NOVEL NEXT Chapter 27: Comforting Yourself
A group of two people, one big one small and a dog were quite conspicuous in the crowd of people fleeing famine, mainly because the dog was conspicuous. From time to time, they would be looked at with strange eyes.
At this time, the dog was still alive, which pointed to one problem, that is the food for the large man and the small child was relatively abundant, otherwise why would they raise a dog, and it would have been eaten as food long ago. Gulan was not unaware of these gazes. She glanced at Dahei, which was also helpless. She could only order Dahei to follow them closely.
Although it was early autumn, the sun was still very hot. After walking for most of the day, many of the disaster victims were thirsty and hungry and could not hold on any longer, so they found a shady place to rest.
AnAn was already tired and was held in Gulan's arms. She looked at Dahei who was panting. Gulan, who wanted to continue walking for a while, decided to rest. Dahei needed to drink some water to replenish his energy. It would be great if there was a cart, at least people would not be so tired. Gulan looked at the people who had vehicles with envy. Most of these were large families or from the same village, otherwise they would not be able to keep their carts and livestock.
Gulan made up her mind. When she got to the town, the first thing she would do was to buy a cart. It didn't matter if it was a mule, a donkey, a cow or a horse, as long as it was a cart.
She didn't have to worry about money. Not to mention her unexpected wealth, there were still a lot of jewelry in her space. This was thanks to her indiscriminate shopping desire. She bought a lot of gold jewelry.
But now she had to walk on her own feet, hoping to reach a town as soon as possible. Speaking of towns, Gulan couldn't find any knowledge about it from her memory. That's right, she was a peasant woman after all! Maybe she should ask someone about it. I don't want to think about it anymore. Let's find a place to rest first.
After watching for a while, she didn't find a suitable place to rest. Seeing that all the good places on both sides had been occupied, Gulan had no choice but to take Dahei to a place farther away on both sides of the official road. This place is far from the official road, and few people come here to rest in order to save some time.
Gulan chose a relatively sturdy tree and put down the sleepy little bun in her arms. Dahei lay directly on the ground with his tongue hanging out and breathing heavily. Even though he was so tired, he didn't forget to look around.
"Mom," AnAn rubbed his sleepy eyes and called softly.
"Awake?" Gulan, who wanted to put the package behind the child's head, stopped what she was doing.
"Hmmm" AnAn opened his eyes and looked at the barren fields around him. "Mom, aren't you leaving?"
"Yes, it's noon. Let's take a break. You must be thirsty. Mom will help AnAn get some water." Gulan untied the water bag tied to her belt, fed the little bun several sips, and then drank a few sips herself.
Along the way, in order not to attract attention, she and AnAn had been holding back from drinking a sip, and their throats had already smoked.
After a few sips of water, a cool feeling came over them, and they instantly felt comfortable from their throats to their internal organs. Then she quickly poured a night's worth of water into Dahei's broken bowl. This guy was also thirsty.
The place they chose was not crowded, and they deliberately did it behind people's backs, otherwise if they drank like this, someone would probably come and rob them.
Luckily, just as Dahei finished drinking, a group of more than a dozen people stopped a few meters away from the tree where Gulan was. There was also a tree there, and it was obvious that they were going to use it as a resting place.
Gulan glanced and retracted his gaze. It should be a family. Except for the elderly and children, the rest are adults, and there are six or seven men alone. This may be the reason why they own a mule cart and are not robbed. Gulan couldn't help but keep.her eyes on the mule cart for half a second.
They are cart owners. Gulan hid envy in her heart, turned sideways to block AnAn behind him, and at the same time blocked the eyes of the opposite side.
She took out the wild vegetable cakes that were reserved in the early morning from the package. They were about the size of a palm. The mother and son ate one each. Dahei didn't have any. In order not to attract attention, Dahei only had two meals in the morning and evening. If it weren't too hard to travel, Dahei would actually have enough for one meal under normal circumstances.
Although the wild vegetable cakes made in the morning are mixed with a lot of coarse grains, don't forget that the coarse grains here in Gulan are completely different from the real coarse grains in this world. They are ground very finely and will not hurt the throat at all. They are called coarse grains, but they are actually no different from fine grains.
Not only that, for a better taste, Gulan also specially added yeast and milk. The surface looks black, but the actual taste is great. As you chew it, it exudes a faint sweet aroma, which can be seen from the little bun's enjoyment.
The family on the opposite side who had finished cleaning up and were sitting on the ground to rest were also chewing on the black-faced steamed bread in their hands. Somehow, seeing the little boy on the opposite side eating the vegetable cake in his hand with enjoyment, they suddenly felt a little bit unable to swallow.
In fact, the steamed bread in their hands was indeed difficult to swallow. It is not an exaggeration to say that it was as hard as a stone.
When there is no shortage of water, it can be boiled in water before eating. In this situation, before finding a new water source, they can only slowly grind it with their teeth and swallow it with saliva, and dare not waste any water.
"Mom, I want to eat... vegetable cakes, steamed bread... hard..."
This is a little boy about two or three years old. He is usually a sensible child, but he has a keen nose. He smelled the faint milk fragrance coming from the opposite side. After seeing that he had only eaten a little bit of steamed bread after chewing for a long time, and seeing that the children on the opposite side had water to drink, he finally couldn't help crying to his parents. The child's mother, a young woman, quickly hugged her son and comforted him distressedly: "Be good, Goudan, steamed bread is also delicious. When we find a water source, mother will make you vegetable cakes, okay, our Goudan is a good child, don't cry."
"Yes, we are men, men should act like men, crying will be looked down upon." The young man next to him also persuaded.
"Okay, what's the point of Goudan saying these things?"
The old woman next to him took over the conversation, looking at the youngest grandson with pity in her eyes. The child was too young, and it was really difficult for him to chew such a hard steamed bread.
After saying that, she turned her head and looked at old partner beside her, "Old man, pour some water for Goudan."
The old man looked at his little grandson and then at his sons and daughters-in-law beside him, nodded, and handed the water bag to his wife.
The eldest and third daughters-in-law wanted to speak when they saw this, but were stopped by the men beside them. They knew that their men loved their youngest brother, and Goudan was really too young, so they pouted and said nothing in the end.
The old woman Li Su handed the half bowl of water to her youngest son. The youngest son Li Si looked at his mother with emotion, which embarrassed his parents again. He said with red eyes, "Thank you, mother."
With half a bowl of water, Li Si took out a kitchen knife and ground the steamed corn bread into small pieces bit by bit and soaked it in water.
With the water, the little boy reluctantly stopped making trouble, and swallowed the steamed corn bread with water mouthful by mouthful with tears in his eyes.