The days of hiding in the mountains and forests and not daring to go out made Yao Ping feel very depressed. Looking at the fact that the water in the east has not receded for a long time, and there are even signs of continuing to rise, Yao Ping can't help but feel extremely puzzled and anxious.

"Bottle, did you catch any living creatures on the mountain today?" Qu Shun came to the ancestral temple in the mountain, found Yao Ping, who was sitting on the front steps of the temple in a daze, and asked.

Yao Ping looked up at Qu Shun, "I haven't seen anything, I have to climb a tree to pick some young leaf buds today to satisfy my hunger." ”

"Are you hungry?"

Yao Ping felt that Qu Shun's question was complete nonsense, so he ignored him.

Seeing that Yao Ping ignored him, Qu Shun grinned, quietly reached out and took a shriveled nest out of his clothes, and shook it in front of Yao Ping's eyes and said, "Look, bottle, I brought you a nest." ”

"Wowotou?!" Yao Ping endured hunger, looked at the nest head in Qu Shun's hand with bright eyes, and asked him, "Shunzi, where did you get it?" ”

"It was brought by the government relief center."

"Oh," Yao Ping swallowed and said, "Have you eaten?" What about flowers? If you haven't eaten yet, then I don't want it. ”

"Take it!" Qu Shun said, "Look how hungry you are. This nest is for you. We've already eaten it. The day before yesterday, the relief point was to receive food, and Huahua queued up for a day and a night for these nests. If you don't eat it, then you will live up to her wishes. ”

"Did you really eat it all?"

"And that can still lie to you? Of course I ate them all. ”

"Okay" Yao Ping took the wowotou from Qu Shun's hand, he glanced at the black wowotou, took a big bite hard, and chewed vigorously in his mouth.

It wasn't until he swallowed the whole nest head that Yao Ping asked Qu Shun, who was standing stupidly on the side, "Shunzi, you said that this big water is really weird, why don't you retreat?" ”

"I've heard people say that it's the evil in the sea that has set off this big water." Qu Shun said.

"Demons?"

"Well, everybody says that. But bottles, don't worry. I heard that after a few days, our Son of Heaven will send a national teacher to do it. When the national teacher comes to subdue the monsters in this sea, the water will naturally recede. Qu Shun said, "When the time comes, the fields will all come back." ”

"This is good, the country and the people are safe, what kind of chaos are the demons in the sea? I hadn't heard of evil spirits in the sea before. Yao Ping continued to ask.

"Don't those feather scholars of the Heavenly Dao Sect often say that the Heavenly Dao is impermanent, and they are not good with people. This kind of thing, who can say clearly. Qu Shun said.

"Really?" Yao Ping said, "How do I remember that sentence seems to be that heaven has no relatives, and he is always with good people." ”

"Come on, whatever." Qu Shun turned to say, "Bottle, I think if it goes on like this, in half a month, this living thing within a radius of dozens of miles, tree bark, and grass roots will have to be eaten." I think that at that time, even if the national teacher does the Dharma and the sea water retreats, then he will still have to starve. ”

"Why do you think there is so little food for this relief?" Yao Ping asked, "This government collects grain every year, and it should have saved a lot." ”

"Hey, how can we ordinary people know about this kind of thing." Qu Shun said, "It may also be that in the past few years, we have fought a lot of wars in Yiluo, and the food is eaten by those who are soldiers." ”

"You said that this food is not enough, and there is no way to help the people of our Qingfu, so what can we do in the future. After all, there are many old people like Lao Bo, and they can't go far and leave this place. Yao Ping said worriedly, "If his old man's legs and feet are convenient, we can take his old man to the western county, go there to beg for food, and hide in the wilderness." Anyway, I can survive this disaster year. ”

"Hey, my father is weak, and it is indeed difficult to travel far." Qu Shun said and shook his head.

Yao Pingdan saw that Qu Shun was shaking his head, and suddenly saw him raise his head again, raised his eyebrows as if he was a little excited, and said, "Bottle, tell you something, I found a small sampan on the beach early this morning in a deserted place." ”

"Small sampans are not rare, why are you looking for it?" Yao Ping said, "Which fisherman's family doesn't have a small sampan?" ”

"You don't understand this, you don't know, ships are rare now. After the big water on our side, the big guy saw that the sea water was getting higher and higher, so he didn't care about anything and ran to the high place in the west of Qingfu City. As a result, the little sampans were abandoned, so that the waves were washed away. Now, if anyone has a little sampan, they can go back to the east. Did you know that there are still a lot of hills and slopes in the east that have not been flooded? ”

"That's right! I didn't think of that. Yao Ping said excitedly, "Then we can row it to the east side of the mountain to find food." With this little sampan, I can also go home to the back hill and put incense on my father's grave. ”

Qu Shun said with a smile, "Yes, it is estimated that the wild vegetables and mushrooms on the mountains have not been dug up, and even those pheasants and hares are estimated to be trapped on them now, and now we have to eat." ”

"Then what are you waiting for, let's go." Yao Ping said excitedly, "Let's go now." ”

Qu Shun's face sank and said, "But that little sampan has no oars." ”

"Huh?" Yao Ping said, "Then we have to find a carpenter to make a paddle for us." ”

"There are no carpenters here, they don't know where to go." Qu Shun said, "If it's like rowing, we'll have to make an oar ourselves." I'll go back this afternoon and see if I can go to the city and borrow a saw and planer. Tomorrow, let's make two oars ourselves. ”

"Okay."

Yao Ping and Qu Shun worked together to make the oars. Early the next morning after making the oars, Yao Ping excitedly carried a brand new pair of oars and went to the beach under the leadership of Qu Shun.

In a fruit grove by the sea, where part of the trunk of the tree was submerged by the sea, Yao Ping saw the sampan that Qu Shun had said. He saw that the sampan was now washed into the fruit grove by the rising sea. The fruit tree, which has not yet died from the flooding of its roots, still shades its small sampan with its last luxuriant branches. Looking at the tight small sampan blocked by fruit trees, Yao Ping thought to himself, this sampan was so tightly blocked by leaves, except for Qu Shun's sharp eyes, it was no wonder that no one else found it.

Approaching the fruit grove through the waves, Yao Ping saw that the small sampan was painted with red paint, and an eye was painted on each side of the bow. The eyes seemed to be searching for something, and they were looking into the sea. Yao Ping thought to himself that this sampan was obviously a small fishing boat of a fisherman's family, and its owner expected it to bring good luck and see the fish in the sea, so he drew a pair of fish-looking eyes for it. But what is a little embarrassing is that on the current sea surface of Qingfu, there are still a large number of rotten fish corpses floating.

"Bottle, do you remember where you live?" Qu Shun and Yao Ping pulled the sampan out of the forest with great difficulty and pushed it into the sea.

"Of course I do." Yao Ping stepped into the cabin first, he looked up at the east of Qingfu City, which was already a vast ocean, and changed his words and said, "I can't remember what it looks like now." ”

When Qu Shun also entered the cabin, the two of them each took a brand new oar, and rowed the sampan out of the sea and into the sea with their concerted efforts.

"I really didn't expect so many fish to die." Yao Ping said as he paddled the oars. The flipping oars hit the dead fish that floated one by one.

"Demons, all demons and demons." Qu Shun said, "It's a pity, if the fish don't stink, I'll pick them all up and eat them." ”

"If it doesn't stink, you can't eat it, maybe there's the demon you said in it."

"Yes," Qu Shun said with difficulty rowing the oars, "or you, a person who has traveled far away, have a lot of eyes." ”

"Hey, I'm so ashamed of what you said." Yao Ping said, "In the past few years, I haven't earned much money because I have few eyes. If you want to put others aside, you have already bought fertile land and built a house. ”

The two rowed all the way to the east, and after passing through two small hills exposed on the water, Qu Shun pointed to a few small hills scattered in the water in the distance and said, "Behind those mountains, is the boundary of our village." ”

"Those are the mountains to the west of the neighboring village, right?"

"yes, I didn't expect you to remember." Qu Shun said, "Why don't we go to the nearby mountains first to see if there is anything to eat?" ”

"Okay, let's go there first." Yao Ping pointed to a small mountain not far away and said, "But Shunzi, even if there are pheasants and hares there, we may not be able to catch them empty-handed." ”

"You see, the mountain that was once connected to the ground is now surrounded by water, and it is all in the water. Isn't that small hill and small mound all dead mountains? We can find a small hill and drive the pheasants above into the sea, then we won't be afraid that it will fly away. ”

"Well, let's give it a try. I really haven't seen pheasants running in the sea yet. ”

The two men leaned the sampan against a hill and tied the rope to the trunk of a willow tree, most of which had submerged in the waves. And he chopped a branch of each of the trees, and took the basket out of the cabin, and went up the mountain.

"It's too steep to climb." Yao Ping climbed a steep slope and looked up and said.

"Look, there, there, there's pheasants, and they're running away, they're running to the sea." Qu Shun took the branch and excitedly pointed to the other side and shouted at Yao Ping, Yao Ping stopped climbing, turned around and chased after the pheasant with him.

The two chased after each other for a while, and the pheasants flew far and high, but they were not able to drive them to the sea as Qu Shun had imagined.

Yao Ping gasped and said, "There is no stumbling sleeve, no trap or anything, you still can't catch a pheasant, this pheasant is not stupid, flying in a circle, just don't go to the sea." ”

"Hey, this pheasant is really not as stupid as I imagined. Looks like we're going to have to make a stumbling trap or something, and catch them again. Qu Shun complained, "Then we have to be vegetarian again today." We had to climb up the hill to see if we could pick some wild vegetables and mushrooms and eat them. ”

The two abandoned the arrest of the pheasant and instead dug for wild vegetables in the mountains. It wasn't until noon that the two of them, who had been tossing for a long time, walked back with a handful of wild vegetables and mushrooms.

But when the two returned to the place where the small sampan was moored together, the two were dumbfounded. The little sampan is gone.

"Where's the ship?" Yao Ping asked in surprise.

"That's it, you see, isn't the head of that willow tree where you tie the ropes."

"The rope is gone, the willow tree is not broken, and the sampan was not pulled away by the waves, but someone stole it." Yao Ping guessed.

"Oh my God, who is so unconscionable and steals our sampan." Qu Shun wanted to cry and shouted without tears, "How can we go back now." ”

"No, we didn't see anyone on the mountain just now, why didn't the little sampan disappear if it didn't see it." Yao Ping said depressedly, "Is there someone rowing here?" ”

"Even if someone does come here. There's no need to steal our ship. Qu Shun said with a crying voice, "How can we go back?" ”

"Come on, Junko, let's go to the other side of the hill and look for it first." Yao Ping said, "Maybe I didn't tie the rope to the boat, the rope opened on its own, and the boat drifted away by itself." ”

"Hey, okay."