Despite saying that, the old man still looked at his eldest grandson with a kind expression.
"My dear grandson, Grandma won't live to see you get married and have children. You must live a long and healthy life."
After saying that, the old woman raised her hand to touch her eldest grandson's head, but her hand fell down halfway.
"Grandma!" the man cried out in heart-wrenching sobs.
The old woman passed away peacefully with a smile on her face.
The crowd silently withdrew, leaving the man alone.
As soon as I came out, I heard another heart-wrenching cry.
In this village, the last two old people have passed away.
The village chief sighed and said, "Go and see if there are any wooden planks in the village, and make two coffins for them."
"Let's stop and rest in the village. Don't split up, stay together."
After making the arrangements, the village chief turned to the lame man and asked, "Are the mountains near your village safe?"
The man said, "It's safe. It's been raided several times by refugees fleeing famine. There's no food or water left on the mountain, and nobody's interested in this place anymore."
After hearing this, the village chief continued to make arrangements: "Send two teams out to find water, and send another team to escort everyone into the mountains to collect herbs and find food."
The man was silent for a moment before saying, "I know where there is water. I'll take you there, but there's very little water."
Upon hearing that there was water, the village chief exclaimed excitedly, "Thank you!"
They'll take any amount of water, no matter how little.
The man said, "The water is in a hidden cave. Every now and then, a drop of water will drip down. In a day and a night, it can only fill half a cup."
There's also that dry well in our village. You can't draw water with a bucket, but a little water seeps up from the bottom. You go down to the bottom, use a small spoon to scoop the water into a jar, and you can get about half a cup of water a day. We usually go down once in the morning, noon, or evening, because the seepage is very slow, and you won't get any water even if you go down several times.
We've survived until today thanks to this little bit of water.
We haven't gone down the mine yet at noon; you can go down and take a look.
No one expected that finding water would be so difficult, and fetching water would be even more so.
In the end, the village chief decided not to go look for the water in the cave and told everyone to find another water source. They wouldn't take the little water from the well, but they would send people down to help them fetch water, since it would be inconvenient for several disabled people to go down into the well.
After the two men who had lost their family members recovered, the village chief called several people to help dig a hole so that the old man could be laid to rest.
Bai Chuan, Chen Nong, and Xiao Bao went down the well. The three children made a huge fuss when they heard there was water at the bottom of the well. The adults got annoyed by the noise and had no choice but to let them go down.
Xiao Bao was holding a torch when his father lowered him down in a large bamboo basket.
The well is very deep, and it's impossible to see from below, so we need to use torches for lighting.
Chen Nong and Bai Chuan, who had arrived at the bottom of the well earlier, couldn't help but sigh when they saw Xiao Bao come down as well.
Xiao Bao stepped out of the basket and said happily, "Let's help scoop water."
Chen Nong frowned and said, "Look around here, where is there any water left?"
There were a few potholes with a little water, but it was so little that they couldn't even scoop it up with a small spoon.
When they reached the bottom of the well, they only managed to scoop up two spoonfuls of water.
Xiao Bao was unwilling to give up. He held up the torch and looked around. Seeing that there was indeed no water, he said dejectedly, "There's no water."
Next to Chen Nong, there was a jar. When the lid was lifted, there was no water, but the bottom of the jar was wet. Only when it was tilted at an angle could a tiny bit of water be seen.
Shirakawa suggested, "Let's go up the mountain with the adults and take a look."
With plenty of manpower and tools, the two deceased elderly people were buried quickly.
The village chief looked at the six of them and said, "Why don't you come with our group from now on? We have donkey carts, and you can help drive them."
The six people knelt down gratefully and said, "Thank you, thank you!"
Finally, they could go up the mountain. The woman and her mother-in-law were both full of energy, hoping to take this opportunity to find some food.
But once they got to the top of the mountain, everyone was discouraged. The hillside was full of potholes, no different from the foot of the mountain. What could they possibly find to eat there?
Chen Kai found a grove of soapberry trees with more than twenty trees. The trees were covered with dried, long, black pods, which were soap pods.
This is what they use for cleaning.
The villagers picked up some but then discarded it, because there was nothing cleanable on the way to escape famine and it was useless.
Chen Kai was leading the children to knock the soap pods off the tree with small bamboo poles. The pods were already very dry and fell off easily when knocked.
The soapberry tree, also called soap bean, has thorns, so it cannot be climbed.
Xiao Bao had already filled almost half a bamboo basket with soapberries. After rummaging around in the basket a few times, he frowned and said, "Uncle, we don't need so many soapberries."
Chen Kai blinked and said, "We'll take everything we can use back; it'll be useful."
Then Chen Kai silently mouthed to Xiao Bao: You can eat it!
Xiao Bao's eyes lit up when he saw the soapberries scattered all over the ground. He quickly gathered them up so that no one else could take them!
How could soapberry be useless? It contains soapberry seeds!
To be precise, soapberry rice is the rice grain or soapberry kernel after the soapberry pods have been shelled.
Soapberry rice, also known as snow lotus seed, soapberry kernel, soapberry essence, is the fruit of the soapberry tree.
Rich in collagen, it expands when heated with water, becoming translucent and having a fragrant, smooth texture.
Soapberry seeds come in two-pod and single-pod varieties.
Double-pod locust bean rice grains are relatively plump, with a natural light yellow color. After cooking, they are softer, chewier, and the soup is thicker. However, their expansion rate is not as high as that of single-pod locust bean rice.
Single-pod locust bean rice has a higher collagen content, thinner grains like fingernails, slightly whiter color, smoother texture, richer flavor, shorter soaking time, and a soaking rate of 5-6 times. It is relatively rare.
However, their nutritional value is generally similar.
Soapberry rice and soapberry for washing hair are the same thing.
Soapberry kernels are the kernels extracted from the soapberry pods, the fruit of the soapberry tree. They are also called soapberry kernels, and soapberry is the pod itself. They are usually dried and crushed before use.
Back in the village, Chen Kai and his group of children gathered around several baskets of soapberries, peeling the soapberry kernels.
Today's harvest on the mountain was quite good; they dug up a bamboo basket full of fern roots. Zhou was in a good mood and asked her second son's wife to cook five bundles of fern root noodles to serve as a snack for everyone.
Chen Nong had already prepared some soaked fern root noodles in his steamed buns, so they cooked very quickly.
With so many mouths to feed in the Chen family, the food was consumed very quickly.
With the food from several families combined, only half a cart of fern root noodles remains.
After lunch was prepared, while they were eating, the people from Peach Blossom Village and the Alliance Village behind them were in trouble. They encountered refugees and were now running around trying to escape.
Fortunately, they took a detour along the main road and escaped disaster.
After finishing the meal and cleaning up, Zhou checked all the supplies, filled any empty spaces, and stuffed food into the buns.
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