Chapter 12 Dry Land and Famine Year (I)
hot.
This is Qinhuai’s first feeling about this land.
The sun hangs in the air, scorching the earth, and the dazzling sunlight makes people almost unable to open their eyes. The land is as hard as a stone, cracking irregularly one by one, and there is no trace of green in the deep cracks. The only thing that the wind brings is heat waves and sand and dust, and even the sky is covered with a layer of hot red.
Thousands of miles apart, Qinhuai had such a deep understanding of this word for the first time.
Qin Huai touched the land, which was hard and rough, but he couldn''t feel the temperature. He deliberately kicked the stone with his foot, but the stone did not move at all, and his feet felt painless.
Very good, I am probably just a spectator in this dream.
But where is the protagonist?
This is a wilderness, where you can see only endless loess, a few dead trees and monotonous colors that make people feel suffocated when you look at it, there are not even big stones that can cover your sight, there are no people, no animals, or even weeds, and there is no place to hide it even if you want to.
Qinhuai was confused.
It’s impossible that the system tricks itself into a dream and then lets itself start surviving in the desert, right?
There is no need to survive. I don’t feel it. The sun in the sky is so strong that it doesn’t feel the heat. Normal people stay in such a place for dozens of minutes and will be afraid that they will faint from heatstroke.
Suddenly, the land under Qinhuai''s feet moved.
A small bag was puffed up.
Qinhuai:! !
With a scream, Qin Huai jumped to the side, and the small bag became bigger and bigger, and one head broke out.
This adjective may be strange, but it really breaks through the ground. The man''s hair and face were covered with dry soil, and there was also a lot of dry soil. The person who broke through the soil did not vomit completely after several times. Finally, he threw the jar and shut up and swallowed it. He struggled to get out. A native man emerged like this.
"Why is it still during the day?" The man was a young female voice, and at first glance, the voice was a little familiar.
The man touched his dirtier face with his dirty hands, adjusted the color on his face, peeled off a lot of soil, barely revealing the facial features that people could see were seen as personal.
Chen Huihong.
The young version of Chen Huihong.
Although he is young and doesn’t look like a human, Qin Huai absolutely did not admit his mistake. This is Chen Huihong!
Qin Huai looked at the young version of Chen Huihong who was more lively and silently spit out two words: "Awesome."
Rich people are different. They usually dream of getting rich overnight.
Chen Huihong dreamed that she would bury herself in the soil after surviving on dry land, which was only a little worse than the zombie battle royale.
"No one is there yet." Chen Huihong looked around, "I have changed three or four places, and I haven''t seen anyone. Could it be that I went to the wrong place?"
"No, it''s going south."
After saying that, Chen Huihong looked up at the sky: "Southeast...this is...the east...where should I go?"
Chen Huihong finished talking to herself and shook her head and denied herself, her fingers restlessly, wishing she could make 800 small moves in a second.
"Let''s go here!" In the end, Chen Huihong successfully pointed to the south, "Let''s go for 10 days first to see if he can meet someone."
Qinhuai:?
Loess Marathon?
Too hardcore, this dream.
Then Chen Huihong really started to leave.
The kind that never stops.
From day to night, I didn''t eat or drink water. I just found a slightly flat place after the moon was hanging on the branches and lay on the ground. I slept for a few hours. After waking up, I took out a thin and narrow bark from my clothes, rolled it into a ball and stuffed it into my mouth and chewed it. Then I continued to walk.
This physical strength and this endurance are not an exaggeration to say that it is Superman.
Chen Huihong just walked for 6 days.
If Chen Huihong was trying to escape from famine, from an environmental perspective, the direction she was going in is right.
Although the land is still dry and cracked, the sun is still hot, and the sandstorm and heat waves in the air have not decreased, Qinhuai sees a hint of hidden vitality from the arid land, dry rivers, abandoned farmland, broken earth houses, and abandoned old wells.
This place used to be inhabited.
However, the famine caused by the drought forced people to take their families and leave their hometowns. Chen Huihong is like a leisurely player who accidentally enters the wilderness to survive. Every time he passes a village, he has to search for something.
Of course, I can’t find any good things.
There is definitely no clothes and food. The water can be made from the deep well, but it is all dirty and turbid water. Chen Huihong poured the water back after sucking it once.
A bowl, spoonful, chopstick and wood are precious property in ordinary farmers’ houses. What Chen Huihong could find from the house was nothing more than the abandoned wood that burned firewood that was not strong enough, the dead grass that could be spread on the ground to keep warm, the gravel and the trash that were burned into a ball of garbage that could not be seen.
Of course, there is no extra gain at all.
Chen Huihong picked up several copper plates from the cracks in the wall of a brick house where the landlords obviously lived and picked up two broken wooden toys - a wooden man who could be vaguely seen as a human figure but lacked arms and legs, a wooden pony with only half of his body, and there was still red paint on the pony''s body, which could be seen as an exquisite toy.
Chen Huihong carefully put these good things into his clothes and kept them close to him. Like the players who bravely entered the game world, he wanted to pick up the backpack when he saw everything.
In this way, Chen Huihong picked up and picked up all the way, and walked for 13 days.
Qin Huai also followed Chen Huihong and walked for 13 days.
If you want to ask Qin Huai what he thought, he really has no idea. This is Chen Huihong''s dream. He is not thirsty, hungry, tired, and sleepy. Except for the storyline, the scene is too real and there is no difference between watching a movie. Moreover, Qin Huai has not discovered anything in these 13 days. He found that Chen Huihong seemed to be learning something.
Chen Huihong has been looking for traces of people, but she is not obsessed with finding people. It can be seen from her route that if you really want to find someone to integrate into the main force, Chen Huihong should walk the road, and no matter how bad it is, it must be a small path that people step out. But Chen Huihong didn''t. She insisted on walking the unethical maps that lead to barren mountains and wilderness at first sight and do not show the road with roads.
Thanks to this drought, weeds did not grow. Otherwise, Chen Huihong would have to walk into the mountains and forests.
Chen Huihong is not obsessed with finding people, but is very interested in the environment in which people live.
As long as she finds a village, she must go to every room to check it carefully. The stove, bed, woodshed, and courtyards. Even if the soil walls have been burned and collapsed, most of them cannot see the original traces. She must also observe them carefully on this ruined wall.
This feeling is a bit like a human being observing small animals. I don’t know, I don’t understand, but I’m very interested.
Too weird.
Another night.
The clouds covered the moon, and the five fingers became a real adjective. Chen Huihong lay on the ground and sleeped with her eyes closed. The little horse she held on her waist fell to the ground, making a slight sound. Chen Huihong didn''t hear it, turned over and continued to sleep.
Soon, a new sound came from afar.
It’s the sound of footsteps.
Very light, but seems very messy.
Qin Huai stood up and looked in the direction where the sound came. Through the very faint moonlight, he vaguely saw a small black shadow, staggering. It seemed that the little deer, who had not learned to walk for a while, had just been born, ran stumbled towards the direction where Chen Huihong was.
The deer is getting closer and closer.
When the deer was only four or five meters away from Chen Huihong, Qin Huai discovered that this was not an animal, but seemed to be a child, a very thin child who couldn''t even stand up and could only run and crawl forward with his hands and feet.
Chen Huihong woke up.
She sat up and picked up the little horse that fell to the ground as soon as possible, tilted her head and stared at the child not far from her. The child also saw Chen Huihong standing up and did not dare to move for a moment. The two of them were in a stalemate until Chen Huihong said, "Who?"
It''s a female voice.
The child dared to move, stood up tremblingly, tilted his head to see who was in front of him, but because it was too dark, he could see a black outline, bulging and tall and strong.
Of course, she is tall and strong because Chen Huihong stuffed a lot of dry grass she carefully selected in her clothes. As an excellent scavenger, she didn''t even let go of dry grass.
"My name is Hui Niang." The child said tremblingly, not sure if it was because of fear or something, his voice was very hoarse.
Chen Huihong looked at Hui Niang and said, "Come here."
Hui Niang didn''t dare to move.
"Why are you here?" Chen Huihong continued.
"I...I..." Hui Niang''s head slightly tilted, as if she wanted to see if there were anyone else beside her. She was sure that Chen Huihong was the only one who mustered up the courage, "My parents and I got separated."
Seeing that Chen Huihong did not answer, Hui Niang asked again: "Sister...sister, are you... separated too?"
Chen Huihong still didn''t answer. Two people, one big and one small, just sat quietly. You looked at me and I looked at you. No one could see clearly, no one dared to move. It seemed as if two stone sculptures under the moonlight, Qin Huai, the bystander, seemed very out of place.
Finally, Chen Huihong spoke: "Yes, I''m separated, too."
Hui Niang became happy in an instant, as if she had found a similar person. She stood up and walked carefully towards Chen Huihong. Seeing that Chen Huihong had no movement, she became more and more courageous. She moved directly to Chen Huihong and sat face to face with her.
"Is my sister also from Yu County?" Hui Niang asked with her eyes wide open.
"No." Chen Huihong shook her head and thought for a while, "I''m... next door."
Hui Niang was obviously a foolish person. Her answer was nodded with affirmatively and then asked, "Where are sisters going?"
"have no idea"
"Where are you going?" Chen Huihong asked back.
Hui Niang was silent.
Under the moonlight, Qin Huai inexplicably felt that Hui Niang''s face contour was a little familiar.
"I don''t know." Hui Niang''s voice seemed even hoarse, "My parents and I got separated."
"Why did you get separated?" Chen Huihong took the initiative after just a few words.
"I''m too hungry to walk and I''ve fallen asleep." Hui Niang''s voice trembled a little, "When I wake up, my parents and the others are gone."
"I''m so hungry and thirsty. I want to find my parents, but it''s too dark and I can''t see it. I seem to have gone wrong, and then I met my sister."
Chen Huihong looked at the thin figure in front of her, thought for a while, took out a small piece of bark from her clothes, hesitated for a while, and tore off a small piece and handed it to Huiniang.
“That’s all.”
"There is a waste well nearby, and it should still be able to come out of water. You can go and **** it yourself when dawn... I''ll help you think of a solution." After that, Chen Huihong lay down and said, "Sleep, don''t disturb me."
Seeing Chen Huihong lying straight down, Huiniang stood there in a daze, glanced at the bark in her hand and hesitated for a moment. She stuffed the bark into her mouth and tried hard to chew and swallowed it hard. Then she lay carefully beside Chen Huihong and looked at her uneasy until she heard Chen Huihong''s steady breathing sound and was sure that she was asleep, she lay down and closed her eyes with confidence.
Soon, Hui Niang fell asleep.
The sky was already dark. Chen Huihong, who should have been asleep, opened her eyes, looked at Hui Niang carefully in the faint sunlight, turned over, took the fallen little horse in her hand, and continued to sleep.
Behind Chen Huihong was Qin Huai with his eyes staring like a copper bell.
No matter how weak the sunlight is, it is clearer than the moonlight, which is enough for Qin Huai to see Huiniang''s face clearly.
This is a standard picture. It is from a poor family, thin and small, and dark. It is extremely malnourished and has failed to grow even with facial features. It is not considered an ugly but absolutely not good-looking child''s face.
But Qin Huai is so familiar with this face.
This is Chen Huihui!
When I first saw my child during the day, the child still had a pair of ponytails and a dress. He was fair and cute, obedient and sensible, lively and cheerful, and always dreamed of his mother''s good child in his dreams.
This time she became a refugee in her mother''s dream.
Looking at the sleeping refugee mother and daughter, Qin Huai couldn''t help but sigh: "This is really..."
"A dream of a kind mother and a filial son."
(This chapter ends)