So what if you flee from famine? Start all over again and live a good life every day

“Boom…Boom…”

The sound of axes hitting tree stumps spread throughout the village. Several strong men holding axes kept repeating the same action.

With a crackling sound, the tree broke. The men who were chopping trees stopped when they heard the sound. One of them lowered his head to check, then stood up and shouted, "The tree is about to fall. Get out of the way!"

The onlookers who heard the sound immediately ran to both sides. The man saw that there was no one around, so he called his companions and pushed hard in one direction.

The already shaky tree fell down instantly, breaking the surrounding branches.

Seeing the tree fall, the men turned around and headed for the next tree. The women who were watching saw the tree fall, so they took their axes and started to hack at the branches. After a while, only a long trunk was left of the tree.

Several people used the same method to knock down several large trees.

Sui He was picking soybeans amid the sounds of felling trees and trees falling. She wanted to pick out the shriveled and rotten soybeans because she needed plump soybeans to produce a high yield of tofu.

"Brother Suihe... we brought you the river sand you asked for. Take a look and see if this is it." Several children from the village rushed in from outside the door. They each held a small cloth bag filled with river sand. The boy in the lead ran too fast, his steps were deep and shallow, and it was obvious that he had difficulty walking.

"Da Zhuang, Er Zhuang, slow down, how come you brought the river sand so quickly?" Sui He put the soybeans in her hand aside, took the cloth bag from Da Zhuang and others, opened it, and saw that it was indeed the sand she wanted.

The sand was fine and clean, and all of it was wet. Looking at their wet trouser legs, I knew they were digging in the river. I couldn't help but frown.

"Didn't I tell you? Just get some at the riverside. Did you guys go down to the river?"

Several children were frightened by Sui He's stern face. They didn't know how to refute for a moment. They looked at each other. Da Zhuang, the leader, said in a low voice: "We didn't go to the river. This was dug from a stream in the mountains. The water is very shallow, only up to my feet. We listened to you and didn't go to the river."

Sui He looked at the others: "Is what he said true?"

"It's true, we went to the mountain, not to the river," the other children said.

"Well, I'll trust you this time. Remember, you can't just go to the river casually, even if you're a good swimmer." Sui He put the river sand in his hand aside, went back to the house and took out a handful of candy he bought in town: "This is for you, take it and share it."

"Thank you, Brother Suihe." Dazhuang took the candy, and several people gathered together to share the candy. A handful of candy looked a lot, and there were four or five people in their group, so each person could only get about two. Suihe counted the people who took the candy, in case there were too many or too few, and the candy would not be evenly distributed.

"Thank you, Brother Suihe." The other children also thanked Suihe, and then couldn't wait to put the candy in their hands into their mouths. Children like to eat sweets. In this age when people can't even get enough food, a small piece of candy is a rare delicacy for them.

Da Zhuang took the candy, licked it carefully, smacked his lips, then tore off a leaf, wrapped the candy in it, carefully put it on his chest, and patted his head when he was done.

"Why don't you eat?" Seeing Da Zhuang's actions, Sui He asked in confusion.

"I'm going to take it back for my sister, she likes candy." Da Zhuang mentioned his sister, a smile appeared on his face. The sister Da Zhuang was talking about was the little girl Sui He met at Village Chief Zhao's house.

Da Zhuang and Er Zhuang are brothers, one is twelve years old and the other is ten years old. Their sister Zhao Xiaohua is the youngest sister in their family, eight years old.

The family was simple, with the village head and his wife and three children. There were originally two elderly people living above them, but they fled during the war and did not return alive. On the way, their youngest sister was kidnapped. Zhao Dazhuang walked a long way up the mountain and risked his life to get his sister back. As a result, his legs were broken. Although he is almost recovered now, he cannot walk fast. If he walks fast, his defects will be exposed.

He was only a few years old at that time, and no one knew how he managed to get his sister back. When he found them, all he saw was Zhao Dazhuang, who was covered in scars, and Zhao Xiaohua, a skinny little girl on his back.

The moment he saw his parents, the little boy fainted, still holding his sister tightly in his arms.

Because of the lack of medical care and medicine at that time, Zhao Dazhuang's leg was delayed.

In the war years, the hardest hit were the elderly and children. Of the large number of people who escaped, only a dozen or so returned, and there were even fewer elderly and children.

Da Zhuang is the oldest among this group of half-grown children and is their king.

"Brother, I have two. I'll give you one and keep yours for my sister." Zhao Erzhuang gave one of the candies in his hand to Zhao Dazhuang.

"No, you eat it, I just tasted it." Da Zhuang pushed the candy back from his brother's hand.

When Sui He knew about this, he sighed a few words, isn't Zhao Da Zhuang a complete sister-con?

"Don't push it back and forth. I'll teach you how to make maltose in a few days." Sui He remembered that there were several methods of making sugar in the short film he had watched before.

The simplest method is to make maltose, and the raw materials are easy to obtain. You can make some and give them to the children as snacks to change their taste.

"Maltose? Brother Suihe, what is maltose? Brother Suihe, can you make maltose?" When Dazhuang heard about maltose, he looked at Suihe expectantly. Although he didn't know what maltose was, he knew what sugar was.

"Well, maltose is sugar made from sprouted wheat. I'll teach you when I'm free." It's just maltose, why is this kid so excited?

Sui He didn't know that in this era when sugar-making technology was not well developed, the advent of maltose caused such a sensation and brought her so much trouble.

“Sugar made from sprouted wheat.” When they heard it was made from wheat, they looked embarrassed. Wheat is so precious. Would their families let them make sugar with wheat?

"What's wrong?" Why are the people who were excited just now so depressed now?

"Brother Suihe, this wheat is too expensive. Our family will definitely not let us touch it," Erzhuang said.

"Yeah," the other guys also looked disappointed.

"What's so difficult about this? Go home and each of you grab a handful of wheat and give it to me. I'll find a way for you." After hearing what Er Zhuang said, Sui He understood. She didn't have any wheat in her space yet.

"Okay, Brother Suihe, wait a minute, we'll go back and get it." Dazhuang said, and called his brothers to run home. These kids came quickly and left quickly.

Sui He picked up the river sand at his feet and walked towards the corner of the courtyard. The children were afraid that Sui He would not have enough, so they each filled a large bag.