Quick Wear: Men Farming and Women Weaving

An hour later, they continued heading north. The village chief saw dry grass and streams along the way. Many villagers walked slowly with their families, carrying their belongings on their backs, and were severely short of water.

When you see someone familiar, go up and say hello.

"Isn't it Qian Lao Er?"

"Is your village also going to flee from famine?"

I was stopped and heard a familiar voice, and found out it was the village chief of the neighboring village.

"Village Chief Zhang, I left late and fell behind. Most people in the village have already left."

"If we don't leave now, we will die. There is nothing to eat or drink in the village, and the crops have all withered."

The village chief found out some things with great concern. The people in the neighboring village left earlier than them, which showed that the drought was quite serious.

"Hunter Zhou, you are quite experienced. Are you familiar with any water sources nearby?"

Hunter Zhou walked out from the middle and preached to the village chief.

"There is a water source nearby, on a cliff."

“It’s about a kilometer or two from here.”

Everyone heard that the water source was on a steep cliff and they had to walk another two kilometers, not sure if there was any water.

They were reluctant to go any further and wanted to return to their original village. Even if they died of thirst or starvation, they would still die in their hometown without having to leave their homes and die outside.

Seeing that some people were reluctant to go on, the village chief did not try to persuade them and let them make their own decision.

"Horse Hunter Zhou, then you will lead the way."

Following the words of the village chief, Hunter Zhou took the lead to explore the way, and asked his two sons to protect their mother.

"Dad, don't worry, I will stay by mom's side"

The hunter's eldest son Zhou Huzi was driving a donkey cart beside him and assured his father that he would take good care of the family.

The second son Zhou Tiezi accompanied Xu's mother to rest in the car.

Of those who were originally unwilling to continue heading north, only two families returned.

Mrs. Liu and Mrs. Liu heard that the people from the neighboring village had left long ago, and their family members were no longer there, and no one came to inform the in-laws.

They couldn't accept that their parents didn't care about them and they stared blankly beside the stone.

Hunter Zhou went to the water source very quickly to check the situation.

The rest of the people continued to walk slowly towards the north.

Song Yiyue checked the roadside on both sides to see if there were any wild vegetables or edible plants.

He found a lot of bitter herbs and dandelions, told Zhu that they were edible, and took his sister to pick them.

Zhu did not hide anything and told her mother-in-law and the whole family, and all the men, young and old, went to dig.

The people nearby saw the Song family digging these two plants, and heard from the side that they were edible, so they also rushed to dig them.

The villagers went to dig wild vegetables and edible plants. The more experienced elders would tell the young people which ones they could eat and which ones they could not.

The elderly who have migrated here from other places and have experienced fleeing famine have eaten a lot of wild vegetables and plants, and they also teach the villagers about their experiences of fleeing famine.

The village chief led everyone to stop temporarily to dig wild vegetables to eat and wait for Hunter Zhou to come back.

Hunter Zhou, who was already two kilometers away, had been here to hunt before and knew that on a steep cliff there was a spring seeping out from the rocks. The water was clear and sweet.

I found that there were many animals drinking water in the water hole, so I returned the same way without disturbing them.

The team returned to the village and informed the village chief of the situation. They could go there to rest and get water. The water flow there was very small. If the whole village needed water, they had to rest there for a night.

The village chief told the villagers that a water source had been found and asked everyone to hold on for a while. They could rest and drink water when they reached their destination and continue their journey the next day.

"Great, there is finally water. My eldest grandson is almost dying of thirst."

"Yes, if people don't die, they will die of thirst."

"Let's get there quickly"

The villagers were so excited that they rushed to the water source. The women felt sorry for the children as the stored water was not enough for the whole family to drink. Seeing that the children looked listless, they comforted them by telling them that they would have some water if they walked a little further.

When Song Baoer heard that there was a water source, she asked Liu Pozi to let her drink another bowl of water.

Mrs. Liu cheered up and no longer thought about her family.

She stood up and walked to the wooden cart, poured out a bowl of water, filled it up for Baoer to drink, and also poured a bowl for her husband.

Old man Song took the water and drank it directly. The burning sensation in his mouth and throat finally stopped and he felt a little better.

The whole family nearby looked at Granny Liu expectantly.

Granny Liu didn't even look at her son, daughter-in-law, or grandson, she just covered the water with her eyes.

The entire village team moved forward slowly along the two-kilometer road. It usually only took a few minutes to get there, but now it took an hour.

The young girl and the young wife had severe pain in their feet, which were also worn and blistered, and they limped.

Children aged six or seven are even worse off. They can only walk behind their parents. Their legs can hardly move, not to mention that the soles of their feet are covered with blisters. They cry and make a fuss while being scolded by their parents.

Song Yiyue adjusted her breathing to make it less rapid, and secretly drank a bamboo tube of cold boiled water to relieve her thirst.

In a place where the leaves were lush, he tore off a lot of leaves, weaved them into a hat, and covered his head with it to keep out the sun.

When people in the village saw this method, they all started learning to weave hats to protect themselves from the sun.

Old Man Song made a beautiful straw hat for his daughter and asked her to wear it first to avoid getting sunburned.

The three brothers of the Song family learned some skills from old man Song. They simply picked some wild grasses or leaves and weaved a few hats for their children and wives.

The whole team was in a good mood and moved faster. The older aunts and grandmas didn't make any noise and focused on getting on their way.

Shortly after noon, after walking for an hour, we finally arrived at the place that Hunter Zhou had mentioned.

There is spring water seeping out from the cliff in front, and many small animals are drinking it there.

The strong men in the village who wanted to eat meat wanted to go forward to catch the animals, but were stopped by Zhou the hunter.

"Try to move gently, otherwise it will attract other large animals."

The men took out machetes and moved very carefully, approaching the birds, hares or other animals.

The scene was very chaotic. Some people made very big movements, throwing a machete directly next to the prey, alerting other animals.

Not many people can hunt prey, but some are lucky enough to catch the prey directly.

The village chief arranged for people to place buckets under the water source. Each household could only use one bucket of water for cooking. Households with a larger population could use one more bucket of water.

It takes at least a quarter of an hour to fill a bucket of water.

There are nearly 50 households in the village, and it takes an hour for each household to get water.

When it was the Song family's turn to get water, they had to wait for nearly two hours.

Old Man Song and his eldest son carried two buckets of water back to their cleaned up residence.

The woman in the house had already cleaned the stove and set up the iron pot to cook wild vegetable porridge.

Song Shan and Song Hai took their younger sisters to look for firewood outside and brought back a lot of it.

Mrs. Liu chopped up the dandelions and bitter herbs she had dug today and poured them into a large iron pot.

From a relatively private place hidden in the car, he took a bowl and scooped out a bowl of coarse grains from the grain bag, and cooked porridge with wild vegetables.