Yao Hu recalled, "There are about a dozen women, let's take a look first!"
Dashi said from the side: "Chief, take a few people with you. The fire fox is useless. The black badger is not a good guy."
"good!"
Yao Hu brought a few warriors out of the tribe with Yao Xiaoqing. Two hours later, they arrived at the abandoned Lingque tribe.
At a glance, Yao Xiaoqing saw five skinny women sitting in the open space in front of the cave, sorting out the collected beans and some root plants.
Next to them sat three children with small bodies and big heads.
They saw Yao Hu and Yao Xiaoqing, as well as warriors with weapons in their hands. Several children called "Ama" and hid behind them and huddled up.
The woman opened her arms to protect the children and looked at them nervously.
Yao Hu looked at them, "Which one of you is from the Yaoshan tribe?"
After listening to Yao Hu's words, several women sensed that he meant no harm and boldly raised their heads, "We are not."
At this time, two women, one tall and one short, walked out of the cave. When they saw Yaohu, they walked towards him excitedly, "Are you the leader of Yaohu?"
"Who are you?" Yao Hu looked at the two skinny women, trying to tell who they were from their skinny faces.
The tall woman shouted excitedly with a hoarse voice: "I am Gu Zi!"
The short woman looked at Yao Hu with tears on her face, "Chief, I am Qingzhu."
Yao Hu looked at the two of them and finally recognized them, "Where are the others? Are you the only two who escaped?"
Gu Zi nodded, "We are the only ones. Brother Bao's woman and two sisters died while giving birth to a baby. Several other sisters were bitten by snakes and insects when they went out to collect. Some of them died of pain."
Yao Hu nodded repeatedly with red eyes, "Are you the only ones here?"
"There are just a few of us. We escaped from the giant bear with a few sisters, and thought that Yaoshan was closer, so we returned to Yaoshan. The black badger said that there was no food for us to eat, so, let us come to Yaoshan to find you." Finally.
Qingzhu still stuttered a bit when he said this sentence.
Yao Xiaoqing looked at them, "You are the only ones who came here, or did someone escort you here?"
The two hesitated for a moment, and Qingzhu said: "It was Black Badger and two tribesmen who sent us here."
After hearing this, Yao Xiaoqing glanced at Yao Hu and saw that his face was filled with pity, so he stopped asking any more questions.
Qingzhu looked at Yaohu, stepped forward and picked up a child with a big head and a small body that could not be distinguished as a boy or a girl. "Xue said she is Brother Bao's daughter."
After she finished speaking, she looked at Yaohu, thinking that food was so rare now and Yaohu's leader was unwilling to take them in, so she begged him to take Brother Bao's daughter back to Brother Bao.
Yao Hu stretched out his hand and touched the child with pity. He looked at the few sparse hair on her head and sighed, "When did you arrive? Why don't you go to the tribe to find us?"
After hearing this, Qingzhu showed a surprise smile on his face, "We came here yesterday afternoon. Meihua went to the river to fetch water this morning. When she met her sister, she gave her pancakes."
Yao Hu nodded, "Let's go! Come back to the tribe with me."
Qingzhu looked at Yaohu, her heart suddenly dropped, and tears fell down, "Chief, we..."
"Okay, go back and ask Yun Amu to make some food for you." Yaohu turned to the warriors behind him, "Qiu Sheng, help them put away the food."
Several people responded in unison: "Yes, leader."
Several other women excitedly bowed their heads to Yaohu.
Gu Zi looked at Yao Xiaoqing who was standing aside, with a fawning smile on his face, "You are Xiaoqing, right? You look so much like your mother!"
Yao Xiaoqing smiled faintly and greeted politely, "Aunt Qingzhu, Aunt Guzi."
Qiu Sheng and several women gathered up the things on the ground and put them into a broken bamboo basket, and everyone turned around and walked back.
Back at the tribe, the old men from the Yaoshan tribe exchanged pleasantries with Qingzhu and Guzi again.
Meihua pulled her sister and kept talking about the good things about the Yaoshan tribe.
Leopard's mother hugged the child and cried: "What should I do? My Leopard still wants to go to Si Mountain to find snow!"
Shan'am sighed and comforted her, "Acai, don't cry, go and get some food for this child!"
Leopard's Mu was happy and sad at the same time, carrying her children to the canteen. Yun's Mu steamed egg custards for several children, and watching them gobble them up, her nose felt sour.
Yao Xiaoqing asked Bao Amu to take them to wash up and change clothes, and arranged them in Douzi's yard. She told Douzi and a few old uncles to keep an eye on them.
She still had some doubts about the chance encounter between Sister Meihua and Meihua.
Early the next morning, Yao Xiaoqing and Yuzi took a dozen old men with dry food and a few oxen to go halfway to Shenmu Mountain.
When they arrived at the pine forest, Yao Zi, a few women and the old uncle went on to the mulberry forest in front to peel off the bark of the mulberry trees. Yao Xiaoqing took several old uncles to look for Poria cocos in the pine forest and collect rosin.
When there are wounds or insect infestations on the trunk of pine trees, pine oil will flow out along the openings. In the pine oil that flows out, there is a volatile liquid called rosin water.
Yao Xiaoqing and the others collect resin that is agglomerated and hard with a light golden or brown color to make lamp oil.
Dig up the roots of dead pine trees, and you can often find Poria cocos.
Yao Xiaoqing and the others had never come here to collect in the pine forest here. In most of the day, they collected a lot of rosin and poria.
A Lin put the poria cocos in his backpack into the bamboo basket, and saw that the bamboo basket was full. He came out of the forest, looked at the sky and shouted: "Xiaoqing, the bamboo basket is full, we should go back."
"Okay, you guys put the racks in place and I'll call Taozi and the others." Yao Xiaoqing came out of the forest and walked quickly towards the Goulin forest in the north. She felt that it was getting dark very quickly in early winter.
Taro and Agenbo were in the mulberry forest, using machetes to cut open the bark of mulberry trees and peel off bundles of bast.
The "bang bang" sound of felling trees attracted several men passing by the forest.
One of the men stared at the machete in Agambo's hand and walked over.
I was holding the bark and putting the taro in the bamboo basket. When I heard the footsteps, I looked back and shouted in surprise, "Yan Yu!"
Yan Yu ignored Taro and walked straight towards A Gen who was peeling off the bark.
A Gen turned around and saw Yan Yu's eyes staring at the machete on the tree for a moment. He quickly took the machete off the tree and put it behind him.
Yan Yu had already seen it clearly and said secretly: 'Yes, this is the kind of weapon they took that day.'
Qing Huo and others followed and looked at Yu Zi and others, "Yan Yu, they are from the Yaoshan tribe."
Yan Yu looked back at them and remained silent.
Agenbo looked at him defensively, "Yao Zi, ask him what he is here for?"
Yuzi forced a smile and walked to the opposite side of Yan Yu, blocking his gaze, "Yan Yu, are you here to see Qing Wu?"
Yan Yu retracted his gaze and looked at Yu Zi, "Is Qing Wu here too?"