Chapter 142 The King of Children
The surroundings were full of the elderly, the weak, women and children. Everyone was out of breath and worried about their families. Even when they heard Ding Hao's crying, everyone's eyes showed numbness and no one was in the mood to care about other people's affairs.
Just as Ding Xiaodie was about to go over and comfort him, Fang Cuihua rushed over before her. She glared at Zhu, then hugged Ding Hao and coaxed him, "Don't cry, Hao. I'll catch a bird for you later, okay?"
Ding Hao's crying became less loud, but he was still sobbing and staring blankly ahead.
Although the child was rescued by Mr. Lu, he was still abnormal afterwards. He refused to speak and would not look at anyone. He looked dull and had no trace of his former cleverness.
Fang Cuihua was a childless woman. Seeing that Ding Hao had calmed down a bit, she simply hugged him and coaxed him: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. I'm here. Your mother is a hot-tempered person. If she scolds you again, I'll scold her."
Zhu stood aside and stared: "..."
But she was in no mood to argue with Fang Cuihua.
Seeing that things were calming down, Zhang Xiu shouted to everyone, "Don't stop, keep moving forward. Everything depends on you now. You have to work harder. When we reach our destination, we'll prepare food. The men will feel happy when they return home and have something to eat. That's what we should do."
"Yes, Sister Xiu is right, let's go quickly!" Miao Dayou's wife, Bai, also actively encouraged everyone.
They continued walking forward. Ding Hao was always taken care of by Fang Cuihua. There were also several children from Miao Dayou's family with them. The children were too young and did not understand the hardships of being a mother. Almost every one of them groaned as they walked, complaining of being hungry and thirsty.
This cannot go on. The elderly are annoyed to death by the noise, and the other children are also made to cry by them. As a result, the young women are the most tired, as they have to take care of the elderly and coax the children at the same time.
Ding Xiaodie decided: "All the children, come to my side. You adults will lead the way, and we will follow behind. No one will get left behind."
How can this be?
Children are taking care of children, especially during this extraordinary period.
But some people couldn't hold on any longer and turned around and yelled at their children: "Did you hear me? Hurry up and go find Sister Xiaodie."
What the adults didn’t expect was that when they asked them to find Sister Xiaodie, all the children stopped crying and actually went to find Ding Xiaodie.
Zhang Xiu knew her daughter had a plan, so she turned around and called out to everyone, "Let's continue."
"Can Xiaodie take care of so many children by herself?" Some people were still worried.
Ding Xiaodie was waving optimistically over there: "Don't worry, Auntie, I'm not the only one taking care of the child. I have two cousins, Ding Xue and Ding Mei, who are willing to help."
Ding Xue and Ding Mei were just about to leave with the adults when they were stopped dead in their tracks by her words: "..."
This damn girl, is she trying to cheat people?
When the villagers heard that Ding Xue and Ding Mei were also there, they felt much more relieved, since they were both thirteen or fourteen years old.
Soon all the children in the village came to Ding Xiaodie to report. She counted them and there were exactly thirteen. At least seven of them had been beaten by her. The other two, except Dingxiang, were good kids and easy to deal with.
Miao Dayou's wife, Bai, assigned the three oldest children to her side. They were also about eight or nine years old. Although they had never been beaten by Ding Xiaodie, she usually called her "sister".
Sometimes children just listen to other children, it's magical.
A hundred words from an adult are not as good as one word from a friend.
Ding Xiaodie then ordered them, "Pick a softer leaf and wipe your snot first!"
The three of them wiped their noses obediently: "..."
"From now on, don't cry. You're men, so be strong. You're all hungry, right? I have some candies here. I'll give each of you one. If you can all reach your destination and stop crying, I'll get you some more candy in a few days."
sugar?
What a fascinating word this is. Children usually like it very much. When they escape famine, they dream of eating candy.
At this moment, the only thing all the children could do was nod hurriedly.
Ding Xiaodie kept her word: "Anyone who cries again will never be able to eat candy again."
As she spoke, she distributed the colorful chocolates to the children, one each, no more, no less.
The children looked at the dazzling colors lying in their palms, with great surprise in their little eyes, and then they carefully put them in their mouths, squinted their eyes, and said, "Wow, so sweet, so fragrant."
Ding Xue and Ding Mei, who were standing aside and watching, showed envy in their eyes. They even stretched out their hands, waiting for Ding Xiaodie to give them candy.
But Ding Xiaodie gave out the last candy: "There's no more candy, just enough, okay, let's go!"
The two were completely stunned. There was no one for them?
That's too much. Why should we ask them to help take care of the children?
But Ding Xiaodie had already started to ask everyone to line up, and no one could be left behind. The oldest child would lead the way, the younger ones would be in the middle, and the half-grown ones would be at the end.
Ding Xiaodie asked Ding Xue and Ding Mei to lead the way in front, and she followed behind.
The two cousins were fuming because they didn't get any candy: "You can pick on whoever you want, we won't do it."
"Aren't you helping me take care of the kids? These guys are all from Aozigou. As members of the team, don't you want to contribute a little bit of your own strength?" Ding Xiaodie shook her head when she saw these two guys. They were useless except for taking advantage.
The other children had already overwhelmingly sided with Ding Xiaodie. Seeing that Ding Xue and Ding Mei were still trying to bully Ding Xiaodie like before, they immediately shouted in unison, "Lead the way, lead the way, Ding Xue and Ding Mei, you lead the way."
The two of them were immediately filled with black lines.
It's their bad luck that they met such a group of little bastards. Their noise made their heads hurt.
Okay, okay, bring it!
The little kids who were bribed by a piece of candy were indeed more motivated than before. When they walked on the mountain road, although some of them fell from time to time, they would immediately get up and continue walking.
It’s not like when I’m with my mother, sometimes thirsty, sometimes hungry, and sometimes complaining about foot pain.
Just like that, they caught up with the main group in no time.
The adults were truly relieved when they saw that their children were well-behaved by Ding Xiaodie and no longer cried or made a fuss.
After walking a few miles, they finally saw a flat, empty area in front of them. It was probably because all the trees here had been cut down for some reason, but now it was a perfect place for them to stay.
The flat land could be used for resting. The mountains they had climbed before were all sloped, and it was impossible for one person to lie down flat. The only disadvantage was that there were no trees, so the sun shone directly on them.
Now I can only hide in the woods when I want to bask in the sun, and then go out and lie on the flat ground after the sun sets in the evening.
Finally able to take a break, the ragged villagers sat down among the trees in a mess.
(End of this chapter)
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