Chapter 42: Setting off on the journey
The next morning, the village chief went from house to house beating gongs and drums to wake up all the villagers, telling them that they had to hurry because they had to take a detour along the mountain road to the provincial capital.
No one had breakfast that day. They packed their bags and lined up to go down the mountain. The village chief had already arrived at the foot of the mountain and told the village chiefs of other villages about the situation in the county town. The villagers of Huaishuzhuang and Maiduo Village decided to rest for another day and arrange people to go to the city to purchase supplies.
After much deliberation, the team from Qingshi Town decided to follow the team from Dayao Village and leave first. After all, almost all the people in the town were businessmen, and they all had either ox carts or horse carts, so their supplies were relatively complete.
The Wu family drove a horse-drawn carriage behind the village chief, and was far ahead of the team. Everyone knew that they would have to walk a lot further if they went into the mountains, so now the whole team was moving much faster.
Wu Yuetang sat in the carriage and paid attention to the surrounding environment. After observing last night, she knew that the rain would only get heavier, not lighter. However, she did not expect that after dawn, the scorching heat would return again, and even the cool breeze was gone.
She noticed that many insects, birds and animals were fleeing from the grass and trees on both sides of the road. In addition, due to the long-term drought, the grass on the ground was very scarce. She could clearly see that the birds had already landed and were competing for territory with the snakes and rats on the ground.
Wu Yuetang was shocked. A rainstorm was coming, and it would be a race against time.
They had traveled more than ten miles from early morning to noon, and many villagers who did not have cars could no longer hold on. Some had rubbed feet, showed signs of heatstroke, and some had almost finished their water bags.
They arrived at the foot of the mountain on the other side of the county town. This was the mountain range they were going to enter in the afternoon. Hunter Zhang often went up the mountain to hunt and was very familiar with the surrounding mountains. He had already drawn a map of the nearby terrain, which was now in the hands of the village chief.
Everyone rested in a relatively cool place at the foot of the mountain. The village chief called some of the heads of the families to a meeting. Wu Yuetang took out the cakes that Qi Yu had sent earlier and distributed them to his family, intending to make do with them for lunch.
Seeing his father being called away by the village chief, he hurriedly followed him.
"Dad, take me with you."
Wu Shoutian took her over. When everyone saw that the girl from the Wu family had followed them, some people started teasing Wu Shoutian.
"Old Wu, you always bring your daughter with you on everything. Does it seem like you're planning to give the reins of the family to her?"
Then there was a burst of laughter, and Wu Shoutian touched his head embarrassedly.
"What can we do? Our daughter is capable. We can always listen to her about household matters."
"Alright, alright, enough rambling. Let's take a look at this map. It's a topographical map of this mountain drawn by Hunter Zhang. We must reach the mountainside tonight to avoid wasting time. It's already the end of August. If we don't make it out of this snowy mountain by mid-September, the journey will be even more difficult later."
Everyone looked at the route marked on the map and the circled snow-capped mountain area, and the originally playful atmosphere suddenly became dull.
Wu Yuetang looked at the map and suddenly found some marked black spots on the hill behind.
"Village Chief, what do these black spots mean?"
"According to Hunter Zhang, there are caves around here, but he hasn't come here to hunt for a long time. I don't know if the caves are still there. If they are, we can spend the night in the caves."
Wu Yuetang didn't say anything, but compared it in his mind with the map given by the system. There was not much difference, except that there were fewer caves. Now there were only two caves left that could be lived in. One was on the top of the mountain, which was relatively high, and the other was on the lower part of the mountain, which was relatively low.
The village chief sought everyone's opinion and decided to reach the foot of the other side of the mountain before sunset tomorrow night at the latest.
After going back and eating some pastries, everyone prepared to set off again.
Until the sun went down, the team still hadn't reached the mountainside. This was mainly because the villagers who were walking behind had injuries to their legs and feet, which slowed them down a lot. The village chief was worried but couldn't bear to see them in pain.
Finally, they decided to rest where they were. Just after everyone had built the stove and started a fire, Wu Yuetang felt the wind again. This time, the wind was even cooler than the previous day.
The bright moon, which was as big as a round disk the night before, now looked a little smaller. Wu Yuetang looked at the lamb chops being roasted on the stone slab in front of him, said a few words to his sister-in-law and mother, then got up and went to find the village chief.
"village head!"
The village chief had just finished his meal and was resting against a tree trunk. When he saw Wu Yuetang coming, he waved with a smile.
"Wu girl, what's the matter?"
"Village Chief, I've been observing the stars these past two nights, and I think it's going to rain heavily today."
Wu Yuetang went straight to the point, but as soon as he said this, the village chief laughed out loud.
"You silly girl, you're still stargazing at night. It won't rain until autumn."
"It's true. Village chief, haven't you noticed that there's been a cool breeze these past two nights? This wind has a chill to it, completely different from the previous evening breezes."
"Impossible, impossible. Look at the daytime when we were traveling. There was no wind. At night, there is no sun. It is normal for the wind to blow."
The village chief smiled and waved his hands to deny it.
"I know the village chief may not believe it, but this rain will definitely fall in a few days, and it will definitely be heavy. Tomorrow we must rush to the next hilltop and find a cave to shelter from the rain."
Looking at Wu Yuetang's serious eyes, the village chief couldn't help but frown.
"Hey, what are you talking about, girl? We can't encounter heavy rain in the mountains, otherwise the whole team will not be able to move forward. Take back what you said, bah bah bah."
Wu Yuetang was completely bewildered by the village chief's string of comments. Ugh? Could it be that the village chief had mistaken her for a jinx?
Seeing that the village chief still looked unconvinced, Wu Yuetang curled her lips and returned to her tent. Seeing that the barbecue on the stone slab was almost done, she put a few lamb chops on a plate, sprinkled some of her special barbecue sauce on it, and took it to find the Qi family.
After all, I accepted five hundred taels of silver notes from them, so I still have to serve them well.
As expected, the master of the Qi family became interested in this barbecue again and pulled Wu Yuetang aside to ask questions.
"Master Qi, please don't be anxious. Let's sit down and talk slowly when we get to the capital."
Master Qi agreed immediately.
"Okay, okay, Miss Wu, if you come to the capital and come up with any new dishes, don't cooperate with other restaurants. Remember to come find us."
"Okay, okay."
When Wu Yuetang returned to her tent, she saw that her family had left a lot of lamb chops for her. She felt warm in her heart and hugged Li and gave her a kiss.
"Mom, you're so nice."
After saying that, she grabbed the lamb chops and started to eat them. Li felt a little embarrassed by her kiss, and the brothers and sisters-in-law next to her covered their mouths and laughed.
"My little sister is still so clingy to me. When she was little and just learned to crawl, she would ask me to hold her every day and would cry if I didn't hold her."
The eldest brother smiled and started talking about interesting things from his childhood.
"Yes, at that time, Dad came over and said he wanted to hold my little sister up high and play, but my little sister refused. When Dad held her, she started crying, and Dad thought she had a bad smell."
"Hahaha, my little sister was so cute when she was little?"
When the second sister-in-law heard what the eldest and second brothers said, she also joined in with a smile.
The atmosphere at dinner time was very harmonious. After the family had eaten and drunk their fill, they packed up and went back to their own tents.
Wu Yuetang entered the space directly and was stunned after hearing the system prompt.
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