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

She sighed silently and squeezed the small bag hanging around her waist, which contained an egg and two slightly yellow apricots. Her grandmother had secretly put them in there for her in case she was hungry.

She looked around and seeing that no one was paying attention, she lowered her head and silently took out the eggs.

However, just as I took out the eggs and hadn’t even peeled them, I felt there was someone blocking the way in front of me.

She looked up in confusion, wondering who had such a sharp nose that he could smell eggs through the eggshell. His nose was sharper than a dog's, so he was really suitable to be a military dog.

When I looked up, I saw a back, Zhou Mai's back.

Zhou Guo: "...what are you...doing?"

"Eat slowly, I'll block it for you so no one can see." Zhou Mai turned his head and whispered.

Zhou Guo was speechless. The escape hadn't even begun yet, so eating an egg at this time shouldn't attract attention. Who doesn't have eggs? Look at other people's carts, chickens are tied to half of the cart. Even those who don't have a cart have two or three chickens tied to the sides of their backpacks and baskets.

But thinking that it was his good intention after all, she had to reluctantly split the egg, which was not big to begin with, in half, put one half into her mouth and handed the other half to him.

Zhou Mai was stunned when he saw the half egg handed to him.

Seeing that he didn't take it for a long time, Zhou Guo thought he was embarrassed, so he stuffed it into his hand without saying anything, "Here, eat it quickly, the eggs are delicious."

An egg is only this big, so it doesn’t matter whether you eat one or half an egg. You will still be hungry if you are hungry.

What she didn't notice was that the person in front of her slowly had tears in his eyes. His sister, who had always been taken care of by the whole family, could now take care of others.

He raised his eyes and looked at her carefully, thinking that his sister had lived under the care of her family for eight years, and now she was about to suffer just after waking up. Her father was not at home, and he didn't know if he could protect her well in the future. Thinking of this, he stuffed the egg in his hand into her mouth. How could a brother eat his sister's egg? He was the eldest son in the family, and an eldest brother is like a father, so he should take care of his sister.

He smiled and said, "You eat, I'm not hungry."

Zhou Guo looked at his slightly red eyes, not knowing what to say. He could only chew the egg in his mouth silently. After eating, he touched his stomach which had not changed at all, and sighed. Sure enough, it made no difference whether to eat one or half an egg.

She didn't know when to leave, so she might as well take a nap first. Then she wouldn't be hungry.

Just as he was about to sit down on the ground, he heard the crowd shouting, "The head of the village is here, the head of the village is here."

The village chief is here. Can we leave now?

She stood on tiptoe to see what the place looked like, but found that she was too short. There were so many people in front of her that she could not see anything but other people's buttocks and backs.

It would be better not to see her, so he sat down on the ground, hugged his knees, yawned, buried his head in his arms, and closed his eyes.

The series of actions were done in one go, which stunned Zhou Mai who was standing next to him. Looking at the people around him, he silently moved closer, stretched out his arms, and created a small space for his sister. He thought it would be better to sleep for a while, but if he kept walking, he didn't know when he could fall asleep.

She slept, but there were many people who couldn't sleep.

As soon as the village head came out, everyone became restless.

Huang and the others couldn't continue chatting anymore and stood on tiptoe to look forward. "The head of the village has come out. Did he say where we should go and where we should go?"

"I don't know. It seems the village head went to Zheng Xiucai's house. Zheng Xiucai is a good man, well-educated and knows a lot. He must know where we should go."

After a while, someone came up and asked each family to send one person to attend the meeting.

Old man Zhou walked forward with his hands behind his back.

He returned after half an hour. Huang and the others were waiting anxiously, "How is it? What did the scholar say?"

Old man Zhou frowned and said, "There were too many people and the scholar spoke in a low voice, so I didn't hear clearly. I only vaguely heard that we were going north. I heard that there was a very powerful general guarding the place. The Hu people couldn't get in, and the rebels couldn't get through. He was a capable general."

"Go north? Where is the north? Is it far? If it's too far, what will happen to the eldest and second brother? Are we really going to ignore them?" Huang said anxiously.

She didn't want to go too far, she still had to wait for her son.

Needless to say, Xu and Li are the heads of the families and don't want to go too far.

How could Old Man Zhou know how far the north was? The farthest place he had ever been to in his life was the next county, which could be reached in one day. However, "I heard from the scholar that if we walked there like this, it would take at least more than a month, and more than two months if we walked slowly."

"What?! So far?" Several people exclaimed, not understanding where the north was.

Zhou Dacang also felt that it was a bit far. "Dad, if we really go this far, we won't be able to come back. Where will the eldest brother and the second brother find us when they come back? I think we should find a place to stop ahead and not go north. It will be convenient to come back after the storm has passed."

Mrs. Xu also agreed. She didn't know where her head of the family was. Her children hadn't married yet, so they couldn't be without a head of the family. "Yes, there are still many people in the village who don't want to leave. I think it won't be a problem for them if they don't leave. At most, they will hide in the mountains when the rebels come, and come back when the rebels leave."

You know what, it makes a lot of sense. Even Old Man Zhou is considering it seriously.

Zhou Dacang shook his head. "According to people who escaped from the neighboring county, the rebels will rob whatever they see. They will take every grain of rice and piece of cloth from the house. If they are not careful, they will raise their knives and kill people. We can't take such a big risk. We can't stay here. We have to leave."

The team had been standing still, but Zhou Dacang couldn't wait and ran forward several times, and soon brought back a message.

Many people in the village are reluctant to leave, especially the elderly, who refuse to leave, thinking that they will never come back. They want to die in their own homes, next to their ancestral graves.

The head of the village was at a loss as to what to do with those who refused to leave. If they didn't want to leave, then they didn't have to leave. He had to save his life. The lives of his family and so many people outside couldn't be delayed because of these people.

Zhou Guo was sleeping soundly when she felt someone pushing her and someone whispering in her ear, "Sister, sister, wake up, it's time to go."

On the road, where to go? Why does this sound so wrong?

She opened her eyes blearily and saw a boy's face with eyes full of concern.

He blinked and was stunned for several seconds before he realized who was in front of him.

Little did he know that Zhou Mai's heart sank at this moment. Seeing her dazed look, exactly the same as before, did his sister fall asleep again?

"You're leaving now? What time is it?" Zhou Guo yawned and looked around. He found that everyone was drowsy, obviously they had all slept for a while.

Zhou Mai's heart was half cold when she asked him this question, but it came back to life again, and a smile could not stop rising from the corner of his mouth, "It's almost dawn, get up soon, we have to leave."