"I can go now. Put that young man in the cart. I'll give him my seat."
Wang shi patted the dust off her clothes and stood up. Her face, pale from days without proper care, was now ashen, as if she had just crawled out of a kiln. Her tone was authoritative, like a high official, though her appearance was quite shabby.
"Grandma, you... you're alright?" Ah Jiu finally realized.
"Mother, doesn't your leg hurt anymore?"
The father and son exchanged a glance.
"Why so much nonsense? It wasn't a serious injury, just a superficial wound. But I must thank my precious granddaughter for this."
Saying this, Wang shi looked at Ah Jiu with a smile, as if her heart was filled with honey, and she didn't want anyone else to taste how sweet it was.
The couple didn't quite understand, but seeing Wang shi being so understanding was rare. They quickly placed the young man onto the ox cart.
With everything settled, the ox cart rumbled onward, traversing the endless loess road.
Ah Jiu felt as if nails were being driven into her back. She looked back several times and always found her grandmother watching her with a cheerful expression, as if Ah Jiu were a delicious meal.
*She doesn't still want more, does she? I really don't have any left this time, and besides, I don't know when that bowl-sized spring eye will yield water.*
*Even if it produced a bowl of water each time, it wouldn't be enough for so many people to share at once.*
*No, it would be great if we could find a water source.*
She remembered that when she fled famine with the Li family back then, they had walked for five days before finding a water puddle. They had fought fiercely over that bit of water. Later, as the famine worsened, the impoverished villagers they encountered began to dig up "Guanyin soil."
Eating this stuff was suicidal. Sometimes, members of the Li family, unable to digest the Guanyin soil, would swell up and die in their sleep. In the morning, their bellies would be distended.
After a while, everyone became numb to death. Then, they started targeting her. The thought of it made her tremble with fear.
"Old Meng, what are we going to do? We have no water for dinner, and we can't eat raw wheat, can we? Even if we could, what about the three children?"
Cai Lihua was already worried. Boiled wheat was hard on the throat, let alone eating it raw.
"Sigh... we'll head into the mountains ahead. I'll see if I can hunt some game."
Meng Shaode was also troubled. His mind had been replaced, and he had learned to swear. To pick up the original owner's hunting skills and courage, he still needed practice.
"Everyone is so hungry their guts are empty, fleeing famine. The wild game would have long since fled."
After these past few days, Cai Lihua was finally facing reality. Primarily, she felt immense pity for her daughter.
Look, she was sleeping on her shoulder again. A fifteen-year-old girl, at least one meter fifty or one meter sixty tall, right? Was this girl even one meter four? It was all because of the lack of food and drink, the poor treatment that stunted her growth.
"You don't understand this. People fear natural disasters, but rats can dig holes. How can they not survive underground where it's damp?"
Meng Shaode meticulously sifted through his memories, including how to make bows and arrows.
Around dusk, the family finally settled at the base of a mountain with the most abundant greenery on the desolate road. This indicated the presence of groundwater, which allowed small animals to survive.
"Huh? Where's that rascal Nan Xing?" Meng Shaode was startled, causing panic. He then realized that Nan Xing had disappeared, and they hadn't seen him all day.
"Ah? That's right, where's Nan Xing?" Meng Shaokang was shocked. Then, thinking back, he stomped his foot in anger:
"This kid always runs off first when there's trouble. In my opinion, he isn't starving yet. He'll come back when he's hungry."
*We absolutely cannot stop to look for him. We must flee this wilderness quickly.* Meng Shaokang wiped the sweat from his brow, his thoughts naturally unspoken.
"You're brave? Weren't you scared into peeing yourself just now?" Wang shi cursed as she walked, keeping her eyes down.