Perhaps they were scared when they saw Ren Yazi. Just when they were about to leave, a boy shouted: "Help..."
As soon as he started shouting, a thug on the side grabbed his hair and slapped him hard on the face. He swallowed the words he had not spoken and fell to the ground with several children in front and behind him.
As if the boy didn't know the pain, he raised his head and stared at Li Erlin closely. Li Ping'an, who was standing next to Li Erlin, could clearly see the pleading in the boy's face and eyes through the dim firelight.
Like a thorn, it pierced into Li Pingan's heart. Li Pingan turned his head, he couldn't help, couldn't help, couldn't help.
In his previous life, he read the books of sages, but he could not care about the affairs outside the window of this era; he felt pity, but also looked on with a cold eye; he was the one who sympathized, but he was also the one who was powerless. During the thirteen years he lived in this era, he was often pulled by such contradictory emotions.
He never felt that it was a good thing that God allowed him to be reincarnated with the memories of his previous life. Sometimes he wished he could lose his memory, which was better than dragging himself and being tortured like this.
What Ren Yazi said just now is absolutely correct. On the road to escape, even adults are too busy to take care of themselves and sell their children. As long as they are obedient, they will always have something to eat. In Ren Yazi's eyes, these children are just money, right? They will starve to death. If you are lucky, you can still sell it to a wealthy family. If you are not lucky enough, you can sell it anywhere, at least you will survive.
Even in countries like his previous life, there were many people living without dignity, let alone in this era and at this juncture.
"etc!"
Hearing Li Erlin speak, Li Ping'an turned his head and looked in shock. Wouldn't his father feel compassion and want to save this child?
The boy's eyes sparkled with light, and the children who were also sold were looking at Li Erlin with sweat in their hands.
Ren Yazi looked unhappy and stared at Li Erlin without saying a word, his eyes narrowed like a poisonous snake.
"Don't get me wrong, I just want to ask you if you want to buy the land."
Suddenly, the boy's eyes dimmed, and the sold children lowered their heads in resignation. Li Ping'an felt a little relieved for a moment.
Ren Yazi was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Of course I need the land, but the price won't be high. I wonder how many acres of land you have, where it is, and whether you have a land deed?"
Of course, there was a field deed. Li Erlin asked Chen Dajuan to take out the field deed. There were three acres of middle field and one acre of wasteland. After some hard work, he got two buckets of brown rice from Ren Yazi.
They didn't plan to come back once they left. Although the price was low, it was better than having nothing at all and letting others take advantage of it.
Some of the other villagers also sold their family fields, and some still wanted to come back, but did not sell all of them in exchange for food.
After Ren Yazi left, Li Erlin called the men together and reminded him seriously: "Although we have food in our hands now, it is not much after all. If we can eat enough wild vegetables, we should try not to eat food first. After we return, we will not eat food." I told my family not to reveal any information about our food supply."
After hearing this, the men who were originally happy because they had received some food also stopped smiling and whispered that they understood.
"There is another thing. People are buying children like this. More and more people know that children can be exchanged for food. Some people are reluctant to buy their own children, or their children have been sold out, or they have no children. They are bound to take advantage of other people's children, steal or rob them, and we need to pay more attention to this issue."
At this point, Li Erlin paused and continued in a cold voice: "If you want to sell your children, just sell your own. Don't make random decisions, otherwise we will go our separate ways and bear the consequences at our own risk. Do you understand me clearly?"
Everyone expressed that they heard clearly again. They had also seen the scene just now. There were many of them, and the people at Renyazi were not less than them. If everyone went their separate ways, if something like this happened again, what would happen? In the event of a conflict, not only would they be unable to protect their children's property, they would also be unable to protect themselves.
Zhang Yu then proposed to arrange for a few more people to keep vigil. After all, that incident had just happened, and he was worried that Ren Yazi and the others would leave and come back because they were holding back their anger.
They are not too worried about the surrounding refugees coming to snatch their food. After all, there are many of them, and even the most arrogant people do not dare to resist. If they can stay in the situation, the refugees do not dare to easily attack them. Head up. Even if he had bad intentions, he would still go to those weak families who had just exchanged their children for food.
Li Ping'an lay down again. Jixiang and Ruyi were holding him and lying on both sides of him with one arm. The two sisters were so scared just now that they were still trembling slightly. They pressed hard against Li Ping'an to seek more security. .
The two little sisters were not very strong, but Li Ping'an still felt a little uncomfortable being squeezed by them, but he could not push them away. His father Li Erlin had to stay for the rest of the night, and his mother Chen Dajuan still had wealth and prosperity. These two little girls only I can rely on him.
But he was tired after all, and there was no more crying in his ears. Li Pingan hugged his two sisters and quickly fell asleep.
Ruyi, who had her ear pressed against her elder brother's chest, listened to his snoring, pouted, adjusted her position to make herself more comfortable, and then closed her eyes without knowing whether she was asleep or not.
At dawn, the women woke up one after another, leaving some to light the fire and set up the pots, while Li Dafang took the other group to fetch water from the river and pick wild vegetables.
There are a lot of people looking for food now. They go up the mountains to pick up wild vegetables and pick grass roots, and go down to the river to catch fish and shrimps. I used to think that small fish and shrimps have a strong fishy smell, are not meaty and are spiny, and they don’t even take a look at them. Now, I want to eat but I have to rely on luck.
Fortunately, plants are growing vigorously at this time of year. Although there are many homeless people, they can still have something to eat and won’t have to fight over a wild vegetable or a piece of grass. However, it’s not a problem to drink wild vegetable water all the time. I have something in my stomach and take advantage of the sun. Before they came out, the crowd started to move again.
You can always see large paddy fields on the road. The floods have just receded. The fields on higher ground have been exposed to the sun for several days, and the mud has dried up and cracked. It was supposed to be the harvest season, but the rice stalks with hanging ears of grain had long been uprooted by the flood and washed away. Occasionally, a few green or weeds could be seen.
Li Ping'an thought, they are not even as good as a blade of grass. Weeds can take root in the ground and withstand floods, but they are like dandelions, not knowing where they will end up.
Suddenly, a thin little face with a stubborn look flashed through his mind, and he didn't know if the little girl who was named after grass and who used to always follow him and asked him to take her to make money, was like these weeds. , are you still living tenaciously?
Sighing in his heart, Li Pingan kept looking back and found Chen Taohua and Chen Zhaodi holding hands in the crowd. There was supposed to be someone among them.
He admired the little girl who would fight and make every effort to get out of trouble. To put it shamelessly, he always felt that Cao Ya was very similar to him who struggled with illness in his previous life.
It's just a pity...
