Chapter 111 Hua Ni
The villagers only then realized that the village chief's family had also suffered such a disaster. The woman who had been wailing loudly suddenly stopped crying: "Village... Village chief, I didn't know such a big thing happened to your family. I'm so sorry!"
She was too embarrassed to cry anymore. Not only that, she pushed her man in front of Lai Fu and told him to hurry up and follow the village chief to find food.
Seeing this, the others decided not to continue making trouble, so they all signed up enthusiastically and followed the village chief out to get food.
These people finally returned before dark.
During this period, Zhang Xiu led the women in the village who had free time to clean up the yamen kitchen.
Fortunately, the yamen was a place where everyone ate from a big pot, so there was no shortage of pots and bowls. After busying around and tidying up, there were dozens of sets of bowls and chopsticks.
When Lai Fu and the others came back, they brought back a bunch of utensils, pots, pans, and anything that could be used. Most of the food they dug up was sweet potatoes.
In addition, Ding Xiaodie and Ding Gui, father and daughter, quietly found a deserted place and took out a bag of rice from the space, which weighed at least fifteen kilograms.
Well, cook sweet potatoes with rice porridge and add a bag of salt.
After it was cooked, everyone lined up and waited for the village chief to serve a bowl to each of them. When they held the bowl of steaming hot sweet potato and rice porridge in their hands, some people drank it with mixed feelings and shed tears.
Ding Xiaodie and her family of three sat around Wang Dafeng, and whoever had a free hand would feed her.
The old woman was a little confused now. She held the rabbit tightly in her arms and would not let anyone touch it. If anyone looked at the rabbit in her arms for a few more seconds, she would curse the person's ancestors.
When he wasn't cursing, he would just murmur to Rabbit, "My Hua Ni, my Bao Er."
Ding Xiaodie asked in confusion: "Dad, who is Hua Ni?"
Ding Gui thought for a while before digging out the answer from the original owner's memory: "She's my sister. Your grandmother gave birth to four children in her lifetime. In addition to your uncles and me, there was also a daughter named Hua Ni. Later, when she was five years old, she was taken away by Pai Hua Zi!"
I see.
Ding Xiaodie and her daughter looked at each other with complicated expressions. It turned out that the old woman also had a knot in her heart. The lost precious daughter was her greatest pain. This earthquake actually shook out the worries that she had buried for so many years!
Maybe it was because of this reason, but Zhang Xiu suddenly had a better understanding of the old woman, and became more careful and considerate when taking care of her.
After finishing his porridge, Lai Fu said, "Today, except for those who are keeping watch and taking care of the injured, everyone should go to bed early. We still have things to do tomorrow."
Tomorrow, everyone will go to bury the villagers who died in the earthquake.
But that being said, who can sleep well?
Everyone was sitting around the yard with a bonfire in the middle. No one spoke, and everyone had a sad look on their face. Some people had injured family members, and now they didn't even have a doctor, so they could only let them live.
I don't know whether I should blame the heaven or hate the earth because of the heart-wrenching pain. In short, every villager in Aozigou has never felt as desperate as they do now.
…
After everyone finally couldn't bear it anymore and went back to their houses to rest, Lai Fu gathered together several men in the village who were in trouble.
"Three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang. Everyone, please give me some advice. What should we do next?"
"Uncle, there is really no way. I can't figure it out no matter how hard I try. Let alone the future, it's even a problem whether I can have a bite to eat tomorrow." Ding Xing frowned. Although there are only 87 people in the village now, that is not a small number. It is not easy to lead such a large team.
Lai Fu took a puff of his pipe and said, "Nonsense! If this was an easy solution, why would I bother you all?"
In fact, Ding Gui had been thinking about this matter, but at this moment he couldn't find a solution.
Miao Daxing said, "Why don't we keep moving forward? A tree that moves can bring life. We can't stay in Yangliu Town any longer. The only way to survive is to keep moving forward. Isn't Wo County also said to be prosperous?"
"When we first came here, we also heard that Yangliu Town was prosperous. What happened?" Ding Shun was angry. He was in a bad mood these past two days. His wife Fang Cuihua was always quarreling with him. As a result, the couple had not yet sorted out their affairs when this earthquake happened.
Lai Fu looked at Ding Gui: "A Gui, speak."
With what happened during this period, Lai Fu trusts Ding Gui more and more, and now he directly feels that his ideas are the most important.
Ding Gui was stunned for a moment. He thought to himself, although Xiaodie had space, she could only take out part of the food. In any case, it was impossible to feed eighty-seven mouths every day as if nothing had happened.
The most important thing is, if they take out so much food at once, won’t they be regarded as monsters?
People of this generation are very convinced of superstitions, so the three of them as a family never take things lightly.
At present, apart from the muddy water in the well, there is really no hope in Yangliu Town.
"I agree with Dayou. Although the process will be difficult, we will die sooner or later if we stay in Yangliu Town."
Ding Gui looked at everyone apologetically. This was the only idea he could come up with. As for whether to leave or not, it depended on everyone.
Lai Fu pondered and nodded: "It's true that we have no way to retreat, but it's unlikely that we can leave now. There are still a few injured people in the village. It's so hot, I'm afraid they won't be able to survive if we set out on the road."
This is indeed a big problem.
Just when everyone fell silent, Lai Fu suggested: "Can you see if some of you can go ahead? If we don't encounter any desert soldiers on the road, and we speed up, we can reach the destination in three days after covering fifty miles!"
But what purpose do these people who leave first serve? Should we expect them to return to Yangliu Town with food and provide relief in three days?
Ding Gui felt that the possibility was unlikely.
The selfishness of human nature will be reflected in the environment. If these people arrived in Wo County and found that they could have enough food there, then there would be no need for them to take the risk of encountering desert soldiers again and return to Yangliu Town to rescue people.
And how to save them?
Are they capable of pulling back two large carts of food?
"I think if we are going to leave, we should leave together. Otherwise, no one should leave." Ding Shun said sullenly. Obviously, he had thought of what Ding Gui had thought of.
The territory they were discussing was just inside the side courtyard gate. Ding Xiaodie happened to be sleeping in the room near the corner of the courtyard. She lay on the bed with her eyes wide open, quietly listening to the voices of the group of men return to silence again.
The moonlight in the night sky outside the window was very bright. She thought that it was obviously irrational for the villagers to leave in batches at this time.
It seems to be telling everyone that the strong and healthy ones should go first, and the old, weak and sick ones should stay behind. This will make everyone feel uneasy, because no one can say whether those who leave first will come back.
(End of this chapter)
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