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

The girls were busy going back and forth collecting firewood.

Soon, the entire riverside was filled with the tempting aroma of grilled fish, and everyone's stomachs began to growl in frustration.

Sun Wan counted the golden grilled fish, about thirty of them, and called everyone to a halt.

All their belongings were looted by the rebel army in Lucheng, even the pots and pans in Sun Wan's house were not spared. Everyone could only use branches to fork fish to eat.

Even so, everyone's face was filled with a satisfied smile.

After eating a grilled fish, the hunger that was like a raging fire finally eased a lot.

The men wiped the oil from their mouths, turned around and headed back to the river to continue fishing; the women harvested a mountain of firewood.

Aunt Qu came back tremblingly carrying firewood on her back, with a smile as beautiful as a chrysanthemum. When she handed the things in her hand to Sun Wan, Sun Wan widened her eyes in surprise.

"This is... hemp?!"

Aunt Qu smiled and nodded: "That's right!"

"There are still plenty over there. Now the problem of clothes has been solved!"

As soon as Sun Wan finished speaking, everyone gathered around, their smiles full of sincerity and joy.

So the women stopped collecting firewood and instead busied themselves with harvesting hemp.

After all the hemp was collected, everyone started to wash and spin it. In a short while, the originally withered and yellow leaves turned into hemp ropes.

Sun Wan and Zhu Xiuqin carefully selected several slender and smooth branches, built a drying rack, and hung the twisted hemp ropes one by one to dry.

On the men's side, the fish continued to be caught.

When the number approached seventy or eighty, Sun Wan hurriedly asked everyone to stop and rest, fearing that they would not be able to eat all the fish if they caught more.

Zhang Daniu and the others were still unsatisfied, but they still put away their fishing rods: "The village chief is right, these fish are really stupid, and we can definitely catch one if we hook one!"

The village chief smiled and shook his head, reminding: "Hurry up and dry your wet feet. The river water is cold, don't let it cause you any illness."

Everyone was happily warming their feet around the fire. As soon as Zhu Xiuqin took off her shoes, she started yelling, "Oh, they stink! Put them on quickly!"

"You should go wash your feet first! Fish smells better than your feet!"

When these words were spoken, the men blushed, while the women laughed so hard that they fell over.

The village chief was also amused and coughed. He waved his hand and said, "Go wash up quickly."

The men did not dare to delay, they went and came back quickly, and put on their shoes again with water droplets dripping from their feet before returning to the team.

Zhu Xiuqin still insisted on building another fire for them and said, "You guys just stay here and don't use the one over there!"

"Hey, it's not that exaggerated!"

Some people protested, but Zhu Xiuqin refused to listen.

She strode over to the row of shoes, picked up a pair and threw it over: "Not smelly? Smell it yourself!"

The man picked up the shoe doubtfully: "Just smell it, eh!"

Before the shoe even got close to his nose, he began to retch uncontrollably.

Everyone burst into laughter again.

Zhu Xiuqin was very proud. She flipped the grilled fish with one hand and put her other hand on her waist, with a victorious look on her face.

Yan Senyue looked at the lively scene and couldn't help but smile.

As the sky gradually darkened, the village chief selected people to keep watch according to the old rules.

But Uncle Lai Fu stood up with a smile and said: "Don't worry, everyone. After such a long journey, who wouldn't be tired?"

"Especially the young men. They've climbed the mountain, crossed the river, and even spent half the day in the river. Go and rest quickly."

"Tonight, Uncle Zhang and I will be the ones keeping watch."

"Uncle Laifu, how can this be possible!"

Su Rongze quickly shook his head, and the others followed suit to persuade him.

But Uncle Lai Fu seemed determined, and with his skinny hands he pushed Su Rongze away: "Brother Su, just leave it alone!"

"We're just two old bones, we just hang around behind everyone all day and can't help at all."

"Now the only thing left is the ability to stay up late, so let us two old brothers put it to use."

Seeing that Su Rongze wanted to say something, Uncle Lai Fu frowned and said, "If you say one more word, it means you are looking down on us two old guys!"

"You are trying to get rid of us in some way!"

"Uncle Lai Fu, what you said is too harsh!" Su Rongze quickly waved his hand to deny it.

Seeing that the two old men were so persistent, it was difficult for everyone to persuade them.

In the end, the decision was made by the village chief, who asked Uncle Lai Fu and the other man to guard the first half of the night, and then Zhang Daniu and Su Rongze to take over in the second half.

This time, Uncle Lai Fu didn't object anymore.

The bonfire crackled, and the people of Darong Village huddled together and gradually fell asleep.

In the second half of the night, Su Rongze suddenly woke up from his dream, feeling inexplicably panicked, so he subconsciously pushed Zhang Daniu beside him.

"Hey? Is it time?"

Zhang Daniu rubbed his eyes in a daze and climbed up from the haystack with great effort. When he turned around, he saw Uncle Lai Fu and the others still sitting by the fire.

He scratched his head and turned to look at Su Rongze: "Rongze, why are you awake? Uncle Lai Fu hasn't called for a shift change yet."

Su Rongze felt more and more uneasy.

He hesitated for a moment, then stood up and looked around. It was pitch black all around, and there seemed to be nothing unusual.

Zhang Daniu also stood up and looked around, but saw nothing. "Rongze, what's wrong with you?"

"Having a nightmare?"

"It's okay, maybe I'm worrying too much..."

Su Rongze felt a little disappointed and turned to walk towards Uncle Lai Fu.

As he got closer, he realized that the fire was almost going out, so he quickly added some firewood.

"Uncle Laifu, you guys go and rest. We and Daniu will guard this place!"

There was no response from behind.

Su Rongze's hand that was adding firewood suddenly froze.

He held his breath and slowly turned around.

Beside the dim firelight, Uncle Lai Fu and Uncle Zhang snuggled together, their heads drooping weakly.

The firewood in Su Rongze's hand slipped and hit Mars, splashing blood-red sparks, and was then swallowed by ashes.

Uncle Lai Fu and Uncle Zhang passed away quietly like that.

Soon, the people of Darong Village gathered around the two old people. The night was as dark as ink, and the air was filled with grief and sorrow.

"My mom once said that people can sense when they're about to die. Uncle Lai Fu must have known that his time was running out, so he insisted on keeping watch for everyone one more time."

"He wanted to do his bit for everyone in the end."

Zhu Xiuqin choked and tears kept flowing.

Everyone shed tears silently.

Two lives were lost in the team. Although they were both elderly people, everyone still felt a sense of sadness that they were all connected by the same fate.

Even Xiao Fuzi, who is usually the most active, couldn't stop sobbing.

Sun Wan felt a heavy weight on her heart, as if a stone was pressing down on her. "They passed away peacefully. It's a happy funeral. We should be happy for them."

She was silent for a moment, then continued, "The body must be properly buried. This is not like Darong Village. Bury it on the spot and erect a monument to mark it."

"If it's possible in the future, we will send them back to their hometown to rest in peace."

This arrangement was unanimously agreed upon. The men, with heavy hearts, dug a grave overnight and buried the two men.

Since they couldn't find a stone tablet, they could only make do with a piece of wood and simply erect two temporary tombstones.