"How come no one seems to have come here to find food?" Zhang Xiaoshan asked with a smile on his face.
Li Ping'an also grinned, "Don't look at how far we have come. Don't stand still. Move quickly and pick whatever you need. Uncle Zhu and I will look for medicinal materials."
Zhu Erlang is Dr. Zhu's youngest son, one or two years older than Li Erlin. Before he fled the famine, he often went into the mountains to collect herbs. However, at that time, he hired a few hunters to go deep into the mountains, and the ones he found were difficult to see or Precious medicinal materials.
The four of them spread out in twos and twos, but not too far apart to ensure that they were all within each other's field of vision.
Li Ping'an knew some common and easily identifiable medicinal materials, but they were not easy to find, and the quantities found were not many. Although it looked like no one had been there, in fact if you looked carefully, you could see someone coming. traces of passing.
It's just that there are still too few people coming here to look for food. After all, Li Ping'an and the others have already climbed to the second hill. Although these hills are not too high, it is still hard for those who are hungry and have their chests pressed against their backs while walking under the scorching sun. Refugees who are exhausted from a day's journey usually give up and keep going up when they don't get anything from the first mountain.
Firstly, time does not allow, the mountains at night are too dangerous, and secondly, there is no extra energy. It will be even worse if you collapse halfway due to fatigue.
"Peace! Second Uncle Zhu! Peace..."
Zhang Dashan's voice calling at the top of his voice came. Li Ping'an hurriedly turned his head and looked around. After responding, he heard the call for them to come over, so he and Zhu Erlang walked towards Zhang Dashan.
"What's up?"
"Look at these footprints. They are human. They are very fresh. It is obvious that someone has been here just now. Don't separate and be careful." Zhang Dashan pointed to a string of footprints on the ground and said.
Li Ping'an looked at it and saw that it was indeed the case, then nodded, "It's getting late, let's leave in a quarter of an hour."
It was decided that Zhang Dashan and Zhang Xiaoshan took the time to dig wild vegetables even harder. Li Ping'an and Zhu Erlang took a look and saw that there were no medicinal materials nearby, so they also helped dig wild vegetables.
Now that we have found this place, there is no need to worry about collecting herbs. At worst, we can stay one more day and call more people tomorrow.
However, just as they were about to leave, a voice sounded, "Are they Brother Ping'an and Brother Xiaoshan?"
"???"
"who!"
Li Ping'an and Zhang Xiaoshan immediately tensed up. In this barren mountain, a voice suddenly called out their names. It was obvious that the other party knew them. Panic visible to the naked eye quickly appeared on their faces, and they looked around vigilantly. Look around.
"It's me, Caoya!" As soon as he finished speaking, a figure slid down from a tree.
"Caoya?"
Li Ping'an and Zhang Dashan Zhang Xiaoshan looked at the familiar little girl in front of them in shock. Zhang Xiaoshan even said, "Fuck! What a fool!"
Then came a series of questions, such as where have you been hiding for more than a year? Why don't you go home and have a look or come back with news? Do you know that Taohua and Zhaodi have been waiting for her? Do you know that they How worried I am about her...
"Shut up!" Zhang Dashan couldn't bear it anymore and slapped Zhang Xiaoshan on the shoulder. He stopped Zhang Xiaoshan simply and roughly, and then said to Cao Ya, "Are you alone? Do you want to go back with us? , Taohua and Zhaodi are also at the foot of the mountain."
"Are my eldest sister and my younger sister both here?" Caoya's eyes lit up. It could be seen that she really wanted to see Taohua and Zhaodi, but she soon showed a tangled look and finally gritted her teeth and refused. "Forget it, I won't go see them. I feel relieved knowing that they are all still alive. There are many people here, so I can't ignore them."
"No, are you, an eleven-year-old girl, so important?" Li Ping'an was speechless and couldn't ignore it. Listen to this, what kind of team needs an eleven-year-old girl to say such a thing? Come.
But Cao Ya's answer immediately silenced him, "Of course I am important, they are all children I picked up along the way. I am their boss. They have already been abandoned by their own relatives once. I can't abandon them!"
Zhang Dashan was also a little dumbfounded, "Don't you have any adults?"
"Originally there was..."
According to Caoya, a few months after she left the village, she was taken in by a Taoist priest and lived in a Taoist temple on the mountain to escape the flood. It was the Taoist priest who took her to escape with him. She originally planned to go northwest, but she heard something on the way. When a plague broke out, the Taoist priest went to the epidemic area, gave all his belongings to Caoya and let her go south.
Thanks to those few months of running away, a little girl from Caoya survived the journey without any danger. Then she met the first child abandoned by her family, a six or seven-year-old girl, lying on the bed. The girl was dying on the roadside, so Cao Ya relented and fed her some food, but the girl survived tenaciously.
From then on, she would always meet some unwanted children, some were boys and some were girls, some were in good health and some were in bad health. Cao Ya thought that since she had picked up one, there were not many missing. Anyway, they I don’t know where to go. If I can survive, I will live. If I can’t, I will be pulled down.
When we got here, several people in their boy scouts died, and now there were only seven people left including Cao Ya. The refugees were so hungry that they were all cannibals. Their seven children were too easy to covet. They didn't dare to go any further, so they went up the mountain to find a cave to hide in. If they were lucky, they could survive until the government came to provide disaster relief, and then they could survive.
"We are all unwanted children. We should have died a long time ago. If we live one more day, we will earn another day. It will not be a pity if we die one day." When he said this, Cao Ya's thin face raised a big smile. The smile moved Li Pingan and the others.
But soon, Zhang Xiaoshan gritted his teeth and said: "You can't take care of yourself, and you have to take care of others! Come on, follow me down the mountain. If I don't take you back when I see you, how do you want me to explain to Taohua?"
Cao Ya took a few steps back, stared at Zhang Xiaoshan and said, "Brother Xiao Shan, I really can't ignore them. Just pretend you haven't seen me, and don't tell my elder sister and younger sister that you have seen me. They can hear As long as I am alive, I have no regrets. Brother Xiaoshan, after you get married to my eldest sister, you must treat her well. She is so miserable. Although I am not having a hard time at home, at least I still have my eldest sister to care about her. But she But no one cares about her."
A thought arose in Li Ping'an's heart, "Are you afraid? Are you afraid that because of your appearance, we will have a different view of Taohua and Zhaodi, or even leave you alone?"
Cao Ya was silent. This was indeed the problem she was most afraid of. She didn't know if the villagers knew that she was responsible for the fire in her house last year. But she walked away and never came back. I believe she wasn't stupid. People will doubt her.
As a woman, she set fire to her parents, which was undoubtedly a treasonous act. If the people in the village doubted her, they would definitely not tolerate her. Now the eldest sister and the younger sister are being looked after by Zhang Xiaoshan and his family. She is worried that her appearance in front of the villagers will arouse their resentment, which will harm the eldest sister and the younger sister.
There is no way for the eldest sister and the younger sister to survive if they follow her.
Seeing Cao Ya's reaction, Li Pingan knew that he had guessed correctly, so he pretended to be casual and said, "It's strange. When the government sent people to ask, everyone in the village said it was an accidental fire."
Cao Ya's eyes suddenly widened with light shining in them.
