Yindu, Punjab.

Riksh sat upright behind the gate of his home with an axe in his hand, and his eyes sharply scanned the road outside the door through the crack. His body was tight and his face was sweating like rain.

He finally knew why he bought the axe.

He, who had almost no longer believed in God, suddenly felt God's favor at the moment when the riot began.

Yes, it was the god who made him see this axe, and then he bought it through some special inspiration. When he repeatedly thought about the purpose of this axe, he also vaguely noticed the impending crisis.

Once this sense of crisis was established, it began to constantly urge him to prepare. For this reason, he strengthened and raised the courtyard wall and built a basement, teaching his wife and daughter how to block the entrance from the basement and how to live in it until the end of the crisis.

Each of these tasks is extremely difficult, but it is precisely because of the faith given to him by the gods that he can complete all preparations within a month, before the riots completely broke out.

And now, his preparations are about to come in handy.

The food is finished.

The wheat is sold out.

But money has become worthless.

The price of flour has increased by 8 times in just one month, and even the price of potatoes has increased by 6 times. At such a price, it is still difficult to buy enough food for a day.

Where did the food go?

This problem is the second puzzled question that Riksh faced in the past two months. The first is who is buying wheat.

However, now he doesn't have so much energy to think about this issue. His full attention is now on how to protect the safety of himself and his family.

In fact, when he first bought food, he had already vaguely anticipated the current situation, so he did not take the initiative to expose the fact that he had food stored at home in front of anyone, and his daily diet was extremely restrained, but even so, it still could not stop some rumor from spreading in the outside world.

At the beginning, he didn't know the reason for this kind of gossip, but now he has figured it out.

There is only one reason, that is, he did not do anything to kill and set fire with others.

Yes, when everyone around you is setting fire for a bite of murder and food, if you are not involved, then it is very likely that you will be the next target to be killed.

For the sake of his wife and daughter, Reksh had several times plundered the courage to follow the crowd to plunder other villagers who had stored food. He even got some food in the early stage, but the desperate eyes of the looted villagers made him unable to eat the food calmly.

After witnessing the mad villagers not only snatched food, but also raped the other party's wife and daughter, and killed her husband and only son in front of her wife and daughter. He could no longer resist the condemnation of his conscience and finally chose to return to his home, intending to rely on the defenses he built before to survive this difficult period.

The potatoes that he had stolen from someone else's house were buried in the soil in the yard by him. Maybe in a few months, he would be able to harvest a lot of potatoes, enough to support everyone in the other party's house, but they no longer had time to wait.

After both major labor forces were killed, the only women who remained could not resist this winter--no, winter was too far away, and they could not even survive the week ahead.

The animal desires of those villagers will make them die miserably.

Ricksh hammered his head in pain, and the axe in his hand became tighter and tighter. The daughter behind him gently patted his shoulder. This simple action scared him so much that he almost rushed off the stool.

After calming down, Riksh asked:

"What's wrong? Didn't I let you stay in the room?"

“I should go to school.”

My daughter Geshima looked a little hesitant.

From her father's mouth she had clearly known the dangers of the current situation, but she still could not resist the urge to go to school.

In the short two weeks of school, she had learned many words and saw many things she had never seen before, and these things could almost be said to have opened the door to a brand new world for her.

Yes, as my father said, what I saw was completely different from what I had never been to school.

This is her and her family, the only chance to change her destiny. It is also the slim hope that she spent a whole year of living expenses for the whole family.

She absolutely did not want such hope to be shattered--even if she knew that when she went out at this time, she would probably not be able to come back.

Riksh's expression was even more painful when he heard Geshima's words.

He could not comfort his daughter and said that the chaos would soon pass, because both himself and Geshima knew that such chaos would never end before the next harvest of food.

After thinking for a while, he spoke:

"You can't go to school now. Geshima, I understand what you think, but now is not the time."

"You want to go to school, you want to read your books, you want to learn something new, which is great, but you have to live first."

"The guards in the school will not be stronger than ours, but the food in the school will definitely be more than ours, so that's a dangerous place."

"After our neighbors' food is robbed, they will start to rob the school food--you know everything about Uncle Oma's house, right? They won't let a little girl like you go, do you understand?"

Geshima wanted to say something, but after she opened her mouth, she said nothing.

She just nodded obediently, then turned around and returned to the house, walked to her mother's side and sat down on the ground.

The fire on the simple stove has risen. In order to prevent the scent of food from attracting hungry villagers outside, they have eaten potatoes cooked in water since many days ago - the only seasoning is the crushed salt and peppers placed on the plate.

Even if these foods are placed in the poorest areas of this country, they are not considered luxurious food. However, at this time, a potato can even take away a life in some extreme scenarios.

The world is already like purgatory.

Rickash was still staring at the door nervously. The sky was getting darker. His wife handed him the cool potatoes on a plate. He swallowed one of them voraciously, and then stuffed the other back into his wife's hand.

"Eat another one, you've been sitting for a day..."

The wife spoke gently.

Rickash shook his head and replied:

"No, I can't eat it. I'll have to go out to fetch water tomorrow. I have to make myself look hungry..."

However, before he finished speaking, some changes suddenly occurred on the road outside the crack of the door that made his pupils shrink suddenly.

A group of people appeared at the end of the road, and those people were walking towards their homes with machetes and sticks in their hands.

"Go to the basement!"

Rickash shouted anxiously.

Hearing his words, his wife immediately packed up the food that had not been finished and walked back. Just as she opened the secret door in the basement to walk down, Reksh suddenly called her and said:

"Leave that potato and take your plates down!"

At this moment, his mind was unprecedentedly clear. He had even imagined how he would fabricate a lie that his wife and daughter had been sent away and that he could barely survive with the food he had stolen before.

After closing the secret door in the basement, he quickly covered the soil with his hands and feet, then sat outside the house, leaned against the wall, and began to taste the remaining potatoes carefully.

This potato will be part of his plan.

Halfway through the meal, the noise of the crowd was already heard outside the door. His palms were a little sweaty, but his limp sitting posture did not change at all.

One minute.

He heard the sound of the door of his neighbor's house being kicked open, the crying of the children, the screams of women, and the dull sound of sticks hitting the human body.

Five minutes later, the robbered crowd burst into cheers, followed by curses.

For 10 minutes, the chaotic sound once again approached his door.
Chapter completed!