Walking the Path of a Workaholic in Cliché Novels (QT) Chapter 57

“My father left, and he said he would leave food rations for the children.” The couple was crying, and their children were crying too. The old man in the crowd who also had difficulty walking looked at the corpse hanging there and didn’t know what he was thinking.

     An Yinong also looked at the corpse, feeling empty in his heart.

     The villagers walked for more than ten days, and several more died on the road, including those who died of hunger, those who died of illness, and some who almost died of thirst.

     During the two years of severe drought, they paid great attention to the issue of drinking water. Every household had a water container in their car. Whenever they saw water on the road, they would collect it, precipitate it and use it.

     But the land is too dry. Even if they follow the water source, they can’t see water every day. At the most extreme moment, An Yinong saw a man saving his own urine, and then…

     Of course he had heard that the middle part of the urine could be drunk as an extreme measure when there was a lack of water. But he could not make up his mind.

     An Yinong has also tried many ways to obtain water in the wild, such as using temperature differences to distill groundwater vapor in places with dense plants and high humidity.

     All failed without exception. Knowing how to survive in the wild and knowing how to do it are two completely different things.

     Fortunately, it didn’t take long for snow to fall in the sky, and the snow could melt into water, so no one in the team died due to lack of water. As the weather turned colder, the villagers put on their thickest cotton-padded clothes. An Yinong even put on a hat and cotton-padded shoes.

     This was not enough. The wind carrying snowflakes was like a knife blowing on the face. Many people’s faces were blown open and their hands were swollen. If there was a fire at night, it would be extremely itchy.

     An Yinong wrapped his face with a thick scarf, leaving only one eye exposed. He also used the remaining leather to sew himself a pair of gloves.

     To sew the gloves, he pricked his fingers until they bled. Without the healing halo, An Yinong felt that he would have died on the road. Others were not so lucky. Their faces were cracked by the cold and their hands and feet suffered from frostbite.

     Snow fell on the shoes, and as soon as the body temperature melted, it turned into snow water. The snow water got into the cotton shoes. After walking all day, the feet were so cold that they could no longer feel anything.

     An impatient person would go directly to the fire at night to roast his feet, which would result in frostbite on his feet. Later they learned to rub their cold hands and feet to soften them before going to the fire.

     An Yinong, who was outside the crowd, put down the straw curtain to block other people’s sight before he dared to take off his scarf and hat. Compared with others, his complexion is too good, so he always has to be tightly wrapped.

     It had only been ten days, but the mental outlook of the villagers had completely changed.

     They no longer joked, their faces had no expression, and there was no light in their eyes. Even if they gathered around a bonfire at night, no one would talk. Food has been getting less and less, and the sense of crisis has been increasing.

     If they don’t eat enough, they can’t walk, and if they stay, it will be a dead end. If they eat too much, they will be without food in the future, which was also a dead end. Feed it to the old man, and the child will cry with hunger. If you give it to a child, the old man will die before his eyes.

     They seemed to be standing on a cliff, with children on one side and old people on the other.

     “It will be fine when we get to the provincial capital.” The villagers comforted themselves and others.

     When the villagers began to adapt to the snowy weather, they finally entered the main road and joined the group in front.

     They were also fleeing famine, pushing a cart with children and old people sitting on it. However, their situation was much worse than that of the people in Tianjia village. They don’t have much luggage, but they have a lot of mouths to eat. Those people were so hungry that their faces were swollen.

     “Aren’t these from Huangjia Village next door?” The villagers recognized them. “I heard that their village was robbed. They all escaped in a hurry.”

     “I think so. Look at them. They even lack winter clothes.”

     An Yinong made a brief observation and found that there were very few elderly and children in this fleeing team.

     “Is that Huang Laocai’s younger son?” One person pointed at a young man who was bent over and carrying a sack.

     An Yinong looked over and saw an ordinary refugee, shivering in a thin blue cotton-padded jacket, and vaguely rejected by the crowd. That’s the protagonist? The disgraced ones are more embarrassed than the average person.

     Also, he was a scholar from a wealthy family, where has he ever done any physical work?

     In the original plot, the original owner and the protagonist walked together because the two of them were once classmates, and it was better for a while, and they were both alone and had nothing, so they might as well move together. But now that An Yinong carries a lot of things, and there is an ancestor in the car who smokes a puff of cigarettes every day, of course he will not find this person to partner with again.

     So An Yinong just looked at him indifferently and did nothing.

     “Xiao Qi, that’s the protagonist, don’t you want to tell me something?” he asked the system.

     “I don’t want to say anything.” The system lay flat like a dead fish.

     An Yinong was very surprised: “What’s wrong with you, Xiao Qi? You didn’t find any way to make me change my mind and do the task?”

     The system doesn’t speak, it feels like the host is laughing at it.

     “There is no happiness in forcing it.” The system squeezed out a sentence.

     The escape was still going on. The two groups were from neighboring villages and many of them were relatives. As soon as they met, they naturally got together.

     Although they were all fleeing famine, each family in each village fled in a different direction. People were fleeing from the southeast to the northwest. It was fate that the two villages met here.

     The people from the two villages walked together and walked all the way to the next city, which was a Fucheng. It sounded quite lively inside, but they were not allowed to enter. There was a row of soldiers standing on the city wall, all holding bows and arrows.

     Rows of arrows were placed on the bows and aimed at them.

     “What’s going on?” People from the two villages arrived late, and they could only see the black heads in front of them. From a distance, they looked like a black wave.

     “Open the small door. If a person has two taels of silver, he will be let in.”

     A person only has two taels of silver, but poor people like them, how can they have any money around them?

     “After walking for more than half a month, we are almost out of food. If we don’t go in, where can we find food?” The people trapped behind asked each other, “Do you really want two taels of silver? But… but they sold us , I can’t get the money together.”

     “My lord, my lord, please come on, there’s nothing to eat.” Many people have nothing to eat. The road to survival is right in front of them. How can they wait where they are? They rushed forward. Unexpectedly, when the people over there saw so many victims coming, they immediately overreacted.

     “Fire the arrow!”

     The arrows fell like rain, and the victims cried out. They panicked and pushed other people’s cars, causing more stampedes.

     “Come on, there’s a murderer inside.”

     The victims retreated, and the two villagers at the end also retreated. They dragged their exhausted bodies and walked numbly – they were too hungry and couldn’t run anymore.

     “Let’s go, no one is left here, and we don’t have the money to buy our lives.” They left silently with red eyes, “Let’s go and see the next place.”

     An Yinong turned around and could still see the soldiers on the city wall shooting arrows.

     The cries of the victims were fading away, but his eyes were blurring: Who would have thought that these were compatriots from the same country?

     “Xiwazi, hurry up and don’t fall behind.” The village chief shouted from the front.

     An Yinong wiped his eyes: “Hey, here we come.”

     Gu Zhengzhong was sitting in the car. He also looked at the city wall over there and suddenly smiled: “After more than two hundred years, the world is still like this. I thought it would be better if someone else became the emperor.”

     It’s cold, the days are short, and the snow was heavy. Now they can’t walk more than ten miles a day.

     Today they walked seven or eight miles, so everyone had to find a place to set up camp. If it doesn’t work, it won’t work. If it’s covered in snow overnight, everyone will be gone. Now two people have caught the cold, and they are all cooped up in the car.

     “I see there is an abandoned dock ahead. How about going there?”

     “I think it’s okay.”

     The so-called dock refers to the fortifications built by wealthy families, including city walls and gates. This one was no longer inhabited. It seems that it had experienced a fire. There were ruins and broken walls everywhere, and only part of the wall was still standing strong.

     The victims stopped here to take a break. The men went outside to find firewood, the women packed up the tents where they would sleep at night, and the children sat in the car and watched blankly.

     They use wood to build a triangular frame and cover it with straw mats or cloth. But An Yinong didn’t have to do so much. He took out three pieces of cloth and put them under the shed, tied the joints with ropes, and then hung a straw curtain in front. This was a small tent with a roof that was easy to use.

     People from the neighboring village looked at it in surprise: “How did you modify this little car? It’s so easy to use.”

     “The boxes above are laid flat and covered with mattresses. There are curtains on all sides and a shed on the top. Sleeping inside is warmer than sleeping on the ground. It is also convenient to use. If something happens, you can jump out of the car and push it away.”

     The people in Tianjia village were also envious: “Isn’t it true? I heard that he found a carpenter before he left. At that time, we thought he was stupid and spent money frivolously. Now look at it, he is a woodcutter who can sharpen his knife and chop wood. This kid’s brain is really good.”

     Of course, there was also the mean and sour: “What’s the use of it? How about running away together? It’s so easy, then we can eat at Shangguan’s house.”

     An Yinong smiled politely there, and then built a small fire. There was a triangular iron shelf on the fire, and a small pot was placed on the shelf. The water in the pot boiled quickly.

     He carried the boiled water to the car. He used some of it now, poured some of it into the water bag, and left the rest to cool down, and used it to wash his face and wipe his feet.

     He poured half a bowl of fried noodles, sprinkled it with salt, washed it with boiling water, and then ate a third of a hard scone with the bowl of noodle soup. This was his dinner.

     It was a rich dinner for the victims.

     He also used the curtain to block himself from eating, otherwise others would definitely have to guess how much food he had left. At this time, most of the victims just drink a little porridge and water at night, and if that doesn’t work, they eat some grass roots. There is no such thing.

     After finishing all the noodle soup, he rinsed it with boiling water and drank it, so that it was very clean. However, An Yinong was still used to washing with something else, so he was going to grab a handful of snow, boil it, and then wash his tableware.

     “When you are on the run, this kind of pretentiousness is really fatal.” He complained to himself, jumped out of the car, and then… found that the male protagonist was rubbing against his fire. He squatted there and rubbed his hands, looking like a pitiful little boy.

     “I’m just warming my hands.” The young son of the big landowner stood up in a panic. It was already snowing, but his cotton-padded jacket was still an autumn style.

     “Eh? Tian Xi? It’s me, Huang Meisheng.” He seemed to have just discovered An Yinong, his eyes were red with excitement.

     An Yinong looked at him with no fluctuation in his heart.

     But forget it, there are so many people here, and the reason why they come to rub off on him is because he has recognized him a long time ago. It was not easy. After several opportunities, he finally performed in front of him.

     “I saw you.” An Yinong said, “I didn’t expect to meet you in this way at this time.”

     Thinking of his family’s situation, Huang Meisheng felt some real sadness: “If that woman from the north hadn’t conspired to rebel, how could we have faced such a disaster?”

     An Yinong didn’t answer: With the current style of the government, if people are not treated as human beings, rebellion will be a matter of time.

     Seeing this, Huang Meisheng took a step closer and whispered, “I have always missed you, why didn’t you come to me?”

     An Yinong looked through the memory of the original owner: “Oh, I went, and before I could cross the high threshold of your house, I was beaten out with a broom. Your servant even let the dog go, for fear that it would not bite me to death. .”

     Huang Meisheng: “…”

     “I think there must be some misunderstanding.” Huang Meisheng smiled awkwardly.

     “It doesn’t matter, I don’t care about this anymore.” An Yinong melted some snow water, washed the tableware, and then put away the iron shelves and pots.

     “You can stay here, but stay away from my car.”

     He returned to the car, lay down on the soft mattress, took off his coat and covered himself with the quilt, closing his eyes: “I’ll trouble you next, Mr. Gu.”

     A chuckle came from the empty carriage: “…Gu, sir?”