Deserted Village

There were still some wild vegetables left from the last pick in the deserted village, so Gulan was not in a hurry.

Soon, the remaining edible vegetables in the vegetable garden were picked up by Li Da's wife and others. It looked like there were not many vegetables, but there were actually quite a lot of them, a whole basket, which made them feel better.

Li Su looked at Gulan, thought about it, and took a handful of green vegetables from the bamboo basket, or more precisely, green and yellow vegetables and handed them to Gulan who was standing on the side.

Gulan: "..." looked at Aunt Li in surprise.

It was quite unexpected. She didn't expect Aunt Li to give some. Although it wasn't much, it was extremely rare at this time.

"Auntie, I..."

"Okay, Auntie know what you are going to say. Take it and give it to the child. Otherwise, you will suffer."

Gulan was interrupted by Aunt Li just as she was about to speak, and took the handful of green and yellow vegetables handed over by Aunt Li. Well, it's hard to refuse such kindness. There is still a long way to go, and there is always a time to repay favors.

Gulan understood what Aunt Li meant. He really had to eat some green vegetables. Otherwise, her stomach would be full of dry food without vegetable fiber. It would be a problem to go to the toilet. In serious cases, she might die of suffocation. This problem must be taken seriously.

"Thank you, Aunt Li," Gulan thanked her seriously.

Aunt Li smiled and picked the vegetables with the wives. They picked the vegetables that could not be eaten and tried to shake off the dirt on the vegetables. Water was too precious now and there was no extra water to wash the vegetables. Aunt Li and the others were picking vegetables. Li Da and his brothers were thinking. How could they forget that farmers basically like to dig vegetable gardens in their backyards for the convenience of eating vegetables? Maybe they can go to the nearby families to have a look. Maybe they can get some harvest. Thinking of this, he said something to Old Man Li, left his son and went out with the brothers.

Gulan also thought of what Li Da was thinking. After thinking about it, he was ready to go out and have a look. Maybe there would be something to gain. So Gulan came to Old Man Li to say hello. After all, they came in together. It would be too embarrassing to leave without saying anything.

Old man Li nodded without feeling surprised. He frowned at the child and said, "Why don't you leave the child here, little brother Gu? It's not convenient to go out and take care of the child."

Old man Li said this after careful consideration, mainly because he was afraid that Gulan would think too much. In this situation, no one would leave the child to others. Of course, if they were not very close, they would not take the initiative to help others take care of the child.

"Uncle Li, just call me Gulan. Thank you for your kindness, but the child is timid, so I'll take care of him." Gulan glanced at her son and smiled.

In fact, if she wanted to be fast, she could leave her son with Old Man Li for a while. The family looked good at the moment, but Gulan still didn't dare to gamble. she just had to endure the hardship.

After thanking Uncle Li, Gulan took AnAn and Dahei out of the yard and turned to the east of the house. There were still a few families there, but I didn't know if they were occupied.

After passing by two houses in a row, the doors were open. Without hearing the sound coming from inside, she knew that there were people. Gulan walked over directly. When passing the third house, he bumped into Li Da and his brothers. Apparently, they had just searched this house and had a few dried vegetables in their hands.

After saying hello to Brother Li, Gulan walked towards the back of the village. The village looked really big, but there were so many disaster victims that he decided to go to the back of the village to have a look.

Along the way, most of the houses were occupied, and even those that were not occupied had their doors open. Gulan lost interest after looking at a few houses, as there was basically nothing left. There was a well in the middle of the village, but it had already dried up without a drop of water. Gulan glanced at it and left. Not surprisingly, if there was water in the village, such a large village would not be deserted.

All she saw along the way were disaster victims with sad faces. It seemed that they had not gained anything. Looking at the large field behind the village from a distance, he thought that there was nothing to gain here anyway, so she might as well go to the field to have a look.   

"Oh my God! This is really killing people! What can I do?" A woman was crying loudly behind her. Although she was crying loudly, her voice was only a little louder, mainly because her throat was dry and weak. Gulan could imagine the despair and helplessness in the woman's eyes without looking back.

"Dad..." AnAn looked back at the crying person frequently, with a little uneasiness in his eyes, and grabbed Gulan's hand tightly.

"Don't be afraid, Dad is here." Gulan held her son's hand tightly and changed the direction with fewer people. At the same time, the few people who had been staring at Gulan, or should I say, staring at Dahei beside Gulan, also followed quietly.

Dahei was thin, but he was no longer as thin as when they first met, and his body was big enough, so it was not surprising that he was stared at. Gulan didn't know that they had been stared at, and continued to walk towards the fields behind the village with AnAn.

A quarter of an hour later, the Mother and son appeared at the edge of the field behind the village, and Dahei couldn't help but rush into the field. The crops in the field had basically dried up, but there were still some green spots with tenacious vitality flashing in the field.

Gulan's target was them. She could think of the farmers who cultivated the fields all year round and knew that there were already people walking back and forth in the fields at that time looking for edible wild vegetables. Fortunately, there were not too many people.

Soon Gulan and AnAn became one of these people. Because they came early, the mother and son still had some harvests. They dug some bitter gourd and mustard green, not much, but enough for a meal. As more and more people came, they took Dahei farther and farther away from the village. The few people who followed Dahei fell far away and learned to find wild vegetables like everyone else.

"Mom, I dug another one." There was no one around. AnAn called her mother with confidence, holding the bitter mustard in his hand and smiling happily.

"Well, my son is great." It must be praised. Gulan never hesitates to praise, which can better build the child's self-confidence. Digging and walking, the mother and son unconsciously moved deep into the field and raised their heads at Dahei's call. Gulan looked in the direction of the village and realized that they were already so far away from the village, about one or two miles away, and the sky was slowly getting dark. It was time to go back.

Gulan stood up and wanted to call Dahei to go back. When she turned around, she found that there was a wide ditch not far away, but there was no water.

If she found it, she would definitely go over to take a look. After collecting the wild vegetables she dug, Gulan took her son to where Dahei was.

Seeing the master, he called out and then rushed to the river before them and ran down. Gulan hurriedly followed. Soon, the mother and son came to the river, but unfortunately it was dry. The situation was the same as the pits and rivers they had encountered before. The land below had cracked.

The mother and son carefully went down to the bottom of the river. The soft touch under their feet told Gulan that the river had not been dry for long. Thinking of the river clams they had dug before, the mother and son looked at the cracks and started looking for it without thinking. However, before they could find anything, Dahei, who had already run far along the riverbed, ran back again with a grunt. Then he barked at them, then turned and ran a few steps in the direction he had just gone. When he found that his master had not caught up with him, he turned around and barked at them again, as if to say, "What are you waiting for? Catch up!"