Uncle Li held the cold corpse in his arms, sat motionless in a corner of the cave, and hugged it tightly, not letting anyone move.

"Zhihe, it's not a way for Lao Li to go on like this." The third uncle held a teapot of water and sat beside Wei Zhihe.

"It's okay, let him sit there." Wei Zhihe looked up at Uncle Li, and then continued to bow his head and write and draw in his notebook.

"Alas——!" The third uncle also sighed and found a place to sleep, and slept with peace of mind if they weren't on duty tonight. After Wei Zhihe put the notebook away, he went to the place where Uncle Li was sitting and added some firewood to the fire next to him.

The men lived in front of the entrance of the cave, and the elderly, women, and children were all at the innermost part of the cave, but fortunately the entrance to the cave was very deep. Wei Zhihe took a turn in the inner cave, covered the quilt for Xiao Changhe, and found a sheltered place to sleep.

It wasn't until the second half of the night that Wei Zhihe was awakened by a cough.

"What's wrong?" Wei Zhihe asked in a daze.

"Zhihe, come and take a look." The third uncle shouted eagerly.

"What's wrong?" Wei Zhihe walked to the inner cave and found that many people were coughing there, some children coughed and their little faces were unusually red, that is, some adults were coughing there non-stop, and some people even began to cough bitter water.

"Why is it so burning?" Wei Zhihe touched the heads of adults and children who coughed.

"I don't know what to do, when I was sleeping, I heard someone coughing there, and then there were more and more people, and when I came to see, everyone who coughed was having a fever, and this and that, and the three children here were a little confused."

"Quick, go boil some water." Wei Zhihe hurriedly beckoned the third uncle to go outside to boil water, while he rummaged through the package for herbs.

"If you have a mask, bring it quickly, and if you don't have a mask, cover it with a towel, and be careful of infection." Wei Zhihe watched them drink the cough medicine, and the cough eased slightly, at least he stopped spitting bitter water.

"It's a cold and inflammation." Uncle Li didn't know when Lu Dao walked behind Wei Zhihe and said. Wei Zhihe looked back and saw that Uncle Li's expression was not so good, his eyes were bloodshot and painful. The pocket he was holding in his arms didn't know where he had put it, and his hands were wrapped in gauze.

"I buried my pocket in the hole." Uncle Li knew what Wei Zhihe wanted to ask, "I don't have anything to do, you don't have to worry." ”

"Can it be cured?" Wei Zhihe was anxious, the team was originally moving very slowly, and this time it was estimated that the speed would be a lot slower.

"If you eat some herbs at home, you can still save it, but here...... It's up to their luck. Uncle Li's words were not finished, but the meaning was already clear.

"Can't you just think of a way?"

"No way. It's cold, and we're outside, so we don't have any conditions, even if they're better, they're still wasted people, they can't work, and they still have to die. Uncle Li, who has experienced the pain of losing a child, seems to take life and death very lightly, and the words that come out of his mouth are like the weather outside the cave.

"There's no way around it?" Wei Zhihe looked at Uncle Li with the last bit of hope, hoping that he could say yes. But what I got from him was still a cold denial.

The third uncle finished feeding the medicine to those who were coughing, and the coughing sound in the cave was much quieter, only a few occasional sounds, and he was still telling Wei Zhihe everything that had just happened here.

"The cough seems to have stopped."

"It's only temporary, tomorrow will be even more powerful, and their lives will only continue a little later." Uncle Li sat next to the fire in the outer cave and added firewood to it.

"This ......" the third uncle pointed to the place where Uncle Li was originally holding Doudou, where there was a pile of new soil, and there were a few red and colorful words on a smoothed stone, "The tomb of Li Doudou, father Li Zu Guangli", Wei Zhihe now understands why Uncle Li's hands will be wrapped with gauze, so he threw it out of the grave with his hands, buried his son with his own hands, and set up a tablet for him with his own blood.

"Don't tell anyone about this news, just the three of us know the Dao, I'm afraid......" Wei Zhihe knew in his heart that if everyone knew the news, then no one would survive, and everyone would die here.

The third uncle also understood what Wei Zhihe meant, and took out the wine gourd from his arms and handed it to Uncle Li. Uncle Li didn't speak, pulled out the stopper, poured a mouthful into his mouth, and handed it to Wei Zhihe. Wei Zhihe waved his hand, took out a cigarette and lit it.

The three of them did not speak, but sat around the fire until dawn.

After breakfast, packing up their things, and letting everyone get on their horses, the group braved the wind and snow to continue their journey.

Wei Zhihe wrote in his diary:

This is our third day out, and the snow hasn't stopped, and it looks like it won't stop tomorrow. Of the 35 of us, 11 of them were inflamed by a cold, and there were 4 children among them. Along the way, they kept coughing, some of them fell off their horses because of too much force, and one of the elderly people who coughed the most was already coughing up blood. None of the three of us said anything, but we all understood that they had only one result in such weather.

These are not the most terrible, the most terrible thing is that people's eyes have revealed despair, dead despair.

Tomorrow, what else will greet us?

In order to take care of those who were coughing, the speed of travel today was extremely slow, forcing Wei Zhihe to find a sheltered place for everyone to spend the night, although it was sheltered from the wind, but the wind was only slightly weaker.

Just in case of the night, they only set up a tent and let everyone live together. The cough was given medicine as usual, but it was bad.

A few people were already unconscious, and those who were not unconscious had no strength to cough, and they didn't even have the strength to open their mouths to drink medicine.

Wei Changhe blinked and watched his father keep shuttling between those aunts and brothers, and he clearly saw that his father stumbled when he stood up, almost breaking the bowl in his hand.

It seems that Zhilu Dao's own son is watching, and Wei Zhihe is trying not to let himself sit down. Standing in place and breathing a sigh of relief, he walked to Wei Changhe's side and touched his little head.

"Tired or not?" Wei Changhe shook his head.

"Sleep well, something calls me." Xiao Changhe closed his eyes obediently.

Wei Zhihe found a place to lie down by the fire, today passed safely, what about tomorrow?

(Brother and sister, everyone, can you collect it?) ）