What a joke! At your age, you want to go up and operate the waterwheel? What if you accidentally slip and fall? That would be a real problem.
After finally managing to persuade a few elderly people, the village children started causing trouble as well.
"This isn't a toy. Anyone who makes a fuss here should go back and copy their homework." Sure enough, this sentence quickly sent those children away.
Next up was the shift work of pedaling the waterwheel. People were joking that it was homemade fitness equipment, much more meaningful than the old treadmills.
For several days in a row, the villagers showed great enthusiasm for the waterwheel, with men, women, and children all getting a turn to experience it. Even the elderly couldn't resist the temptation and, with the help of their younger relatives, managed to pedal it for a while.
Because Yun Sanman and his group built the waterwheel, the village also began to implement the previous reward program, taking some resources from the village's public resources and distributing them to the participants.
"Now that we don't have to worry about irrigation for the farmland, let's continue to go up the mountain to look for wild mushrooms and vegetables, in case the drought continues and we can't find these things anymore." The village has gathered everyone together again today.
"We still have so many wild mushrooms at home that we haven't finished eating, why are we going to go looking for more?" Some of the people who had just had a couple of days of free time didn't want to move at all and muttered to themselves.
"Then you can just stay home and watch us do our work," someone nearby said, trying to persuade him.
"I'm not stupid. If I did that, you guys would curse me to death."
"Don't forget the journey we took to get salt back. Many places are now experiencing drought, and even the weeds on the mountains are starting to wither. If we don't prepare ourselves, we'll be starving."
Those nearby couldn't help but shudder upon hearing this. Well, let's hurry up and collect some more. Anyway, listening to the villagers has always been the right thing to do.
"Look at these mushrooms, they're all dried up. We can pick them up and store them right away." Looking at the dried mushrooms scattered on the ground, Gao Jie, like everyone else, bent over and kept picking them up.
"If I didn't know what different fungi look like after they dry, I really wouldn't dare to pick them. What if I accidentally picked a poisonous one? That would be terrible. Everyone has to be careful," Yun Qi instructed the people around him as he picked. Later, during the drought, many people did indeed pick poisonous dried mushrooms. If the poison was strong, they would die instantly, while those that weren't very poisonous caused even more suffering.
"Don't worry, the elders at home will check it again when we get back. We've been doing farm work for so long, they're still worried." Yun Liping carefully examined each mushroom, not wanting to be nagged at again when she got back.
While they were picking mushrooms, Si Cheng led the men of the village to deepen the trenches behind the mountain. They had been hearing various animal calls coming from the back mountain, and remembering what Captain Liu and the others had said about the animals migrating, the village's first reaction was to continue widening and deepening the trenches.
For safety reasons, they didn't venture deep into the mountains this time, but stayed on the outskirts so that Si Cheng and the others could arrive quickly if anything happened.
"Brother, are there fewer and fewer snakes now?" Looking at the wild boars howling in hunger in the pit, Yun Tao missed the pit full of snakes in the past. He felt that these wild boars had lost weight.
“There are far fewer of them; they’ve probably gone looking for a water source.” Si Cheng stuck the collected sticks into the wall. Because the ground was getting drier and drier, these trench walls would easily collapse if they weren’t reinforced.
"What should we do? These wild boars are almost out of food. How about we go up the mountain for a walk after we finish work and find some food for them?"
Si Cheng continued with his work, "We'll discuss it with everyone later and go to Xin San Village on the other side to exchange some. There are a lot of snakes in their trenches. Otherwise, with the drought everywhere, the snakes would have moved to other places to live long ago. Didn't you notice that they didn't encounter any snakes when they went to pick mushrooms today?"
“Animales are smarter than humans these days, and have you noticed that we’re becoming more and more primitive?” Yun Tao asked, reflecting on the turbulent nights of the past few days.
"You're only realizing this now? Look around us, all those high-tech products are slowly disappearing, even plastic is starting to weather. In the future, we'll only be able to survive in the most primitive state." Yun Xun handed the whittled wooden sticks to the bottom of the pit, and the other villagers collected the sticks and removed the branches from the sides.
"I don't know if we'll be able to recover in our lifetime." Yun Yang was genuinely pessimistic about this; they hadn't even begun to enjoy the good old days before being reduced to their original state.
Now, both Pinghe Village and other villages feel a sense of urgency. For a long time to come, they will not visit each other, but instead continue to strengthen the village's defenses. However, no matter how hard they try to strengthen the defenses, the enemy will still come.
Everyone had just finished work and was about to rest at home when the gong at the door started ringing in an emergency rhythm.
Everyone ran towards the village entrance, asking others along the way if they knew what had happened, but everyone shook their heads.
The more they realized how serious the situation was, the faster they could go.
When they arrived at the village entrance, they found that the village chief and his group had just arrived and were questioning the person on duty at the watchtower.
"What's going on? Why are you banging the gong so urgently?"
The person on duty here today is Hou Yunyang, the younger brother of the monkey. He pointed outside the wall and said, "People from Baijia Village came for help, but they were covered in blood and I didn't recognize them."
Upon hearing this, Village Chief Yun quickly climbed up the observation platform, and Si Cheng followed closely behind.
"Uncle, Brother Cheng, it's me, White Cat. I've come to beg you to come and help." The people below shouted excitedly when they saw Village Chief Yun and Si Cheng.
"You're the Bai family's child, what happened to you?" As soon as the village chief heard him call him White Cat, he knew who he was. Without waiting for his answer, he quickly shouted down, "Open the door, it's someone from Bai Family Village."
After saying that, he quickly ran down the stairs, with Si Cheng following closely beside him, afraid that he would fall.
As soon as the door opened, White Cat and the others sat down on the ground, saying, "We're finally saved."
"What happened? How did it become like this?" everyone asked in unison.
"Everyone, please be quiet," Si Cheng said, raising his hand to stop the commotion. After everyone quieted down, he turned to ask Bai Mao and the others.
"How did it get like this?"
“The village was attacked by wolves. In the latter half of last night, these wolves somehow climbed over the wall and entered the village. All the village's livestock suffered. If they had only taken the poultry, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but unexpectedly, the wolves actually rushed into people's homes and attacked them. At that time, the village was not prepared at all. Even if they fought back, many people were bitten, and some even died.” White Cat couldn't continue after saying this.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com