I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

Wang Xiu rode over and asked, "Er Shun, what happened?"

Seeing the villagers approaching, Xi Ershun breathed a sigh of relief. He said, "Great! You've come! Less than a quarter of an hour after you left, this group of people passed by. I told them we had taken over the cave, and they tried to rob us!"

As he spoke, Xi Ershun glared angrily at the group of refugees in front of him.

"Is that so?" Wang Xiufeng stopped his horse in front of the cave entrance and jumped off.

Behind him, the Wen family members and the men from Wangli Village came over with weapons.

The people on the other side were still thinking of fighting and taking the cave, but as more and more villagers from Wangli Village surged over, the leaders wisely backed down, saying, "Heroes! Heroes! We've disturbed you..."

As they spoke, they turned around and beckoned the refugees behind them to go elsewhere.

Zhao Ningning sat on the vehicle frame and counted. There were forty or fifty people on the other side, at least thirty of whom were young men!

The remaining ten or so were all withered young women.

There wasn't even a child or an elderly person.

This combination... something's not right with this team. Zhao Ningning frowned as she looked at it.

After the group left, the village headman said to the village chief, "Old Li, something's not right with those people."

"They are all young people." The village chief also noticed, but there was nothing he could do. Wasn't the group of refugees who tried to steal the fish earlier also like that? A group with many young people and no children or elderly people was probably a cannibalistic group.

This group of people is dangerous!

The village head shook his head: "We must remind the people on night patrol to be extra careful, for the sake of the team... and for their own sake as well."

For safety reasons, the village headman allowed the elderly, women, and children to go into the cave. Old Zhao's family benefited from having a pregnant woman in their family and was arranged by the village headman to go into the cave first. Granny Qian directly took the best spot.

The rain outside can't get in at all!

In the middle, where there are no carriages at home, a simple shed can be built inside the cave.

Ahead are houses like Zhao Ningning's, with carriages and large spaces. Besides parking the carts, they can also build a shed next to them.

This time, the village head allocated the land, and those on the edges were given to families who had difficulty setting up sheds. Zhao Ningning's family only got a place in the middle.

Ning's father leaned against the car body, tied two ropes to the roof, and then pulled them down to fix them to two wooden sticks on the ground.

This made it very stable. He put a tarpaulin on top to prevent rain from blowing in during occasional strong winds, and made a barrier with cloth underneath.

Except when the carriage passes directly in front of him, you can't see inside his shed from the side or above.

Inside the shed, Ning's mother set out small stools, placed a stove in the middle, and Ning's father lit the fire. Water was boiling in a clay pot on top.

Zhao Ningning pushed open the car window, which faced her family's shed. She could see her father washing dried fish. After washing the fish, he put it in a pot, covered it, and let it simmer slowly.

—It's so great that my parents do everything for me without me having to lift a finger!

Zhao Ningning nestled comfortably back into the carriage and continued to rummage through the space.

There was no need to rush. Zhao Qi asked Zhao Ningning to take him into his spatial dimension. He had collected seven or eight cell phones and computers over the past few days. Now he would go back to his room, take them apart, and use the parts from the cell phones and computers to make a simple communication tool.

Zhao Ningning didn't understand; she just thought her brother was amazing.

Outside, after members of the Wen family joined, the village head reorganized the night patrol team.

In addition to men, women also participate in the night patrol; only children and the elderly are exempt.

More and more migrants are now coming up the mountain, making it increasingly unsafe. With fewer people, even the patrolmen are in danger.

After thinking it over, the village head arranged for five people to form a group.

The Wen family members had just arrived and hadn't yet integrated into the group, so the village head specially arranged for two of them to be together so they could keep each other company.

After that, it was the villagers from Wangli Village who took turns.

The order was arranged over there, and Ning's parents were on the third night.

When Ning's father returned after hearing the arrangements, the fish in the casserole was almost cooked. He added some dried vegetables and salt and simmered it for another twenty minutes or so, and a pot of fish soup was ready.

She pulled the curtain over the front of the car and, by the firelight, took out a basket of flatbreads from her spatial storage and placed it aside.

The family ate flatbread and fish soup. While eating, Ning's father exaggeratedly told Zhao Ningning how they found the pond to catch fish, how they were discovered by others, and how they ambushed and killed the other party.

After finishing her conversation, and having almost finished the soup, Ning's mother took out a clean pot, added some water, and put it on the small stove to continue cooking.

Ning's mother: "What's going on between you two?"

Three days had passed, and Zhao Ningning still hadn't expected this to happen. After a moment of silence, she chose to tell the truth: "I fainted first, and my brother grabbed me and we found a piece of wood floating..."

Zhao Ningning briefly recounted what happened after they separated.

Putting aside the part where the mother and son were eyeing the shed, they managed to encounter the Wen family without any real danger, and from then on, they followed the Wen family.

They encountered two conflicts during the process. Seeing that they were outnumbered but had many carriages, the other side had the idea of ​​killing and robbing them, but the Wen family quickly drove them away.

Then, they encountered that group of mountain bandits.

Sitting in the shed, with ears everywhere, Zhao Ningning simply skipped over the unspeakable matters of space and upgrades.

Ning's parents listened, their hearts pounding with anxiety. As they heard more, Ning's mother felt a wave of fear wash over her. She took her two children's hands and said, "From now on, you two can't separate, and you can't leave your father and me, understand?"

"Mmm!" Zhao Ningning dared not refuse her kindness and nodded vigorously.

Ning's mother then cast a stern glance at her son. Zhao Qi, noticing her gaze, nodded and said, "I understand."

Only then did Ning's mother let them go wash up and go to bed.

Zhao Qi carried the unwashed pot back into the space with his sister.

He pondered as he washed the pot.

I wish I could make a walkie-talkie.

This way, they can talk even if they are some distance apart.

With that thought in mind, Zhao Qi quickly washed the pot and left it to dry, then turned and went into his room to continue studying the pile of parts.

The next morning, led by Wang Xiufeng, the people of Wangli Village and the Wen family went to the top of the mountain to check the situation in the vicinity.

The mountain was extremely steep, with several huge rocks at the top. The rocks were slippery and difficult to climb after being wet with rain. It took the whole group almost half an hour to get to the top.

Standing at the very top, you can see everything in sight.

All around are continuous mountain ranges that stretch as far as the eye can see.

The misty rain shrouded the mountains. Wang Xiufeng stared intently and saw that the low-lying areas of the mountains were filled with something silvery-white.

—It's a flood!

From a distance, only thin lines could be seen passing through the mountains. Wang Xiufeng looked northeast, and there were lines like that too.

"They're all submerged..."

The group stood on the mountaintop, staring blankly for a while, before Wang Xiufeng called them back, bringing them back to their senses.

After carefully descending the mountain and returning to the group, Wang Xiufeng told the villagers what he had seen.

Since we can't go down the mountain right now, there's nothing we can do about it. We can only stay on the mountain and wait and see when the water level stops rising before making any further plans.

While they were staying there, the men in the group weren't idle either. Having tasted the sweetness of catching fish in the pond last time, a few daring men took advantage of the time before it was their turn to be on duty and teamed up to look for any nearby water sources.

The rest of the people continued searching for mushrooms to pick nearby.

Unlike the mountain in front, this mountain is somewhat similar to the mountains in Huangshi County, with large rocks and very little vegetation.

Correspondingly, mushrooms are also rare.

Ning's mother found a clump of mushrooms, so she simply took the soil with the mushrooms growing on it, along with the dead wood, back home and placed it under the cart, sprinkling some water on it every day.

The villagers are all shrewd people. Seeing what Ning's mother did, they also started picking up dead tree trunks that had grown mushrooms and taking them back to cultivate. And sure enough, after watering them, new mushrooms sprouted every day and grew a little bigger every few days.

It won't be long before they're able to pick mushrooms in the cave!

The place we settled down was near a passerby, and we were at peace for only a couple of days. Every day, people fleeing famine passed through this area.

Seeing that there were many people in the cave, they chickened out and silently left with their belongings.

Some small groups, unwilling to give up, knelt at the cave entrance begging Wang Li Village to take them in, only to be ruthlessly driven away by the village head's men.

There were also larger groups that coveted the cave and wanted to forcibly seize it, but they were repelled by the people of Wangli Village and the Wen family.

Even Wen Zike didn't use his lightness skill.

Day .

The people of Wangli Village stayed inside the cave, taking turns going out to find food.

Too few people would be in danger if they went out, and too many people would be in danger if they stayed in the cave. The village head came up with a compromise: let them go out in batches.

Villagers who went out to find food spontaneously formed small teams of about ten people to search together.

Each team goes out for half a day, rotating back and forth, so that every family can go out to find food.

On the sixth day, another group of about forty ignorant people came to the door, asking for a beating.

However, unlike the previous group, the village head had only led the men out a few times before they shouted and ran away.

Forced to go out and get caught in the rain for no reason, the men from Wangli Village went back to warm themselves by the fire, grumbling and cursing.

The village head pondered for a moment, then instructed his son to take men to track down the group that had come today.

Wang Xiufeng called Zhao Lao Er and then called the Wen family members.

Once outside the cave, Wang Xiufeng discovered that Zhao Lao Er's daughter had followed them out sometime earlier.

Wang Xiufeng frowned: "Zhao Ningning? Why did you come along too?"

Zhao Ningning put her hand to her mouth to shush and said, "My parents both agree, I won't cause trouble. Hurry up, hurry up, or we'll get lost."

Remembering that she had given advice to the team before and wasn't the kind of ignorant, troublesome child, Wang Xiufeng reluctantly agreed.

The four of them went out without umbrellas, wearing straw hats and raincoats.

As he walked, Ning's father, as before, draped grass over himself and Zhao Ningning as a disguise.

Wen Zike immediately understood and followed suit, decorating himself with wild grass.

They ran quickly for a while and caught up with the group of about forty people.

Hanging far behind, Zhao Ningning could hear the intermittent conversations of the people in front:

"...I got beaten up for nothing!"

"Don't even mention it! A bunch of lowly people... Go back to your soup, this awful weather..."

—Outcasts?

Zhao Ningning pricked up her ears. Could these people be bandits?

It's no wonder she thought that way; refugees fleeing famine wouldn't usually address others that way.

The four men continued to follow, and as they walked with the forty or so people through a grove of trees, they came to a flat area at the bottom of the grove.

On the slightly flatter ground, about twenty or thirty simple sheds were erected.

Ning's father looked around and gasped – most of these sheds were made of tarpaulin!

There's also a proper marching tent in the middle!

Ning's mom also has it in her space, but she hasn't had much of a chance to take it out and put it together.

Outside the various tarpaulin sheds, a group of three people were walking around casually.

The three of them were on patrol.

This group is definitely no ordinary group! They are not just common refugees!

About forty people returned to their respective sheds, and the leaders went into the large tent in the center.

Because of the distance and the presence of patrols, Zhao Ningning and her group couldn't get close.

Even though they were already so close, Zhao Ningning still couldn't get close enough to eavesdrop on important conversations, and she felt as if she were being scratched by a cat.

Looking at her father, Zhao Ningning whispered, "Dad, I'll go look at the front."

Ning's father's eyes widened. Zhao Ningning patted her chest and winked at him: If she can't outrun him, she can always hide in her spatial dimension!

Thinking of this, Ning's father still refused to budge, and Zhao Ningning was both anxious and angry, so she could only hold back and observe with them.

A moment later, the people who had gone into the large tent came out. One of them took out two silver ingots from a brocade bag he was holding and gave one to each of the people next to him.

One of them bit his silver horn, his face crinkling with laughter. "Lord Jia is so generous!"

Many heads peeked out from under the tarpaulin shed.

The leader slapped him on the face, saying, "Keep your money safe and stop talking nonsense."

The three of them put away the silver and returned to their shed.

Zhao Ningning saw that under the tarpaulin shed, besides the man who had just gone out, there were also many women and children!

The fact that this group was able to take a child on the road and raise him to this day suggests they were quite capable.

The group that passed by the cave in Wangli Village ahead of them hardly saw any children. They were all so hungry that they were skin and bones, and when they saw something edible, they wanted to grab it and eat it raw.

Someone begged Wang Li Village to take them in, kneeling on the ground with their eyes fixed on the livestock.

Without a doubt, anyone in their group who was even slightly injured or weaker would be eaten by their companions on the way...

This group of people managed to escape the famine with children, so let's assume they have a conscience.

Zhao Ningning glanced around and made a rough estimate of the number of people in the group.

There were twenty-three oilcloth sheds, and horse-drawn carriages were placed at the other end; roughly counting them, there were eighteen.

And there's this big tent in the middle; I wonder how many people are inside.

It seems that if a conflict were to break out, with only two people coming out from each of the twenty-three tarpaulin sheds, the people of Wangli Village would have a hard time dealing with it.

Besides the strong men and women, there were also some elderly people and children among them.

—We have to set a trap!

The same thought popped into the minds of all four of them at the same time.

Having observed the situation sufficiently, and realizing that it was too close to their group and unsafe, Wang Xiufeng retreated to the path they had taken to get out, letting the remaining three go back first.

He continued to stake out the area.

As long as this group, which poses a threat to Wangli Village and has been eyeing it, remains on this hilltop, the village head will likely have people keeping an eye on the area, just in case.

Ning's father led Zhao Ningning and Wen Zike back to the cave.