Heavenly Blessed Baby: Fleeing Famine, Busy to Prosper!-Chapter 39: I Smell Meat

The forest they just walked through is now engulfed in a thick fog. Only the trees closer to the cave still show some green. As for the lower part, the barely visible trees are all devoid of crowns, leaving only charred trunks.

It’s not hard to imagine the state of the forests shrouded in thick fog.

The mountain wind blows, pushing the thick smoke in another direction, otherwise, if all the smoke surged towards the cave, they might have been suffocated to death inside.

Though not suffocated, everyone is still as good as dead.

The village is destroyed, and the forest is ruined. How could they go back?

The roots of Yongping Village are completely severed.

At this point, not only the women and elders, even the men can’t help but shed tears.

The village chief was helped out of the cave, and upon seeing the scene below, he nearly fainted again from the shock.

Fortunately, he anticipated such a possible scene while in the cave, so he managed to stay composed at this moment.

"Alright, everyone dry your tears and make the most of our time to gather some firewood! The village is gone, the mountains are destroyed, and there’s no retreat for us. We have to look forward."

He couldn’t come up with anything more uplifting.

No one moved.

It was Qi Quanjin who shouted, "Why are you all standing there! What’s the use of crying? You’d be better off doing something useful with the time!"

Finishing, Qi Quanjin wiped the tears off his face, rallied his brothers to start gathering firewood.

The dry firewood they picked before the rain was limited, and some of what was burned in the cave was even brought by the Qi Family from home.

With so many people, what’s left of the wood is far from enough.

Except for the youngest, Liulang, who stayed to take care of their parents, the five other Qi Brothers all took hatchets, hoes, and headed down the mountain.

They dared not enter places with too much smoke, and it was pointless anyway, so they collected firewood in the forest parts still green.

Rain had wetted the firewood, but it’s fine; they could dry it by the fire back at the cave.

The other men in the village also gradually dried their tears and joined the ranks of firewood gatherers.

The women cried longer but tidied up as they wept.

With so many people, the cave was certainly too small to accommodate everyone. They had to quickly figure out how to set up some shelters.

Without suitable wood to support, the women unloaded the goods from their wooden carts and stood the carts upright, securing them with stones and wood, then tied coarse cloth or oil paper brought from home to the handles.

This created a triangular space.

Though the space wasn’t large, it could still house one or two people.

Yi Meng came out after entrusting Qi Manman to Mrs. Qi.

Seeing everyone setting up like this, she called her three sisters-in-law and sister to set up tents together.

However, the Qi family’s wooden carts were more, totaling five. Yi Meng had everyone arrange the carts in a semicircle, then secured oil paper on top.

This way, the space was larger, accommodating more people seated inside.

The ground was still wet, and there were many stones. Yi Meng looked around and said to Qi Dalang, "Dalang, take your younger brothers to gather some leaves."

Qi Dalang responded, then called Erlang to Liulang to collect leaves.

Ai Zhaodi, the fifth daughter-in-law of the Qi family, after tying a corner of the oil paper, came up to ask Yi Meng, "Fourth sister-in-law, these leaves are green; they don’t burn well. Why are we collecting them?"

"We’ll dry them out by stir-frying, spread them on the ground to prevent moisture, and soften the ground," Yi Meng explained as she headed into the cave. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

When she came out again, Yi Meng had a basket on her back filled with dry wood.

Ai Zhaodi quickly moved the family’s iron pot down, and together with Yi Meng, set up a fire, waiting for it to ignite to place the iron pot on top.

Nearby, other women saw them and asked, "Mrs. Qi, are you cooking now?"

"No, just frying the leaves," Yi Meng replied without stopping her hands, "The ground is too wet; if we lay down quilts directly, they’ll get ruined, and we’ll have nothing to cover ourselves later. So I thought we’d dry the leaves’ surface moisture first, then spread them on the ground."

"Aunties, sisters, if you don’t have anything to prevent moisture, you might as well try this method; it’s a solution after all," Yi Meng smiled at everyone, showing no intention to keep it to herself.

Now that everyone’s escape was inevitable and they were from the same village, usually getting along well, it didn’t make sense to be selfish at times like this. It was better to share openly.

Everyone found it intriguing.

They hadn’t thought of frying leaves before.

But the ground was indeed damp, and many were troubled about directly laying quilts on the ground, fearing they’d be ruined. Unexpectedly, Qi the Fourth’s wife came up with a solution.

So the remaining women started directing their children to gather leaves.

There were plenty of leaves in the forest, absolutely enough.

If the ground supply wasn’t sufficient, they climbed trees to get more.

Few children who grew up in the village didn’t know how to climb trees.

With the older children watching, adults weren’t worried.

Soon, a dozen fires were burning at the cave’s entrance, with large pots holding leaves soaked with rainwater.

The women started flipping the leaves with shovels, and once they felt dry on the surface, they took them to the tents to spread on the ground.

The first layer of leaves quickly regained moisture when spread, but nobody minded.

They kept frying and spreading.

Until the ground inside the tents was covered with layers as thick as half a foot, the dampness inside dissipated significantly.

Moreover, the leaves retained some warmth, making the tents a bit warmer than outside.

Some sharp women noticed this and quickly shared with those close, "Before getting into the tent at night, let’s fry the leaves again; it’ll warm the place up, and lying down will feel good."

This suggestion quickly gained everyone’s approval.

With the leaves nearly done frying, the men returned from gathering firewood.

Contrary to the sadness when they left, they returned all smiling.

"Why do I smell meat?"

A child with a sharp nose took a deep breath and ran towards his dad, "Dad, did you eat meat? I smell meat!"

With the child’s words, everyone subconsciously sniffed, indeed catching faint scents of roasting meat.

The men in front chuckled, "A lot of animals were burned to death in the forest. We found quite a few intact ones and brought them back; once tidied up, they’re edible."

This news instantly enlivened the previously somber crowd.

Though their homes were destroyed, having a meat meal was good news!

After eating and drinking their fill, they would be better prepared to find a new home.