The mother and daughter had a simple dinner, dried sweet potato powder mixed with cornmeal to make a porridge.

  Additionally, there was a dish of stir-fried greens, but no mantou or dried provisions.

  Because she didn't go to work, Mother had only two meals a day.

  When she was hungry, there would be a dry bun for her.

  She used to love eating roasted sweet potatoes and stir-fried greens, now she loathes them just as much.

  Meat, she could probably have it only during Chinese New Year for these five years.

  What can be called a meal is also what's left after giving grandma some meat scraps.

  The mother and daughter's life is very hard on weekdays.

  She wasn't one who never complained, but complaining was useless because her mother said so.

  "Your grandmother doesn't want to see us, we can't be like her, if we're like her, others will talk about us."

  The mother and daughter were originally unpopular in the village, if they also became unfilial, then they would be waiting to be driven out.

  Li Xiang naturally understood Li Hua's helplessness and from then on never mentioned his dissatisfaction again.

  The bland vegetables were being chewed dryly in their mouths when the village was suddenly filled with the urgent sound of clashing cymbals, and the mother-daughter pair both froze at the same time.

  Li Hua hastily drank up the porridge in her bowl and put down her chopsticks before saying to her.

  "Perhaps the captain has something to report, I'll go to the headquarters right away."

  "Stay home and be good, leave your bowl here, I'll wash it when I get back!"

  ——

  An hour later.

  Li Hua ran back home in a hurry, just after she had tidied up the pots and pans.

  Although Li Hua said she would wait for her to come back and brush, Li Xiang is not really five years old.

  She's a grown-up and has reached an age where she should understand things, so naturally she wouldn't expect everything from her mother.

  "Hurry up, kid, let's quickly pack our things and head up the mountain!"

  "Mom, why are we climbing a mountain for no reason? It's already dark and it's still raining!"

  Li Hua was on the verge of tears.

  "I know, we must not only climb the mountain but also bring food with us."

  "The captain said, since we are near the Luo River and it's raining so heavily, there might be a flood,"

  "Tell all commune members (people's commune big canteen members) to hurry back home and pack their belongings, even in the dark they must go up the mountain!"

  Li Xiang's small mouth instantly opened into an O shape, and his beautiful eyes also widened in surprise.

  "Will it be a flood? A big flood?"

  Li Hua couldn't care about her own daughter and hastily ran into the house to pack up things.

  Li Xiang was already stunned on the spot, his mind full of the terrifying scene when the flood came.

  She didn't think it was true at first, but Qingcheng County had been raining for a month in a row. If it continued like this, it would be strange if the river didn't flood.

  She couldn't help but shudder and quickly followed Li Hua into the house.

  "Mom, what should we bring?"

  Li Hua looked at the things in her home with a heartache.

  "We two women can't carry much either, let's just pick up the essentials like food and a change of clothes, we can't bother with anything else!"

  The nearest mountain is not close to them, it takes half a day's walk, but it's close to Lianjia Village, and can be reached in an hour.

  After the mother and daughter finished packing up their things, Li Xiang once again searched through the places his mother had looked at, and on the way, he collected all the useful items into his space.

  Because all the grain sent was sweet potatoes, Li Hua couldn't carry it all at once, so she could only carry one bag first, and then come back to carry the rest after sending the children up the mountain.

  When they arrived at the big locust tree at the entrance of the village, there were already many people in the village holding umbrellas or plastic sheets standing near the big tree waiting.

  Everyone was talking and discussing, some believing, some not, with complaints and worries in their words.

  The mother and daughter rarely interacted with people in the village, so they found a deserted place to stand under a tattered plastic sheet.