The soup was ready, and everyone was given two bowls of soup with meat. Some rice was added to the soup to prevent indigestion and stomach upset caused by not having eaten meat for a long time. Only lean meat was used, and the fatty meat was used to render oil later.
"Glug glug." The women and children of Linjia Village were drooling with envy, watching the group of people eating meat while they could only drink pork offal soup. The pork offal, which they originally thought was quite delicious, didn't taste so good in comparison.
Seeing that there was still a lot left in the pot, Song Zhuiyan ladled out a large bowl of meat and soup and brought it over, saying, "This meat soup is for the children." She was being quite direct; it was only for the children, and there was no portion for the adults.
“Girl, we’ve been caught in the rain all day, we’re cold and hungry. This little bit of food isn’t enough to fill our stomachs. Anyway, we have two wild boars and so much meat. Please share some with us.”
The woman who spoke was in her early thirties, quite tall with high cheekbones, and her narrow eyes kept darting around. Her voice was somewhat high-pitched, and she seemed like the kind of person who was too shrewd and difficult to get along with.
“We have a large population and not enough food. We need to keep the remaining meat for our own rations, so we can’t share it with you unless you offer other food in exchange. Otherwise, forget it.” Song Zhuiyan said expressionlessly, her tone growing increasingly cold.
"I say, you're too cold-hearted. We're all refugees, can't we help each other out? How can you be like this?" The woman kept grumbling, and when she saw Song Zhuiyan turn around, she followed her unwillingly.
"Oh dear, why did you suddenly stop?" The woman was not expected that Song Zhuiyan would stop suddenly and move aside, causing her to fall forward and land on the ground.
"Don't follow me any further. I've already said there's no way I'll share the meat with you. If you keep causing trouble, I'll show you the power of my big knife." Song Zhuiyan smiled sinisterly, exuding a bandit-like aura.
The woman was indeed frightened. She was a rural woman who bullied the weak and feared the strong, and she couldn't withstand such a fright. She didn't dare to fart anymore and slunk away back to her original resting place.
It was still raining outside. After dinner, Zhu Xiu was frying lard. She planned to use the cracklings to make porridge the next morning.
After resting for a while, Song Zhuiyan waited for Zhu Xiu to finish rendering the lard before starting to stew the pig's stomach. Once it was stewed, she could just heat it up and drink it directly the next day. It was fortunate that Song Tantan had come in first and put a lot of dry firewood into the cave; otherwise, it would have been impossible to start a fire during the heavy rain.
This cave is amazing. The walls are all stone, so even rainwater can't seep in. It's very dry all around, making it a great place to take shelter from the rain. The system is still somewhat useful.
Waaah, the system says finally someone knows how good it is. Heh heh, not only is this cave sturdy, but the entire mountain is extremely sturdy. No matter how heavy the rain, you don't have to worry about being buried by mudslides.
As expected, Ye Moxun developed a high fever in the middle of the night and started talking incoherently. His voice was very soft, and he was saying things that Zhong Qingyi couldn't understand. Song Tantan took his temperature, gave him fever-reducing medicine, and then put her ear close to listen to what he was saying.
Then, completely exasperated, this guy actually said, "Mom and Dad, eldest brother, second brother, third brother, I miss you all so much, I want to go home."
We can't go back to our modern homes, and our ancient homes are gone too. It's pitiful that we have no home anymore.
The situation was not optimistic. Not only did Ye Moxun, who was weak, develop a high fever, but others also had low-grade fevers. Among them were young people, Zhao Siniang and Zhong Xiaohua's son, Xiaomei's younger brother, and even adults Lian Zhuyu and Liu Mei, who also developed high fevers.
Liu Mei was alright, but Zhu Yu was in a terrible state. Her face was flushed, and she was talking nonsense while tearing at her clothes. There was Zhong Qingyi, a strong man, in the cave. What kind of behavior was this?
"Open your mouth and swallow it." Song Zhuiyan lifted Zhuyu's head slightly, pinched her chin, and forcibly fed her a fever reducer.
She gave fever-reducing medicine to everyone who had a fever, and when the people from Linjia Village came to ask for medicine, she had Song Tantan give them the Chinese medicine.
No one got a good night's rest. The sick were suffering from the pain, while the healthy ones couldn't rest because they had to take care of the sick, prepare medicine for them, apply damp cloths to the foreheads of those with high fevers, and wipe their bodies.
It wasn't until dawn that everyone closed their eyes for a short nap. Fortunately, after taking the medicine, the fever subsided for all the sick people, and once the fever was gone, they were basically fine.
The heavy rain stopped in the early hours of last night. It had been drizzling all night, but by daybreak the rain had completely stopped.
Zhong Qingyi hadn't slept all night; there were dark circles under her eyes, stubble had grown on her beard, and her complexion was poor—all caused by prolonged lack of rest and worry.
"Brother Zhong, you should get some sleep. Ah Xun's fever has gone down, he'll be fine." Song Zhuiyan couldn't bear to see him like this anymore and urged him to get some rest.
"Uncle Zhong, you must take care of yourself. If you fall ill, there will be no one to protect and take care of A-Xun. You'll ruin your health if you don't rest." Song Tantan's tone was serious, and there was no smile on her face.
He was indeed feeling a bit too tired, and when he heard what they said, he accepted their kindness and said, "Then I'll sleep for a while. Wake me up if anything happens."
"Okay, you should go to sleep." Song Zhuiyan nodded.
At this moment, Zhu Xiu, Azhu, Chunsheng, Jixiang and the others returned from gathering firewood outside. Azhu was very capable and gathered more firewood than Zhu Xiu. When he saw that Song Zhuiyan and Song Tantan had woken up, he grinned and walked over, saying, "Sister Song, Tantan, the sun is out outside. The trees in the mountains are very vibrant, and there are quite a few small animals too."
"Really? That's great! We can stay here a few more days, and everyone can rest and recuperate before leaving." Song Tantan smiled, her chubby face very endearing.
Everyone was happy to see her smile.
"Stop grinning like an idiot, you guys. Come over here and help cook breakfast. Do you still want some meat?" Zhu Xiu said with a smile, calling A Zhu and the others over to work.
After breakfast, Ye Moxun, who was the most seriously ill, stabilized. He woke up in the middle of the night, drank a bowl of meat soup, and then fell asleep again. Zhong Qingyi recovered her energy after sleeping for an hour and stayed by Ye Moxun's side to take care of him.
Song Zhuiyan and Song Tantan went out to check the situation. They circled the area for about three hours and returned with happy expressions on their faces.
"What good news could there be? You can't even hide your smiles." Zhong Qingyi raised an eyebrow.
“Brother Zhong, there are lots of wild vegetables on this mountain, the trees and flowers are lush, and there are even game to hunt,” Song Zhuiyan couldn’t help but share the situation she had found with him. “Because of the mudslide caused by the heavy rain, the road leading to this mountain is blocked. The other side is deep in the mountains, and people from outside can’t get in.”
"But that also means we can't get out either. There are a hundred of us, including the people from Linjia Village. What will we eat if this goes on for a long time? Just wild vegetables, or hunting in the deep mountains?" Zhong Qingyi was not as optimistic as Song Zhuiyan.
"Why not? I believe there's enough food for us to survive. It's chaos outside, but it's much safer here." Of course, the main reason is that there's plenty of food in the Tantan Space, so there's no need to panic.
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