Quick Wear: Cannon Fodder

After chopping the firewood, the pumpkins in the yard began to ripen.

Ye Zhiqiu collected the ripe pumpkins one by one and placed them under the bed, and also picked off the unripe ones. The weather was getting colder, and if they were left on the vines, they would not grow any more, so pulling out the vines was just the right time to plant broad beans.

It’s not that other things cannot be planted, it’s that she is too lazy to plant them. Broad beans are easy to plant. Just dig a shallow hole, plant them and leave them alone. Just wait for the seeds to germinate.

After planting broad beans, I scattered a handful of radish seeds in the backyard, as well as spinach and wintergreen. These are all good vegetables that can withstand the cold and survive the winter. The key is to sow the seeds without too much management.

She waited for days. Radish seedlings grow slowly. When the weather is hot, you can eat the seedlings in a week. Now she wants to eat them but has to wait for ten days. She plans to keep these seedlings to grow radishes. She doesn't plan to eat them all. She will pull out some of them from time to time as a thinning.

When the radishes grew cherries, some people returned to the village.

Ye Zhiqiu didn't know who it was. The original owner was a fool, and the memories left behind were of no help. She only knew that the person looked familiar and was indeed a villager. She took back the bell that was previously wrapped around the entrance of the village, and left the stones and thorny branches that were used as roadblocks untouched, letting the person who came back figure out a solution on his own.

There were more than a dozen people who came back, from two families. There were few strong laborers in the families, so they were the last ones to come back when they fled the famine, but they were the first ones to return when they returned home.

When they saw the roadblocks left by Ye Zhiqiu, they thought the village was occupied by refugees. They hesitated at the entrance of the village and did not dare to take any action. They observed for two days and found that there was no human activity before they started to clear the roadblocks.

After the two families entered the village, they did not find Ye Zhiqiu. After walking around the village, they found that none of the old, weak, sick and disabled people who had stayed behind to escape were found. They guessed that most of them were gone. A dozen people discussed it and were worried that the missing people were harmed by others, so they did not dare to stay outside for long.

The original houses of the two families are still there. Although they have experienced a wave of refugees, except for the copper lock on the door being pried away and some small items missing from the house, everything else is basically there.

The house was there, the land was there, there was a place to sleep, and there was no shortage of water. The only thing missing was food. Although I was still worried about starving, I didn't have to sleep in the wild and didn't have to worry about being hurt by wild animals. It was much better than the hard days of fleeing from the famine.

They were the first group of refugees persuaded by the government to return. It was important for them to go to the county town to collect disaster relief grain and seeds before others returned. By the time others returned, there might not be enough disaster relief grain, and it would be a question whether it would be their turn.

Ye Zhiqiu didn't know about these things. She was afraid of being seen by the villagers, so she didn't go out for several days. She didn't know what was going on with the Ye family or when they would come back.

She wanted to ask, but thinking about the original owner's situation, she decided to forget it. She didn't want to explain when things got better, so she decided to wait until the Ye family came back.

Once there is a first death, there will be a second. Villagers returned one after another, but when they left, the family was not necessarily together when they returned. Anything could happen on the road to escape famine. Families with many strong laborers were fine, but families with few strong laborers suffered many accidents, such as children being lost or the elderly dying unexpectedly.

In the face of disasters, the elderly and children are always the first to be abandoned. In some families, women are missing, but this is rare. After all, women can also work, even if they are not as strong as men, and every family cannot do without women.

As more people came back from the village, Ye Zhiqiu became less willing to show up. Even if someone noticed something was happening at the Ye family and shouted at them at the gate, she would pretend not to hear anything. The original owner was a fool who couldn't even recognize all of her own family members. She could pretend to be stupid without any guilt.

Unfortunately, Ye Zhiqiu's days of pretending to be stupid didn't last long. When the radishes grew as thick as a baby's arm, the Ye family also came back. They were the last group to come back. The Ye family had money and food. They went the farthest when they fled the famine, and they also went the farthest when they came back.

In fact, the Ye family did not want to come back, but the government did not care whether the refugees wanted to come back or not. All the refugees who fled their hometowns were forced to come back, otherwise they would be sent to the army. The Ye family still had people who had to take the imperial examinations, so how could they be willing to have their children and grandchildren taken away and sent to the army? They had no choice but to come back.

Fortunately, they have money, so they don't have to worry about their survival when they return. However, after experiencing famine, they know that even if they have money, they may not be able to buy food, so they are afraid that they will have to live a hard life for a while.

When they left, the Ye family took all the old and young people with them except the original owner, but when they returned, there were fewer people. Ye Zhiqiu's youngest cousin was gone, and another cousin also died when he was injured by refugees while guarding the family's property. He survived, but his leg was lame, which completely ended his chance of taking the imperial examination.

In addition to the younger generation, Grandma Ye also died on the road, and even Grandpa Ye almost didn't make it. It's impossible for the family to say that they are not sad, but fortunately, the young and middle-aged people in the family are still fine, and there is still hope for the future.

Life goes on, and the family thought about working hard after returning and striving to live better than before. However, when they returned, they found that there seemed to be something wrong with their house, which was very different from before they left.

"Dad, why did the yard become like this?" Boss Ye pushed open the door, stroked his beard, and was a little afraid to recognize his own house. It was not that the house was destroyed, but it was too good to be recognized.

The yard is still the same yard, and the house seems to have not changed much, still so neat and clean, but what happened to the rows of broad beans that the previous dean had left? And the eaves were empty when he left, but now they are full of firewood.

Grandfather Ye stood among his children and grandchildren, looking at everything in front of him curiously. He thought that the house would become dilapidated when he returned, but it was still the same as before. How could such a good thing happen to their family?

Grandfather Ye couldn't believe it. You know, since he entered the village, he had met other villagers who had told him about their own situations. Everyone's house had been damaged to varying degrees. The least damaged was that some small things were missing. The most serious damage was that the doors were removed and burned as firewood. Some things were still there, but there were obvious signs of damage.

The Ye brothers couldn't believe it either. Thinking of the reminder from the villagers, they completely forgot about the original owner who stayed behind. Instead, they worried that the well-protected house was home to a vicious refugee.

They all walked to the doorstep of their home but didn't dare to go back. The brothers were worried and wanted to ask the villagers for help, but they didn't know who to ask. They had seen how fierce the refugees on the road were. If they were really fierce refugees, who would dare to take action?

Grandfather Ye was old, but he was more open-minded than his sons. He stepped forward and said, "I'll go in and take a look first. I'm not afraid if anything happens. I'm old enough and I've lived my life to its fullest. Without your mother, it's meaningless for me to live alone."

"Dad!" The brothers stopped Grandfather Ye in unison.

How could they let an old man take the lead in such a dangerous matter? The young ones in the family would have to take the imperial examinations in the future. Who would dare to guarantee their reputation if it got out? For the sake of their son's future, they had to stop him.