Zhou Yunshu and others were lucky enough to find a village before nightfall.
Zhou Yunshu opened the car curtain, looked at the children who were running back to the village holding hands and shouting because of the unfamiliar mule cart, and let Chunque drive forward.
As soon as it arrived at the entrance of the village, the mule cart was stopped by a group of people.
"Who are you and why are you here in our village?" The question came from a man with a square face and dark skin.
Zhou Yunshu opened the car curtain, looked at the man and said with a smile: "Brother, we are going to Tongcheng to visit relatives, and we want to stay one night in your village."
The square-faced man relaxed his guard when he saw that Zhou Yunshu was reasonable and polite like a scholar.
"It's a coincidence that you came. If it had been one day later, our village might have been half empty."
Zhou Yunshu raised her eyes in surprise. She got off the mule cart, looked at the square-faced man in front of her and asked, "Did something happen?"
"It's not because of the drought!"
The square-faced man didn't want to talk too much to a stranger, so he just said, "It's okay to stay overnight, but we don't lend it to you for free."
Zhou Yunshu nodded, "We know this."
The square-faced man saw that Zhou Yunshu was still aware of current affairs, and said, "Our family is going to flee tomorrow, and we have just cleared out a few rooms, so I can give you one."
"Thank you, brother."
As the square-faced man in front of me said, the whole village was very lively, mostly due to the noise and farewells caused by packing luggage.
Not everyone is willing to leave their hometown, especially the elderly. They would rather die at home than continue to travel.
The square-faced man's home is at the entrance of the village. When he took Zhou Yunshu and his group home, he attracted a lot of attention from the neighbors, but of course the most concerned ones were his own family members.
"Second brother, who is this?" A man in his twenties looked curiously at the mule cart in front of him and Zhou Yunshu, who was following his second brother.
This man's temperament is more elegant than the Juren master he saw in the county town, and he must have achieved fame.
"We are here to stay. Haven't my little sister's rooms been tidied up? Let the guests stay in that room."
After Du Lao Er finished speaking, Du Lao San immediately shouted to the main room: "Little sister, little sister!"
"Stop screaming!" A round-faced girl aged fourteen or five ran out of the room when she heard her brother's voice and said fiercely: "Your name is Hun'er, third brother!" "
As she finished speaking, when she saw that her brother was not the only one in the yard, she looked at Zhou Yunshu with a smile on her face and blushed.
She thought they were the only ones at home!
"What are you calling me for?" The little girl's voice suddenly became much shyer.
"Take the guests to your room. They are staying at home today."
"good!"
At this time, the Du family members heard the noise outside and came out of the room. When Li Jialan and Fang Huiwen took the children down from the mule cart, they nodded to the Du family members who were looking at them curiously.
The old man smoking a cigarette in the main room looked at Zhou Yunshu and his group who had gone to the room, and said: "This family has a good background. Call the second brother in later and I will ask."
"good."
The Du family's little sister's room is the first room in the west wing. Walking three steps into it is the Tukang. At this moment, there is only a thick straw mat left on the Tukang.
The younger sister of the Du family said a little embarrassedly: "Because we are going to flee tomorrow, so everything is almost packed. If you are not used to it, I will get you two more mattresses."
Zhou Yunshu smiled and said: "No, you just might need to help us free up another room."
She and Chunque are now men. Wouldn't it be exposed if they sleep with the female members of the family?
"Okay, I'll ask my elder brother."
After the little girl from the Du family left, Zhou Yunshu looked at the three little carrot heads sneaking by the window, took two pieces of sweet-scented osmanthus cake from the remaining pastries, broke them in half and waved to them.
By the time the younger sister of the Du family came over with her sister-in-law, who had packed up the room, Fang Huiwen had already extracted all the information about the Du family from three little carrot heads.
Old Man Du has three sons and one daughter.
Mr. Du is married to Mr. Yang and has two sons and one daughter. The eldest son is thirteen years old, the younger son is ten and his daughter is seven. Mr. Du is a bodyguard and is married to Ms. Wang. He has two sons, one is eleven. Years old, one is six years old; Du Laosan is still in school, married to Mrs. Li, and has only one daughter, who is four years old this year.
The Du family is a very prosperous family in the village. They have 30 acres of dry land and 20 acres of paddy fields. They can not only earn food for the whole family throughout the year, but also sell a lot of food.
Of course, this was in previous years. The past two years have been bad, and the harvest from the fifty acres of land has not been one-third of what it was in previous years.
Old Man Du is a very foresighted person. He has not sold any food outside in the past two years.
Seeing that there was almost no harvest this year, and we didn’t know how long the drought would last, we decided that instead of waiting to die here, we might as well take the whole family to escape.
It was at this time that Zhou Yunshu and his party arrived at Dujiacun.
"There is a children's room next door, where the little brother can live." The speaker was Mr. Du's wife Yang.
"Thank you. I wonder who is in charge of your house?"
After finally finding a decent place to stay, Zhou Yunshu wanted to get some hot food for the group.
"It's my mother-in-law."
"Then trouble sister-in-law, I want to buy some food."
Zhou Yunshu didn't want much. She bought thirty kilograms of white flour, twenty kilograms of cornmeal, fifteen eggs, a handful of vermicelli, two cabbage and a piece of bacon from the Du family.
These meals and the night's accommodation cost a total of one or two or three coins.
Dinner was made by Chunque, including egg dumpling soup, fried corn tortillas and vermicelli stewed with cabbage and bacon, and a bowl of chicken soup with only a few pieces of meat sent over by the Du family.
There was an incident while cooking. Chunque thought the millstone was in the way and carried it to the wall, which shocked the Du family.
This seemingly random move was done deliberately by Zhou Yunshu and Chunque. She wanted the family to know that although they had more women and children, they were not without the ability to protect themselves.
Zhou Yunshu and others did not touch the chicken soup sent by the Du family. During the meal, Fang Huiwen briefly explained the situation of the Du family to Zhou Yunshu and others.
Speaking of which, the decision of Dujiacun to escape had a lot to do with the family where they stayed.
Due to successive years of drought, Dujiacun has actually long had the idea of escape from famine, but escaping from famine is not easy. No one is willing to leave their hometown unless they really can't survive.
Now the people in Dujiacun are willing to flee the famine because of two reasons.
One of the reasons is that a small village not far from them was robbed by bandits. Dujiacun was spared because it was a large village, but knowing that there were bandits around them, they were still panicked even if there were many people.
Another reason is that this time Du Laoer came back from escorting, and he also brought back the people who were escorting with him.
The people who were escorts with Du Laoer also couldn't survive in their hometown, so they planned to drag their families to the south to escape.
As for why they didn't run to the capital, of course it was because they came from the capital.
There are too many refugees heading towards the capital, and they will be driven back before they even get close to the capital.
Not to mention the severe drought around the capital. If they can't enter the capital, wouldn't they just stay outside and wait to die?
Instead of doing this, it is better to go to the south. I heard that the weather in the south is good and rice can be grown twice a year, so you will never starve to death.
