Rebirth of an Old Farmer: Escape from Famine with Children and Grandchildren

"No, Shulan, you just need to follow me. We need to travel as light as possible to ensure a safe and smooth journey."

His tone was firm and unquestionable.

Su Mingxiang rolled up her tattered clothes into a small bag, which contained the old clothes they had changed out of on the roof.

Then he carefully put on the new clothes that Sun Wan had carefully prepared for them.

He felt very grateful and thought to himself: Fortunately, Aunt Sun Wan was thoughtful and these clothes were made of strong blue coarse cloth.

In this way, even if it is soaked in water for a long time, it will not be easily damaged, and when it is covered in mud, it will look like a mud monkey and difficult to recognize.

Su Mingxiang grabbed a handful of mud and sand from the water and smeared it on Su Shulan's face, hair and clothes, trying to make her and herself less conspicuous.

"Be patient, this will keep us safe."

He said softly to her.

Just as he was busy, he heard Su Shulan's excited voice: "Brother Mingxiang, look over there! The flood washed over several large wooden cabinets. Maybe there are some treasures in them!"

Looking in the direction of her finger, I found that there were indeed several boxes moving rapidly with the rapids, mixed with many broken branches and other miscellaneous items.

Hearing her say this, Su Mingxiang couldn't help but feel excited.

"Just stay here and don't run around. Hold on tightly to the larger floating object next to you and wait for me to come back!"

After giving the instructions, he took quick action.

"Okay, I won't move. I'll wait for you to come back."

Su Shulan happily responded to her brother's words and hugged the wood beside her tightly as instructed.

So Su Mingxiang carefully bypassed several obstacles encountered along the way - those big trees that were toppled over by the flood or even lying directly in the middle of the river.

When he approached one of the large wooden cabinets that seemed particularly heavy, he found a lock hanging on the door.

But he did not give up. Instead, he cleverly used the thrust generated by the turbulent water flow to control the entire wooden container to slowly approach the target location.

After it docked steadily beside Su Shulan, the brother and sister worked together to adjust it so that the base was in contact with the water surface and the top was open facing them, and placed it next to a thicker piece of wood as a support.

Then, Su Mingxiang took out the small knife he carried with him from his waist and began to skillfully fiddle with the gap between the tightly closed wooden boards.

After careful research and experimentation, I finally found the right entry point.

After a slight "click" sound, the lock was successfully opened.

Su Shulan was quick to open the cabinet door and took out half a bag full of wild vegetables or other similar foods.

Then, Su Mingxiang searched around carefully and found a thin quilt, some relatively dry clothes and some strong hemp ropes.

In addition, a blue cloth bag caught the eye, which contained a pair of embroidered shoes, a pair of sharp scissors, needles and thread and other daily necessities.

These simple items made Su Shulan extremely happy. With these things, even if her clothes were torn in the future, she could quickly mend them and would not fall into an embarrassing situation because of being naked.

Although the items fished out of the water were soaked by the flood, for them who had nothing at the time, this was undoubtedly a small blessing worth celebrating, and at least temporarily alleviated some of the anxiety and uneasiness brought about by the predicament.

Seeing the wooden cabinet in front of him that looked relatively sturdy, Su Mingxiang had an idea: he decided to tie the wooden cabinet together with the wood he had collected, so that he could create a temporary cushion for Su Shulan to prevent her from being directly exposed to the freezing cold flood for a long time.

In the past few days, he noticed that his sister's face became paler and paler. The girl was weak and could not withstand the continuous cold stimulation.

When starting to make this simple device, Su Mingxiang first tied the four legs of the wooden cabinet firmly to the thick wood with hemp ropes; the operation on the other side seemed a bit tricky. At this time, Su Shulan had an idea. She picked up the scissors and poked one side of the cabinet a few times, and soon opened a small hole in the hardwood board.

"This way, the hemp rope can be passed through here to fix the whole structure more firmly."

She demonstrated it to her brother as she spoke.

Su Mingxiang quickly solved the problem according to this method, then turned to Su Shulan and said with a smile: "Everything is ready now, you can try to sit on it."

After saying that, he couldn't wait to let his sister experience his "masterpiece" first.

The two of them were busy with their work, preparing this seemingly simple but actually practical "boat".

However, just when they thought things were going smoothly, panicked noises suddenly came from the front.

"Everyone, hurry up! We must get out of here as soon as possible!"

The adults shouted anxiously, while the children cried out in fear.

It turned out that there were a lot of floating furniture, debris and even broken trees in front of them, blocking the way forward. So people rowed their boats, trying to avoid the obstacles and disperse to both sides to find a way out.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, some people in the rear also took the opportunity to speed up and advance forward in an attempt to break through the encirclement.

Su Mingxiang noticed that there was a gap next to him that he could pass through.

Instead of getting on the homemade raft as originally planned, Su Shulan chose to stand on the edge of the wood and follow her brother in pushing the combination, which was tightly hidden behind the cabinet and slid forward slowly but steadily.

In order to keep himself and his sister safer, Su Mingxiang also picked up some slender branches scattered near the water surface and placed them on the counter surface as a cover to increase concealment, hoping to minimize the risk of being swept away by the turbulent water.

Just as they were moving forward cautiously, several more large trees were uprooted and more tables, chairs, furniture and other items were carried in by the waves.

When Su Mingxiang turned around to observe the surroundings, he suddenly found that there seemed to be something strange hidden under one of the tables.

Looking closely, I saw a familiar figure hiding under the table...

The black-headed man also noticed that he was looking at him and shook his hand, signaling him to be quiet.

Su Mingxiang's heart trembled slightly, and he quickly understood what the other party meant, and stopped making any sound.

They moved one after another, constantly grabbing the branches and furniture around them, disguising themselves as a group of trees and furniture.

In order to avoid being discovered, they moved very carefully, and every movement seemed extremely cautious, as if every step was related to life and death.