Chapter 16
Rescue
The heavy snowfall caused the villages around the mountain range to be greatly affected. The village closest to Hu Family Village, Shanyang Village, also suffered heavy losses. There were some people from Hu Family Village in Shanyang Village, and Doctor Hu’s sister had married there. A few days ago, she fell sick and asked someone to cross the snowy land to pick up Doctor Hu to save her.
Unexpectedly, the avalanche happened, and Shanyang Village lost a portion of its people. As a last resort, they targeted Hu Family Village.
When Doctor Hu found out, he tried to stop them in every way possible. Instead, he was imprisoned by those people. It was said that he had been starved for two days.
Now, the people of Shanyang Village treated Doctor Hu as a hostage and threatened them to exchange food for him.
Village Chief Hu knew that the situation was serious, so he took the time to run back and ask the villagers not to talk about the cave. Otherwise, those people who were going crazy from hunger and were close to freezing to death would be capable of doing anything.
“All of you, stay here. Don’t let anyone suspicious come over!”
“Don’t get into a conflict with others. Our safety is the most important thing now. There’s no need to be stubborn.”
“Let’s not talk about what they want first. We’ll talk after we get there.”
Everyone nodded. “Got it, Village Chief. We know our limits.”
Village Chief Hu arranged for the young adults in the village to return and found w.a.n.g Chuanfu. He said to him, “Your w.a.n.g family’s house is against the cliff. The snow on the mountain hasn’t completely fallen yet. Don’t go back yet, lest the snow collapses again.”
What he also wanted to say was that if Shanyang Village really caused a commotion, the w.a.n.g Family would have to hide the child well. If they found out about her, they would probably not be able to live in peace.
He heard that Shanyang Village had already started eating children!
However, he was afraid of causing panic, so he swallowed his words.
He had to send the people away first.
w.a.n.g Chuanfu nodded and ran away in a hurry. Now that everyone was panicking, the men in the village were all a.s.signed missions.
Among the seven grandsons of the w.a.n.g Family, the eldest, w.a.n.g Dalang, was already 16 years old. The youngest, w.a.n.g Xiaolang, and w.a.n.g Qilang were twins and were also 7 years old.
The youngest was just Little Ah Yu. On the surface, she was at most two years old.
“You brats, don’t go out. Be in charge of taking care of your sister. Don’t let anyone hurt her.” All the men in the family who could move were called out to work. Old Madam w.a.n.g brought the women and continued to tidy up the small s.p.a.ce.
w.a.n.g Dalang nodded repeatedly. “Grandma, don’t worry. We’ll take good care of Ah Yu.”
They had already made this plan without the adults saying.
Their sister was too young. If they didn’t watch her closely, she would easily be injured.
“Little Sister Ah Yu, come, eat some roasted sweet potatoes!”
w.a.n.g Wulang ran over from the fire. He had a black-colored roasted sweet potato in his pocket. The outer skin was completely charred.
“You have to eat this while it’s hot. You’ll get diarrhea if you eat it when it’s cold later.” w.a.n.g Wulang took out the roasted sweet potato from his pocket and casually patted it with his hand. He pinched the two ends and pried them open, revealing the orange-red sweet potato meat inside.
A sweet smell immediately filled the air, and the w.a.n.g Family boys could not help but swallow their saliva.
Everyone had only eaten one meal so far.
Previously, in order to welcome New Year’s Eve, most of the previously prepared meat and pancakes were buried by the snow.
Little Ah Yu also swallowed her saliva. She was really hungry, and the taste was too sweet.
“Eat.” w.a.n.g Wulang turned his head to the side. He was afraid that he could not help but take a bite.
“Let’s eat together.” Little Ah Yu looked up. She had many brothers, a Grandma, her Mother, and a few aunts. There was only a little bit of sweet potatoes. It didn’t seem to be enough.
Could she give them some water to drink? She was not so hungry after drinking the water earlier.
[I can’t hear it, I can’t hear it, I can’t hear it…] Meatball started chanting.
Little Ah Yu pouted, feeling a little aggrieved.
Soon, she clenched her fists and pulled herself together.
The water belonged to the elf. If the elf was unwilling, she could not be unreasonable.
So—
“Ah Yu isn’t hungry yet. Fifth Brother, look, Ah Yu’s stomach is bulging!” Little Ah Yu tried her best to straighten her back and make a bulging stomach.
“We’re your Big Brothers, and you’re the Little Sister. How can a younger sister give food to an older brother?” Without any explanation, w.a.n.g Wulang pinched a piece of sweet potato and blew on it before stuffing it into Little Ah Yu’s mouth.
Ah Yu was caught off guard. A ball of sweet potato was stuffed into her mouth and there was a smudge of black ashes around her mouth.
w.a.n.g Wulang handed the remaining sweet potatoes to w.a.n.g Dalang and turned to run. “Aunt Luo said that if there are more than three children at home, we can take two sweet potatoes!”
He could not count beyond five, but there were definitely more than three children at home.
“Slow down!” w.a.n.g Dalang called out from behind and further divided the sweet potato in his hand. The younger brothers received a small piece each, and he handed the largest piece to Little Ah Yu.
“You’re too thin. You have to eat more, or else the wind will blow you away.” w.a.n.g Dalang coaxed her.
Little Ah Yu was indeed frightened. She wrapped her clothes around herself and obediently took the sweet potato to eat.
“It’s so delicious.” Little Ah Yu smiled until her eyes narrowed. She looked at her brothers and said, “When I grow up, I’ll give this to Big Brothers every day!”
w.a.n.g Liulang was very gluttonous. When he heard this, he nodded like he was pounding garlic. “Yes, yes, yes. I want to eat this every day too. I definitely won’t get tired of it!”
w.a.n.g Qilang did not reply. He only glanced at his brother and silently lowered his head to eat the sweet potato.
There were very few sweet potatoes. Coupled with the one added at the end, it was still too little. Everyone cherished it and divided it again and again until there was only a piece of charred skin left in their hands.
“For the lamb.” Little Ah Yu handed the skin to the lamb. The lamb sniffed it and felt a little disgusted, but it still chewed and ate.
The others also handed over the steaming potato skin in their hands. The lamb shook its hooves and ate it.
The mother sheep and the healthy lamb from before had been buried by the snow. This little lamb was now the only surviving animal in the entire village.
Knowing that it was brought along by Little Ah Yu, everyone became more tolerant.
The boys finished their sweet potatoes and felt a little unsatisfied. They tried their best to burp and reminisce about the taste.
Little Ah Yu imitated her brothers and stretched her neck out, trying her best to inhale the smell… Her face flushed red.
Meatball: “…” Look at how hungry the child is!
[Actually, it’s not impossible for you to have more food.] Meatball could not stand it anymore and said.
Little Ah Yu stopped moving and blinked her eyes, sensing carefully, wanting to know what else the elf would say.
[Save some Myriad Spirit Water for the person you saved from your village. When he wakes up, he will be able to give you a lot of food. You won’t have to starve anymore.]
Meatball was also very helpless. This was actually a novice-level guidance mission. Unfortunately, the child was too young and could not understand the mission at all. It could only break the mission into pieces and feed it to her. Only by explaining slowly could she barely understand it.
Myriad Spirit Water…
That big uncle wanted water.
Little Ah Yu understood and immediately closed her eyes, wanting to go to the s.p.a.ce to get water.
[Don’t, don’t, don’t—]
Before Meatball could stop her, her consciousness entered the spatial pocket and her body instantly fell to the ground.
w.a.n.g Wulang was the first to notice and immediately shouted, “Not good, Little Sister Ah Yu fainted from hunger!”
Not only did this shout alarm the w.a.n.g Family, but even the surrounding people abandoned what they were doing.
“What’s going on? How can she faint from hunger?”
“Didn’t you specially save the goat milk for Ah Yu?”
“You shouldn’t have taken Ah Yu’s food. You guys are really!”
Everyone hurriedly picked up Little Ah Yu and placed her beside w.a.n.g Chuangui.
They then called out to the kitchen staff to quickly cook porridge for the child.
Little Ah Yu realized that there was only one spoonful of spirit water in the s.p.a.ce. Because there was too little, she could not get it out at all.
“What should I do?” Little Ah Yu was anxious and her consciousness returned to her body.
She opened her eyes and stared at the group of people.
Meatball: […] There was still a long way to go to guide this child.