The owner of the house, who was reluctant to burn his straw, saw Xiao Yao politely handed over the cigarettes and gave himself two yuan, his resentment was completely eliminated, and these two yuan were used to buy a small haystack in his house.

"Then be careful, don't set anything else on fire, it's better to bake it in the foundation, it's not good to bring out the sparks. ”

After taking the cigarettes and money, the owner kindly gave a few words of advice, and went back to the house with peace of mind.

When everyone's clothes were almost dry, Wang Yan came back and said that he had walked a long distance and didn't see anyone chasing him, so Xiao Yao hurriedly asked him to sit in the best position and let him roast the fire.

Let's think about it, maybe Tan Meng's wife interfered and didn't interfere with him, and everyone else went home and didn't chase him. It was only at this time that everyone's hanging hearts settled down.

In the firelight, Wang Yan looked at the eyes, all of them looked like mud monkeys, and Xiao Yao was also full of mud on his face and clothes, and he couldn't help laughing.

"Xiao Yao, if we can take a group photo and make a commemoration, it will be an interesting thing in the future. ”

This joke adjusted the dull atmosphere of the scene to be active, just now when they were roasting the fire, it was not that they didn't see each other, but the panic of the sad escape, the fatigue of hunger and cold has not faded, who is in the mood to appreciate, this is usually a rare dilemma?

After Xiao Yao calmed down, he stopped running upstream, he asked Zhao Ping to arrange for the two of them to go upstream, and the two of them to go downstream, to find a boat by the river. And repeatedly instructed the two people who went downstream, don't look far, and come back after more than a mile.

The four of them touched the river ridge as they were told, and the others continued to bake the fire here, enduring hunger, waiting for the results of the four of them looking for the boat.

It didn't take long for the two men who had gone downstream to return, but they did not find the boat, and everyone was disappointed.

Xiao Yao didn't let everyone bake the fire anymore, and directly asked everyone to go upstream together, find it and find it, the farther away from here, the better, as soon as the day dawns, they are too conspicuous here.

"Yuan Damu, as soon as you go home, take your sister out to hide for a few days, and come back when the rumor passes, so as to prevent them from getting angry and retaliating, your parents are at home, they won't do anything to them." ”

Xiao Yao thought of them this night, nothing was done, but you smashed the three households of the Ruan family, he had to worry about Yuan Damou's sister, in case the Ruan family went to smash and scold Yuan Damu's family again, his sister's temper was afraid that she would have to fight with people again.

Although Yuan Damu didn't want to leave his parents behind and go out with his sister to avoid trouble, he had to consider Xiao Yao's arrangement, even if his home was smashed, his sister's personal safety was in danger, and he had to take care of it.

Seeing that Yuan Damu just nodded in agreement, and didn't want to say anything to himself, Xiao Yao swallowed back the words that came to his mouth, people didn't want to, he couldn't rush to help his sister, right?

After walking upstream together for more than half an hour, they were all worried.

Further on, there is the Cha River, this river is a big river that flows from the south of Wuyang Town, and here, it is connected with the Idea River that flows from the north of Wuyang Town, and the two rivers meet together and flow to Guohu Lake together.

If there is no boat in front of them, and they want to return to the opposite bank, they must either drift down and cross the river here, or they have to cross two large rivers.

Just when everyone was anxious, the two people who had been sent to look for the boat came back, and when he saw that everyone had come to his side, he said happily:

"There's a boat ahead, it's not big, but it's big enough for us to cross the river, it's locked, he's looking for a stone to break the lock, I'll call you over first. ”

As soon as Xiao Yao inquired, it was not far ahead, and he asked everyone to speed up the pace together. Sure enough, it didn't take long to come to the water's edge under the river, and the lock had been smashed open. Fortunately, I didn't reach the mouth of the river, which is the only bit of bad luck in the night.

"It's just a bare boat, the oars are all gone, and we can't row. ”

"It's okay, you go with me to break some branches, don't break the rods, the more branches the better. ”

After all, Zhao Ping grew up by the river, and playing with boats was not unfamiliar to him at all, he took the lead in selecting branches for demonstration, and after a while, he came back with a large stack.

Zhao Ping put a large branch on the ground, fumbled, and tied the small branch to the big branch with the laces that he had untied from his sneakers.

"Now there are no leaves on the branches, and in other seasons you can row with the leafy branches. ”

Zhao Ping made two bundles of branches like this to make pulp, and the remaining unused branches were also asked to be brought by someone to help paddle in the water.

The boat that was half-stranded on the shore was pushed into the water by everyone, and everyone stood in a dense boat, Xiao Yao was worried about whether the boat would sink.

"It's okay, Brother Xiao, you come up, I touched it, the edge of the boat is still half a foot above the water, everyone squats, it's best to sit on the bottom of the boat, lower the center of gravity, as long as we don't move, don't overturn the boat, I promise to cross the river." ”

"Why are you still squatting? Sit down, your clothes are dirty anyway. ”

Xiao Yao shouted hello and sat down, squatting unsteadily, in case the boat overturned, and there were those who couldn't swim and were afraid of water, it would be troublesome.

Zhao Ping arranged one on one side, rowing with big branches, and one on the other, holding and tying small branches to help, making a small branch by himself, and squatting at the stern of the boat as a chopping hand. The pulpless and rudderless boat, with the combined efforts of the five people, floated to the middle of the river.

In winter, the river does not rush to the river, but the flow does not stop. I didn't feel how turbulent the river was on the shore, but as soon as the boat left the shore, it began to float downstream, much faster than the speed of rowing to the opposite bank.

Xiao Yao sat not far from Zhao Ping, but he couldn't see his face clearly, only to see his figure swaying constantly, using the branches in his hand to move the water surface and control the direction. But it's dark on the other side, and you can't see where the shore is, and how far away?

"I said, Brother Zhao, if we row like this, we won't be taken to Guohu by the river, right? ”

Xiao Yao's worries this time did not come true, but it didn't take long for him to taste what it was like to be trapped in the center of Guohu.

Hearing Xiao Yao's worried words, Zhao Ping laughed.

"Brother Xiao, you don't have to worry about this, we just paddled along the river to the opposite bank, and slowly inserted it diagonally, and now we have passed the center of the river, and it is almost there. ”

Xiao Yao didn't know how he was sure to cross the center of the river, but he didn't ask. As long as he can pass and everyone can go home safely, he is thankful.

Zhao Ping is right, he uses tree branches to sense the speed and direction of the water, knowing that the boat has passed the middle of the river, in the center of the river, the water flow is straight to the bottom of the boat, the more to the shore, the more the water will converge towards the center of the river, with the branches drifting to the center of the river, to the outside of the boat to measure the swing.

When the ship docks on the opposite shore and sets foot on the ground, this thrilling journey really comes to an end. Xiao Yao asked them to fix the boat on the shore so that the boatman could come to find it tomorrow, but Zhao Ping kicked the boat towards the river.

"Don't worry, put it on the shore, they will know that it is man-made and float away, and he will think that he is not fixed and washed away by the water. When he reached the lake, the boat would not drift too far, and he himself would find it below. ”

After crossing the river and going ashore, everyone's interest was raised, and Yuan Damu was most familiar with this, and he said after walking a few times on both sides of the ridge:

"It's not far from the fork in the road to my house, you can go home with me and get some more food." ”

"Forget it, we won't go back and forth, we are now rushing to Wuyang Town to have breakfast, and your family will be eaten by us again, I'm afraid we will eat up all the surplus food." ”

Zhao Ping, who knew his family background well, rejected Yuan Damu's kindness. It is true that he does not have any good things to entertain at home, otherwise, there would not have been any dishes last night, and he only gave everyone noodles to eat.

Yuan Damu took out the banknotes wrapped in plastic leather from his pocket, and the total denominations of the size would not exceed ten yuan, and he handed them all to Zhao Ping.

"That's all I have, not enough for you to pad, I'll pay it back to you later. ”

Zhao Ping had no money, he wanted to take these brothers to eat early and get credit, but he also felt that he couldn't afford to lose this person, so he reached out and took the money handed over by Yuan Damu.

Xiao Yao walked over, took Yuan Damu's money from Zhao Ping's hand, and handed it back to him.

"Don't worry about our breakfast, you should take the money back and go out with your sister to use it." ”

Yuan Damu wanted to resign, but was directly pushed away by Zhao Ping.

In order to alleviate the chill just brought by the boat, everyone ran together, this time, not to escape, no one to chase behind, there are still people who fall, but not many.

When they got hot, they began to march on the muddy and slippery river.

The dried clothes, a little wet to the underwear, running continuously and not running, walking slowly and cold, this night's little silk rain, just unhurried with them, spent a sleepless and very embarrassing night.

It wasn't until dawn that Xiao Yao and the others returned to the ferry terminal in Wuyang Town, and many people who came to catch the morning market saw them and hid far away.

When he came to the ferry, the boat boss saw these people, none of them were good people, whether they knew each other or not, and they didn't dare to come forward to ask and collect money.

Xiao Yao saw the eyes of the boat boss, swept over himself, and did not recognize himself, he wanted to go up and ask Angkor if he had come to him, but thinking about his current embarrassment, he couldn't even recognize himself, so he endured it.

Xiao Yao They got on the boat later, standing at the bow of the boat, and the people who got on the boat earlier and waited to cross the river were all concentrated at the end of the boat's rowing, and a big no-man's land was naturally separated in the middle.

Since the boat boss didn't recognize him at a glance, Xiao Yao didn't want him to recognize himself anymore, so he kept his back to the boat boss and didn't look at him.

The professional ferryboat, that is Xiao Yao and them, the rudderless and pulpless boat that has just crossed the river, can be compared, their original fearful thoughts do not exist at all, and the boat soon came to the other side.

"What should we do? We're going to have breakfast like this, we're going to scare everyone away. ”

The isolation zone naturally formed on the ship, everyone can see it clearly, this will come to the shore, and Zhao Ping has to think about this problem.