A Farm Girl: Three Acres of Fertile Land Can Be Exchanged for a Country

Chapter 6: Lingering on the Edge

The girl was still there. Zhao Sanyang tried to amuse her with pigeons, but she looked resentful and bitter, not even smiling, unlike a lively and cheerful person.

Wutong walked over and handed her the dry rations. She took them, bowed respectfully to Wutong, but only held the rations in her hand without eating them.

Zhao Sanyang asked curiously, "Why aren't you eating them? Are you leaving them to grow mushrooms?"

The girl shook her head, biting her lip and remaining silent.

Wutong squatted down and patiently asked her. After a long while, she finally spoke shyly, "Could you give me some more? My mother is also very hungry..."

"Your mother?"

"Ah."

Wutong turned her head, exchanged a glance with Nanxing, and put her hand on the girl's shoulder, asking, "Could you take us to see it?"

The girl turned and walked into the woods, where the disaster victims were concentrated on the other side.

Wutong took a step forward, but Nanxing pulled her hem again and shook his head at her: "Don't touch those disaster victims, they are dirty."

"asshole!"

Wutong cursed and winked at Zhao Sanyang. Zhao Sanyang grinned and put his hands under Wutong's armpits, picked him up, and refused to let go no matter how much Wutong struggled.

The three followed the girl through the woods. Many birds had come to take refuge in the woods because the forests below the mountain had been flooded.

After dodging her way out, Wutong finally understood where those grayish-white things on the girl's hair and shoulders came from.

Smoke from the chimneys drifted into their noses on the wind. The sycamore tree looked up and saw many disaster victims watching them from ahead.

The disaster victims didn't have tents; most of them just laid out mats, piled their belongings on top, and used that as their home.

The stove, dug directly from the ground, was right next to the mat, so the edges of the mat were mostly charred black.

They were very respectful to the soldiers, knowing they were there to help with disaster relief. When Wutong walked over, many people even invited her to eat.

She naturally refused, but couldn't help looking into their pot. It was filled with green and blue things, which were obviously not meat, but they didn't look like proper vegetables either. She wondered where they got them from.

"Sir, have you eaten yet? If not, I have a bag of beans here. Take them and cook them. Don't go hungry."

An elderly woman with white hair grabbed her trouser leg, but Wutong quickly said that she had already eaten, and the woman let go.

The disaster victims lived in close proximity and were not managed by anyone; the smell inside was not pleasant.

The further Wutong went, the more she realized that the situation here was completely different from what she had experienced at the restaurant.

There was no more meat than vegetables, and the chickens and ducks rotted in the water after they died, so no one dared to eat them.

And what about those that weren't soaked until they were mushy? Where did they go?

The girl finally found her "seat" in her own home, which was piled with all sorts of random things.

A middle-aged woman, barely alive, lay half-reclined on these things, her cheeks strangely flushed, as if she had a fever.

A fire was burning in the stove next to the mat. Zhao Sanyang squatted down, stirred it with a spoon, and said, "Why is there only a pot of water?"

"mother……"

The girl called out and ran over quickly, stuffing the dry food that Wutong had given her into her mouth.

The woman was starving and wolfed down a few bites. Coming to her senses, she noticed Wutong and the others and asked blankly, "Who are you...?"

Wutong said, "We are soldiers sent from the Southern Frontier."

The woman nodded and coughed twice: "I know, did you give me the provisions? Thank you..."

Wutong noticed that she spoke with a refined and reasonable manner, unlike what one would expect from an ordinary beggar. But if she wasn't a beggar, why had she fallen into such a state of destitution?

She couldn't help but ask, "Where is your husband?"

The woman pursed her dry, chapped lips and remained silent, her eyes lowered as she stared at the charred edges of the stove.

The girl opened her bright black eyes and said, "Dad was swept away by the flood."

No wonder the river burst its banks so quickly. Without a man in the house, it was already difficult enough to escape to the mountains with the children, let alone find food. Just surviving was a miracle.

Wutong raised her head and looked around, discovering that among the disaster victims scattered across the mountains and fields, there were quite a few in the same situation as them, she just hadn't noticed before.

Most people lay on the ground, barely clinging to life. The only difference was that families with young laborers had food cooking in their pots—bird eggs they had dug up, plucked birds, or wild vegetables they had dug up.

In cases like the girl's, all she could do was drink water and endure hunger.

Jingzhou City has more than two million residents, and when the flood came, most of them fled to the mountains.

This hilltop is just a small part of the sea; who knows what the situation is like in the mountains behind it?

Is nobody going to do anything about this?

Wutong was deeply shocked and lowered her head.

Zhao Sanyang and Nanxing looked at her. Zhao Sanyang said, "Wutong, we should go back, otherwise the captain won't be able to find us when he calls roll."

Wutong nodded, glanced at the girl and her mother, and turned to leave.

Lieutenant Li received the water conservancy map of Jingzhou from the official and was looking at it when Wutong lifted the curtain and walked in, hesitating to speak: "General..."

Lieutenant Li looked up: "What is it?"

She bit her lip and hesitated for a moment before telling him what she had just seen.

Lieutenant Li remained silent for a long time before sighing.

“We only have three thousand people, and this is Jingzhou territory. Even a slight conflict could affect the relationship between the Southern Frontier and the Central Plains court.”

Wutong understood what he meant, but she still couldn't remain indifferent: "Are we just going to watch them starve? Who knows when the water will recede? People will starve to death."

Lieutenant Li placed his hand on the table, stroking the edge of the blueprint, and said in a low voice, "Wait, wait until tomorrow, I will think of a way."

The sycamore tree retreated helplessly.

The officials didn't send anyone, and the boats were called away, so the three thousand soldiers waited idly on the hilltop for a whole day.

As night fell, the mountain peaks turned into isolated islands, all of them lifeless, except for the place where those people were, which was brightly lit.

Unable to sleep, Wutong sat listlessly outside the tent, watching the flood under the night sky.

The disaster was like a ferocious beast, opening its mouth wide at the residents and taking away the wealth they had painstakingly accumulated over many years.

Wealth is so ridiculous; it takes years to accumulate, but only an instant to destroy it.

Under the cover of night, she thought of Ruolan.

Like Kunzhou, Jingzhou was built along the river. With Jingzhou flooded like this, can Zhoujia Village, located in Kunzhou, be kept safe?

Zhou Pan'an is a cold-blooded and ruthless man; he can scold his own first wife without hesitation.

Ruolan was just one of his concubines. If disaster struck, would his family take her with them when they fled?

End of this chapter