I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

After examining Old Man Zhao, Dr. Kang examined other people as well.

After looking at them one by one, he said to Cao Rouan and Zhao Huilan with a serious expression, "It is indeed poisoning. You need to induce vomiting, drink some mung bean soup, and drink more water."

If there were herbs, we could prescribe a medicine for them to boil and drink, but Dr. Kang shook his head, "We need to induce vomiting in them as soon as possible, otherwise it will damage their brains."

Cao Rouan and Zhao Huilan were both stunned.

Who would have thought that eating mushrooms could lead to poisoning!

Those poisoned were all able-bodied men in the family. To turn them all into idiots... Cao Rouan shuddered. She, a pregnant woman, and her teenage sister-in-law were not capable of dragging so many people along to continue fleeing the famine.

The village head and village chief rushed over when they heard the commotion. When they arrived, Dr. Kang had just finished explaining how to induce vomiting.

One method was a folk remedy: pouring in syrup; the other was using one's hands to gag into the throat.

The idea of ​​pouring molten gold juice was disgusting and filthy. Cao Rou'an only heard Doctor Kang say that once before she covered her mouth and went to the back to vomit.

The responsibility of inducing vomiting fell on Zhao Huilan.

She first tried to pry open her own mother's mouth, then reached in and groped around, unable to find where to pry. Instead, she was bitten, leaving two bloody holes in her fingers.

Dr. Kang, watching anxiously, pointed out, "Think about where you swallow! Your throat!"

Zhao Huilan used her finger to dig into Sun's throat, and Sun, no longer caring about the pancake that was bigger than a person, vomited with a loud "wah".

Zhao Huilan reacted quickly, dodging the spit without getting it on her.

After gaining experience with the first person, the villagers held down the remaining people while she induced vomiting in each of their family members.

There was a strange smell emanating from Old Zhao's house.

The villagers who were watching couldn't stand it anymore and walked away.

The village head led Doctor Kang to the cave entrance to get some fresh air. Doctor Kang sighed, "They probably didn't distinguish the mushrooms after finding them, and ate them all, whether they were poisonous or not."

Village head: Good news, there are mushrooms nearby.

Bad news: some fungi are poisonous.

In any case, the villagers can now find food nearby.

When the villagers who had come to watch the commotion heard that the Zhao family had been poisoned by mushrooms, they began to have second thoughts after returning home.

They got poisoned from eating mushrooms!

There are mushrooms nearby!

I'll go find it tomorrow!

The few families in the village who discovered the mushrooms first but kept quiet about it both hated and resented the Zhao family.

They could have kept quiet and made a fortune! They could have stockpiled enough for themselves before telling the villagers. But because of the commotion caused by the Zhao family, everyone in the village now knows there are mushrooms nearby!

We need to get up early tomorrow to look for mushrooms, otherwise they'll have to go to even farther places once all the mushrooms in the area are picked!

It's still thundering outside!

Because the smell at Old Zhao's house was really unbearable, Xiao Hua's mother moved her and Wang Xiao Hua to a place next to Zhou's house.

Although the various caves are connected, they are blocked by stalagmites of all sizes, so there is no smell here.

After settling in, Xiaohua's mother pulled Xiaohua to rest.

Tomorrow, she's going to go find mushrooms too!

Zhao Huilan had no idea how she got through that night.

After inducing vomiting, the family members' symptoms lessened somewhat, but Granny Qian remained delirious.

Fortunately, she didn't have the strength to jump off the car anymore. Cao Rouan boiled water on the side, and Zhao Huilan fed her one by one.

In the latter half of the night, the few who ate less finally calmed down, and what started as a chaotic dance turned into moaning and groaning.

They had stomach aches, both in their upper and lower abdomen.

After regaining her senses, Ms. Sun clutched her stomach and, disregarding the rain and darkness outside, rushed out to relieve herself.

On the way back, they stepped on several sleeping villagers, which caused others to have a lot of opinions about the Zhao family.

Upon returning, Sun seemed to have all her strength drained away, and collapsed weakly to the ground.

Zhao Huilan tidied up again.

By dawn, everyone in the Zhao family except for Granny Qian had woken up.

Seeing the puddles of filth on the ground, Wu almost contributed another puddle.

Covering her mouth, she told Zhao Laosan to move the cart a little further away.

Old Zhao's family moved to a different place. Villagers passing by didn't notice that someone had lived there before and almost stepped on something unlucky. They were so angry that they went to the village head to complain.

Helpless, the village head went to Zhao Laoda and asked him to clean up the mess they had made.

Old Zhao borrowed a shovel and covered the spot where his family members had vomited with soil. The villagers walked away, cursing and swearing.

When the Zhao family thought of going to pick mushrooms, they found that it seemed like half of the people in the cave were gone.

When they reached the cave entrance, Boss Zhao was dumbfounded.

The villagers who had gone out sometime earlier were carrying a large bag of mushrooms and were walking back!

"Their master! How dare they steal our mushrooms!" Mrs. Sun was so angry that her lips trembled.

"These mushrooms don't have your names written on them, try calling out 'Old Zhao's mushrooms' and see if they respond!"

The villagers shoved them aside with their bags and walked into the cave.

Looking at the man's retreating figure, the bag almost completely obscuring him, Mrs. Sun said anxiously, "Let's hurry! Otherwise, all the mushrooms nearby will be picked clean!"

The few Zhao family members who were still able to move quickly walked to the slope where they had picked mushrooms the day before. When they looked down, they saw a huge crowd of people, more people than mushrooms!

They had to find another place. The Zhao family finally found a small mound and discovered a cluster of mushrooms. Soon, other villagers followed and started picking mushrooms near the mound.

The Zhao family couldn't stop them from picking up the scavengers; they could only speed up their efforts and pick them up as fast as they could.

Having just been poisoned by mushrooms, their limbs were weak and sore, and they hadn't eaten anything that morning. After picking mushrooms for a while, Boss Zhao started to feel dizzy.

In order to pick as many mushrooms as possible, he gritted his teeth and persevered, picking mushrooms until almost dark before they dragged two bags, not yet full, toward the cave entrance.

Worried about the mushrooms she had hidden outside, Zhao Huilan made an excuse to slip away when she was almost at the cave entrance. She then went around to where she had hidden the mushrooms and reached into the bushes.

—The mushrooms are gone!

Zhao Huilan thought she had remembered the wrong place, so she looked in several different places, but still couldn't find it.

—It's really gone!

After searching for a while longer and still not finding it, Zhao Huilan turned and walked back with a pale face.

Inside the cave, the village head was gathering the villagers and having several experienced mushroom pickers explain which mushrooms were edible and which were not.

Zhao Huilan overheard it as she passed by.

"The Poisonous Old Cap mushroom looks very similar to the Yellow Old Cap mushroom; the difference is the white ring around the stem..."

It looks a lot like the old man's hat mushroom, except for the white ring on the stem... Zhao Huilan immediately thought that some of the mushrooms they cooked last night looked just like that!

Because Sun was reluctant to remove the mushroom stems, she was able to see it when Sun served the soup!

It turns out that the poisoning was caused by eating this mushroom, and it was because of the poisoning that the villagers found out about the mushroom.

Now look what's happened! All the mushrooms in the neighborhood have been snatched up by the villagers! Even the mushrooms she secretly hid have been taken by someone!

Zhao Huilan was so angry that her eyes turned red.

The village head was worried that the villagers might eat so many mushrooms that they would end up like the Zhao family, so he repeatedly told them to put any unfamiliar mushrooms aside and bring them back to make sure they were safe to eat before consuming them.

Even the least successful person can collect a bagful after a day of picking mushrooms. After identifying them as edible, the cave is filled with the aroma of cooked mushrooms at night.

Ning's parents were there. Ning's mother looked at the bag of mushrooms with a helpless expression.

They rarely eat these things at home; Ning's mother mostly uses mushrooms to make soup.

"Why don't we just leave them for now?" Ning's father spread the mushrooms out near the fire. "We can also dry them and grind them into powder. I saw on a short video that someone used mushrooms to make MSG to enhance flavor!"

"Let's dry it and put it away first, in case we can't eat it later." Ning's mother nodded.

Taking advantage of the strong aroma in the cave, they could eat some slightly flavorful food tonight without anyone noticing.

Ning's mother took out pancakes from her storage space and laid out two plates of dishes for Ning's father to pick for himself.

The two of them each ladled out another bowl of soup, and that was how they made do with dinner.

The mushroom-picking activity in Wangli Village lasted for two days.

It's not that there are no mushrooms nearby, but rather that villagers have discovered a pond in the vicinity!

Although there is no shortage of water now, he also discovered that there are fish in the pond!

After so many days of rain, the villagers were overjoyed to find fish still in the pond.

He had planned to sneak a few fish before the villagers arrived, but he sank as soon as he entered the water. In a panic, his family threw him a branch, which he used to pull himself up to shore.

After getting ashore, I felt a chill of fear: the pool of water looked inconspicuous, but it was actually bottomless!

Only then did he go and talk to the village head, asking him to bring people over to figure out a way to catch fish.

Regardless, as the first person to discover the pond and proactively report it, the village head would reward him with some fish after they were retrieved.

The village will have fish to eat soon!

The village headman called on all the men in the village to go fishing. Having had the experience of collectively contributing and getting the best deal before, as soon as the village headman spoke up, every able-bodied man in the village stepped forward and said he would go.

Even the older folks got up and said they used to catch fish with nets when they were young, and wanted to go and see what it was like.

There's no need for so many people to go fishing. The village head divided into three teams, leaving two teams to rest in the cave and wait for a replacement, while he took a team of about ten people to check out the situation in the pool.

When they left, the villagers took all the containers they could carry—buckets, wooden basins, and bags for storing grain.

If you don't have a bucket, bring your own winnowing basket and rattan basket as well, the main thing is to bring the fish back.

A large group of people arrived at the edge of the pool. Ning's father, carrying two wooden buckets, mingled with the crowd and took a look: the pool was four or five zhang wide and six or seven zhang long, truly a large pool.

The water at the bottom was so dark it was almost black, which was quite frightening to look at.

If you ask Ning's dad, he wouldn't dare to wander around this area even if he had a hundred lives.

The deeper the water, the greener it becomes. This water is so green it's almost black. It must be at least ten meters deep. If there's an undercurrent or an underground river, and there's even a slight suction, once you go in, you won't be able to get back up.

The crowd stood on the sidelines, eager to try. The village headman asked someone to get some tree branches to test it out. The tied branches were at least ten meters long, and when thrown in, the bottom was nowhere to be seen.

This immediately thwarted the idea of ​​some people jumping in to catch fish.

Every now and then, one or two fish would jump out of the tank. At first glance, the fish were as long as an adult's forearm!

The people standing on the shore were so hungry that their mouths watered, and the rainwater streamed down their faces.

Village head: "Let's go back first, make a fishing net with rope, and then use the net to catch fish."

A few people with umbrellas stayed behind to guard the pool, while the rest went back to start making ropes.

Some people were outside gathering grass to make ropes, while those inside the cave were twisting ropes.

Everyone, regardless of age or gender, joined in.

Even Granny Qian, who had just woken up, had a handful of grass stuffed into her hand by Old Man Zhao, who made her pretend to rub it.

The ropes are twisted out over there, and experienced workers are in charge of tightening them. Once the straw ropes are made, specialized people are responsible for weaving them into nets.

In just one morning, the people of Wangli Village had made two decent-looking fishing nets.

The men who went out in the morning hurriedly carried two straw nets to catch fish, while the rest of the men were not idle either. Since the straw nets were not durable, they waited in the cave and made them as they went.

They took the net to the edge of the pond, and the village head offered up some moldy flatbread he had brought with him. He crushed it and sprinkled it into the water, and after a while, he threw the fishing net into the water.

Everyone waited patiently for the fishing nets to be pulled in. When the village headman saw that it was almost done, he gave the order, and the men on the shore tacitly pulled the ropes back one by one.

When it was thrown down, the straw net weighed only about ten pounds, but when it was retrieved, it weighed at least several dozen pounds!

Ignoring the weight from being soaked in water... there's definitely something underneath!

The closer they pulled it to shore, the more they could feel something jumping and thrashing about in the net!

Along with the straw-yellow net, a touch of silver-white was also dragged up!

—It's a fish!

"Fish! There really are fish!"

"We can eat fish now!"

"Oh! Oh! It's fish! We can eat fish!"

"God—thank you!"

As they were talking, one of the men knelt down on the spot in front of the fish and pond that had been sent online.

Several people around him immediately knelt down.

The men present, disregarding their straw hats and raincoats, hugged each other and laughed heartily, but then they began to cry.

It's so hard to find food!

It's so hard to survive!

Even Ning's father was moved by the atmosphere. He raised his hand and patted Zhou Jian, who was standing next to him, twice.

After the excitement subsided, the villagers dumped the fish onto an open space to the side. Some gathered up the straw nets, while others cleaned and gutted the fish downstream in the pond.

Keep as much of the edible fish as possible. If you really can't eat them, throw the gills into a bowl and use them as bait to attract more fish later.

Two men skilled at killing fish began processing the fish wearing only straw hats. One killed the fish while the other gutted it. They rinsed the blood in the water, threw the fish into a clean basin, and that was how a fish was killed.

No need to scrape off the fish scales! You can even eat the scales!

They filled a basin with the meat, and three men dragged it back.

The freshly killed fish were dragged into the cave, where the village head's wife and the people who hadn't gone out skewered them with branches and roasted them not far from the fire.

The fish needs to be dried out by grilling, but it can't be cooked through like grilled fish.

The cave was filled with a meaty aroma mixed with the smell of fish.

Everyone was secretly swallowing their saliva, but they were all keeping a close eye on each other, and no one dared to steal a bite.

They were busy at the pond until dusk before dragging the last net of fish back.

It took some time to make the grass net today, and after several trips back and forth, I only managed to catch a little over 100 pounds of fish!

The village head first distributed two fish to each household, so that everyone could eat and rest early, as they would be going fishing again tomorrow!