Early in the morning, everyone in Hedong Village was informed and asked to go to the patriarch’s home to discuss matters.

When we arrived at the patriarch's house, the patriarch Lin Youwang moved a chair and sat next to him, leisurely drinking the wild tea he picked in the mountains.

Lin Xiaoman and Lin Erhu were standing behind him, peeling something to eat, and feeding Lin Xiniu, the five-year-old grandson of the Lin family, a bite from time to time.

Lin Daqiang stood on the steps in front of the door, and when everyone was almost there, he made a gesture, and the crowd gradually became quiet.

"Everyone knows that life is difficult for siblings Xiaoman and Erhu, so they just want to go up the mountain to get some food to survive the winter."

As he spoke, his eyes swept across the faces of Old Man Lin and his family, and everyone in the village followed his gaze.

The faces of Old Man Lin and his family were all gloomy, and Old Mrs. Lin was even more angry, "Chief, you called us here early in the morning just to settle old scores? You and your father were both here when the family was separated yesterday.

We have given everything we have given. You are the head of our clan, so you can’t let your heart wander so far.”

Lin Daqiang sneered coldly, "If you don't do bad things, you won't be afraid of ghosts knocking on your door in the middle of the night. Did I mention your house?"

Seeing that Mrs. Lin pursed her lips and could not speak, Lin Daqiang snorted and then continued: "Xiaoman and Erhu picked some thorn balls back from the mountain. They fried them last night and brought them to me. They said that their mother often made them when she was alive.

Eat. I thought it was delicious when I tasted it. The most important thing is that the thorn balls are enough to keep me full."

The crowd below immediately started buzzing with discussion.

Last year, the ground dragon came over and all the houses were collapsed. Most of the villagers used up all their family funds to build new houses. Who knows that there will be a drought again this year. It will be difficult to eat the remaining food through the winter. Every household is worried.

How to live in the future.

At this time, I discovered new foods that I could eat, which can be said to be life-saving food.

"Chief, are you talking about the thorny ball that stings and hurts? Last year I went up the mountain to cut firewood and was hit on the head by a thorny ball that fell from the tree. It hurt. Can that thing be eaten?"

Lin Daqiang looked at Lin Xiaoman who was eating deliciously. The villagers also looked at him, and saw the sister and brother pinching it with their small hands and throwing it into their mouths. A closer look revealed that the shell thrown on the ground really looked like the inside of a thorny ball.

The longer one.

The rich aunt in the village shouted: "Erhu, give me a taste."

Lin Erhu reluctantly threw one over, and Aunt Fugui followed the example of the siblings and gently squeezed open the shell, revealing the golden and soft flesh inside.

As soon as I put it in my mouth, my eyes immediately widened, "Sweet, so sweet!"

Lin Erhu raised his chin proudly, "It's fried with sugar and oil, can it not be sweet? Is your family willing to fry it with sugar and oil?"

"That's not the case!" Aunt Fugui immediately looked disappointed, but then she thought about it, she could eat it without frying it with sugar and oil.

So he said to Lin Daqiang: "Then what are you waiting for? I'll go home and get the basket right now."

Although the people next to me have never tasted the taste of thorn cones, they know that they can be eaten, and they are full of fighting spirit.

"Yes, patriarch, go up the mountain to pick the thorn balls. Don't let the people from other villages get the message and pick all the thorn balls away."

"Don't worry! Listen to what I have to say." Lin Daqiang raised his hand to stop everyone's chattering, "I was thinking that in addition to the strong laborers in the village, I would like to ask the women and children of the family to go up the mountain with them this time, so as to get an early breakfast

Pick all the thorn balls back. Also, if there are no strong laborers in the family, we can't just watch people starve to death. Like the second lady in the west of the village. The second lady is old and has inconvenient legs and feet. The second lady broke it last year.

My legs can't be followed up the mountain. He also has two dogs and his wife, who is now a lonely widowed mother with a young child, can't carry much up the mountain. I just thought, let those who can't follow up the mountain stay at home to prepare food, and the rest can go up the mountain.

We go up the mountain together, no matter how many we pick, put them in one place, and then divide them according to their heads."

After hearing this, most of the villagers agreed. A few of them thought it was for no reason, but Lin Daqiang glanced at them and shut up.

"The thorny balls that Xiaoman and Erhu discovered were edible. Why didn't they hide them and eat them secretly? Isn't it so that the whole village can have enough to eat? You old men are just complaining.

, are you not afraid that something will happen to your family one day, and others will look on coldly?"

Immediately, some people stood up and dropped their heads. They lowered their heads and did not dare to say anything.

In this world, there are constant natural disasters, and they dare not say that they will always be safe.

After seeing that the villagers agreed, Lin Daqiang asked the villagers to go back and wear thicker clothes to avoid being pricked by thorn balls. He also wrapped a thick layer of cloth on his hands to be more careful when picking.

Almost everyone in the village who could walk and jump followed them up the mountain. Those who went up the mountain first had already found a forest of thorn balls and stopped to pick them. The people at the foot of the mountain had not yet gone up the mountain.

Lin Xiaoman and his brother walked ahead with Lin Daqiang. When they saw the first thorn ball forest, they stopped and asked people to put the newly fallen fruits on the ground into baskets and transport them to the side.

Women and children who are weak will use stones to gently break the outer shell, and then pick out the fruits inside. After filling a basket, they will be carried down the mountain.

After picking up the fruits on the ground, let a few people put baskets on their heads and beat the thorn ball tree with long sticks, knocking all the fruits off the tree.

After that, some people were left to work here, and they took others to look for it in the mountains.

From morning to night, baskets of peeled chestnuts were carried down the mountain, with everyone smiling and saying good things about Xiaoman and his brother.

When it got dark and Lin Daqiang returned to the village with the people who had gone up the mountain, the smell of roasted chestnuts floated in Hedong Village.

People who stayed in the village didn't cook all day long. When they were hungry, they grabbed a handful of roasted chestnuts and ate them.

In the afternoon, Lin Xiaoman stopped going up the mountain and taught the women in the village how to eat chestnuts. Although they are not as sweet as fried chestnuts, the chestnuts themselves are very sweet and soft, and are much more delicious than whole grains.

.

Everyone who went up the mountain today also received half a bag of roasted chestnuts. In addition to what they eat at night, the rest can be taken to the mountain to eat tomorrow.

That night, most villagers no longer worried about food for the winter, and they all had a good sleep.

In contrast, Mr. Lin and his family could not sleep all night.

Old man Lin was sitting on the bedside, smoking his cigarette pipe. Old lady Lin was so choked that she lay down at the end of the bed, "I smoke all day long, why don't I smoke you to death?"

Old man Lin dared to be angry but did not dare to speak, so he knocked the pipe pot on the sole of his shoe.

Old Mrs. Lin turned over and said, "What do you think Xiaoman and Erhu are thinking? Before the separation, they didn't say that the thorn balls could be eaten. This time, they went to the patriarch to show their courtesy. Isn't this obvious?

Do we think we are grandparents? You didn’t hear how unpleasant those people in the village said.”

"Don't listen to it if it doesn't sound right!" Old Lin took off his shoes and lay down on the bed. His mind was full of the villagers' sarcastic words, and he felt depressed. It was rare for him to be brave in front of Old Mrs. Lin.

Old Mrs. Lin would have been furious in the past, but today she seems to be a different person. She was silent for a long time before pushing Old Lin, "Do you think those two little bastards know how their mother died?"<

/p>

Old man Lin shivered, and the sleepiness that had just brewed was immediately driven away, "What nonsense are you talking about in the middle of the night? There were only two of us and the second child in the house that day. The second child is dead, how could they know
Chapter completed!