Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

Cheers from all directions suddenly resounded throughout the bamboo forest.

Zhou Guo felt relieved when he heard good news from people scattered around the forest. He took Zhou Suli to get water from the bamboo that her mother and grandmother had found. When Huang saw the water, she took the bamboo tube and was about to tilt her neck back to drink it, but was stopped by Zhou Guo.

When Xu heard that the water had to be heated before drinking, she was very unhappy. She said eagerly, "I've been thirsty for so many days. Now I finally found some water, but it has to be heated before I can drink it. From childhood to adulthood, it's not right to heat the water before drinking it. Our ancestors have been drinking it for generations, and nothing has happened. Hey, why don't I just take a sip? I'll take a sip..."

I was so thirsty that I couldn't wait any longer. I snatched the bamboo tube from Huang's hand, uncorked it, tilted my head back and gulped it down. I drank most of it in one breath and squinted my eyes in satisfaction. "It feels so good!"

Zhou Guo couldn't stop him, so forget it, he had already drunk it, what else could he do.

The others licked their lips, looked at the remaining water in her hand with their eyes rolled.

Zhou Guo looked at the other people who were ready to make a move, took the bamboo tube from Xu's hand, and put it on his back again, "I don't know how long this water has been in there, and it's not running water. What if I get diarrhea if I drink it like this? I'll heat it up later."

The brothers and sisters slumped their shoulders.

Huang said, "Listen to Guoguo. You must not get sick at this time. If you have a stomachache and can't find medicine, you will cry."

Mrs. Xu nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, I'll listen to Guoguo." She drank it herself, but the children should be more careful, as they always have to be prepared for the worst.

Zhou Guo carried a bamboo gourd and fetched water from the bamboos found by his family. Zhou Mai and Zhou Mi also took a bamboo tube to fetch water. The family cooperated tacitly. After an hour, both gourds were full and one bamboo tube was also filled.

After all, there are not many bamboos with water, but fortunately this bamboo forest is large enough. After a busy morning, every household has enough water for one or two meals, but there is no stored water, so they can't walk far.

Li Zheng immediately decided not to leave for the second half of the afternoon and to continue looking for water in the bamboo forest and set off again at night.

In order to save time, everyone didn't even have lunch.

You can skip meals but you can't skip drinking water. Zhou Xing from the Zhou family carried a gourd of water upstairs, boiled it, let it cool for a while, and then carried it back down. The family members held the gourd and started to gulp down the water. They had never had enough to drink, and the whole gourd of water was drunk up.

They boiled the tea and drank it, but many of them, like Xu, were too lazy to go through the trouble and just drank it after taking it out. The rest of the people thought that the girl from the Zhou family was blessed with some luck, and it was better to listen than not to listen, as it would at least bring them some good fortune.

It takes a lot of effort to boil the water and drink it, but the water is neither cold nor warm, which is not very thirst-quenching. Many people can't get used to it, it's like drinking soup.

So many people stayed in the forest for an entire afternoon and almost walked through the entire bamboo forest. In order to get water, some people ruthlessly cut down the bamboos, so that the water in the bamboo joints could be taken out.

After taking the water, you can cut off the bamboo joints and make a stopper, which will be a new bamboo tube for water.

We didn't bring that many buckets, and we were desperate because we had no water. At this time, everyone would take as many bamboo tubes filled with water as they could. As long as they could, they would want to take away all the bamboo tubes in the bamboo forest. This way, if we found a water source next time, we wouldn't be sad about not having enough buckets to carry water.

The Zhou family had a cart. They cut down two bamboos and made nearly twenty new bamboo tubes. Each section was longer than the previous ones and could hold more water.

Huang looked up at another bamboo as thick as a bowl, and obviously wanted more. Zhou Guo advised her, "Grandma, these are enough. These are not light. If we cut one more, it will be even heavier. We won't be able to push it and will have to throw it away. If we fill it with these, it will at least support us for ten days. We can walk a lot in ten days!"

Although the Li family members were reluctant to leave, they thought that what Zhou Guo said made sense. If the cart was too heavy and there was another wave of robbery like before, they would not be able to run away.

Huang had no choice but to give up.

All twenty-eight families returned to the camp with water.

The Zhou family stayed there for a day and got half a bucket of water, which filled two gourds and six bamboo tubes. If they saved this water, it would be enough for them to use for five or six days.

Although most other families did not have as much as they did, the least they had was enough for two days, and some even had more than them. It was like the old man who had been dealing with bamboo all his life. He was always so accurate in finding the right bamboo, as if he had X-ray vision.

We had water and food, and it was getting dark. Normally, we would have been on the road at this time, but today everyone was feeling lazy. They squinted their eyes, yawned, and didn't want to take a single step.

We haven't slept for a day and a night. If we continue to travel, it will be two days and two nights. Neither the elderly nor the children can bear it.

Everyone thought this was a good place and suggested resting here for half a night, then continuing on their journey at midnight, and then finding a place to rest tomorrow morning.

The village head saw this group of people looking exhausted. The children were all lying on the ground and snoring, and the adults were struggling to keep their eyes open with blurry eyes. He was worried that they would fall into a ditch if they walked at night like this.

He looked around and said, "Okay, but we can't spend the night here. We wouldn't know if someone stole our things in the dark. We have to find a more secluded place." He was afraid of being robbed!

On this day, groups of refugees passed by here. When they saw them with their big and small carts, some of them knelt down and begged for food and water. If they were not outnumbered, who knows what they might have done.

But where can so many people hide?

Someone shouted, "I know, I know. There is a mountain a little ahead. Go up a little and turn around to find a cave. The grass at the entrance is taller than a person and covered with wild vines. If you don't look carefully, you can't tell it's a cave. We can go there to rest."

These are the group of people who were looking for water in the mountains this morning. They didn't find any water, but with so many people, the nearby hills have been almost dug up, so it's hard to tell where anything is.

When everyone heard this, they were overjoyed, thinking it was really a pillow given to someone who was sleepy.

Zhou Guo and her grandmother pushed a cart and followed the large group forward. After passing the bend and walking a few more steps, they turned inside. No one had been in the mountain for a long time, and the mountain was overgrown with weeds and rocks, so it was not easy for the cart to pass through.

It took everyone working together to push all the carts over. Zhou Guo alone was as strong as three laborers, and they pushed all the carts in the house by themselves.

The entrance of the cave is not wide, just enough for a cart to pass through.

Everyone walked in with their things.

As soon as Zhou Guo entered, he smelled a fishy odor. He looked around and found that the cave was about the size of two basketball courts. The cave was dusty and filled with animal corpses, bones, and feces. The dusty smell made it difficult to breathe.