The heavy rain has stopped for a day and a night, and the water flowing into the farmland has subsided compared to the morning. The flood seems to have passed. The next step is just to wait for the water level to drop, and many villagers are starting to get excited.
No one would want to live in the wild mountains. Hundreds of people in the village are crowded into a big thatched shed. How can it be as comfortable as a house at home? Moreover, the hut is not windproof. When the mountain wind blows at night, it is okay for adults, but children may not be able to bear it. It would be bad if they catch a cold.
Not to mention the fear of being attacked by wild beasts when living in the mountains.
Some people want to go down the mountain, but some people don't want to go down the mountain, and the reasons are very good. The black clouds in the sky have not dispersed yet, and it will be gloomy all day long. There may be torrential rain like yesterday. If If the water level rises again, we will have to hide in the mountains again.
The villagers were divided into two groups. You advised me and I advised you, and they started to argue.
Jixiang listened to the quarrel among the villagers for a while and asked Li Erlin: "Dad, when are we going home? Sleeping here is not as comfortable as sleeping at home."
"We will go home when the flood recedes." Li Erlin replied. Li Ping'an had another nightmare of flooding last night. He became more and more sure that God was warning him, so it was better to hide in the mountains for a longer time.
"Oh." Jixiang pursed his lips in grievance.
Xiao Ruyi was not happy either. Being sick was already aggrieved, but she couldn't go home and sleep in a comfortable bed. When she felt uncomfortable, she opened her mouth and burst into tears with a loud "Wow".
Li Ping'an lowered his head and glanced at his clean hands, then put them on Little Ruyi's long and wide-open mouth and patted her. Little Ruyi's original cries turned into intermittent "wow" and "wow", and after a while, Xiao Ruyi was amused.
With a puff, little Ruyi burst into laughter, blowing out a big bubble from her nose.
She put the back of her hand under her nose and shouted dissatisfied: "Bad guy's cauldron!"
"Little crybaby!" Not to be outdone, Li Ping'an looked cute, clenching his hands into fists and putting them under his eyes, pretending to be crying.
Xiao Ruyi suddenly giggled, her laughter clear and contagious. Seeing that Li Pingan was still interested in playing with Xiao Ruyi, the originally worried relatives temporarily put aside their worries.
At this time, Chen Song came over with a sack, "I heard from the villagers about buying grain during the day. Because Erlin helped me buy grain, your family bought less. I will send you a bucket."
"No need." Li Erlin hurriedly declined, "We bought a lot of grain yesterday, no less than one or two buckets. The price of grain is high now, and the portions are limited. You can just keep it for yourself."
After hearing Li Erlin's statement, Chen Dajuan also said: "Brother Song, Erlin is right. My family is not short of one or two buckets of food. You can keep it. There are so many mouths in the house."
Chen Song refused to listen, put the sack on the ground, and squatted down, "I was just going to tell you about the grain you bought yesterday. It's hard to buy a lot of grain now. It's too easy to mess with your family for one stone of grain." People are jealous, if my father is still here, with his prestige, he might be able to suppress some villagers who have wandering thoughts, but I am still far from my father now, so you should make plans early."
Li Erlin looked solemn. He had experienced troubled times and had to escape hardships. Naturally, he knew that once a person is hungry and anxious, he can do anything. In his opinion, Chen Song was still optimistic. He had seen many cases of people changing their children to eat. If the villagers had no food to eat, even if the highly respected Chen An was still there, they would not be able to suppress them at all. Stay away from those anxious folks.
In fact, when he was buying food yesterday, he had thought about hiding the food he bought so that others would not know about it. However, the plan failed to keep up with the change, and the mountain collapsed blocking the road. Chen An's body was dug out, and then they met the villagers who came out to look for them in the dark.
There was no time to hide the food.
I didn’t think deeply about it last night, I just thought that the increase in food prices was just a result of the fact that the folks could buy less food, so if you save some food, you can wait until the government opens a warehouse to provide relief. But the granary burned down last night and the food was gone, so some things needed to be planned in advance.
Seeing that Li Erlin understood what he meant, Chen Song didn't say anything more on this topic and instead asked, "What are your plans now? Are you going to go down the mountain or stay on the mountain?"
"Stay on the mountain, at least wait until the flood recedes before thinking about going down the mountain." Li Erlin said firmly without thinking.
Chen Song looked at Li Dalin, Li Silin and Zhang Yu, and the three said they listened to Li Erlin.
Li Ping'an's grandmother, Mrs. Zhou, had long since stopped doing things, and Li Dalin was lame, and he had received a lot of financial help from Li Erlin and Li Ping'an in recent years. Therefore, decisions involving the whole family were usually made by Li Erlin. Call the shots.
Although Zhang Yu is more skilled, he has a small family. At this time, it is better to tide over the difficulties together with his brothers-in-law.
Then, Li Erlin told Chen Song that Li Ping'an had nightmares related to floods for two consecutive nights. The timing was so clever that Chen Song felt like he was encountering a ghost.
He originally preferred to stay on the mountain and made an immediate decision. He stopped the quarrel among the villagers and asked everyone to stay on the mountain. He would decide whether to go down the mountain after the flood receded.
You can always find food in the mountains. Wild vegetables are growing luxuriantly in the current season, and wild fruits will be available in a while. If not, Zhang Yu can take the strong people to hunt.
The dispute among the villagers finally subsided.
As the night progressed, after Li Pingan coaxed his younger brothers and sisters to sleep, he subconsciously glanced down the mountain. The night was thick and pitch-black, which reminded him of the scene in his nightmare of running and falling off a cliff.
"What are you thinking about?" Seeing Li Pingan meditating, Li Erlin asked.
"I was wondering where there is a cliff nearby. I remember that when I ran following your voice in my dream, I missed my footing and fell off the cliff." Li Ping'an smiled and saw the haggard look on Li Erlin's face through the firelight. Then he said, "You haven't slept all day and night. Get some sleep tonight. I'll watch the fire and keep vigil. You are our backbone. You must not fall down from exhaustion at this time."
Li Erlin, who originally wanted to refuse, heard Li Ping'an's words and swallowed his words to tell Li Ping'an to go to sleep first. He changed his words and said, "Then I'll take a nap for a while. Wake me up in an hour."
Li Pingan smiled and nodded. Anyway, it was up to him to decide whether to call or not.
On the side, Zhang Xiaoshan saw that it was Li Ping'an who was keeping vigil, so he told his father Zhang Yu that he was also keeping vigil and asked Zhang Yu to go and rest first. Zhang Yu readily agreed and fell asleep. After a while, he snored loudly. He looked exhausted.
Zhang Xiaoshan covered his ears and winked at Li Pingan. Li Pingan secretly thought: When his uncle wakes up, he will definitely tell him that Zhang Xiaoshan looks like he needs a beating. He hasn't seen Zhang Xiaoshan being beaten for a long time.
Time passed slowly, Li Pingan yawned one after another, but did not wake up Li Erlin. Just when he thought the night was uneventful, in an instant, his brows beat rapidly, and an unprecedented uneasiness surged from the bottom of his heart.
Before he could react, he seemed to feel the ground shaking again, and a faint rumbling sound could be heard.
It reminded him of the feeling of seeing a train entering the station outside the safety line of the train platform in his previous life.
