and she said, "Grandma, we need to take the fabric to exchange it."
Zhou said, “We have clothes to wear, three sets for each of us. We don’t need these fabrics for now, so let’s use them to exchange for water.”
When we arrived at the foot of the mountain, it was already crowded with people, and many refugees were discussing what they could exchange for water.
"Will they accept the fabric?"
“I’ll take it. I’ve seen it before. These days, fabric is so scarce, who wouldn’t want it?”
Do you accept gold and silver jewelry?
"Haha~ Isn't that obvious? Do you even have one?"
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