Both being farmers who had spent their lives toiling in the fields, the two village chiefs felt a sense of kinship and quickly struck up a conversation.
"It will take another day to get to Gudao County from here. There is a flat area about 20 miles outside our village. If you hurry, you can spend the night there."
Is there a water source?
"Yes, there is a stream flowing down from the mountain. It's almost dried up, but it's enough for all of you and your livestock to drink."
Village Chief Lin bowed to him again, sincerely thanking him.
"Thank you for your guidance, Brother Xie. We'll meet again someday, so let's part ways here."
Hearing him spout such literary flair, Village Chief Cheng opened his mouth but could only manage a dry, curt "Take care on your journey."
After the Linjia Village group had gone far away, the Chengjia Village villagers surrounded the village chief and started chattering amongst themselves.
"Village chief, why don't we go south too?"
"Yes, I heard from my aunt's aunt that many county towns are now empty."
Village Chief Cheng gave each of them a flick on the forehead, and angrily cursed, "Get out of here! We've lived here for generations, and at least we have a roof over our heads. It's going to get cold soon, how will our families survive outside?"
"Didn't the entire Linjia Village also move together?"
"Yes! There are many of them, so we can follow them."
Some villagers were not convinced.
"Are you blind? Didn't you see that every household has livestock pulling carts? How can you compare to their wealth?"
The villagers' initial arrogance was quickly extinguished by the village chief's rebuke, leaving them speechless.
Finally, Village Chief Cheng said in a deep voice, "Let's see. Maybe things will be better next year."
These words were meant to persuade the villagers, and also to persuade himself.
After walking for nearly two hours, Lin Yinan and his group finally arrived at the flat land that Village Chief Cheng had mentioned.
Yun Mo looked around and found that, just as the village chief had said, this place was very suitable for resting, so he ordered the group to stop and prepare to spend the night there.
As soon as they stopped, Lin Yinan prepared to go and check on the nearly dried-up stream.
Lin Yi'an sat on the cart all day, his buttocks were so sore from the jolting. When it stopped, he was ordered not to run around. When he saw his sister was going up the mountain, he dragged Lu Changqing and Lin Yibo along with her.
"Sister, we want to go up the mountain with you too."
Seeing this, Lin Yichun also chased after him with her short legs, calling out as she ran, "Brother, sister, wait for me."
Lin Yinan had no choice but to stop. Lin Shuo and Lin Yiheng were busy setting up the tent, while Lin Yizhang helped out. Old Mrs. Zhao and Zhang Shi set up the pot to prepare dinner.
So she led a group of children toward the water source.
The stream was indeed very small, and the village chief directed the villagers to dig a water pit so that it would be easier to fetch water.
Lin Yizhang and his brother Lin Fu led their livestock to drink water downstream.
"Anan, where are you taking your younger brother and sister?"
Lin Yinan said, "Second brother, let's not go far, let's just go up and take a look."
"While you're at it, check if there's any grass up there. I'll cut it later."
"good."
Lin Yinan agreed and led the children to climb up the stream.
The hillside wasn't very steep, and there were many bushes on both sides. The trees were sparse, and it looked like the people from Chengjia Village had cut down a lot of them.
Suddenly, her gaze was drawn to a plant climbing on a bush.
I plucked a leaf to examine it, and then found many small fruits on the vine.
Lin Yinan picked a few, and after looking at them, she was overjoyed. These were yams.
She found a stick, sharpened it with a dagger, and then began digging along the base of the vine.
Chika squatted down to help pull away the excess vines.
"Young lady, what's under these vines?"
"It's delicious." Lin Yinan smiled.
Qianwu told the children not to go far, then found a stick and started digging too.
Here, near a stream, the soil was soft, and they quickly dug out a root as thick as a child's arm.
"Miss, is this it?" Qianxia asked happily.
"Yes, that's right, keep digging, there's still a long way to go below, don't break it."
Lin Yi'an and the others stopped and gathered around to watch them dig.
It took the three of them some effort to dig out a half-meter-long section of yam.
Just then, Lin Yizhang and Lin Yisong climbed up.
"Anan, what treasures are you digging for here?"
Lin Yinan held up the half-meter-long yam in her hand for the two to see, and said with a smile, "Look, we've struck gold."
"What is this? Can we eat it?"
Lin Yisong took the yam and used his fingers to scrape off the mud on it.
"It's edible."
Lin Yinan nodded, then turned to look for other yam vines. Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she headed towards the nearby felled woods.
It's out! It's out!
She actually found a large patch of yams here.
Subsequently, Chika and Chima discovered many yam vines.
"Girl, there are many here."
"Girl, this is one too."
Lin Yizhang leaned over to take a look and found it somewhat unbelievable.
"This thing was dug out from under these vines?"
“That’s right, it’s even tastier than wild vegetable porridge.” Lin Yinan searched her memory and realized that the people here had no idea that yams could be eaten.
"Then I'll go get a hoe to dig."
As Lin Yizhang turned to leave, she quickly grabbed him and said, "Second brother, go and call your father and the village chief up. The hillside is full of them; we can't dig them all up."
The two brothers grabbed the piece of yam and ran quickly down the mountain.
Lin Yinan looked at the yam fruits on the vines, turned to Qianxia and the children and said, "Help me pick these little fruits off the vines."
"Sister, can we eat this too?" Lin Yi'an asked.
Lin Yinan: "They can be eaten, or we can keep them as seeds so that we can plant them in the ground when we settle down in the future."
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