Xia Ren initially didn't think much of it, but when he heard Jiang Wan'er's later words, he was so startled that he stopped what he was doing.
What kind of audacious words were those?
It seemed he would be able to eat roujiamo tonight.
Xia Ren cleared his throat and said with a smile, "You go back to the room first. I'll come back after I fix the cart."
Jiang Wan'er's blush remained. She lowered her head and said, "I'll stay here with Husband and help out."
Seeing this, Xia Ren did not refuse.
With Jiang Wan'er's help, an hour later, Xia Ren had repaired the almost scrapped two-wheeled handcart, and it was even better quality than it originally was.
This was thanks to some skills he had learned in this area back then, which allowed him to repair the cart in a short time.
During this time, Jiang Wan'er told Xia Ren a lot about the original owner.
"Husband, let me wipe your body."
Jiang Wan'er saw that Xia Ren had done so much for the family and wanted to compensate him well.
If it were normally, Xia Ren wouldn't say much.
But now, water was extremely precious.
Rivers within dozens of miles had dried up, and even the well in Dahe Village had completely run dry yesterday.
There was only less than half a bucket of water left in the house.
Jiang Wan'er and her daughters were reluctant to use water to wash their bodies.
Xia Ren naturally wouldn't waste this precious water.
"No need, this water still needs to be used for drinking."
Xia Ren smiled faintly, looking approachable.
"Okay."
Jiang Wan'er nodded, looking quite charming when she smiled.
Immediately, the two entered the left wing room.
The three daughters all lived in the right wing room, so there was no need to worry about their movements disturbing them later.
Jiang Wan'er proactively took off Xia Ren's clothes, then removed her own, and lay down on the straw mat covered with straw, shyly saying, "Husband, please be gentle, I'm afraid of pain."
As soon as these words came out, Xia Ren's blood surged.
After an hour of exertion, the two finally stopped.
Jiang Wan'er leaned on Xia Ren's shoulder, a smile on her face, and fell into a deep sleep.
Several hours later.
Xia Ren opened his eyes. It was still dark outside, but he still got up and put on his clothes.
He originally thought his movements were quiet enough and shouldn't wake Jiang Wan'er. But Jiang Wan'er still woke up, rubbed her eyes, and asked, "Husband, why don't you sleep a bit longer?"
"I'm going to pack the things needed for the escape. You sleep a bit more."
Xia Ren bent down and gently touched Jiang Wan'er's forehead.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Wan'er immediately became energetic: "Then I won't sleep either. I'll pack things with Husband."
Seeing Jiang Wan'er's persistent look, Xia Ren didn't say much, just nodded.
Then, the two began to get busy.
At Xia Ren's instruction, Jiang Wan'er packed all the pottery jars in the house and boiled most of the water, pouring it into a large kettle.
As for Xia Ren, he took out some chestnuts and used a cleaver to make a slit in each chestnut.
Then he poured some water into the pot, added the processed chestnuts, put more firewood into the stove, and waited until the chestnuts were cooked before scooping them out with a shovel.
The boiling water in the pot had turned yellowish, but Xia Ren didn't waste it. After all, water resources were very precious at the moment, so he used a clean pottery jar to store it. This portion of water could be used for washing things in the future.
At this point, Xia Ren poured the boiled chestnuts into the wok, continuously stir-frying them with a shovel for about three minutes. This not only dried out the moisture inside the chestnuts but also made them sweeter and easier to peel when eaten.
The aroma of stir-fried chestnuts wafted from the kitchen. San Ya, who was in her sleep, sniffed her nose, and her drool flowed out, dripping onto Er Ya's arm.
"Eww, Third Sister, you drool in your sleep."
Er Ya half-sat up and shook the drool off her arm.
This immediately woke San Ya, causing her to groggily open her eyes and say, "Sorry, Second Sister, San Ya just dreamed she smelled the aroma of stir-fried chestnuts."
Da Ya, who was on the same bed, also woke up, sniffed her nose, and exclaimed, "There really is the smell of stir-fried chestnuts outside."
The three little girls tacitly put on their shoes and trotted towards the kitchen.
"So fragrant."
San Ya came to the stove and looked at the stir-fried chestnuts in the pot, her saliva uncontrollably flowing from the corner of her mouth.
Although Da Ya and Er Ya didn't say anything, their eyes were fixed on the stir-fried chestnuts in the pot, with expressions that clearly showed they wanted to eat them.
"Three little gluttons."
Xia Ren looked at the three little girls' greedy expressions, then used a shovel to scoop out three stir-fried chestnuts into a small bowl and handed it to Da Ya: "The chestnuts have just been stir-fried, they're still too hot. Eat them after they cool down."
"Okay, Daddy."
The three little girls responded in unison.
Immediately, Xia Ren took out an empty pottery jar and put all the stir-fried chestnuts from the pot into it.
"Husband, are these stir-fried chestnuts our family's dry rations for the escape?"
Jiang Wan'er in the room asked Xia Ren.
"Yes, these are enough for several days. After we finish them, I'll stir-fry more."
Xia Ren took out a fragrant stir-fried chestnut from the pottery jar, easily peeled it, and gently fed it to Jiang Wan'er, which made Jiang Wan'er feel flattered and her face immediately turned red.
Breakfast was last night's leftovers. After the family had eaten their fill, the sky began to lighten slightly, and a red sun slowly rose from the east.
An hour later, the two-wheeled handcart was already loaded with items.
Pottery jars, food, kettles, clothes, bedding, hoes, iron pots, and other things.
On top of the handcart were two coir raincoats, covering the items in the pottery jars to prevent them from being exposed to the sun. Then, Xia Ren secured them with several ropes to prevent the items in the handcart from falling out.
His compound crossbow and quiver were on his back.
These were weapons for survival and protecting his life, and absolutely could not be lost.
Xia Ren held the left and right handles of the handcart with both hands and pushed the handcart out of the courtyard.
Jiang Wan'er and the three little girls also pushed the handcart, contributing their strength and significantly reducing Xia Ren's effort.
A moment later.
Xia Ren's family arrived at the entrance of Dahe Village.
Many people had gathered there, all with their families. Some carried bundles, some pushed single-wheeled handcarts, and some pushed two-wheeled handcarts.
But as Xia Ren looked around, not a single family had an ox cart or a donkey cart. Clearly, during the three years of severe drought, families with livestock had eaten their animals.
This escape was a whole village effort.
Because of this, a large group of people soon arrived.
Xia Ren roughly calculated that over a hundred households had arrived, totaling more than six hundred people.
There were relatively few elderly people present. Xia Ren knew, even without counting on his toes, that either the elderly were unwilling to burden their families, or some villagers did not want to bring their elderly family members.
After all, with food being scarce, the elderly were a burden.
At this moment, Xia Ren heard villagers behind him discussing him.
"Did you hear? Xia Ren killed Xiao Laoer and Xiao Lao Wu yesterday."
"Of course I heard. I never expected Xia Ren, who looks so gentle, to be so ruthless."
"He dared to kill people, and he'll dare to keep killing people."
"That's right, so from now on, everyone should avoid provoking Xia Ren's family."
"Shush, keep your voice down, aren't you afraid Xia Ren will hear you?"
...
Some women were discussing animatedly.
When Xia Ren turned his head to look, all these women closed their mouths, lowered their heads, and didn't even dare to make eye contact with Xia Ren.
Jiang Wan'er hadn't heard clearly what these women said, but seeing their reaction, she said to Xia Ren in surprise, "Husband, they seem very afraid of you."
"Seeking advantage and avoiding harm is human nature."
Xia Ren smiled calmly and did not delve into the matter.
Er Ya, who was always intelligent and quick-witted, looked at Xia Ren as if she understood the meaning.
As he spoke, Li Zheng, leaning on a cane, walked over.
Behind him were more than a dozen strong men, all members of the Dahe Village Patrol Team.