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

This morning, the sky was overcast.

Lu Qingqing was practicing archery in the house when she heard a dull thud of something hitting the ground outside.

Looking out the window, hailstones of all sizes were falling and hitting the ground.

Lu Qingqing pulled Qin Lang into the closet, listening to the sound of the wind outside mixed with the crackling sound of falling hail, while the breathing of the two could be clearly heard in the enclosed space.

Occasionally, there was the sound of tiles breaking on the roof, and then the sound of hail hitting the ground inside the house.

After a while, the noise outside slowly stopped.

Lu Qingqing opened the cabinet door and saw hailstones on the floor. Some of the roof tiles were broken, and the hailstones had come in through the gaps in the straw mat.

Many villagers were busy working in the fields at this time. With hail this heavy, there would likely be casualties in the village.

Before Grandma Qin’s funeral, Lu Qingqing told several of her close friends that they should try to stay out of the house as much as possible during this period to avoid being injured by hail again.

I don’t know if they listened to the advice.

Lu Qingqing and Qin Lang cleaned up the hail in the house, but this time some tiles were broken in several rooms.

Fortunately, the straw provided some cushioning and broke less than last time.

After we finished cleaning up, we saw the sky starting to clear up.

The wife of County Magistrate Yao came hurriedly, looking a little flustered. When she saw Lu Qingqing, she started begging:

"Miss Lu, I'm sorry to bother you without permission. To be honest, I came here to ask for medicine for my youngest son. He was hit on the head by hail just now and has been bleeding. The medicine I have at home can't stop the bleeding."

Lu Qingqing knew that she was anxious, so she quickly went into the house to get some hemostatic medicine.

After thanking her, Mrs. Yao hurried away with the medicine.

There were still a lot of medicines at home. Lu Qingqing thought the recipe had been lost, but Qin Lang said that all these medicines were made by him.

Qin Lang talked about the medicinal herbs used. Except for dragon bones, the others sounded commonly used.

Since the hailstorm, Lu Qingqing was worried that it would hail again, so she didn't let Erya come over again and brought her some food back.

During the winter, she was used to Erya being around. Erya hadn't come over these days, and she was alone at the Li family, which made Lu Qingqing a little worried.

I was thinking of going to the village and visiting Zhuzi, the village chief and the old village chief's house.

Seeing that the sky had cleared up, he took the medicine and hurried out.

When going downhill, I passed by Zhuzi's house and saw Zhuzi and his wife repairing the roof.

After chatting for a while and learning that no one in his family was injured, I continued walking towards the village.

When we arrived at Li's house, Chengcai's father was repairing the roof and Chengcai's mother was cleaning the hail on the ground.

After greeting the two of them, he walked into the house.

When Erya saw Lu Qingqing coming, she ran out happily and held her hand.

Seeing that Erya was not injured, several people went to Erya's room and sat down.

These days, Erya has listened to Lu Qingqing's advice and has not gone out.

Seeing Erya like this, the Li family also followed suit and stayed at home.

Lu Qingqing was a little confused. If that was the case, why was Li Chengcai still lying on the kang?

After listening to Erya's explanation, I finally understood what was going on.

It turned out that the last time it hailstorm, Li Chengcai was repairing the road next to the village chief's house.

The road was very muddy due to the melting snow, and when he saw the hail falling, he hurried back to the house.

Unexpectedly, the more anxious he was, the more mistakes he made, and he fell into the ditch next to him.

I twisted my ankle and watched hailstones as big as fists falling down.

Li Chengcai didn't care about the pain in his ankle. He climbed up quickly and dived into the pile of firewood next to him.

The firewood was piled high, and the hailstones could not hurt the people underneath, so they escaped disaster.

Seeing that Erya was fine, Lu Qingqing looked around and saw that there was still a lot of food left from the one she had given her before. She told her to come to her if she had any problems, then said goodbye and walked towards the village chief's house.

Along the way, many families were repairing their houses.

Passing by the house of an old bachelor in the village, the old bachelor was crying in the yard. His thatched house was collapsed by hail.

I heard from the villagers that the old bachelor's house was built by his parents when they were young. The bachelor was addicted to gambling when he was young and lost all the family's land.

I haven't done any serious work in these years, so naturally this thatched house has never been repaired.

In summer, it rains heavily outside and drizzles inside.

When it snowed heavily in winter, one of the houses collapsed, and the remaining one has now been knocked down by hail.

During these days, Lu Qingqing heard a lot of crying, and she cried a lot herself.

After hearing so much crying, my heart seems to have become hardened.

Only after she came here did she truly realize the fragility of human beings.

It's not like modern times, where there are so many medicines. Most people just endure illnesses, and if they can't, they die.

Not to mention this time when natural disasters occur frequently.

During the drought, countless refugees died outside.

The same happened in the village. Some people were bitten to death by wolves when they went into the mountains, some died of thirst when there was no water, some were frozen to death in large numbers during cold waves, some were killed by hailstones, and some were killed by her while robbing for money and food.

And the good Grandma Qin is also gone.

Qin Lang seemed to sense her emotions and held her hand tightly.

Lu Qingqing looked at Qin Lang beside her. After this winter, he had grown a lot taller.

Practicing martial arts every day made him less skinny than his peers, and his broad shoulders made him look like an adult.

Lu Qingqing adjusted her mood and continued walking towards the village. The old bachelor's crying fell far behind her.

She became increasingly aware of one thing: she was just an ordinary person, and it was difficult for her to protect herself and the people she cared about in this natural disaster.

When Lu Qingqing arrived at the village chief's house, the village chief and his son were repairing the roof.

When the village chief saw Lu Qingqing coming, he hurriedly called his wife out to greet her. After Lu Qingqing entered the house, she found that the village chief's little girl, Lu Shuyun, had her head hit and was lying on the kang.

Fortunately, the wound was not serious and the village chief's wife had treated it with wood ash.

Lu Qingqing looked at the wound. The broken skin was not big, and it was mainly red, swollen and bruised from being hit.

He left some medicine for the village chief's family and left with the village chief's wife's grateful thanks.

Before I even reached the old village chief's house, I saw Da Zhuang running out from a distance.

When Dazhuang saw her, he turned around and ran towards her instead of running towards the old village chief's house.

Dazhuang ran and cried,

"Sister, Dad is going to beat Mom to death, please go and save her!"

Lu Qingqing grabbed Dazhuang who was rushing towards her. He was covered in dirt and his face and head were also dirty.

She started crying, and her tears washed away the dirt on her face, leaving two obvious marks.

"What's wrong, Dazhuang?"

Dazhuang sniffed and said in a crying voice:

"Mom stole food for my uncle and was discovered by my grandparents. They want Dad to beat her to death. Sister, please go and save Mom."

As he said that, he was about to pull Lu Qingqing home.

Lu Qingqing grabbed Dazhuang and suggested,

"It's useless for me to go there. My grandfather is most afraid of the old village chief."

Da Zhuang ran to the old village chief's house, and Lu Qingqing followed him in.

As soon as I entered, I saw Dazhuang dragging the old village chief out.

"Dad, people don't want you to go. You'll be disliked if you go."

Lu Tianxin chased out of the house and saw Lu Qingqing and the others as he was talking. He suddenly stopped talking in embarrassment.