Farmer’s Blessed Girl

Everyone didn't speak, and three older members of the clan came. They stepped forward to confirm that the village chief was really stubborn, and then nodded. Then a young man stepped forward to close the coffin and nail it.

Without stopping, everyone silently lifted the coffin and sent it to the cemetery. Several young people took turns digging, and finally dug out a hole that barely fit the coffin, and then put it down.

After finishing all this, Zhou Yin was so hungry that his eyes were blurred, and he almost fell to the ground.

Everyone sat on the ground and rested for a while, but they didn’t go home. Instead, they walked to the mountain and saw that the trees outside had been peeled off, so they had no choice but to go inside. tree.

Zhou Yin rubbed his stomach, cut off a layer of bark with a sickle, and then peeled it off, but he only peeled off one piece per tree.

Dayong stepped forward to peel it off, but Zhou Yin clapped his hands, "Change the tree and let it live."

Dayong just sat down on the ground and said weakly: "People can't live anymore, you still care about trees."

Zhou Yin threw the bark in his hand to him, "The next tree is not far away, and future generations will need it, so we can't ruin all the trees."

Dayong pointed to the stripped tree outside, "They are all stripped clean."

Zhou Yin turned around and left, "But this one isn't there yet, and neither is this one..."

Zhou Yin peeled off a piece of bark from the next tree, changed another tree and continued...

He brought the tree back home, and Zhou Dalang and the others took it and chopped it finely, put it in water and started to boil it, "A small handful of rice will do in a while."

"I have to ask my mother for rice."

Zhou Yin, who was sitting on a small stool in a daze, got up, "I'll go get it."

"Sister-in-law," Zhou Yin knocked on the door, but he called out again when he didn't hear an echo. His heart was beating so fast that he couldn't help but push open the door and go in.

Qian Shi lay motionless on the bed, Zhou Yin walked forward a few steps quickly, and touched her breath with shaking fingers, but he didn't feel her breath for a long time, his face turned pale, and he hurriedly touched her neck.

After feeling the pulse, he breathed a sigh of relief, pushed her and called, "Sister-in-law, sister-in-law."

Qian's eyelids trembled, and she tried hard to open her eyes, but failed.

Zhou Yin had a bad intuition, looked at her cabinet, and hurriedly stepped forward to open it to find the grain bag.

He picked up the grain bag in his hand, there were at least three bowls of rice, but...

Zhou Yin took a few heavy breaths. He knew how to count. With so many people in the family, there should not be so much left in the bag of grain.

Zhou Yin wiped his face and took out a bowl of rice from the grain bag.

Zhou Dalang and Xiaoqian were startled when they saw this bowl of rice, "Uncle, why do you want so much? Mother only gave us a handful before."

Zhou Yin grabbed two handfuls of rice and put them in the bark soup, and gave the remaining half bowl to Xiaoqian, "Start a new pot and cook porridge."

Xiaoqian took it in a daze, and turned to look at Zhou Dalang.

Zhou Dalang's hands trembled slightly, "Uncle, is it my mother..."

"Come on, I'll feed my sister-in-law some water first." Zhou Yin looked around and frowned, "Where's elder brother?"

"My father and my third brother went to fetch water, and now the water is not easy to fetch, and we need to queue for a long time to fetch a bucket,"

Zhou Yin nodded, took a bowl of opened bark soup and brought it into the room to feed Qian.

Xiaoqian's skill in cooking porridge is very good, even if she just boils it with water, she can still make porridge flowers, and the fragrance of rice fills the whole house.

Zhou Lang, who was still young, leaned on the door frame and poked his head in. Because he had been hungry for a long time, his two calves were trembling, his head was big, his body was covered with bones, his patched clothes were empty, and he bulged when the wind blew. stand up.

He pulled off the clothes that were blown to his face by the wind, pulled the door frame and looked into the kitchen, couldn't help but swallowed, and swallowed again.

Zhou Dalang felt distressed when he saw it, and after taking a look at his wife, he carefully poured a spoonful of rice soup for him.

Zhou Zhoulang took a bite, reluctant to let go of the spoon.

Zhou Dalang squeezed his mouth open, took out the spoon, thought for a while, and gave him another spoonful, which contained seven or eight grains of rice flower, "After eating this spoon, it will be gone, it's a mother."

Zhou Zhoulang nodded, but tugged on the door frame and refused to leave.

Zhou Dalang couldn't look into his eyes, covered his eyes and said: "Go to the yard, the bark porridge will be ready in a while, brother will give you some more."

Zhou Jin and Zhou Zhoulang came back only to find out that his wife had fainted from hunger, so they hurriedly put down the bucket and rushed to the house.

Once a person faints from hunger, he is not far from death. People in the village starved to death like this. They first fainted, and then died quietly, without even saying a word.

Zhou Yin blew on the cooked porridge, pinched Qian's mouth open and fed it.

He complained to his eldest brother, "Sister-in-law didn't eat, why didn't you find out?"

Zhou Jin lowered his head and said nothing.

Zhou Yin was a little angry, "Brother, I'm asking you something."

Little Qian hurriedly tugged at his sleeve, "Uncle, let me feed you."

Zhou Yin gave her the seat, and Zhou Dalang persuaded: "Mum, if you keep it secret, Dad will definitely not find out. Uncle, don't be angry, it takes effort to be angry."

Zhou Zhoulang: "Yes, the bark porridge is ready, let's eat first."

After Qian ate a bowl of porridge, his complexion slowly turned, and he managed to wake up, but he was still too groggy to speak.

Zhou Yin knew at a glance that he had been hungry for too long. He turned to Zhou Jin and said, "I will go to the city tomorrow."

"Why are you going to town?"

"Inquire about the news," Zhou Yin said, "see when the yamen releases food, and look for jobs."

Zhou Jin didn't stop him. Zhou Yin had been in the county for five years, and he had some connections. He was more likely to go out and live.

Zhou Yin went out early the next morning, and he went directly to his good friend in the county—the little fat man.

The little fat man turned into a little skinny man, and he said to Zhou Yin, "Our family is leaving."

Zhou Yin leaned against the wall, "Your family is leaving?"

The little fat man said: "I can't help it, my family is almost out of food, if I don't leave, I will starve to death."

He took out a small piece of cake from his arms and handed it to Zhou Yin.

Zhou Yin took it with a blank face, tore off a small piece, and returned the rest to him.

The little fat man pushed back and said, "The one left for you was originally a whole one, but I couldn't resist eating it. If you don't come today, I'll finish it."

Zhou Yin took a bite and asked, "Your father said that the yamen released food..."

"I heard that people are looting outside. The yamen and the yamen are scrambling for relief food, and the refugees who fled will also rob it, so it is not easy to send food in."

Zhou Yin's heart kept sinking, "Then what I said before, the food that will be released in the middle of next month..."

"That batch is fine. My father said that it was transported from the south of the Yangtze River by someone entrusted by the county magistrate. It bypassed the Longyou Road. It is already on the way. It will probably take less than twenty days to arrive."

Zhou Yin breathed a sigh of relief, "So it only needs to last for twenty days."

Good night