The next morning, the villagers panicked – the river to the south of the village dried up overnight.

There is no food to eat, and only drinking water can last for two months without dying. If you don't have water to drink, you'll die of thirst in a few days. Aunt Li and the second girl had to carry a water container and follow the people in the village out to find water.

In the afternoon, Aunt Li came back and brought Li Xiao two nests made of cornmeal and half a pot of water. Li Xiao asked why the second girl didn't come back, and Aunt Li said stupidly, in the bazaar.

"What's in the bazaar?"

"At the Golden Bull Town Bazaar. ”

Li Xiao asked again, "How did this pig's trotter bone come from?"

"I was crawling on the ground, and the boss gave it to me. ”

"What?"

"Crawl, crawl, learn to call the dog ......"

Li Xiao was confused and did not communicate well with Aunt Li, and when Aunt Li was suffering from dementia, her IQ seemed to be only equivalent to that of a two- or three-year-old child. But even if her mind is not clear enough, Aunt Li can still help Li Xiao clean up the drowning things, can help Li Xiao to go to the toilet, and knows to find clean leaves for him. Taking care of her children is the instinct of every mother.

Today's summer night is very hot, Li Xiao didn't fall asleep, he was very hungry, this hunger is simply torture, the more hungry he is, the worse his body is.

In the next two days, Aunt Li went out early and returned late, and brought back a few pieces of food such as nests and a few meatless bones before sunset, all of which Li Xiao ate, but she refused to eat it herself, saying that she had already eaten it. She refused to drink a drop of half a pot of water.

After Li Xiao's repeated inquiries and Aunt Li's vague answers, Li Xiao deduced that she and the second girl worked in a restaurant in Jinniu Town, serving dishes and washing dishes, wiping tables and sweeping the floor. There was a lot of food in the restaurant, and the owner and the guy there were very vicious and didn't let her bring more food. Li Xiao was skeptical, and could only understand according to his best guess, which was a personal comfort. Li Xiao thought to herself: When I can walk, I will go to the Jinniu Town Market to visit the second girl.

On the fourth day after waking up, counting the day before, Li Xiao had been lying in bed for five days, and he found that his body bones had become hard, and his thinking was very clear, but he felt hungry and lacked strength.

Early in the morning, Aunt Li said to Li Xiao, I didn't bring back any extra food yesterday, son, you wait for me to come back, and you will have something to eat tonight. Seeing that Li Xiao nodded and agreed, Aunt Li was busy going to the Jinniu Town Market.

When the sun was on the third pole, Li Xiao was hungry and thirsty, and thought secretly, lying like this, I will become weaker and weaker, and if I don't get up again, I will starve to death sooner or later. Aunt Li didn't come home at noon, so she was hungry and thirsty all the time. No, this won't work, I'm going to have to find something to eat and drink.

Taking a deep breath, Li Xiao sat up from the bed, unable to find his original shoes, so he had to put on a pair of cloth shoes at random. Li Xiaoxiang: Many times, even if our body does not allow it, as long as our willpower is strong enough, we can force our body to do what we want. Li Xiao dragged his heavy body and reluctantly went out.

It was hot outside the house, and the sun's rays were a little dazzling, so Li Xiao hurriedly closed his eyes.

When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by patches of arid trapezoidal farmland. A few yellow weeds grew scattered in the nearby fields. Li Xiao observed the residence where he had been lying for five days, and saw that there were only a few bamboo strips left in the bamboo fence in front of Aunt Li's door, the three houses composed of mud walls and thatch looked very classical, and the wood door composed of several uneven door panels looked very simple and natural. Li Xiao, who is accustomed to seeing brick houses in the countryside and reinforced concrete buildings in cities, feels very strange about these mud and grass houses, and can use mud and thatch to build such beautiful and environmentally friendly houses, which shows how clever and intelligent ancient humans are. Such housing seems to be warm in winter and cool in summer. Such a house is made of local materials and is inexpensive, which is more shocking than a villa.

It was a summer morning, and Li Xiao, whose stomach was rumbling, decided to walk around. It is surrounded by arid terraces, and at the end of the terraces you can see a bare grove. Geographically, Hongxing Village is located in a hilly area.

Along a curved ridge, we turned to the door of another family, two thatched houses with earthen walls, surrounded by a defective bamboo fence, and the tent door was open. Li Xiao heard a faint cry for help in the inner room, "Help...... Help, ......".

Walk through the wood door and enter the house. In the messy bedroom, there was only one bed, which took up half of the room, and on the bed lay a peasant woman, who was nervous when she saw the stranger entering the room, and a little fear flashed in her eyes.

Li Xiao was stunned for a moment, and said in a trembling voice: "Auntie, what's wrong with you?"

Seeing Li Xiao's kind words, the peasant woman showed a glimmer of hope in her eyes, and wanted to sit up straight, but she was too weak, and she didn't sit up after trying twice. Li Xiao walked a few steps closer and heard the peasant woman whisper in her mouth, "I...... Hungry, hungry...... I...... I'm going to die...... Save...... Help me......"

Li Xiao grew up in the new era of China's reform and opening up, and basically did not go hungry very seriously. In the past few days, I have not eaten a single meal, and I have personally experienced the true meaning of "life in the world, eat and drink". Li Xiao saw that the peasant woman was as thin as firewood, and she couldn't help but panic and get irritable in her heart, "I have to save her, and I want to find something to eat." Li Xiao looked at the two grass huts carefully, and there was nothing edible except for sundries.

When he returned to the peasant woman's bed, he saw that the peasant woman's eyes were blank and seemed to be in despair.

Li Xiao said to the peasant woman: "Auntie, you wait for me for a while, I will look outside to see if there is anything to eat, you must wait for me to come back." ”

The peasant woman's eyes were no longer luster, and she seemed to understand Li Xiao's words, and moved her eyes slightly.

Li Xiao visited several farmers and hunters, but they didn't have any extra food, let alone give him a bite of precious food for a short-haired foreigner. Facing the remaining families, in desperation, Li Xiao could only cry and beg them to save the woman.

A lot of people looked at him like fools. In the face of prevarication, scolding and ridicule, Li Xiao felt angry and ashamed at first, and then turned a deaf ear. All the households in the village have asked, but they have not asked for a single bit of food, and the village chief's family has no food to spare. In fact, there are only more than ten families, and those who have a way and can escape have already left this small mountain village that is about to fall into a desperate situation. When there is a shortage of food, no matter how kind-hearted people are, they will think about themselves first, this is not selfishness, this is human nature.

There's a belief in marketing that as long as you visit a sufficient number of customers, there will always be customers who buy your products. Direct selling organizations also say that as long as you keep saying and meeting a person, when you talk about a certain number of people, there will always be someone who will be your "downline".

The reality is that if others don't need it or are not wealthy, even if you say it, your success is slim.

Li Xiao couldn't get food in the village, so he searched for it on the mountain behind the village, hoping to meet rabbits and others. Large swaths of the trees on the mountain have died, many of them have had their roots dug up, and their edible bark has been scraped away.

Most trees are non-toxic and should be edible. Eating tree bark, although it is difficult to digest and uncomfortable, is better than starvation.

Li Xiao finally found a living tree that was not easy to approach in a steep slope, and this tree was only more than one meter high. Li Xiao tried several times, but couldn't get close, and in a hurry, he stumbled and rolled down the steep slope. After a while, Li Xiao rolled to the bottom of a steep slope.

Li Xiao was a little dizzy, he thought in his mind that he needed to save people, so he gritted his teeth and climbed up with difficulty, and it took a lot of effort to climb to the side of the small tree, he gnawed a small piece of bark with his teeth, chewed it carefully in his mouth, bitter as medicine, tough as leather, and swallowed it hard, and then ate two pieces of bark. The fourth piece of bark, no matter what, could not swallow it, the stomach cramped, almost vomited.

Nibbled on a few more pieces of bark and pinched them in his hands. Li Xiao climbed the steep slope with difficulty and found the same way back.

Two o'clock in the afternoon was the hottest time of the day, and Li Xiao was sweating profusely. Coupled with the rush to find food, I finally lost my physical strength, my head was heavy and my eyes were black, and I fell on my side on the mountain road. When he fell, he bruised his knee and bled out.

For a long time, Li Xiao felt that his mouth was dry and his body was hot. Suddenly woke up, and thought that there were still people to save, so he dragged his weak legs and slowly walked to the village. For the rest of the road, Li Xiao was extremely tired and weak, as if in a dream, in a trance.

Walking to the thatched house, Li Xiao suddenly had the strength, stepped in three steps and two steps to the peasant woman's bed, and saw that the peasant woman was still reclining, her breath was dying, and the day was waning. Li Xiao couldn't help but beat faster, and hurriedly brought a piece of bark to her mouth. The peasant woman bites the bark with her front teeth, but she can only bite it.

Li Xiao panicked and wanted to pull out the bark, but the peasant woman bit it hard and took it out with great force. He hurriedly put it in his mouth and chewed it, and put his hand in the mouth of the peasant woman. The peasant woman clicked her mouth a few times, but she couldn't swallow it.

Li Xiao saw the peasant woman's eyes rolling upward, extremely frightened, and said in his heart: If I can't swallow something, can I still live?

People take food as the sky, food as the first thing, and water is the source of life. If only there was water, what about water?

Li Xiao can't care about anything else, saving people is important. Busy with artificial respiration. The peasant woman was still inhaling, and her lips were moving slightly. Li Xiao walked around the house twice inside and outside the house, how could there be a little water, not even urine. The knee ached faintly, the wound cracked, Li Xiao had an idea, and reluctantly cut the wound on the knee with his fingernails, and some blood flowed out. Li Xiao found a slightly dusty pottery bowl, wiped off the dust with his hands, drained half a bowl of blood, and poured it into the peasant woman.

After Li Xiao poured half a bowl of blood on the peasant woman, the peasant woman still did not wake up. "Blood is made up of plasma and blood cells" and does not contain fast-acting heart pills.

Seeing that he was powerless, Li Xiao ran out of the door and called the villagers to save his life. More than a dozen people with solemn faces and weak qi came in twos and threes. Li Xiao simply said his treatment process. The villagers were amazed, and their wariness of Li Xiao, a short-haired foreigner, was slightly reduced.

Among the villagers, a village doctor surnamed Xia, who was nearly 40 years old, opened the peasant woman's eyelids with his fingers, looked at the eyeballs, and then tested the pulse of the peasant woman's neck with his fingers, and announced very calmly: "The daughter-in-law of the Yang family has starved to death." ”

In Hongxing Village, the Yang family has no close relatives, only close neighbors. Under the leadership of the village chief, Li Xiao and the neighbors of the Yang family wrapped the peasant woman in a thin quilt that day and buried her simply on the hillside, without a tombstone.

The crowd slowly dispersed. The bearded village chief stayed behind and asked Li Xiao about his hometown. Although it is also in vain, the previous lie needs to be made up for by the next lie, so Li Xiao replied honestly that he is from Xianyin City, Jianghe Province, and his parents are still waiting at home.

The village chief was suspicious, and seeing that Li Xiao said sincerely, he didn't know whether it was true or not, and he said that he would ask Aunt Li in person when he saw it.

Li Xiao saw that the village chief was leaving, so he hurriedly asked where Aunt Li and the second girl were, and the village chief shook his head and said that he didn't know. The village chief walked a few steps, turned around and said strangely, "The second girl may have been abducted by human traffickers." ”

Li Xiao opened his mouth and was taken aback.

The village chief said, "Aunt Li said to the villagers, you are her son, our Yuanyang City has been dry for three years, and even the landlord's family has no surplus grain." He also said that a few days ago, Aunt Li cried to him about the recovery of her lost son and kneeling for cornmeal. Finally, Aunt Li may go to the Jinniu Town Market to beg for food these days.

After Li Xiao heard this, he felt sad for a while, and the speculation that comforted him did not exist in an instant. Aunt Li lost her son, and she was a little stupid because she missed her son, how great a mother's love is.

Li Xiaoxin said: The reason why I was not starved to death was all due to Aunt Li's maternal love and dedication. No matter what, you have to be a man with a conscience, and when Aunt Li comes back tonight, I must call her mother. I get a little dizzy when I think about it too much.

The village chief limped away, and Li Xiao realized that the village chief was a lame man. When I just thought of asking the village chief about the full moon dog monster coming out to eat children, the village chief was gone.

The surroundings fell silent, and Li Xiao became frightened. Witnessing the death of a living person in front of oneself today is something that would break you just thinking about it.

Li Xiao was amazed by the experience of the past few days, and comforted himself, this is not reality, I do not belong to this world. I thought: I'd better go back to Earth, although the previous life was difficult, no one in China in the 21st century will starve to death. But how do I get back?