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

"If you don't take the construction materials that are delivered to your door, you'll be in trouble!"

Sun Wan's words gave everyone a boost of confidence.

Yes, no matter how difficult it is, can it be more difficult than fleeing famine and escaping from one’s life?

Now at least there are a few broken walls, which is a luxury compared to finding a cave to hide in on the road of fleeing famine.

After comforting themselves, everyone gradually felt stronger.

Sun Wan led everyone around. She looked down carefully, tapping the ground with the stick in her hand from time to time. Several particularly large rats scurried out.

Sun Wan was right. As long as there was a place to stay, being alive was better than anything else.

Huizhou is further south than Jizhou, and the rats here are more rampant. Although the drought has made them thin, they are not afraid of people and even dare to provoke them.

"what!"

The screams of women and children came one after another. Sun Wan seized the opportunity, stepped forward, and with quick eyes and hands, she stepped on a mouse to death.

"Pah."

There was a mess of blood and flesh under her feet, and she felt terrible. Sun Wan hurriedly raised her feet and rubbed them on the ground again and again, with a look of disgust on her face.

If they were on the run, this rat might have become a delicious meal, but now, all Sun Wan saw was disgust.

Seeing this, the others also plucked up the courage to deal with the rats.

This rat was very evil. Seeing that no one was afraid and one of its companions had died, the remaining rats were like frightened birds and disappeared in an instant.

After some effort, everyone managed to tidy up three rooms.

Although the walls were dilapidated, they were still intact. The doors and windows were damaged, but Sun Wan and her team managed to seal them with the oilcloth placed on the cart. The arrangement was just right.

In one of the rooms, there was actually a rickety bed. Aunt Chi came over to check it out and removed a few planks from the broken bed in another room.

"Come on, help me hold it steady."

Chi Dong and Chi Xi hurried forward to help. Aunt Chi seized the opportunity to embed the wooden board and called Liu Dazhu to hit it hard with a wooden hammer.

You know what, after Aunt Chi’s hard work, the bed became much more stable.

After settling into their homes, the women pulled carts to the stream to fetch water.

Unlike the clean water provided by Lin Xiangxiang, the stream water is turbid and not suitable for drinking, but it is excellent for cleaning.

The women worked hard, and the three rooms were cleaned inside and out until they were spotless. Seeing everyone working so hard, Sun Wan finally felt relieved. She had been worried for various reasons along the way.

As bursts of fresh moisture wafted through the house, the men came back one after another carrying large bundles of firewood from the foot of the mountain.

"We have the advantage of staying in this remote corner. It's not difficult to chop wood."

Everyone found joy in the midst of hardship, their laughter revealing a sense of open-mindedness. Once the firewood arrived, the first thing they did was light a bonfire to warm the children, and then they started preparing the meal.

The most complete room is connected to a small kitchen with a sturdy and easy-to-use earthen stove that produces smokeless fire.

Soon, Zhu Xiuqin cooked a large pot of porridge, adding some flavorful dried horse meat. She deftly distributed the porridge to everyone: "Tonight, let's eat a good meal!"

"Celebrating the birth of our new home!"

"Okay!"

The aroma of porridge filled the air, and the people sitting in a circle looked at each other, smiling from the bottom of their hearts.

The village chief also relaxed for once, saying slowly, "Tonight, just two of us will keep watch. We're new here, and we're so close to the foot of the mountain, so we need to be cautious."

"Tomorrow, we'll start collecting materials and build a house around these three rooms."

"The weather is getting colder, so we have to hurry! Once the soil freezes hard, the work will be even harder."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"It's fine for them to choose this place. It allows them to temporarily avoid the people from Xinghua Village and avoid trouble."

Sun Wan suddenly became thoughtful and felt heavy-hearted.

She looked at the village chief and said, "For a village to have a headman, there must be at least a hundred households and thousands of people."

It is not easy to settle down here.

"If something really happens, the twenty or so people here won't be able to handle it."

Sun Wan's words chilled everyone's heart. "So are we going to stay in hiding forever? How are we going to live? And what about the farmland?"

"Will they give us land?"

Sun Wan shook her head. The reality was not optimistic. "It's hard to say. Farmland is not easy to come by. We are outsiders, so we may have to reclaim the wasteland ourselves in the end."

When the words "reclaim wasteland" came out, everyone couldn't help but shudder.

Land reclamation is hard work.

At this time, the land that has not been cultivated is either barren or rugged.

The latter is acceptable, as it requires a little more effort, but if it is the former, it will be difficult to grow good crops within a few years. The first three years will basically be in vain, and the harvest will have to be returned to the land.

The food reserves they have on hand are not enough to last them for three years, let alone the New Year.

The people in Darong Village have been farming for generations. They don’t know what else they can do besides farming. Now they don’t even have land to farm, and no one has even lost the mood to eat.

The village chief also frowned.

The people of Darong Village fell asleep in this worry.

The next day, everyone got up early at dawn.

Sun Wan stood up and checked the fire on the ground. It was all out, but the sweet potatoes buried in the fire were roasted perfectly and were still hot.

She dug out the sweet potatoes and asked Su Guiying to distribute them to the elderly and children.

The woman and the child lived in the same room. When there was any movement here, Yan Senyue, who was sleeping in the corner with his clothes on, also opened his eyes.

Her eyes were clear, obviously she had woken up early.

Seeing Sun Wan approaching, Sun Wan instinctively handed over a sweet potato, but Yan Senyue shook his head: "I should go."

Sun Wan's expression froze when she heard this, confusion flashing across her eyes before she smiled broadly. "That's true. We've settled down now. Miss Senyue, do your family live in Huizhou City?"

"I'll accompany you to look for your relatives."

Yan Senyue was alone, and if he went there rashly, he might encounter some unexpected incidents. She appreciated Sun Wan's kindness, but just shook her head slightly, her eyes lingering on Sun Wan for a moment, deep and meaningful.

"Looking forward to seeing you again."

After he finished speaking, Yan Senyue pushed the door open and walked out with firm steps.

When Sun Wan ran out of the door, she felt a slight chill on her forehead. It turned out that light snow had started to fall in the air.

In the distance, men were sweating profusely as they carried wood from the mountain; nearby, women were busy repairing the damaged courtyard, preparing for cooking and cleaning. It was a busy scene.

But Yan Senyue had long disappeared.

It took Sun Wan a while to come to her senses, confirming that Yan Senyue had indeed left. She joined the others in collecting intact bricks and stones, while Liang Erlang led everyone in peeling tree bark.

"These woods need to be dried and coated with tung oil before they can be used. Unfortunately, the current conditions are limited, so we can only temporarily build simple houses."

"When life gets better in the future, we'll build a solid brick house!"

Although Liang Erlang wasn't as skilled as his father, the renowned carpenter, he was still considered one of the best in the village. Furthermore, he had personally demonstrated how to mix mud and build a clay stove.

"Sunlight is scarce in the winter, so we can use fire to dry things out!"

Baskets of yellow mud were brought from the stream and quickly transformed into earthen stoves, although the first few cracked due to improper heating.