Chapter 538 Extra: The Entire Village Frozen to Death
Upon hearing Xie Hanchuan's words, Lin Luoxi couldn't help but roll her eyes at him.
Bears are now her strongest fighting weapons, how could she possibly bear to harm them?
"Hehe, I thought..." Xie Hanchuan realized he had said the wrong thing, laughed awkwardly, quickly put on his hat, and rode off on his sled to catch up with the children.
It took the family of seven two days and one night to enter the territory of Sichuan.
"Mother, it seems like there's no one here." Lin Luoxi and the others passed by a village, only to find that the roofs of the village had collapsed and there was no sign of any living people.
"Awooo!" The white wolf following Xie Leyao seemed to smell something, and Xie Leyao let out a low growl.
"Mother, Little White said that everyone here has frozen to death from the heavy snow." Xie Leyao said sadly as she relayed what the white wolf had told her to Lin Luoxi.
"What?" Lin Luoxi was shocked when she heard the news.
Such a large village must have several thousand people. If they all freeze to death, the first thing that will happen when the snow melts will definitely be a plague.
"Could it be that the local officials are completely unaware of the extent of the disaster in this village?"
"Didn't they say Xiao Jingchen had already sent reinforcements? How come so many people are still dying?"
Lin Luoxi used a handkerchief as a mask to cover her mouth and nose, and tentatively walked towards a house.
When she came out again, her face looked terrible.
"Let's go see what the local officials are doing!" Lin Luoxi's mind was filled with the scene she had just witnessed.
The family of five huddled together, wearing only thin clothes.
She remembered that she had clearly ordered food and warm clothes to be delivered, but she didn't see any thick clothes on these people, and even the blankets they were covered with were thin.
With snow falling for so many days in a row, it's no wonder people froze to death.
"Awoo!" Just as Lin Luoxi and the others were about to leave, the white wolf heard some noise in the village and quickly looked towards Xie Leyao.
"Mother, White Wolf said there seem to be still people alive in the village?" Xie Leyao looked at Lin Luoxi, wanting to see what Lin Luoxi's decision would be.
"Let's go, let Xiaobai lead the way." Upon hearing that there were living people, Lin Luoxi stopped walking out and told Xiaobai to quickly lead the way.
"Xiaobai, lead the way." Xie Leyao asked Xiaobai to lead the way, and they followed behind.
Following Xiaobai through a maze of twists and turns, they finally arrived at a house with a roof that wasn't broken, but the situation inside wasn't much better.
"Is anyone home?" Xie Leyao and Xiaobai were the first to arrive, standing at the door and calling inside.
Xiao Bai hummed and hawed a few times at Xie Leyao before going inside first.
"Ah, wolf, wolf..." The people inside the house thought the white wolf was going to come in and eat them, and they screamed in terror.
"Xiaobai, don't scare people!" Xie Leyao heard a pitiful scream coming from inside the house, so she quickly ran in and told Xiaobai to back away.
"Mother, there are indeed people here." Xie Leyao looked at the several emaciated children curled up on the bed in front of her, her eyes full of sympathy.
Xie Leyao scanned the room and noticed another bed not far from the children's beds, where two adults were lying.
Judging from its stiff appearance, it must have frozen solid.
"Don't be afraid, we're just passing by. Are you the children of this family?" Lin Luoxi came in and asked cautiously, looking at the children huddled together for warmth on the bed.
A deathly aura emanated from the room, likely from the two people covered by thin blankets.
"Mmm!" Among the three children, the older girl lowered her guard and responded to Lin Luoxi's gentle question.
"Are those your parents?" Lin Luoxi pointed to the two adults lying motionless on the bed.
"Um!"
"My esteemed sir, please, save my parents!"
“They just have a fever and are asleep…” The girl looked at Lin Luoxi, then seemed to remember something. Ignoring the freezing weather, she got out of bed and knelt down in front of Lin Luoxi.
"Your parents... are dead!" Lin Luoxi walked over and saw that they had already breathed their last, so she had no choice but to tell the little girl the truth.
"Impossible, impossible..." Upon hearing Lin Luoxi's words, the girl's tears fell in a steady stream.
"Do you want to come into the city and have the officials arrange accommodations for you, or do you want to stay here?"
Lin Luoxi looked around. This house was the best in the whole village. There were still unburnt firewood burning on the ground, which showed that the family was quite well-off, which was why the three children had made it this far.
However, if they stay here, so many people have died in this village, and if there is a plague, these children will probably be the first to suffer.
"Honorable sir, we won't go into the city. Do you have any food? Please give us some food, and we'll choose to stay here..." Upon hearing the words "officers," the girl immediately shook her head in resistance and chose to stay.
"Okay, then we'll give you something to eat." Lin Luoxi turned around and went outside. When she came back, she was carrying thick warm clothes and a bowl of porridge that she had kept warm in her space.
These three children haven't eaten for too long, and if we give them oily or greasy food, they're likely to experience gastrointestinal upset.
Lin Luoxi planned to stay in Cai'ao Village for the time being, and let Xie Hanchuan go to the city to see what was going on.
I went into the kitchen to start a fire and boiled a large pot of water to bathe the three children.
The three siblings, Cai Xiaomei, Cai Yongxin, and Cai Yongying, carefully washed off the mud and grime from their bodies and changed into the new clothes and cotton-padded coats given to them by Lin Luoxi.
They put on masks and even helped the three of them burn the two adults, then put their ashes in jars for the three children.
"I did this to prevent the corpse from rotting, breeding bacteria, and causing a plague. Please don't hold it against me," Lin Luoxi said kindly as she handed the ashes to the three siblings.
"Our benefactor, we are so grateful to you, how could we possibly complain?" Cai Xiaomei took a small sip of hot porridge and looked at Lin Luoxi with gratitude.
If it weren't for Lin Luoxi, she wouldn't know what to do about her parents' funeral arrangements.
After drinking the porridge, the three children followed Lin Luoxi and the quintuplets to other people's homes to see if there were any survivors.
In the entire village, out of hundreds of households, twenty children were found to be still alive.
It's likely that the adults in the family gave the children a chance to survive, which is why they lived.
Lin Luoxi, Xie Zhili, Xie Zhiyan, Xie Zhiheng, Xie Zhichu, and Xie Leyao, along with twenty children, carried out all the villagers who had frozen to death in their homes, gathered them in front of a village ancestral hall, piled them up with firewood, and burned them.
Lin Luoxi also took out quicklime and mugwort to disinfect the entire village.
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