The atmosphere at home was very bad, and Zhou Yin began to travel to the county town constantly, hoping to find some work to make money and buy grain from the grain shop.
But the year was not good. Since last year, there have been refugees in the county, and they are all scrambling to work on the streets. Even if he has connections and acquaintances in the county, he can't find many jobs.
Moreover, the price of food changed three times a day, one price in the morning, and another price in the evening. The hard-earned money he earned could not buy much food at all.
When there was only one bowl of grain left at home, Zhou Jin finally had to take out the money to marry Zhou Yin, and went to the grain shop with Zhou Yin to buy grain.
The money that could buy a cart of grain in the past can only buy a small bag now.
On the way back, Zhou Jin and Zhou Yin said: "Now, you really have to wait a few years before talking about kissing."
Zhou Yin looked at the stars in the sky and said, "Let's survive first. Look at there are so many stars. Tomorrow will be another sunny day."
Zhou Jin slumped his shoulders. He hates sunny days the most now...
The two brothers were very cautious when they entered the village, fearing that others would know that they had bought food at home.
Last year's harvest was not good, and many people had a bad year. They are all looking forward to this year's harvest. Who knows that this year's harvest will be even worse than last year's.
Many families started to run out of food in March, and then started borrowing food from everywhere.
The old Zhou family also lent some out at first, but fortunately Qian kept a tight rein, and all the relatives and friends who came later asked her to send them away.
Otherwise they would have starved to death long ago.
Zhou Jin took the small bag of rice home and opened it to show Qian.
Qian put it away and said, "I have the final say on how much food our family will eat from now on."
Zhou Jin and Zhou Yin agreed and had no objections.
From that day on, the Zhou family began to close the door tightly, not going out unless possible, and minimizing activities to avoid consumption.
So Zhou Yin took Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang to the mountains occasionally to dig some edible grass roots and pick some wild vegetables.
But because of the drought, many edible plants on the mountains have dried up. What has not dried up are the animals in the mountains, which will compete with people for food.
People began to starve to death in the village, and people began to drag their families away. If they stayed, they would die.
The village chief also came to the old Zhou family and said to Zhou Jin and Zhou Yin: "Our family also wants to go out."
Zhou Jin squatted on the ground and felt depressed, "Can you live if you go out? Didn't Uncle Wu who went out two days ago come back? He took seven people out, but only two came back. I heard that there was no water to drink outside, so he died outside.
, it would be better to die in the village."
The village chief was so weak from hunger that he said, "Just go a little further and get out of the dry place."
"How far does that have to go?"
"I don't know," the village chief said gloomily, "but God can't really give you no way to survive. If you find a direction, you can always get out."
He looked at Zhou Jin and Zhou Yin, then looked at Zhou Dalang and the others, and sighed: "If the yamen doesn't release food, you will die if you stay in the village. If you go out, how many will survive? One of them will survive."
It’s better than everyone dying in the village.”
Zhou Yin, who had been silent, said: "The food provided by the imperial court is on the way. I heard that the food will arrive by the middle of next month at the latest."
The village chief didn't even ask who he heard and whether it was accurate. He said directly: "If a person doesn't eat, he will die in five days. Besides, we are already so hungry. It won't take five days, but we will all die in three days."
.”
"There are still twenty-three days until the middle of next month. After twenty-three days, we will all be dead, and it will be useless to put out food."
Zhou Yin murmured: "I told you it was the latest..."
"Can I come to you as soon as possible when the yamen is doing something?" The village chief said weakly: "And where can I be there early?"
Zhou Jin looked at his sons, then turned to look at his wife who was so hungry that she could hardly speak. He couldn't help but hug his head and said nothing with his eyes red.
Leaving Qili Village means that they have to make a choice. They have many families, and most of them are children.
The road is not going to be easy, and I will definitely have to give up a few children, or even...
He said with red eyes: "I heard that people are starting to eat people outside. What if, what if..."
"So we have to go together," the village chief said: "Everyone in the village is together. When a person dies, we will find a place to bury him. We can't let anyone eat him."
Zhou Jin lowered his head and said nothing. The balance in his heart kept swinging, and he couldn't decide whether to go or not.
Zhou Yin looked at his eldest brother, then at his sister-in-law who was leaning on the chair with a pale face, lowered his eyes and said: "This time the disaster affected the entire Jiannan Road. I heard that even Longyou Road was affected in many places, and the capital was also suffering from drought.
, so food can only be transferred from Hedong Road and further places, and the speed is very slow."
The village chief only knew about Jiannan Road and that Longyou Road was to the north of Jiannan Road, but he didn't know about other places, so he finally couldn't help but ask: "How did you know?"
"My friend said," Zhou Yin said: "There are so many places affected by the disaster. To get out of the disaster area, twenty days is not enough. Otherwise, my second uncle and the others would not have come back halfway."
There were seven people when we went out, but only two were left when we came back, and the remaining five were all lost on the road.
"Can we really walk on the road for twenty days if we are so hungry?" Zhou Yin asked: "And there are so many refugees outside. What if we encounter someone with evil intentions who wants to eat us?"
"At least there is still water to drink in the village. If we dig in the mountains, we can survive for a while by eating bark and leaves. We just need to wait until the government releases grain."
The village chief stood up with his knees up, hunched over and walked out, "I'll talk to other families."
He still wanted to go out. His family had no food and he really couldn't survive.
When the village chief returned, his grandson Dazhu knocked on the door early the next morning and said to them with a white face: "My grandfather went last night, and now my father is the village chief."
Zhou Yin couldn't even feel the sadness. He leaned against the door and asked, "Are you still leaving?"
Dazhu shook his head and said, "My dad said he can't leave. Our family will go up the mountain to dig up tree bark soon. It should last a few days after being chopped into pieces. Do you want to come with us?"
Zhou Yin responded and asked: "Is your grandfather buried?"
"No, I just came to ask my uncle for help. Just dig a shallow pit."
Zhou Yin went back to the house to get the hoe. Zhou Jin followed silently, but Zhou Yin stopped him and said, "I'll just go. Brother, you haven't eaten anything in the morning, so it's better not to move."
Zhou Jin stopped and whispered to him, "Save your strength and don't get yourself involved."
Zhou Yin agreed and went to the village chief's house with a hoe.
Zhou Yin is senior but young. The village chief's son Dahua, who is about the same age as Zhou Jin, is squatting in the yard with an unshaven beard. The village chief put on a new suit of clothes and placed them in the coffin.
There are already many young people squatting in the yard. They are all of the same race and have a good relationship with the village chief's family.