The end of natural disasters: the daily life of child brides in ancient times

Chongtou Town.

Dazhuang walked into the dilapidated courtyard with a stick in his hand and unsteady steps.

He quickly glanced at the main house in the dilapidated courtyard and saw that the door was closed, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as I was about to go to the west room, I heard the door of the main room open. My uncle Li Jinbao, hiding behind the door, asked:

"Da Zhuang, did you find anything to eat today?"

Da Zhuang was startled by the voice, but he quickly adjusted his mood, put on a sad face, and sighed:

"Oh! It's freezing outside, there's nothing!"

As he spoke, he walked a few steps toward the main house door and pleaded with Li Jinbao:

"Uncle, my grandpa has been so hungry that he can't get up for several days!

My father also has a high fever. Can you lend me some food?

Don't worry, as long as my father gets better, we will definitely pay you back!"

Li Jinbao looked Dazhuang up and down. He thought that there was no food to hide in his clothes which were so tattered that they couldn't be torn any further.

Thinking of this, he snorted coldly:

"It's good that I didn't ask you for it, but you still want to ask me for food!

Except for the rich man Wang’s family, who else has food now?

You're wasting my breath talking when you have no food, bah!"

As he said that, he slammed the door shut and ignored Da Zhuang in the yard.

Da Zhuang looked at the closed door in front of him with no emotion on his face. Before his mother died, he knew what kind of people his uncle's family was.

Now, we are forced to hide together in this broken yard simply because we really can't find any other place to avoid the cold.

Thinking of this, he turned and walked towards the west room next to him.

At this moment, the broken door in the west room was shaking in the wind, making a creaking sound.

He leaned on his stick, took a few steps as fast as he could, and went forward to hold the shaky door.

He walked into the house, then struggled to lift the wooden board on the side and used it to block the door.

In this way, the door finally stopped shaking and the wind stopped blowing into the house.

Da Zhuang looked towards the corner of the house and saw that the fire that was burning before he left had gone out as expected.

He walked over quickly and carefully dug it out with a stick.

Seeing that there was still a little spark inside, he hurriedly pulled the hay beside him.

After putting it in, he blew on it gently until the hay slowly caught fire, then he breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, an old and hoarse voice sounded from the haystack next to them.

"Da... Zhuang, did you find... something to eat?"

The voice was extremely weak, and it seemed as if all the strength was used to utter each word.

Da Zhuang quickly glanced at the door and then lowered his voice and said:

"Grandpa, I found a mouse hole today and found a handful of wheat grains and peanuts in it. We can have food to eat today!"

The boy spoke with some excitement, but he was very restrained and kept his voice very low.

When Old Man Lu heard that there was food, he suddenly found strength and raised his head, saying excitedly:

"Okay! Hurry...do it!"

"Hey, I'll do it right away. After you eat the food, you and Dad will definitely get better!"

As Da Zhuang spoke, his weak body regained strength.

He fanned the flames of the fire and then took the old clay pot to the door and scooped some snow.

After hanging the clay pot on the fire, he carefully took out a handful of wheat grains from his arms.

There are also a few peanuts mixed in with this bunch of wheat grains.

Dazhuang looked at the grain in his hand, swallowed hard, and then carefully picked out the wheat grains one by one and put them into the earthenware jar.

After picking about half of the wheat grains, he quickly stopped.

There was only so much food in hand, and even if they cooked it all, it would not be enough for the three of them.

Besides, I don’t know when Dad will get better.

It was difficult for him to find food on his own, so he had to save the food.

Thinking of this, he looked around the house, trying to find a safe place to hide the remaining food.

But when he turned around, he saw his unconscious father lying in the haystack and his grandfather who was so thin that he was just a bag of bones.

Thinking about how seriously ill his father was, he turned around and put a peanut into the jar.

Seeing that his grandfather was also very weak, he put in another peanut.

When he looked down again, he saw that the food in his hand was getting less and less. He felt distressed and refused to put any more grain into the jar.

After hiding the food, he returned to the fire.

At this time, a lot of snow in the clay pot had melted.

Even with some wheat grains in it, the clay pot still seemed empty.

He took out a handful of dried vegetables from under the haystack next to him.

These were the wild vegetables they had stockpiled earlier, and there weren't many left after eating them all.

In fact, when they escaped from the barbarians, their situation was not so difficult.

His father and grandparents escaped with food, and most of the things on the cart were not lost.

Unfortunately, when they arrived at Qingping County, not only could they not enter the county town, but there was also a huge fire in the mountains and forests.

In order to escape, they did not head south as previously agreed upon by the team, but ran west instead.

Unfortunately, the road to the west was not peaceful either, and refugees were encountered from time to time.

In order to protect the food on the cart, my grandmother was beaten to death by those people and even her body was dragged away.

Dad and grandpa ran out with him and a bag of food.

Later, he met his mother and uncle's family on the road.

At that time, he was so happy to see his mother was still alive.

His mother also hugged him and cried uncontrollably.

Afterwards, his family and his uncle's family naturally started to travel together.

Unexpectedly, this was the beginning of the conflict.

My uncle has a large family, so he would ask my mother to steal some food from time to time.

Because of this, my mother was beaten many times by my father, but she still refused to change.

Until that time, refugees surrounded their car.

At her uncle's call, her mother ignored his and her father's objections and went to rescue Youyin from her uncle's house first. Then she and Youyin were dragged away by the victims.

When they escaped that time, there were only three of them left in his family, and only his uncle, aunt, grandfather and cousin Youjin escaped from his uncle's family.

They walked for a long time, and when they finally arrived at the town, it started snowing.

They stopped only when they saw that the temperature was too low to continue their journey.

This dilapidated yard was found by his father.

Unfortunately, my grandfather was injured at that time, and their family could not defeat my uncle's family, so they occupied the airtight main house.

Because his father was the only laborer in his family, his uncle's family came to look for food more than once when his father went out to look for food.

The little food that was left was slowly either searched away or eaten by them themselves.

Now, only these dried vegetables are left.

If the dried vegetables were gone and he couldn't find any more food, I'm afraid the whole family would starve to death.

Thinking of this, he pulled a small handful of dried vegetables into the pot, and put the rest back under the hay.

While waiting for the food to boil, Dazhuang went to his father, pulled away the rag, touched his forehead, and found that it was still very hot.

He was a little worried because his father had been having intermittent fever since his leg was broken a few days ago.

These past two days, I barely even woke up!

Using rags to cool down was the only way he could think of at the moment.

But now the rag is no longer cold and can no longer help to cool down the body.

Thinking of this, he took the rag to the door of the house, stuffed it into the snow pile, and waited for a while before pulling it out.

By this time, the cloth was already a little cold to his hands. He pinched a corner with his fingers, ran back to the haystack, and put the rag back on his father's forehead.

Boss Lu, who was in a coma, shivered from the cold, but still did not wake up.

Da Zhuang was a little disappointed, so he turned his attention back to the fire.

Seeing that the water in the clay pot had not yet boiled, he sat by the fire and began to take off his shoes, preparing to warm his hands and feet.

After being out for so long, his hands and feet were numb from the cold.