My best friend is living a famine-stricken life; you're going crazy, I'm farming.

Zhou Jingwei and Xiao Ning became close, and Xiao Ning insisted on sleeping with her.

Thinking that Xiao Ning was getting older and it wasn't appropriate for her to sleep in the same room as her brother and father, Xu Yingying helped her move her clothes over.

But with people coming and going in the dining room, it didn't feel right for the two girls to sleep there, so Xu Yingying kicked Xu Chunsheng and Zhou Jingyi out of their room and let the two girls sleep in the room.

Zhou Jingyi dared not utter a single complaint. After moving his things, he turned around and went out hunting.

At dusk, Xiao Yuanshan returned with the latest news from the foot of the mountain.

"Before the New Year, everyone should stay on the mountain."

"Why?"

"The number of refugees is increasing, the river is drying up, and some people in Qingshui Village who did not stockpile food have begun to flee the famine. It is said that the shops in the town have been looted and chaos has begun. At first, the government intervened to suppress the unrest, but now, with so many refugees, the imperial court's disaster relief has not come down, and the county magistrate is helpless."

"I heard that the yamen was smashed by thugs, and the county magistrate is still missing. If even the county magistrate is killed, then Qingyang County is truly finished."

Xiao Yuanshan looked solemn. He had guessed that there would be chaos during the famine, but he hadn't expected it to be this chaotic. He always felt that with the imperial court around, the people wouldn't starve to death.

“If the county magistrate can’t handle it, then the prefect can’t handle it either, right? They have to send troops to suppress it,” Xu Dazhu said.

"The drought is so severe that the entire Liangzhou region has suffered. We are currently busy fighting against the Western Rong Kingdom. The Western Rong are really going too far. If we don't fight back, they will only become more and more outrageous. There's nothing we ordinary people can do but wait for the imperial court to come."

Xiao Yuanshan added that when he went down Nanshan, he saw people who had entered Nanshan in search of food. They must have encountered a pack of wolves, leaving behind a mess of gnawed wolves.

After this ordeal, most people would probably starve to death rather than go up Nanshan again. This wouldn't be a bad thing for them, as it would at least ensure that no one would find them.

“Every good thing has a bad thing,” Yang Fenglan said solemnly. “Most people won’t go up Nanshan, but if they are desperate, or if they are skilled hunters like you and know there are wolves in the mountains, they might come to try their luck. Once they find that there is food here, they will definitely not let it go.”

“It’s not impossible.” Xiao Yuanshan frowned. “You guys shouldn’t go down the cliff anymore. Too many people will leave obvious traces. Experienced people can tell at a glance that someone has been there. Just to be on the safe side, it’s best not to go down.”

However, we need to use water every day, so we can't not go down there.

Yang Fenglan had bought some oilcloth, so she suggested that they dig a pond on the mountain, lay the oilcloth on it, and use it for several days after replenishing the water. This way, they would go down the mountain less often and wouldn't leave too many traces.

Without further ado, everyone got to work as soon as it was light.

With so many people, a pond was dug in a day, and tarpaulins were laid out. Several men took turns fetching water, but they were exhausted.

The pond was finally filled to the brim.

Xiao Yuanshan led Zhou Jingyi down the cliff and covered up the footprints near the mountain spring, so that no trace could be seen at a glance.

Yang Fenglan then called Xiao Yuanshan and Zhou Jingyi to go to the bamboo forest and dig up two more baskets of bamboo shoots. After processing these bamboo shoots, the dried vegetables they had stored were almost enough to last through the winter.

For the past two or three months since we came up the mountain, we've been stockpiling firewood, and we figured we had enough, so we started staying on the mountaintop.

The temperature difference between day and night on the mountaintop is getting bigger and bigger, so Yang Fenglan and Lin Cuiniang started making thick winter clothes.

With nothing else to do, Xu Yingying would gather the little ones together every day and teach them to read, write, do arithmetic, and so on. As a result, the children would want to pick up tree branches whenever they saw them and draw and write on the ground.

Xu Dazhu joked with her, "Our Master Xu should have started teaching the children a long time ago."