Since he planned to escape from famine, Lu Ning naturally set off immediately.
"Master Lu, I'll come, I'll come."
Old Man Liu was very self-conscious, and he wanted to show that he was not a freeloader.
A bag of pasta and a pot were not heavy, and the old man used to do farm work, so he still had some strength, so Lu Ning let him go.
Little Ah Hua can now walk and holds her own dishes and chopsticks lovingly.
Lu Ning walked in front carrying a black cloth with money on his back, Ahua on the left and Old Man Liu on the right.
The trio set off just like that.
The distance between the villages is not far. This county called Dafeng County is small and pitiful. Within half a day, the three of them had left the county and were on the road to the next county.
Shortly after they left, the guards arrived belatedly and began to search Dagou Village. Unfortunately, Dagou Village was empty, so it was another wasted trip.
noon.
Lu Ning and the other three stopped to eat.
He asked the two of them to go and collect some firewood.
When cooking, he asked Old Man Liu and Ahua to avoid it first, and then he took the iron pot and fiddled with it.
It was a bit of a show-off.
Smoke curls from the kitchen.
In no time, two portions of pasta were ready.
Naturally, he doesn't need to eat. He only needs to drink some water occasionally.
"I've eaten, you go ahead and eat." Lu Ning said to the two of them.
He personally filled a bowl for Ahua, and then left the rest in the pot to Old Man Liu.
Ah Hua eats carefully.
Old Liu's eyes were full of muddy tears. He didn't expect that he could still eat hot noodles.
God treated him well.
However, he was a little confused, wondering where Lu Ning got the water from.
He couldn't figure it out, but he didn't dare to ask.
"I~I want to go to a latrine."
After finishing her noodles, Ah Hua suddenly came over and said to Lu Ning shyly.
Mao pit.
Okay, it's the toilet.
No paper.
"Ahua, what do you usually use to wipe your butt when you go to the toilet?"
"Use branches." Ahua pointed to the dry low tree next to her.
Lu Ning nodded, and then he watched Ahua walk over, break some leafless branches with her hands, break several branches and hold them in her hands, then she ran to the roadside and squatted down.
She was not far away, as if she was worried that Lu Ning would suddenly leave, and she could still see Lu Ning with her eyes.
Lu Ning glanced at her and looked away after knowing that she was squatting there to use the toilet.
After waiting for a few minutes, Ah Hua finished using the toilet, and the three of them rested for a while before continuing on their way.
Everything you see on the road is desolate.
Just like the Gobi Desert, there is no green at all.
Sometimes the wind will blow up the sand on the ground, and the sky will be filled with yellow sand.
Sometimes, the wind would blow some bones from far away and fall in front of them.
At night, the three of them randomly found a big dry tree and slept under it.
Ahua huddled next to Lu Ning, while Old Man Liu curled up tightly.
the next day.
It's one kilometer away from Lu Ning.
There was a wild dog that was so thin that it was eating the rotting corpse.
Not far from the wild dog, a skinny man leaned forward with a woodcutter and slowly approached the wild dog.
The wild dog sniffed and growled several times in the direction of the man, trying to scare him away.
The man knew that he was exposed, so instead of running away, he rushed towards the wild dog.
He was going crazy with hunger. If he didn't have a bite to eat today, he would probably starve to death.
The wild dog in front of him was the straw that saved his life.
When the wild dog saw the man rushing towards him, he roared a few times and abandoned his flesh and blood on the ground.
The man chased the flesh and blood and swallowed, but looking at the rotting flesh and blood, the smell was disgusting and he couldn't stop eating.
If you eat this thing, you might not starve to death but poison yourself first.
He continued to chase the wild dog.
He had to catch up today.
The wild dog in front happened to run in the direction of Lu Ning. From a distance, the man also spotted the three of Lu Ning walking.
"Quick! Stop that wild dog!"
The man shouted at Lu Ning.
Lu Ning glanced at the man and then at the wild dog not far away.
When the wild dog saw Lu Ning in front of him, he immediately turned around and tried to escape in another direction.
Lu Ning looked at the man running desperately. The man's cheeks were sunken, he was panting, and he seemed to fall down at any time. Without hesitation, he pulled out the woodcutter from his back and threw it at the wild dog.
The woodchopping knife turned into a shadow.
The wild dog was more than fifty meters away from Lu Ning.
But Lu Ning's woodcutter seemed to have eyes. In the blink of an eye, it had already flown to the head of the wild dog.
Pfft.
The woodcutter hit the wild dog hard on the head.
The running wild dog didn't even have time to scream, and fell in a pool of blood, with only four legs still twitching.
The blood soon dyed the ground beneath the wild dog red, bringing a touch of moisture to the cracked land.
"It's hit! It's hit! Mr. Lu, you hit it!!"
Old man Liu was excited and ran towards the wild dog.
Lu Ning followed behind with Ahua.
The man also ran up to him at this time.
He was out of breath and his lips were extremely dry, but when he looked at the corpse of the wild dog on the ground, he couldn't control the excitement in his eyes.
"I, you, can you give me some of this wild dog? Although I didn't kill it, I chased it for a long time. I'm about to starve to death. Please give me some of its meat, just a little."
There was a hint of pleading in the man's eyes.
The strong Lu Ning in front of him made him dare not take the wild dog as his own.
Moreover, this wild dog was originally killed by Lu Ning.
"Are you sure its meat is edible?" Lu Ning asked.
"Okay, okay, and it's delicious." The man saw that Lu Ning didn't seem to mean to refuse, and nodded repeatedly.
Lu Ning glanced at the woodcutter in his hand and said, "Then just get rid of it."
He didn't want to deal with this wild dog. Wild dogs were dirty and he was always worried about viruses.
"Okay, okay."
The man immediately came to the wild dog, grabbed its body and began to dissect it.
Although wild dogs are very thin, their skin is very strong.
Old man Liu saw that the man was weak and had not finished half of the work for a long time. He became anxious and ran to help.
After Lu Ning and Ahua looked at it curiously for a while, they got up and went to collect firewood.
Ah Hua picked up dry branches on the ground.
Lu Ning directly cut down a big tree, and then cut the big tree into many small sections.
When the firewood piled up like a hill, the dog meat over there was also ready.
The man and Old Man Liu found some big stones, and after a while, a simple stove was built.
Lu Ning walked aside alone with the iron pot, and came back after a while with less than half the pot of water.
"Is this water?"
"Where did the water come from? Why is there still water?"
The man looked at the water in the iron pot with a shocked face.
"Shh, just eat some and don't ask any questions." Old Man Liu educated him mysteriously.
"Oh oh oh." The man nodded.
He didn't even dare to look around.
Lu Ning put his hand into the stove and used his power to light the fire.
The flames burned.
Dog meat.
Old man Liu kept adding firewood and stirring the dog meat in the pot with a woodcutter from time to time.
After a while, the water boiled and the dog meat became fragrant.
Little Ahua, the man, and Old Man Liu looked at the dog meat in the pot, and they all swallowed involuntarily.
The fire was burning brightly.
The dog meat in the pot is already cooked.
However, without Lu Ning's permission, none of the three dared to eat it first.
The three of them looked at Lu Ning, waiting for him to speak first.
Lu Ning brought some salt and added some salt to the pot.
Dog meat with added salt is more fragrant.
Just looking at it makes people want to move their fingers.
Even Lu Ning felt the urge to eat a piece of it.
But he still held back.
"You guys eat it."
Lu Ning said something to the three of them.
"Mr. Lu, if you don't keep your mouth shut, how dare we eat it?" Old Man Liu said with a sly smile.
"Mr. Lu, you eat first," the man said in an equally flattering manner.
Lu Ning didn't eat, and he didn't dare to move his mouth, even though he was already very hungry.
Not to mention, Ahua looked at Lu Ning eagerly.
Lu Ning smiled, took A-hua's chopsticks, picked out a large piece of meat, and put it into A-hua's bowl.
"Eat." Lu Ning touched Ahua's head and said with a smile.
"You guys can eat too, I'm not used to eating this stuff."
Ahua moved her mouth first, gently biting the dog meat in the bowl.
When Old Man Liu and the man saw A Hua moving her mouth, and also saw that Lu Ning really had no intention of eating dog meat, they could no longer control themselves and started to do it themselves.
Old man Liu picked up a piece of dog meat with a wood chopper and started to devour it.
The man followed suit and picked up a piece of dog meat with a woodcutter, sat aside and started gnawing on it.
For a while, in addition to the occasional crackling of firewood, there was also the sound of three people chewing dog meat.
The three of them quickly finished the piece of dog meat in their hands.
They couldn't help but look at Lu Ning.
"You can eat it if you want. Anyway, if you kill them all, it will be a waste if you don't eat them."
The three of them agreed and each took another piece.
After skinning the wild dog just now and removing the inedible parts, what was left was less than ten pounds.
This time, two pieces were eaten per person, and the meat in the iron pot seemed to be missing by half.
Old Liu saw that the man was still a little bit impatient, so he stood up and spoke: "Mr. Lu, I think two pieces are enough for us. If we eat more, it will be a waste. Why not dry the dog meat so that we can eat more?"
A few meals, saving food."
Lao Liu is worthy of being a veteran. He not only saves money, but also thinks far ahead. He also knows how to save food for Lu Ning.
After all, drought is a long-term matter and we cannot just focus on the present.
"Yes, yes." The man kept nodding his head.
How dare he have any objections? He made a profit by eating two pieces.
Ahua drank up the soup in the bowl and licked the bottom of the bowl. She looked at several people without saying anything.
"Okay, just do as you say, Lao Liu."
"Okay."
Old Liu seemed very happy to receive Lu Ning's permission.
Then I don’t know where Lao Liu pulled out a thin rope.
He picked out the remaining dog meat in the pot with a woodcutter, then tied them one by one with a rope, then found a branch and hung the dog meat on the tree.
With the hot weather now, I'm afraid it won't take a day or two for the dog meat to be dried.
During the whole process, the man was helping me, and it seemed that he had no intention of leaving.
Old man Liu naturally saw the man's plan.
That's right, with Lu Ning there is food nearby, who would want to leave.
Seemingly feeling sympathy for each other, Old Liu secretly said to the man: "I was also taken in by Master Lu. You listen to me. When you kneel in front of Master Lu later and beg him to take you in, you can follow us."
Old Man Liu actually has his own plans.
Not only do we feel sympathy for each other, but one more person will help us a lot when the time comes.
In this wilderness, it is safer if there are more people.
"Okay, I understand." The man recognized Old Man Liu's words and nodded repeatedly.
After they finished cooking the dog meat, the man plopped down and knelt down in front of Lu Ning.
"Please Master Lu, please take me in. As long as there is someone who stutters, I can do anything you want me to do." He kowtowed several times as he spoke.
"Okay, okay, get up."
"You accept me?" The man didn't dare to get up.
"Accepted."
"Thank you, Mr. Lu, thank you, Mr. Lu."
The man kowtowed a few more times before standing up.
"What's your name?" Lu Ning asked.
"My name is Zhang Hengsheng. Mr. Lu, you can just call me Ah Sheng."