Reborn before the famine, kicking away the scumbag's family and living a carefree life.

45. Du Mei (4)

After leaving Qi Zhengyang's house, Du Mei took out the bowl from her cloth bag, leaned on her cane, and pretended to be a beggar.

This time, she had something in her stomach, which gave her strength and power in her legs, allowing her to walk very fast. Before long, she arrived at the entrance of Xiaoben Village.

As I approached the village entrance, I noticed several people gathered there in the distance.

Du Mei was a little scared.

What are they doing there? Are they trying to kidnap someone?

She hugged the cloth bag she was carrying tightly.

This was the only entrance to the village, and she couldn't go around it, so she had no choice but to grit her teeth and head in that direction.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that they were all village officials and patrol team members.

Du Mei asked Cao Yunhua of the patrol team.

"Brother, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Oh, it's Teacher Du! Someone died at the village entrance. It was Old Hou from the village, but all the flesh on his body was cut off."

Du Mei recalled that when she came out earlier, she did see a person lying at the entrance of the village, and she touched his body twice.

But he wasn't scratched at that time.

She asked, puzzled, "What does 'being skinned alive' mean?"

Cao Yunhua shook his head.

"It means that someone cuts off a piece of your body and eats it."

The flesh of the dead was cut off and eaten.

Du Mei felt a chill run down her spine.

Her stomach was churning, but she held it in. She couldn't vomit; if she did, all the food she had eaten would be wasted.

Du Mei covered her mouth, waved to Cao Yunhua, and hurried home.

When Du Mei arrived home, she locked the courtyard gate from the inside and ran into the house, excitedly telling Cheng Xiao, who was lying on the bed, "I got some rice. Get up quickly and cook some rice porridge for the children."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiao jumped out of bed.

"Really? You really got your hands on some food?"

Du Mei patted the cloth bag happily.

When the three children heard there was food, they also got out of bed.

The whole family happily worked together to cook rice porridge.

As Du Mei started a fire, she said, "When I came back just now, I saw the village officials at the village entrance. Old Hou from the village was dead there. They said his flesh had been cut off."

Cheng Xiao: "What do you mean by 'the flesh on my body was scraped off'?"

"If there's no food, then we'll just skin and kill people and eat their flesh!"

Cheng Xiao: "This world has reached the point where people are eating each other."

Four-year-old Erni and two-year-old Xiaobao couldn't understand their mother's words, but six-year-old Dani did. She was so frightened that she hugged Du Mei and cried.

"Mom, I'm afraid!"

"What are you afraid of? Just don't go out and wander around, and you won't get eaten."

The child cried even louder.

Du Mei said impatiently, "Stop crying, what are you crying for? With us here, no one will dare to eat you."

As she spoke, she pushed the child away.

Seeing that her mother was unhappy, the child dared not cry anymore and sat there sobbing.

Cheng Xiao glanced at Du Mei.

Where did you get the rice?

"borrowed."

"Colleague, you're from Daben Village, why ask so many questions? As long as there's food, that's all that matters."

Cheng Xiao wanted to ask his colleague if she was male or female, but seeing Du Mei's reluctant expression and her annoyed look, he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

People are starving to death every day, and now it has come to the point of cannibalism. Everyone is in danger and no one cares about anyone else. Brothers and sisters are each looking after their own food, and even husbands and wives are keeping it a secret from each other, secretly eating alone.

At this point, who would lend their life-saving food to others?

Unless, of course, the relationship between the two people is extraordinary.

Seeing that Du Mei's sallow and dry face had regained some color, Cheng Xiao understood most of it, but he remained calm and composed.

His priority now is to save his life. He doesn't have that opportunity himself, otherwise he would be willing to do so.

The porridge is ready. The family of five only cooked a handful of rice and a large pot of water. It was even clearer than rice water, but at least it tasted like grains and was more nutritious than just drinking water.

I drink this kind of porridge twice a day. Although I'm still hungry, I don't feel as uncomfortable.

Even this bland porridge only lasted for seven days.

On the eighth day, Du Mei put on the same outfit as that day and went out again.

Cheng Xiao was worried about whether he could borrow rice again this time, but he was wrong. Du Mei managed to borrow two small bowls of rice again.

At this moment, Cheng Xiao completely relaxed.

His guesses were mostly correct; Du Mei was definitely having an affair with some man.

But it was fortunate that she had such a relationship with him, otherwise he and his child would have starved to death.

Let's just get by and live one day at a time!

However, when Du Mei went out for the third time, Cheng Xiao couldn't resist her curiosity and secretly followed her. She discovered that Du Mei had gone to Daben Village and entered Qi Zhengyang's house.

Cheng Xiao, a teacher at Daben Elementary School, doesn't know everyone's situation, but she does know about Qi Zhengyang's.

Qi Zhengyang is the school principal, and he divorced six months ago.

The divorce was a sensational event. Almost everyone in Daben Township knew that the principal of Daben Elementary School had gotten divorced.

Cheng Xiao knew exactly why someone was willing to lend rice to Du Mei. A single man lending such precious grain to a woman, and repeatedly at that, would surely suggest a special relationship between them.

Daben Village.

Su Jinru was enjoying a very comfortable time at home.

An Ran and An Xin study every morning. Su Jinru puts the initiative in An Ran's learning, letting him study on his own and also teach his younger sister.

Anran, shouldering heavy responsibilities, is proactive in her studies, and her intellectual potential is fully realized.

He not only proactively plans his own studies, specifying how much he will study each day, but he also manages his younger sister's studies in a very clear and organized manner.

Su Jinru doesn't need to do everything herself in educating her children. With Anran as her little helper, she doesn't have the worries of educating her children. Perhaps it's because there's no competition in school, no exam pressure, and no comparison with other children. So, both she and her two children are learning in a more relaxed state, and their learning results are visibly improving by leaps and bounds.

The school environment is characterized by intense competition and fear-driven learning. An Xin and An Ran's learning, however, is driven by a passion-driven approach, as taught by Su Jinru.

The latter group experiences less pressure, is more proactive, and naturally achieves twice the results.

The most obvious thing is that the two children have a large vocabulary, speak poetically or philosophically, and can rattle off idioms one after another. The key is that they did not learn those idioms from textbooks, but rather figured them out on their own.

So all Su Jinru needs to do is discover their progress every day and encourage them.

She is always pleasantly surprised by her child's progress, as long as she is good at noticing it.

Just like when a child is very young, the first time you hear your child call you "Mom," or see your child take their first steps on their own.

Su Jinru is enjoying herself at home with her child and hasn't gone out for a long time.