“Wife, we’ll only be gone for two or three days, four or five days at most. We’ll be back soon. Besides, you’ve seen the Taoist’s skills before. The two of us will definitely be fine.”
"On the contrary, you must take good care of yourself while I'm not home. If you feel unwell anywhere, tell Grandpa Zhao," Lu Chuan instructed.
"Girl, Xiao Chuan is right. It's you and Old Man Zhao who are most worrying about us at home!"
"Alright, alright. Although I'm not as good as you two, the dogs are still at home! If I really can't beat them, I'll just take Xiaohan and hide. We can definitely hold out until you come back," Grandpa Zhao said defiantly.
Everyone laughed upon hearing this, which finally eased the tense atmosphere.
After breakfast, Lu Chuan reluctantly left with the Taoist priest.
This was the first time Lu Chuan had been away for so long since Xu Han became pregnant! Although he was very reluctant to leave, he still had to go down the mountain.
Staying in the mountains all the time isn't a good idea; we need to understand the situation down below so we can better prepare for and prevent potential problems.
After Lu Chuan and the Taoist priest left, Xu Han and Grandpa Zhao got busy.
The Taoist priest told the two of them to cook more food at home these next few days and store it in his space.
The situation is relatively good so far, and we don't need the food from the space for the time being. However, when the drought gets worse, we will try to avoid cooking as much as possible.
Firstly, to prevent the aroma of the food from attracting wild animals, and secondly, to prevent starving people from venturing into the deep mountains in search of food.
If they follow the smell of food and find this place, it will be troublesome. It's not a problem if one or two people come, but it's a problem if a group of people come together. In that case, a fierce battle is inevitable.
To avoid this kind of thing, it's best to cook less. While there's still time, quickly cook more food and prepare more dishes.
The dishes that need to be stir-fried haven't been prepared yet! So Xu Han first cooked rice and porridge in the three large iron pots, making sure not to waste any time.
Grandpa Zhao tended three pots by himself, running back and forth between the yard and the kitchen. Fortunately, all the firewood was already chopped, so as long as he kept an eye on the fire to prevent it from falling off or going out, he was fine.
Xu Han then cleaned the vegetables that needed to be stir-fried, picked out the vegetables that needed to be picked in advance, and blanched the vegetables that needed to be blanched in advance, so that she could stir-fry them directly in a while.
The two of them were busy all morning, and after a simple lunch, they went to rest.
The midday sun is very strong now, and it's impossible to stay in the kitchen for long, especially with a fire burning inside! It feels even hotter.
After waking up from her afternoon nap, the kitchen was still very hot, so Xu Han simply took out ice from her spatial storage and put it in a large wooden basin to at least cool it down.
Then I started kneading the dough and let it rise so I could make some steamed buns later.
After the dough has risen, we boiled sweet potatoes in the large iron pot outside and started stir-frying vegetables in the iron pot inside the kitchen.
Use two pots together, one for stir-frying meat and vegetables, and the other for stir-frying greens, so as not to waste time.
I spent the whole afternoon cooking, and then in the evening I kneaded the dough with Grandpa Zhao so we could make steamed buns for the next morning.
"Xiao Han, are you feeling tired? If you are, take a rest," Grandpa Zhao asked with concern.
"Grandpa Zhao, I'm not tired. Are you tired? Would you like to rest for a while?"
"I'm not tired! Let's finish making these steamed buns first! After that, let's rest early tonight and make more tomorrow."
"Okay, go rest when you're done."
For the next three days, Xu Han and Grandpa Zhao stayed home cooking mixed grains, stir-frying vegetables, and making steamed buns.
Nothing unusual happened during this period; everything was peaceful and uneventful.
However, things weren't going so smoothly for Lu Chuan.
When the Taoist priest and Lu Chuan arrived at around 2 p.m., they discovered that the mountain had been trodden on.
Keep in mind that this place is quite far from the foot of the mountain. For the farmers at the foot of the mountain, this is already deep in the mountains. The fact that they dare to come this far shows that there really isn't much to eat down there.
Seeing this, both of them looked grave and quickened their pace without saying a word, trying to reach the county town before dark.
The Taoist priest led Lu Chuan on a frantic run, and Lu Chuan was so exhausted that he almost couldn't go on. Finally, they saw the shadow of the city gate.
Because it was already late when they came down the mountain, and there were hardly any people on the official road, the two of them naturally didn't find out anything.
All I could see was that the great river, which used to have a lot of water, was now almost dry, with only a shallow layer of water on the riverbed.
The Taoist priest carried Lu Chuan to a secluded spot, climbed over the city wall, and began searching for an inn.
Although it was nighttime, the two of them could clearly see that there were far fewer people in the county town now.
Normally, the houses should be brightly lit at this time, but now at least one-fifth of the residents have their lights off. What's going on? Lu Chuan wondered curiously.
Before Lu Chuan could think further, he saw the Taoist priest leap onto the top of the wall. Lu Chuan looked at the Taoist priest, completely bewildered.
After waiting for a few minutes, the Taoist priest jumped down from the wall and said, "Most of these houses without lights are empty, while a few houses are occupied, probably because they don't have the money to light lamps."
"Where did all those empty houses go? Could it be...?" Lu Chuan suddenly thought of something.
"They're either dead or gone. It's more likely they've left, since they can't all be dead!" the Taoist priest said indifferently.
"It's already April, and it seems that many people have realized the weather is not right and have started to flee to other places."
"Let's find an inn to rest for a while! We'll go out and gather information again tomorrow." After saying this, the Taoist priest headed towards the inn where he had stayed last time.
Upon arriving at their destination, each person booked a room. Just as they were about to pay for their rooms, the Taoist priest was startled.
"It's so expensive, why don't you just rob someone?!"
"Please don't be angry, sir. This is the price now. What can you buy with this little money these days? It's all the same."
Lu Chuan thought about it and realized that was indeed the case, so he said, "Alright then! Please bring us two buckets of hot water."
"A bucket of hot water costs 50 coins," the waiter said sheepishly.
"Fifty coins? You might as well rob someone! A bucket of hot water costs fifty coins!" This time, Lu Chuan was also agitated.
"Water is now rationed. Ordinary people have to queue up to fetch water from the deep well. If they are late, they won't have any water to drink. The sacred well is now guarded by government officials. We can't even get more water if we want to. It's all rationed per person."
"If it weren't for the deep well inside the inn, you wouldn't even have access to water," the innkeeper explained.
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