Traveling through 1942 with space

Seeing his cousin's confused look, Hou Xiaoge realized that he was too impatient. He asked a twelve-year-old child a question that he would definitely not know the answer to.

Besides, when fleeing famine, not to mention children, adults are also confused, and most of them just follow the crowd. They either wait for the disaster to end, wait for government relief, or wait until they can no longer walk and collapse on the road and turn into dry bones.

“Forget it, let’s wait until the crops are ripe before moving on to the next plan!” Hou Xiaoge looked at the weak and skinny people in the yard and decided not to rush and just take care of them for a while.

About two hours later, uncle and several others came back carrying buckets with great effort. However, Hou Xiaoge found that everyone had sad faces, and even Erda and his cousin had blood on their hands.

"Dad, what's wrong with your hand?"

Second Aunt saw her husband's right hand stained with blood and hurried forward to check.

"It's okay, this blood is not mine." Erda smiled naively and waved his hand to indicate that he was fine.

"Then what happened to your and Huan Ying's hands? There was blood all over it, it scared me to death." Second Aunt heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that the pillar of the family was fine.

"It's like this..." Before Erda could speak, the eldest cousin next to him couldn't help but tell him what had just happened.

The water flow on the hillside was getting smaller and smaller. Usually, it took half a bag of dry tobacco to fill a bucket of water, but now it takes at least half an incense stick of time, and the spring is about to dry up. (Here, one incense stick is calculated as half an hour)

People can still endure without food, but they can’t stand without water for a day, especially in the hot summer. If you don’t have water for half a day, your throat will start to smoke.

The refugees who were fetching water were all panicked and started scrambling for water. Even the dirty water in the small puddle that they usually didn't want was almost scooped out.

My uncle and his friends had eaten some food in the past two days and regained some strength. Seeing this scene, they quickly joined in the rush for water.

But the water in the pond was too dirty. Not to mention that people were afraid of stepping on it, the animal feces floating on it scared away many people.

The uncles and his companions were also afraid that their family members would get sick after drinking the dirty water, so they had to focus on the cracks in the rocks where the water had not yet completely stopped flowing.

But at this time, the crack in the rock was surrounded by a dozen vagrants, and no one dared to approach. (Vagrants are small hooligans)

If people line up to get water on a first-come-first-served basis, everyone would naturally have no objection. After all, they can get three or four buckets of water in an hour, which is barely enough to share.

But a few gangsters actually treated the spring water as their cash cow, and if they wanted to get water, they had to exchange it for something.

It was hot enough for everyone to queue up in the sun, and now they had to be blackmailed for getting a cup of water!

The aunt could tolerate it, but the uncle could not. The eldest cousin and a few younger guys started to fight with the other party.

At the beginning, the second-rate guys relied on their numbers and looked down on the young people, but as the atmosphere gradually became heated, the victims who failed to grab water began to gather towards the spring.

"If they don't let us drink water, they're going to kill our entire family. Let's fight them!" The uncle and a few clever refugees took the opportunity to fan the flames among the crowd.

Most of the victims were mountain dwellers with wild nature, and they were instigated all of a sudden.

My uncle and his companions had eaten several full meals in the past two days, and their strength had been restored a lot. They also picked up the water-lifting poles and rushed to the front.

Facing hundreds of boiling crowds, a dozen or so thugs were completely vulnerable and were dispersed in no time.

The uncle and his men caught two thugs and started beating them with water sticks. One of them had his head broken, and that's how Erda and Huanying had blood on their hands.

After the thugs were driven away, the victims began to line up according to their contribution.

Because my uncle and his friends were at the front and there were many males in the family, they were ranked third in line. But they only received one bucket of water and had to continue queuing from the back for more.

A few people looked at the queue and thought they would have to wait until dark before they could queue again, so they simply poured two portions of water into the bucket and carried it back.

Hou Xiaoge took a look at the wooden barrel filled with water. It had a capacity of only about 20 to 30 kilograms. This amount of water was enough to sustain the fourteen people in his family until tomorrow at most.

"It seems that the situation is very serious!" Hou Xiaoge said in his heart.

"There's no water. God doesn't want us to live!" Second Aunt collapsed on the ground, slapping her thighs with her hands and wailing softly.

The crisis of water shortage suddenly enveloped the entire yard. The younger ones stopped playing and hid in the house out of fear.

"Second brother, stop crying and save your energy. When the temperature gets lower in the afternoon, let a few children take turns queuing up and try to fetch a bucket in the evening." The uncle squatted under the eaves and warned with a sigh.

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The noon in August was like a furnace. Because there was no food, most of the victims hid in the shade to sleep to save energy, and Hou Xiaoge's family was no exception.

After uncle arranged the afternoon's activities, everyone went back to the eaves and went to sleep.

Hou Xiaoge, who had a big meal in the space, was in high spirits. After settling his younger brother and several cousins to play together, he found an excuse to go out and look for food.

"You kid, it's so hot and everyone else is trying to stay cool, but you insist on going out.

Wear your straw hat, don't go among strangers, call for help if you need anything, most of the people living in the village are from the Hou family." Uncle leaned on the half-collapsed earthen kang and warned.

"Heiwa, wait a moment. I'll go out with you." Erhuan, who was drowsy on the side, immediately became alert when he heard Hou Xiaoge was going out.

"Row!"

Hou Xiaoge thought about it for a moment and nodded.

One or two o'clock in the afternoon is the hottest time, and there is almost no one on the dilapidated streets, making it seem even more deserted.

"Heiwa, where can we find food?" Erhuan was like a chatterbox, asking questions all the way.

"Brother Erhuan, talk less, or you'll be hungry soon." Hou Xiaoge rolled his eyes at his cousin in annoyance.

"Forehead!"

Hou Xiaoge's words made Erhuan feel a little dejected.

"Let's go to the ditch in front. No one lives there, so we should be able to find something." Hou Xiaoge said, pointing to the ditch vaguely visible in the distance.

"It's at least four or five miles away! It's exhausting to walk there." Cousin Erhuan was dumbfounded and even more dejected.

“Look, if you think like this after having a full lunch, others will have even less energy to go.

My eyes and ears are quite good, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to find the mouse hole twice in a row, so I'm sure there will be something to gain if I go there." Hou Xiaoge smiled and made a big promise.

"Okay! I'll listen to you. If you catch a mouse, roast one for me." Erhuan immediately became excited when he heard the word "mouse hole" and made a wish quickly.

"no problem!"

With food as motivation, Erhuan walked very fast. It took them just over half an hour to reach the end of the four or five miles.

"I'm so tired. Heiwa, do you bring any water? I'm so thirsty." As soon as they arrived, Erhuan collapsed to the ground due to exhaustion.

"Take it with you. This is what I caught when I was catching mice yesterday morning. There aren't many left, so you should drink less." Hou Xiaoge pretended to use the backpack as a cover and took out half a bamboo tube of spiritual spring water from the space.

Lingquan water is a good thing. It can not only replenish water, but also improve the body. It is just right for Erhuan to replenish.

Erhuan snatched the bamboo tube and took a few gulps.

"Just drink a few sips. Don't drink it all at once, or you'll have nothing to drink later." After playing the whole act, Hou Xiaoge thought it was almost time and snatched the bamboo tube back.

"Heiwa, your water is so sweet!" Erhuan licked his lips with satisfaction.

"People are starving to death, and shit smells delicious. You too, hurry up and follow him down the ditch." Hou Xiaoge ignored this guy and went down the ditch carrying the backpack.