The Daily Life of Farming and Raising Children in Ancient Mountain Residences

Chapter 188: Madness

“From the butcher in Sanli Village?”

“Yes. Three days ago, when we went out hunting, we encountered their family being attacked by a pack of wolves. We helped them, but Zheng the butcher lost an arm, and their daughter… well, she seems to have gone mad.”

Sang Luo only then learned that the butcher’s surname was Zheng, but that detail hardly mattered now. What she heard was that Zheng’s daughter had gone mad?

Sang Luo was stunned.

The Zheng family’s daughter she knew was the chubby woman who had eagerly bought the divine tofu the first time she sold it. The next time they met, she called her the Tofu Lady. She had wanted to buy some meat and was led to Sang Luo’s meat stall, where her father had helped her out.

She was cheerful and loved to laugh, with two little dimples on her face. Her name was Daniu, and she was quite favored in her family. The butcher and his wife even remembered to buy tofu for their married daughter.

Sang Luo muttered, “How could this happen?”

There was a small bonfire lit in the deeper part of the entrance cave, and Shen Lie could clearly see Sang Luo’s expression.

“Do you know Zheng the butcher’s daughter?”

Sang Luo nodded. “I’ve met her a few times. She’s a very warm-hearted person.”

Seeing that Sang Luo knew her, Shen Lie hesitated to continue but eventually said, “Zheng’s daughter was already married, and her in-laws lived in the village. They were reluctant to leave their crops and property, so they didn’t escape. Later, the whole family moved to the county, but we don’t know exactly what happened. However, we heard that a child, about two years old, went missing.”

The mention of a missing child opened up a multitude of terrible possibilities, leaving both Sang Luo and Zhou Cunzheng speechless for a moment.

Shen Lie also found it hard to continue and skipped over some details, saying, “Zheng the butcher’s family reacted quickly and hid in the nearby mountains when the troops arrived, but it was too late to persuade his daughter and son-in-law to leave. They were taken into the city by the officials.”

“And then?” Zhou Cunzheng couldn’t help but ask, “How did Zheng the butcher’s daughter end up?”

Shen Lie said, “Zheng the butcher’s family kept watch over his daughter and didn’t leave far, hiding in the nearby mountains. When they realized the situation in the city was bad and couldn’t wait for the citizens to come out, Zheng the butcher ruthlessly pretended to be a refugee and joined the bandits.”

“His daughter was brought out, but she lost an arm in the process.”

Zhou Cunzheng bowed his head.

Compared to other families in Shili Village, theirs was somewhat better off. They bought more meat and were quite familiar with Zheng the butcher, even watching Zheng’s Daniu grow up.

Now, one was an amputee and the other had gone mad. The mood was heavy and silent.

Shen Lie looked at Sang Luo and said, “Ah Luo, Zheng’s daughter was protecting her young nephew from the wolves, and her arm was badly torn. She was okay at first, but today we heard she developed a high fever. We have plenty of fever-reducing medicine at home. Can you help send two prescriptions over?”

As he spoke, Shen Lie hesitated slightly. He wasn’t sure how long they would have to hide in the mountains, and medicine was quite precious, essential for life in critical times. However, since they had sold ginseng and furs and had enough silver, they had stocked up on medicine, especially fever reducers.

The village children were hardy, and everyone paid extra attention. Except for a time when An Ning had a severe fever and took some medicine, they had rarely used any medicine. Although Sang Luo was not acquainted with Zheng the butcher, let alone his daughter, a life was still a life.

Without much thought, Sang Luo agreed, “Alright, you let me down, and I’ll go fetch the medicine.”

She tied the rope back around her body.

Zhou Cunzheng, hearing that Shen Lie and Sang Luo were sending two prescriptions, thought for a moment and said, “I’ll also give one prescription. I watched that child grow up. I won’t go down, so it’s hard for you, Ah Luo, to fetch it from my wife.”

Sang Luo acknowledged, secured the rope, and carefully descended.

After retrieving her own medicine, she went to Zhou’s home. Zhou Cunzheng’s wife, upon hearing about Zheng the butcher’s family, trembled and was momentarily stunned before nodding repeatedly. She carried an oil lamp and went inside to search for herbs. After some time, she remembered that she couldn’t read, so she called Sang Luo in to help identify the fever-reducing herbs.

After Sang Luo left, Zhou’s two daughters-in-law asked about the situation, and she murmured, “How could she have gone mad?”

Zhou’s eldest daughter-in-law, hearing that a child over two years old had died, clutched her chest in shock. As a mother herself, she couldn’t bear to think about how the child had died, which could drive a mother to madness. She clutched her clothing tightly and felt as if she couldn’t breathe.

Zhou’s second daughter-in-law also trembled and couldn’t speak.

……

Sang Luo couldn’t sleep that night, lying in bed lost in thought.

After a long silence, Shen Lie thought she had fallen asleep and quietly extinguished the oil lamp on the wall.

As he lay down on the small bed beside her, Sang Luo wanted to ask when the Daqian Dynasty would fall and when the new dynasty would rise. But she realized these were beyond their control and lost interest in pursuing the thought.

The next time Sang Luo saw Zheng Daniu was when she went to deliver the medicine the following day.

To ensure the safety of the family, Zheng’s family had grouped together for mutual protection. After being saved by Shen Lie and his group, they followed Shen Lie’s suggestion to become neighbors with Zhou Laizi’s family.

Instead of choosing a cave in the nearby mountains, they settled on a piece of land directly across from Zhou’s house at the edge of the forest. They had only set up two simple shelters, with the family currently building a simple wooden house.

For water, they used a small spring in the mountains behind their house. Zheng’s family had used bamboo tubes to channel the water from the mountains to their home. They would seal the tubes when not in use and open them when needed, living next to Zhou’s family in this manner.

When Sang Luo and Shen Lie arrived, Zheng the butcher and his wife still recognized her and called her the Tofu Lady. Zheng Daniu, lying in the shelter, was already delirious with fever. In fact, if not for recognizing Zheng the butcher and his wife, Sang Luo might not have recognized Zheng Daniu even if she had seen her.

She had lost so much weight that her facial features had changed significantly.

Since they weren’t very familiar, Sang Luo didn’t say much. She handed the three packets of medicine to Zheng the butcher’s wife and said, “This is fever-reducing medicine from our family and from Zhou Cunzheng. We only had enough to make three packets. Please use these for Daniu first.”

When Zheng the butcher’s wife heard it was fever-reducing medicine, tears fell from her eyes. She bent her knees as if to kneel on the ground, but Sang Luo quickly stopped her: “Auntie, please don’t. I’m young, and I can’t accept such a gesture.”

“How could I not show my gratitude for saving lives?” The woman still tried to kneel, but Sang Luo quickly moved aside and helped her up.

Zheng’s daughter-in-law saw Sang Luo struggling and came over to help support her mother-in-law, with red eyes thanking Sang Luo.

The daughter-in-law’s son had been saved by Sang Luo. Although he was unconscious and the wolves that attacked were stopped by her own body, her son was still alive because of her efforts.

After delivering the medicine, Sang Luo didn’t stay long. She left Zheng the butcher’s family and returned to Zhou’s home with Shen Lie, picking up Shopkeeper Xu, Zhou Erlang, Lu Sanlang, and Zhou Laizi’s eldest son before heading out.

Currently, only Zhou’s eldest son was going out, while Zhou Laizi and Zhou Erlang stayed behind to help build the house and stone walls for Zheng’s family and to protect their own wives and children.

As they passed Zheng’s house, Zheng the butcher hurried out and asked Shen Lie if, after the wooden house was finished, he could also take their family with him. Since Shen Lie had already led them here and it had effectively made them half-allies, he wouldn’t refuse, agreeing to bring Zheng’s family along when he took Zhou’s family members with him.

……

After being away for seven or eight days, Sang Luo noticed that the number of people in the inner area had clearly increased. It wasn’t about seeing more people face-to-face, but rather the wild fruits that could be picked in the mountains had significantly decreased. Many fruit trees they had previously discovered had already had their ripe fruits picked, and those that weren’t fully ripe were still on the trees. When they went back now, only the trees remained.

It was evident that someone had been there.

However, Sang Luo wasn’t worried. Even though the fruits on the branches were gone, there were still plenty of edible things hidden in the mountains. For instance, yams would be ready to dig up in about twenty days, wild ginger had just been found in a bamboo grove, and there were stone mushrooms growing on the rock walls and crevices.

Shopkeeper Xu and his group really felt that Sang Luo could find edible things in places where they thought nothing could be found.

Wild ginger was one thing; although they didn’t recognize it, they at least knew what ginger was. But the black, slimy stuff on the rock walls—could it really be edible?

Since Sang Luo said it was edible, no one doubted her and they all started collecting it.

With Sang Luo’s skills and Shen Lie’s presence, these people, having followed Shen Lie and Chen Dashan for almost a year, had also developed some skills. They were now able to explore areas that newcomers to the inner area wouldn’t dare to venture into. As long as Shen Lie was careful to avoid particularly dangerous creatures, they could manage to explore. So, the initial concern quickly eased.

……

Outside the mountains, another group of people lacked such skills.

Not far from where Xu’s family had previously hidden their grain, two oddly dressed men were sneaking back, pushing through a bush and slipping into the cave.

If they had been closer, it would have been clear why their appearance was so disheveled. Their hair was singed, and not just them—inside the cave, there was an old man and a woman in a similar state, and a young girl who had wrapped her head in cloth. The whole family looked extremely worn out.

As soon as the two brothers entered the cave, the woman anxiously asked, “Did you find anything to eat?”

The two brothers let go of their bundle, which contained only a small amount of ferns and wild onions.

The older brother said, “Dad, this area has been searched by so many people. We couldn’t find anything else edible. This is all we recognized.”

The younger brother added, “Let’s move further into the mountains. Our food is gone. If we stay here in this cave, even if we’re not found by mountain bandits, we’ll probably end up eating leaves.”

If Shopkeeper Xu, Shen Lie, or Sang Luo had been there, they would have recognized the two brothers as none other than the Dong brothers from Dongfulou.

The family’s hair wasn’t the only thing singed; their clothes also looked ill-fitting, as if they had been scavenged from somewhere.

The old man hesitated, “If we go further into the mountains, how will we deal with wild animals?”

Dong Ge’er said, “We can’t just wait here. We need to try and see how far we can go. We have to head to a place where there’s food.”

His older brother pressed his lips together and said, “Dad, let’s go further in. This place is too close to the outside. Not only do we have to guard against thieves, but we also have to worry about whether the general outside will conscript us. We should see if there are others with a similar situation to ours, not those who are extremely ruthless, and maybe team up with them.”

The family had really hidden enough and were thoroughly frightened over the past three months.

Whether it was officials or bandits, no one truly valued their lives.

Seeing the ferns and wild onions in his wife’s hands, the old man finally made up his mind, “Alright, let’s gather some food, regain our strength, and head out immediately.”