Armed with a machete and a gun, armed with a system, they fled the famine.

Yuan Yutang also did not want to waste food.

These were all dug out by the dolls with great difficulty.

After a moment's thought, he nodded and agreed to Zhao Yan's suggestion.

"Okay, let's move into the cave first, and leave in a few days."

After a quick lunch, everyone began moving things into the cave.

Leave the things on the carriage for now, mainly the sweet potatoes and kudzu roots.

All the food needs to be moved to the valley so that Zhao Yan and the others can make it into dried sweet potatoes and kudzu root powder.

They picked out the small, worm-eaten sweet potatoes and kept them for their own people to eat slowly, while the rest were carried by Yang Sanlang and the others to the open space in front of the cave.

Yuan Gang also carried over hundreds of kilograms of kudzu root and piled it together with sweet potatoes.

Zhao Yan and Tian Xiu'e had just finished cleaning up several caves when they saw this and quickly said to them, "Uncle Yuan, you go ahead with your work, leave the rest to us."

"Ah."

Yuan Gang responded and followed Yang Sanlang to the hot spring to continue building the wooden house.

There are many men in the family, so they need to build another house this afternoon.

Of the three or four caves, Zhao Yan and her family of three chose the one on the left that was neither too big nor too small.

Yuan Yutang and his two grandsons, along with Zhao Yunchen and his two brothers, moved into the largest room on the right.

For the remaining rooms, Tian Xiu'e's family chose a slightly larger one, as Chen Qingjiao was too old and they needed to give her her own space.

Not long after lunch, Chen Qingjiao put the children down for a nap.

Yuan Yutang and Chen Anxian couldn't sit still and wanted to find something to do.

But one is too old and the other can't walk, so building a house in a hot spring is definitely not an option.

So, Zhao Yan arranged for the two of them to peel sweet potatoes with Tian Xiu'e.

Chen An was clumsy and cut his fingers several times, causing them to bleed. When Tian Xiu'e saw this, she felt so sorry for him that she wanted to hit him.

Left with no other choice, Zhao Yan assigned him to be in charge of tending the fire.

With the addition of two more people, things became much more efficient.

Two-thirds of the sweet potatoes were consumed in one afternoon.

After discussing it with everyone, Zhao Yan decided to keep the remaining sweet potatoes for the journey.

Whether it's porridge or roasted sweet potatoes, they are all incredibly delicious foods.

In the evening, the men, who had been working hard for several days, all enjoyed a relaxing hot spring bath.

Even Chen An, who couldn't walk, was carried to the wooden house by Yang Sanlang and Yuan Gang.

Zhao Yan and her daughter Tian Xiu'e did not go to the hot springs.

They were too tired from work, so after dinner they each took their daughters back to their caves to sleep.

Yang Sanlang will be on guard for the first half of the night again.

After taking a bath, he instinctively headed towards his own cave.

They had already divided up the caves that afternoon, and his wife and daughter were lying in their own cave waiting for him...

Suddenly, the beautiful scene I saw that night reappeared in my mind.

In the darkness, Yang Sanlang suddenly felt a warm rush from his nasal cavity, slowly flowing down.

Oops.

He had a nosebleed?!

Yang Sanlang felt a sudden panic. He quickly covered his nostrils with his hand, turned around, and walked towards the carriage.

Luckily, everyone was already asleep, otherwise he would have been too ashamed to face anyone.

Yang Sanlang sat down on the carriage shaft and looked up at the dark night sky.

He kept telling himself: He's thinking of his wife, that's not unreasonable. Yes, not unreasonable.

……

the next day.

The steamed sweet potato chips were then placed in the sun to continue drying.

Zhao Yan began to instruct the men on how to handle the kudzu root.

There isn't much kudzu root; at most, there are only about 600 jin (300 catties). Based on a 10% yield rate, we can get a maximum of about 100 jin (50 kg) of kudzu root powder.

The kudzu root was also washed and peeled first, something Tian Xiu'e was very familiar with, so she took the initiative to do it.

After peeling, the kudzu root needs to be sliced ​​into thin slices so that the men can easily crush it into a paste.

This step is physically demanding and requires men to complete.

Yang Sanlang took the initiative to do the job, and Zhao Yan would take over for him for a while when he got tired.

Later, Yuan Gang and Zhao Yunchen also joined in.

The four of them took turns using a piece of wood to pound the kudzu root into a mud-like consistency, and it took them a whole while to finally finish.

The remaining step is to add water and knead the mixture until it becomes powder.

This is still a physically demanding job.

After dinner, Yang Sanlang lit a fire in the open space in front of the cave and kneaded the kudzu root mud again and again by the firelight.

The mud needs to be tightly wrapped in gauze, and people squeeze the gauze repeatedly by hand to squeeze out the kudzu root powder contained in the mud and let it flow into the container.

When there weren't enough containers, Zhao Yan took out the rattan baskets that Chen An and the others had made earlier, lined them with oilcloth, and then had Yang Sanlang pound the kudzu root powder into the rattan baskets.

The kudzu root mud needs to be kneaded at least three times to extract all the powder.

After coaxing the little ones to sleep, Zhao Yan and the other adults all gathered around the fire to knead kudzu root mud.

They worked until late into the night before finally finishing processing about 600 kilograms of kudzu root.

All that's left is to wait for the kudzu root powder to sink to the bottom of the water.

After finishing all this, everyone was exhausted beyond recognition.

Zhao Yan said to everyone, "Go to sleep first, we'll talk about the rest tomorrow."

Everyone else dragged their weary steps back to their own caves, except for... Yang Sanlang.

Zhao Yan glanced at him.

"What are you standing there for? Go and get some rest."

Yang Sanlang took two steps closer, his dark eyes fixed on Zhao Yan.

What about you? Aren't you going to sleep?

"I still have to keep watch," Zhao Yan answered truthfully.

It's probably around three or four in the morning now. She'll stay up for another two hours, and then it will be dawn.

A hint of surprise and admiration flashed in Yang Sanlang's eyes.

His wife is very wary.

But how can we let a woman do this kind of thing?

She was already exhausted after a long day.

“You go and rest, I’ll keep watch. It’s almost dawn, I can take a nap during the day. But you can’t, you’ll have to decide what to do with the kudzu next.”

That makes sense.

While Zhao Yan remained silent, Yuan Yutang suddenly walked over.

"You two go to sleep. I'll take care of things from now on."

"Yuanbo..."

"Stop talking about it."

Yuan Yutang raised his hand to stop Zhao Yan from saying what she was about to say.

"Stop arguing. I'm old and don't need much sleep. I go to bed early and I'm already awake."

"You two hurry back to the cave to rest. If you keep pushing it around like this, it'll be dawn before you know it."

Zhao Yan and Yang Sanlang exchanged a glance and finally compromised.

"Alright, Uncle Yuan, please take good care of yourself and call us if you need anything."

Yuan Yutang waved to them, "Go to sleep quickly."

Zhao Yan nodded, not even glancing at Yang Sanlang, and took the lead in walking towards her own cave.

"Uncle Yuan, I'm going to sleep."

Yang Sanlang glanced at his wife's departing figure, suppressed the trembling in his heart, said something to Yuan Yutang, and followed Zhao Yan away.

He felt both excited and nervous.

This appears to be the first time since their reunion that they have slept in the same place as a family of three.

He had imagined how he would sleep in the same bed with his wife, but when he actually entered the cave, he realized that he was being delusional.

The inside of the cave was divided into two areas by Zhao Yan.

The inside is Zhao Yan's and her daughter's territory.

The outer side, near the cave entrance, is where Yang Sanlang sleeps.