Siheyuan, my new life

After Guo Yongping left the city, the smooth asphalt road under his feet turned into a bumpy dirt road, and he had to slow down his bicycle. The bumpy road conditions made him secretly complain. In his later life, he had also ridden a bicycle to and from school, but at least the road conditions back then were much better than here.

After leaving the city, there were fewer and fewer pedestrians on the road. Occasionally, a truck would roar past, and there were hardly any bicycles to be seen. Looking around, Guo Yongping could only see a few hurried pedestrians, two or three slow-moving oxcarts, and a few ragged, emaciated refugees carrying simple bundles of luggage walking towards him.

Although he had seen information about the three-year natural disaster that lasted from the end of 1959 to the beginning of 1962 on the internet, Guo Yongping felt heavy-hearted when he saw the disaster-stricken people fleeing the famine with his own eyes, compared to the cold, hard numbers on the computer screen.

Just now at the main road leading out of the city, Guo Yongping saw a temporary checkpoint set up by public security personnel, street staff and other functional departments. This temporary checkpoint was mainly for those famine refugees who tried to enter the city. When Guo Yongping was being checked, twenty or thirty famine refugees were stopped by the temporary checkpoint in a short time. Then, under the guidance of street staff, they were registered one by one and then uniformly resettled in various temporary resettlement points nearby.

Guo Yongping could certainly understand this approach. Such a large number of refugees would pose a great threat to public security if they flooded into the city. When people are on the verge of starvation and death, many people will be unable to suppress their evil thoughts and will take risks. Violent crimes such as robbery and burglary would definitely occur frequently in order to get food. Therefore, it was the safest way to have the higher authorities centrally and temporarily resettle these refugees and provide them with some food to barely fill their stomachs.

Guo Yongping witnessed the plight of these emaciated and ragged compatriots and felt compassion for them. However, he then thought that although he had some food and meat in his storage space, it was far from enough to help the large number of refugees. In addition, he could not explain the origin of his supplies to others, which would also cause him trouble.

Suppressing the myriad thoughts in his mind, Guo Yongping began to ride his bicycle at a leisurely pace, looking around for a suitable place. At this time, the trees on both sides of the road were all bare branches, swaying incessantly in the cold wind. The sparse wheat seedlings in the wheat fields on both sides of the road were withered and yellow. Perhaps it was because the New Year was approaching that there was not a single person in sight in the vast fields.

Finally, they saw a narrow path, about half a meter wide, beside the road, leading directly to the distant rolling mountains. Guo Yongping immediately turned the handlebars and rode towards the path. At this moment, several pedestrians who were bundled up tightly and carrying cloth bags on their backs walked towards them. They didn't pay much attention to Guo Yongping's actions. Everyone has to relieve themselves sometimes. If it's just urination, a grown man can easily take care of it by the roadside. However, if it's defecation, it's better to carry someone on your back. In their eyes, this guy on a bicycle was probably going to relieve himself some distance away. Besides, these people had gone to the countryside together to buy some coarse grains and now they had to hurry home. On the way, they had encountered several groups of famine refugees. Thinking of those refugees' greedy eyes staring at the grain bags on their backs, these people felt a chill. It was only because the refugees saw that there were several of them gathered together, and that they all had axes and machetes on their waists, that the refugees dared not make any rash moves.

Guo Yongping rode his bicycle all the way to the foot of the mountain. There was no road ahead to ride on, so he had to get off the bicycle and push it into the mountains. Only after he looked back carefully and made sure no one was paying attention to the area did he put the bicycle into his storage space and then continue walking lightly into the mountains.

As far as the eye could see, the surrounding hills were barren, with only tree stumps of varying thickness remaining. Clearly, they had all been cut down by the surrounding villagers. Guo Yongping had seen related information on the internet in his later years. It was said that during the Great Leap Forward, due to the lack of coal in various communes and production brigades, people were sent to cut down the nearby forests for fuel. Therefore, the forests closer to the villages were basically all cleared out.

Guo Yongping shook his head with a wry smile. At this time, people did not have the concept of environmental protection in their minds, and they would never have thought that the wanton destruction of nature by mankind would exacerbate the occurrence of natural disasters.

After walking for nearly an hour into the mountains, Guo Yongping finally stopped in a relatively flat ravine. This place was far from the road, and surrounded by rolling hills. In particular, there was a small pool of water not far away. Although it was the dead of winter, the pool was not frozen, probably because the surrounding mountains blocked the cold wind. A gurgling mountain spring was still flowing out from the cracks in the rocks opposite and slowly into the pool.

Guo Yongping quickly walked around to the mountain spring, bent down and scooped up a handful of the cool spring water. He took a small sip and nodded to himself. The spring water was slightly sweet, which was incomparable to the somewhat bitter tap water in the courtyard.

Looking up at the small pond in front of me, I estimated it to be no more than six or seven meters in diameter. Under the sunlight, the water surface was a bright green. I glanced at the withered weeds around the pond and could vaguely see some animal droppings, especially rabbit droppings. Obviously, small animals often came to drink from this pond, which proved that the water quality was not a big problem. It was perfectly acceptable to collect some of it and use it as a water source for planting and breeding areas.

However, the most urgent task now is to hurry up and stew the pork and mutton. Guo Yongping first took out an iron shovel from his storage space and swung it at the path that the mountain spring water must take to flow into the pool. In a short while, he had shaped a suitable angle, and then took out a bucket and placed it there steadily. The gurgling water quickly flowed directly into the bucket.

Seeing that the bucket had been filled with clear spring water in just a short time, Guo Yongping quickly took out all the enamel basins and placed them one by one on the grass by the pool.