The further south you go, the hotter and humid the climate becomes.
It was a rainstorm that day. It was sunny just a moment ago, but it started raining suddenly.
The rain was pouring down, and the village chief quickly asked the villagers to find a place to shelter from the rain.
In her haste, Zhou Pingping accidentally twisted her ankle. But she kept silent, gritting her teeth and running with Su Man and the others all the way to the foot of the mountain to take shelter from the rain.
The mountains here protrude, forming a series of hollows between them and the ground, but they are too low, so they have to squat. To go further inside, they have to bend over.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier. The village chief looked at the thick dark clouds in the distance and felt that the rain would not stop for a while.
"Fellow villagers, it's getting late. Let's find a place to stay. Each family should boil some water to drink to avoid getting sick."
Su Man and the others didn't look for another place, they just sat down on a few stones.
Zhou Anan took a few jars and placed them outside to collect rainwater. Grandma Zhou asked Zhou Anan to pick up some stones and put them in the jars so that the water would be purified faster.
Du Yuan and Zhao Yuru were lighting the fire. It was raining and the air was very humid, so the firewood was difficult to light. They worked for a long time before it finally got lit.
Putting the pot on the stove, Zhou Anan scooped the rainwater from the top of the jar and poured it into the pot.
Grandma Zhou took out a few herbs from her bag and threw them into the pot. After the soup changed color, she called Su Man and the others to drink it.
Zhou Anan frowned after taking just one sip. "Grandma, what kind of medicine is this?"
Grandma Zhou smiled and said, "This is to dispel the cold. Drink it quickly, or you will catch a cold."
After Grandma Zhou said this, they all picked up their bowls and started drinking.
Seeing Zhou Pingping sitting alone inside, Su Man called her, "Pingping, come over and drink it while it's hot."
Zhou Pingping sat inside after changing her wet clothes. It was not for any other reason, but because her ankle hurt so much that she couldn't move.
She didn't want to tell them that she was injured, and she didn't want to become a burden again, so she pretended to be sleepy and leaned on her bag. "I want to rest for a while and get up to drink later."
Grandma Zhou thought she was just tired and said, "The ground is damp. Put some straw on it before you lie down."
"knew."
Zhou Pingping sat on the ground with her back to them, busy spreading straw. She didn't just spread her own straw, but spread it for all theirs.
Her feet hurt, so she could only sit down to work. After finishing one side, she moved to the other side and sat down to lay the other side.
Although she tried her best to hide it, it did not escape Su Man's eyes. She noticed that Zhou Pingping's walking posture was awkward and guessed that she must have twisted her leg or ankle.
Since Zhou Pingping didn't want anyone to know, Su Man didn't mention it and followed Grandma Zhou to make wild vegetable dumplings.
The cave next to them is bigger than the one Suman and his family live in, and Wang Laowu and his family are all inside.
Unlike their family where the whole family works together, Xiaolan does all the work in Wang Laowu's family alone.
Because he didn't get angry for a long time, he was even scolded by his parents-in-law and Wang Yongchang.
"Why are you so slow in starting a fire? Can't you see Wanru is shivering from the cold?"
Wang Yongchang had always looked down on Xiaolan, and now that Qin Wanru was with her, he didn't even want to look at her.
Qin Wanru wrapped herself in a thick cotton coat and put straw and a bundle on the ground before she sat down. She couldn't just sit down like those village girls did.
She has been traveling in a ox cart these days. As she is well fed, her face has gained some flesh, making her look even more charming.
She also thought Xiaolan was too slow in making a fire, but she didn't say it directly. Instead, she looked at Su Man's family next to her.
"Why is the Zhou family's firewood so easy to burn? Why don't we go and borrow some from them?"
Wang Yongchang got angry when he heard this. "They're all the same firewood, why is yours easier to burn? I think you're being lazy."
Xiaolan bit her lower lip, but the more anxious she was, the harder it was to light the fire. Instead, black smoke rose and made Qin Wanru cough.
The two little daughters came to help. One picked up some flammable dead leaves, and the other blew them with her mouth, and finally they managed to start a fire.
Xiaolan breathed a sigh of relief, but before she could say anything, Wang Yongchang pushed her aside and took Qin Wanru to sit by the fire.
"You must be freezing, Wanru. Come and warm yourself by the fire."
Qin Wanru enjoyed all this with peace of mind. In her eyes, it was extremely rare for her to condescend to marry him. The Wang Yongchang family should be grateful. She could only dream of being asked to serve them.
She lived a comfortable life here, but Widow Song did not.
These days, Qin Wanru was only willing to help Widow Song. As for Qin Mosheng, he could only get a small piece of cake or two rotten fruits when he was starving.
His life was no different from Qin Wanru's before she got married, and he didn't benefit from Wang Yongchang at all.
Widow Song also tried to persuade Qin Wanru several times, but Qin Wanru was determined and said that she had done her best by not watching Qin Mosheng starve to death. It was a daydream to expect her to serve him with good food and drink.
That would have been fine, but yesterday, when Qin Wanru heard Qin Mosheng scold her for disregarding human ethics, she became even more angry and refused to give him any food.
Qin Mosheng had been hungry all day and had only some boiled wild vegetables to fill his stomach. The bitter taste was so strong that he really didn't want to eat it a second time.
...
"Mom, is there anything else to eat?"
Qin Mosheng's cheeks were sunken, and it was inconvenient for him to use one hand, so he could only watch Widow Song make a fire.
Widow Song patted her skirt and sighed, "Mo Sheng, why don't you just go and give in to Wanru. She is your sister, she won't watch you starve to death."
"Let me give in to her? Impossible."
Qin Mosheng said righteously, "If a man bows to a woman, he will be laughed at."
"Then what should we do? Your sister is very stubborn. If you refuse to give in, you don't know how long she will starve."
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