After dressing as a widow

The scab formed by the dried blood was not easy to wipe. Lin Zhen covered it with a moist veil first, and then wiped it off bit by bit after the scab softened. After a while, the entire veil turned red.

Washing the handkerchief would waste more water, so Lin Zhen simply changed to another one to clean up the blood scabs on Gu Lin's face and neck: "Go and change your clothes, I'll go around with them to see if there are any Rivers or creeks don’t carry much water, and they can replenish a little.”

"Okay, don't go far."

"I know." I don't know if it was because of what happened last night, but Lin Zhen felt that Gu Lin seemed to be out of the child he thought.

He stood up, called Wang Qin and his two servants, and walked into the woods with a kitchen knife.

After several months of drought, the originally lush trees were already withered and yellow, and there was no green at all. Lin Zhen split the vines blocking his way, and asked the two servants who served Wang Qin: "What are your names?"

The two servants didn't expect that Lin Zhen would ask about them, so they hurriedly said: "We were all bought by the lady of the Wangfu, and we follow the master's family name. The younger one is called Wang Youcai, and his Wang is beneficial."

"Wealth is beneficial, and the name is good."

"It is our honor to be praised by Boss Lin."

"Have you received any letters from Master Wang and Mrs. Wang recently? When was the last letter?" The drought has definitely affected more than Fucheng. Anyuan Town is only half a month away from Fucheng. It is impossible. Unscathed, the reason why Lin Zhen wanted to go back there was firstly because their family’s home was there, and secondly because many villages around Liyu Village had used composting methods, and their grain production had increased a lot, with the accumulation of the past few years Even if the drought is severe, it will not be in the situation of changing children and eating.

But these are all his judgments, and no one knows what the situation is like before arriving in Anyuan Town, so they can only infer from other places.

The servant named Wang Youcai said: "One and a half months ago, I received the last letter from the caravan sent by my wife. Along with the letter, there were money and clothes for the young master."

Lin Zhen asked Wang Qin: "Wang Qin, did Mrs. Wang say anything about the drought in the letter she sent you?"

Wang Qin shook his head: "No, my mother just asked me to study hard in Fucheng and go back after the Chinese New Year."

Lin Zhen's heart sank when he heard the words, and he stayed in Fucheng and didn't go back for the time being. , much safer than the town, let Wang Qin stay here.

Wang Qin seemed to have noticed something, and looked at Lin Zhen in a panic: "Uncle Lin, our town will not be the same as a prefectural city, where the refugee army..."

"I don't know, but there are too many towns like our Anyuan Town, and they are not as noticeable as Fucheng. The refugee army probably won't run there specifically." But if they wander there unintentionally, that's not necessarily the case.

For a while, the atmosphere was gloomy.

And Lin Zhen, who walked some distance, looked at it and still couldn't see any green, Lin Zi, who didn't even see a small animal, knew that it was a waste of work to find water: "Go back, even if there is water in a farther place We can't go any further, and we can't be too far away from the team, in case something happens and they don't have time to support."

The four of them returned along the marked path. When the others knew that they had not found the water source, their hearts sank.

They don't lack food for the time being, but they don't bring much water. They can drink for five or six days at most. If they have food but no water, they will die of thirst.

Lin Zhen walked to Gu Lin who had already changed his clothes, took the cake in his hand, and after eating, the group continued on the road.

The sun in the sky radiates heat non-stop, drying the last trace of life in the trees, the animals have no strength in the sun, and the ground under their feet is torn apart.

Lin Zhen wore a bamboo hat on his head, and his face was covered with sweat after touching the ashes of the pot bottom, and there were traces of sweat, revealing the fair complexion underneath. He was too thirsty, and he didn't dare to lick his lips. The more he licked, the more dry he was, and he could only swallow the saliva that was barely in his mouth again and again, moistening his burning throat.

This is the third day since they left Fucheng. During these three days, every time they stop to eat and fill their stomachs, they have to go out to find water sources, but they have never found them. The original rivers and streams have dried up. The stones are scorching hot, and there are rotten animals everywhere, and swarms of blowflies linger on the carrion.

The water they brought was running out, and no one dared to take a sip until they couldn't hold on anymore.

Suddenly, Wang Youcai, who was driving the car, said, "Gu Xiucai, Boss Lin, there is someone in front."

Gu Lin and Lin Zhen looked ahead, and sure enough, there was a fleeing team of more than 30 people on their only way, as if they were tired from walking, they rested there.

This is not the first group of fleeing people that Lin Zhen and the others encountered, but the number is the largest. Before Fucheng was burned and killed by the refugee army, everyone still had one or two sustenances for the government, and those who came out were scattered with families as the unit. People flow, seven or eight people in groups of four or five, more than 30 people staying together like this, I don't know if they are from one village or several families.

Lin Zhen glanced at Gu Lin and said: "We just go our own way, don't get involved with these people, be more vigilant."

Seeing that there were more people on the other side than their side, and it was still in this kind of barren mountains, the others naturally did not dare to relax their vigilance, walking beside the carriage and mule cart, they all held hands.

When they got closer, Lin Zhen saw the situation of these thirty or so people. There were men, old people and children, all of whom were dressed as farmers. They were similar to the team they met before. They might have escaped from the villages around Fucheng. of.

Seeing them approaching, a man in the team said kindly, "Which village did you escape from? Sit down and rest for a while."

Lin Zhen waved his hand: "Right now there are people who have escaped everywhere. It doesn't make any sense to escape from anywhere. We just rested in front, so we won't rest."

The man was full of sadness: "No, we lived a good life, and all of a sudden the house was gone."

"Where are you going, is there a place to return?"

This man was very talkative, and Lin Zhen picked up right after he finished speaking, and judging from his thick fingers and dark complexion, it was indeed his hands that had been working all year round.

Lin Zhen couldn't help but secretly heaved a sigh of relief. As long as there were no accidents, it would be better than anything else. He just wanted to return to Liyu Village in a safe and sound manner, and he didn't want to have any side issues: "Take one step at a time. If it rains today, maybe Let’s go back to our old village.”

"Let's go first, and we're in a hurry." His mouth was so dry that he didn't even have any saliva, and it was hard to speak, so Lin Zhen ended the topic and continued on.

His eyes under the bamboo hat casually glanced over these people, and suddenly, he saw a very familiar face, no, it was not someone he knew before, but this person looked very similar to someone he knew.

I saw that woman with disheveled hair and a sallow complexion sitting in the innermost seat of more than thirty people, holding a crying baby in her arms, her face was exactly the same as that of Aunt Ma in Liyu Village!

Lin Zhen remembered that Aunt Ma had mentioned that she and Carpenter Ma had only one daughter, but they married to Fucheng, and because of the long distance, they only went back once or twice a year.

She escaped too?

The family she married is also among these people?

Lin Zhen took a few more glances at her, and accidentally met Aunt Ma's daughter, and soon passed her by.

Missing those people safely, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but Lin Zhen kept flashing the appearance of the group of people just now. There were more than 30 people, and adult men accounted for two-thirds, and the elderly were the least, only two or three. There are seven or eight children.

There is also Aunt Ma's daughter. She is sitting in the innermost place with a baby in her arms. It is obviously the safest place, but she looks very scared, and her hair is disheveled, and her clothes are...

Lin Zhen's footsteps paused, and his voice was a little hoarse: "That group of people just had a problem."

Lin Zhen told everyone his conjecture. The only woman in the team, Mrs. Chen, turned pale.

It has been more than half a year since the drought. This year's spring plowing can be said to be fruitless. They have all eaten high-priced rice grains in Fucheng for many days, but as for the villages around Fucheng, these people are not as good as farmers. The city dwellers are more vulnerable to the weather, flee earlier than them, have more people, and the situation is worse.

There are almost no laws and regulations on this road of fleeing famine.

"Those people didn't do it on the spot. They must have seen that we are many men, not old or weak, and they are afraid that there will be accidents when we do it. They will definitely follow up and act after it gets dark when we fall asleep." Lin Zhen looked at how many people turned their heads. You looked behind and quickly said, "Don't look for them there, just pretend nothing happened and continue on our way."

Zhong Yan said: "As long as we don't stop and it's not dark, these people won't do anything for the time being."

"Yes, we need to find a place where we can defend." Those people seemed to be just peasants who didn't know martial arts because of their numbers. With Gu Lin and them, it was not difficult to leave.

However, this is also based on the fact that they already know that the other party is not a good person. If they fall asleep peacefully at night, they will definitely be wiped out.

Others are in the dark, they are in the light, this feeling of having a knife hanging above the head is really terrible, Wang Qin, Huang Yuwen and the four servants of the two have serious expressions, if it is not for Lin Zhen Gu Lin and the others in the team , I'm afraid he would have let go of his feet and ran away.

Soon, when the sky was getting darker, Lin Zhen's mule cart and carriage stopped.

Lin Zhen looked at the two small hills in front of him, sandwiching the narrow section of the road in the middle, and said, "Just stop here, Xiao Yan, take Mrs. Chen to the end, find a place to hide, and the others Put what you can use in your hand where it is most convenient."