Gu Dashan said with a smile, but Mrs. Cui and the others knew that even if they found food, they would have to hand it over. Until their debt was paid off, their family of six would have to survive by chewing on leaves and eating grass roots and bark.
"Eldest son, do you want to starve us to death? Hurry up and look for food. If you find too little to eat today, watch me skin Mrs. Cui and her daughters alive!"
Gu Dashan had just exchanged a word with Mrs. Cui when Granny Gu felt that he was intentionally being lazy and started to complain loudly.
"Mother, I'm going to look for food now."
Gu Dashan, fearing Granny Gu would come over and start hitting people again, quickly responded and took Good Brother An to meet up with the villagers who were searching for food, to look nearby together.
After dispatching Gu Dashan and his son, Granny Gu turned to berate Mrs. Cui, "Mrs. Cui, you lazy thing, do you even recognize me as your mother-in-law? Come and lay the mats quickly!"
"I'm coming, Mother." Mrs. Cui dragged her exhausted body, unsteadily making her way to the Old Gu Family, and turned back to say to Gu Jinli, "Xiao Yu, your wound isn't fully healed yet, don't go out looking for food. Stay here and rest with your sister and Brother Cheng."
Gu Jinli didn't want to worry Mrs. Cui and replied against her will, "Understood, Mother."
"What are you talking about? Hurrying to finish to be reincarnated? Why so much talk? Come over here quickly, do you want this old lady to stand forever?" Granny Gu scolded again.
The people of the Old Gu Family just stood by, waiting without doing any work until Mrs. Cui arrived. Only then did they clean the ground, picking up the small stones and laying down the mats, and then a thin blanket, helping Granny Gu to sit down.
After attending to Granny Gu's rest, Mrs. Cui busied herself with finding firewood to start a fire.
Gu Jinli watched with a fierce glare, wanting to help, when suddenly someone shouted, "Xiao Yu, Sister Xiu, Brother Cheng, my mother has sent me to find you to play."
A girl about twelve or thirteen years old, dressed in patched cloth, ran to Gu Jinli's house's grass mat. Seeing Gu Jinli, she said happily, "Xiao Yu, I heard last night that you woke up. I wanted to come see you, but it was too late, and my parents wouldn't allow it."
Gu Jinli looked at the girl and said with a smile, "Your parents are right; it's very chaotic now. You, a young girl, shouldn't wander around at night."
The girl's name was Luo Huiniang, one of the very few surnamed families from outside the Gu Family Village. Father Luo Tiezhu was formerly an Escort Master who, after an injury, no longer escorted and moved to Gu Family Village with his wife Ms. Chu and two children, settling down with ten acres of land.
The Luo Family lived a good life. Father Luo and Gu Dashan had recognized each other as brothers for over twenty years and were very close, which also positively affected the relationship between Ms. Chu and Mrs. Cui.
During the famine, whenever they stopped to rest, the father and son of the Luo family, along with Ms. Chu, would go look for food and water. Ms. Chu would send Luo Huiniang over to play with them, which was actually to ensure the children looked after each other and to avoid trouble.
This time when Gu Jinli was injured, the Luo Family was the one who lent them the most food. The bamboo tube full of water came from the Luo Family. They had also often assisted them during these three days; otherwise, Gu Dashan and his family simply couldn't have coped.
"Then I am relieved," said Luo Huiniang, giving Gu Jinli a fierce look, "You should have called me when you went looking for food. If I had been there, those Niu Family brothers wouldn't have dared to lay a hand on you."
Father Luo was an Escort Master and had taught his son Luo Wu martial arts since he was young; Luo Huiniang also learned alongside them. While she was no match for her father and brother, she could also throw a decent punch.
She also cursed the Niu Family brothers, "Niu Dazhuang and his brothers are really no good, stealing your sweet potatoes and beating you up together. Don't worry, my brother and I will definitely avenge you."
Gu Jinli liked this cheerful and lively girl. After she finished cursing the Niu Family brothers, she looked up toward Old Gu Family's resting place, no longer seeing Mrs. Cui's figure. She had to forego the thought of helping and said to Luo Huiniang, "Come sit here, watch over Sister Xiu and Brother Cheng for me. I'm going to look for food."
As she spoke, she was already up and running away, with Gu Jinxiu unable to stop her in time.
"Xiao Yu really is too reckless. What if she runs into the Niu brothers again?" Gu Jinxiu feared the thought of Xiao Yu lying in a pool of blood.
"What to do? Beat them up, of course. Sister Xiu, you're just too nice," said Luo Huiniang enviously as she watched Gu Xiaoyu's retreating figure. She wanted to go and find food as well, but her parents had told her that she wasn't there to play with Sister Xiu and Brother Cheng who was too young and too nice. With so many refugees around, if she left them to forage, the refugees with ulterior motives would definitely come and bully Sister Xiu and Brother Cheng.
Gu Jinli had already run a dozen meters away, sizing up the resting spot where they were. It was at the foot of a huge mountain, with a riverbed beneath it that had dried up to nothing but mud chunks.
Refugees scattered about like ants, foraging at the base of the mountain, along its slopes, and even daring to venture deep into the mountainside for food.
But the prolonged drought and a large wave of refugees passing through before them had nearly exhausted all the edible things. By the time they arrived, only half-yellow leaves and wilted, desiccated grass remained.
With no other option, those without food sadly collected tree leaves, dug up grass roots, and peeled bark to stave off hunger.
Gu Jinli circled the area and managed to dig up a dozen or so grass roots that still retained some moisture, but found nothing else edible.
She looked up at the deeper parts of the mountain, where groups of able-bodied people were heading in search of food. She too moved towards the deeper mountain.
The mountain was vast. On the outskirts, there were semi-wilted trees and wild grasses. Going further in, the trees became denser, the leaves showed a hint of green, and the wild grass was thicker than at the foot of the mountain. However, no wild vegetables could be seen, only small holes where they had been dug up.
Clearly, the wild vegetables here had been uprooted by the wave of refugees who arrived earlier.
Gu Jinli found a walnut-thick branch nearby, quickly rubbed both ends against a rock to sharpen it into points and made it into a weapon. Holding the branch, she continued deeper into the mountain, joining many other refugees also searching for food.
"Xiao Yu, why have you entered the mountain? You've only just woken up last night, and today you're out looking for food. Are you trying to throw your life away?"
Gu Xiaoyu turned around at the sound and saw Ms. Chu, Third Grandma from next door, Aunt Tian and her two daughters, Tian Erhua, and Tian Xiaohua. Their hands were filled with baskets woven from wild grasses, inside which were a few bundles of half-green leaves and some grass roots.
It seems that everyone's food supplies were running low, and they were beginning to eat leaves and roots.
She greeted them with a smile and replied, "I'm alright now. We've run out of food at home, and Brother Cheng is terribly hungry. I entered the mountain to look for something to eat."
The three adults sighed upon hearing this, lamenting how difficult life was and how God was grinding people down.
Tian Erhua and Tian Xiaohua, weakened from hunger, didn't speak but gave her a shy smile.
Worried that Gu Jinli might encounter the Niu brothers again, Third Grandma took the initiative and said, "Xiao Yu, , so we can look out for each other."
Aunt Tian, Ms. Chu, and Third Grandma were all from families that had a very good relationship with her family, so Gu Jinli was happy to join them in their search for food and nodded, "Okay."
The six of them headed deeper into the mountain, picking and taking away any greener leaves they found along the way.
Ms. Chu said, "The refugees from Xing'an Prefecture, Yongcheng Prefecture, and Daliang Prefecture were ahead of us and took many of the edibles already. The further we go, the scarcer the food will be, and we might not find even leaves. We should eat more leaves now and save whatever else we can, so we can survive the days to come."