Bai Laoliu's mother's cannibalism was eventually exposed.
Unable to get the truth from her, Qin Laoshuan went to ask his two grandsons. The two children were only five or six years old, and they were too young to hide the truth. So they said that they had indeed cooked two pieces of meat in the main room in a clay pot last night, and the old woman lied to them and said it was weasel meat.
Now that the facts and evidence are all there, Bai Laoliu's mother can't deny it.
She was a rich peasant, and the villagers didn't hold it against her because her eldest son had made sacrifices for the village. But when she caused such a thing, it immediately became a question of class stance. The vicious rich peasants persecuted innocent poor and lower-middle peasants, and they must be punished.
This black-hearted woman was escorted to see the official. Later, Qin Huai heard that the old woman died after just a few days.
When Bai Laoliu's mother was caught doing something immoral, the villagers didn't react with such tragic spirit or righteous indignation. Qin Huai thought, "Maybe it's because they can't even afford to eat, so no one cares about anyone else."
However, he was also very vigilant. Qin Xiaoyun and Qin Xiaomi were still young, so he really needed to keep a closer eye on them in the future.
The old man originally wanted to go to Qin Huai's house, but he took him to his own shabby house first and asked him to wait for a while. He took out a homemade gun from the house and gave it to Qin Huai to carry. The cold barrel of the gun chilled his heart. The old man said, "You can play with it first."
He then walked back into the house and pulled out a small bag, saying, "I have to teach you something to save your life."
The small bag contained black charcoal and sawdust.
The old man took the things and then took Qin Huai back to their own home. The door was ajar, and it looked like someone had opened it before. The old man cursed: "What a damn world."
Qin Huai said, "Grandpa, it was the grain search team who did it."
"I can't survive." The old man muttered softly, took a machete from his waist and asked Qin Huai to follow him up the mountain.
Qin Huai said, "Grandpa, didn't you say that wet wood is not good?"
The old man said, "Just follow me." After returning to the village, he seemed like a different person. He was no longer as kind and harmless as he was at the beginning. Instead, he was full of murderous aura.
I didn't see anyone from the village along the way, but after entering the mountains, I saw many people wandering around. The bark of the lower trees had been stripped off, and the bare trunks looked like people who had been stripped of their clothes, looking very miserable.
The old man pointed to a tree and said, "Go up and cut off a few branches."
When Qin Huai saw the tree, he realized that the wood the old man wanted was not for making molds, but for making charcoal and sawdust.
This thing plus iron sand is gunpowder. It was because I saw this tree that I remembered that I saw an old man frying gunpowder when I was a child.
So he said, "Okay, Grandpa, tell me which one is of better quality."
It was not easy to climb a tree without bark, especially since he was only wearing a pair of worn straw sandals.
After finally climbing up the tree and cutting some wood, the old man said that was enough and let's go back.
The father and son dragged the branches home, and the old man let him eat and began to teach him how to fry them.
One was teaching seriously, the other was learning carefully. As the grandfather and grandson were learning carefully, several people rushed in from outside and said aggressively: "There's a fire in this house, go and take a look."
Qin Huai and his son ignored them. These people first looked into the pot, saw something black and didn't know what it was, and reached in without saying anything. When Qin Huai waited for him to grab something and screamed from being burned, he hit his hand hard with the spatula, and the man screamed again.
He jumped out a long way and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Are you blind?" Qin Huai cursed.
"If you dare to persecute the poor and lower-middle peasants, I will arrest you all."
Qin Huai said contemptuously: "I am a poor peasant for eight generations, why would I be afraid of you?" The old man smiled under the stove.
The man was speechless. Seeing that they were tough, the other man softened his tone and said, "We also saw you opening fire. What are you doing?"
"You can't even stir-fry wood?"
The search team then noticed the homemade rifle leaning against the stove. Later, someone who knew the business said, "Let's go! He's not cooking, he's frying gunpowder."
The old man said, "Qin Huai, you did a good job on your first fry. If you add some iron sand and fire it out with a gun, you can even knock down a 300-jin wild boar."
The grain search team immediately said, "Old man, this is all a misunderstanding. We are leaving."
Qin Huai's grandparents ignored them.
The old man stood up, took a look and said, "Almost done. I'll teach you how to make charcoal."
Qin Dagen's hunting skills were all taught by the old man. Homemade gunpowder was very common in that era, and almost every family living in the mountains had a hunting rifle. It seemed that it was not until the 1990s that hunting rifles were gradually confiscated from the people.
After the charcoal was burned, the old man went out with his grandson. The food-searching team found nothing in the village today and they probably wouldn't come back tomorrow.
On the way, Qin Huai met an old man and asked, "Fourth Master, are there not many people left in the village?"
The fourth master said, "We can't survive if we stay here. Everyone has to find a way to save themselves. If you leave, leave some food for the children at home."
The canteen is open once every two days, with two meals. The amount of food is rationed according to the population of each household. It is not six taels as Qin Xiaoyun said, but only five taels. Five taels of food is actually not enough for one meal. Now it has to be divided into two meals, three and a half taels for lunch and one tael for dinner.
There are no more steamed bread. The current meal is wild vegetable porridge. Every household brings back food from the canteen according to the number of people in the family, and then goes home to share it with family members. If one more person goes out, one more mouth can be saved.
Since it is operated by humans, there are loopholes, and cases of cheating on weight often occur in the canteen.
As for dinner, it was a bowl of soup. It was called soup, but when it was served, it could illuminate the sky full of stars.
This kind of food can't satisfy my stomach at all.
Old Man Qin sighed and said, "Old Four, I remember you have some dry wood at home. Give it to me."
The Fourth Master said, "That thing can't be eaten or drunk, so what's the point of it?"
"There's someone in the city who wants it. I can exchange it for a few pounds of food."
The Fourth Master's eyes lit up when he heard this and he said, "Really? There's such a good thing?"
When the three of them arrived at the Fourth Master's house, a child inside said, "Grandpa, who's here?"
"Brother Qinhuai, don't move when you're asleep. If you move, you'll be even hungrier." The Fourth Master brought the grandfather and grandson to the wood and said, "This is genuine cypress. Take a look at it and see if it works."
The old man said, "This wood is really hard."
"I was planning to make a coffin, but these days people are dying, so why would I care about the future?"
Qin Huai looked at the old man, who motioned for him to speak. "Old Four, we've been brothers for years. This wood is nice, but I can only give you five pounds of cornmeal. If you're willing, I'll take the wood. If not, forget it."
The fourth master said, "Five pounds of cornmeal, if stored properly, will last for a month, okay."
The old man said, "Okay, Qin Huai, give the things to your Fourth Master, and we'll come and get the wood later."
Qin Huai immediately took out the cornmeal from his pocket and handed it to the Fourth Master. The Fourth Master hugged the cloth bag and cried, "If this had come a day earlier, my old woman wouldn't have to go to the river engineering site with the villagers to look for her son. I wonder how she is doing now?"
The old man could not bear it and said, "Don't cry, wait until the year is better, we old brothers will go into the mountains together and cut a new coffin for you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
