"Gu Xiaoyu, stand still for me!" Niu Dazhuang held a big stick and surrounded Gu Xiaoyu with his brothers. He pointed at the sweet potatoes in Gu Xiaoyu's arms and said, "Hand over the sweet potatoes."

Gu Xiaoyu held the sweet potato, looking at the five Niu brothers surrounding her, “No, this is the sweet potato I earned from working. It’s not yours.”

The state of Chu in the northwest suffered from a severe drought for two years. There was no harvest, and it became so difficult to even get drinking water that people were desperate. They had no other choice but to flee their homes, becoming refugees. The Gu Xiaoyu family was one such refugee family.

This sweet potato was given as a reward for carrying the child of Lin Houde's family from their village all day, and it is to be eaten by my younger brother Cheng.

The Niu brothers were notorious scoundrels. On their escape, they robbed other travelers' food. Seeing that the victim wasn't giving in, Niu Dazhuang glared fiercely and roared, "You won't give? Brothers, rob them for me!"

Although Gu Xiaoyu is only ten years old, she has developed a fierce spirit on the road of fleeing. When the Niu brothers came to snatch food, she bit Niu Erzhuang's hand and pushed Niu Xiazhuang aside who was surrounding her. Then, she grabbed sweet potatoes and ran away.

Niu Da Zhuang, seeing Gu Xiaoyu dare to run, was thoroughly enraged. His eyes flashed with malice. As he was about to catch up with Gu Xiaoyu, he swung his big stick towards him.

Bang!

Gu Xiaoyu was hit on the back of the head, blood flowing out, her vision darkened, and she fell to the ground unconscious.

Niu Dazhuang grinned triumphantly: “Let you run, looking for death thing.”

He pried open Gu Xiaoyu's hand and took the sweet potato, swallowing it in three bites. Gu Xiaoyu was choked and rolled his eyes.

The remaining four Niu brothers caught up, saw that the sweet potatoes were gone, and dared not hit Niu Dazhuang. They could only angrily kick Gu Xiaoyu who was lying on the ground: "You good-for-nothing, unlucky star, you dare to run away? I'll kill you!"

After their vengeance was fulfilled, the five brothers left, leaving Gu Xiaoyu unconscious on the ground.

As evening approached, hordes of refugees stopped their journey, their skeletal frames dragging them down to the foothills. They searched for scraps of food. Upon seeing Gu XiaoYu lying unconscious, they merely glanced at her before turning away and continuing their search.

After fleeing for more than three months, people dying on the road became commonplace. The refugees were desensitized to it.

Some villagers from Gujia Village were looking for food in the area. They saw Gu Xiaoyu being knocked unconscious and hurriedly went to inform his mother, Cui Shi.

Mrs. Cui arrived with her eldest son, Gu Jinshiu, carrying Gu Xiaoyu back to the resting place at the foot of the mountain.

Gu Xiaoyu was seriously injured. After being carried back, she remained unconscious. Gu Dashan had no choice but to go to Gu Laotai for food and medicine to save her life.

"A loser, and he still wants his wife to feed the doctor? What's there to treat? In this world, people die every day. There's no point in treating them. Just dig a hole and bury them when they die. That's enough."

Grandmother Gu pointed at Gu Dashan kneeling on the ground and scolded: "You still have the face to come to me for food? I haven't even mentioned that wretched girl yet. You're a heartless thing! After getting food, you don't think about respecting your own family, but only Cheng Ge'er. One red potato? Cheng Ge'er is a child who is not even four years old, can he eat it? Don't you worry about choking him?"

Gu Dayan was scolded until his head hung low, but he still had to continue begging Gu Lao Tai: "Mother, please, for your son, just half a bowl of grain, that's all. Little Fish really can't hold on any longer."

The little fish has been knocked unconscious and is still in a coma. If we don't take it to see a doctor soon, the little fish might never wake up again.

“Half a bowl of grain!” Old Madam Gu cried out loudly, patting her chest: “Listen, my fellow villagers, listen to this! Is this human talk? Half a bowl of grain, what kind of time is it now? To actually ask me for half a bowl of grain, this is going to kill all the people in my Old Gu family!”

The villagers from Gujia all fled together, and now they were huddled together for the night. Hearing what Old Madam Gu said, no one spoke up, pretending not to have heard, each family busy starting fires and roasting their dried rations.

Grandma Gu's slightly crooked corner of her mouth lifted up, knowing that on this journey of fleeing, even if the eldest family was relentlessly tormented, no one would dare to criticize them. Survival was difficult, who would care about other people's business?

Old Mrs. Gu's little boy piped up beside her, complaining, “That’s right! Food is so expensive these days. If you give me half a bowl, what will our whole family eat? We’ll starve to death!”

"Little sister!" Gu Dashan's eyes were red with tears: "This half bowl of grain is Xiao Yu's life-saving ration. Without grain, we can't afford to see the doctor, and Xiao Yu won't last."

Gu Xiaomei sneered: "Look at what Big Brother is saying, we're fleeing famine, how can anyone survive this journey? Only your son's life is precious! The whole family, with just one child and a few juniors, wants to grab food from so many elders, aren't you afraid of shortening your lifespan?"

"Why are you making such a fuss? We have plenty of grain at home. You and your brother-in-law get more than one bowl of rice every day." He only wanted half a bowl to save his life.

Gu Xiaojie has always been domineering. Hearing this, she couldn't just let it go and immediately burst into tears: "Woooo, I knew my family disliked our couple. Yes, as an outsider who got married, I shouldn't bring my husband back to my parents' house, eating their food, but my husband's family is gone. If we don't go back to my parents' house, will my husband and I die?"

Old Madam Gu loved this youngest son dearly. Even during the escape, she didn't forget to take him and his wife along. She shared her food with them as well as with Uncle Gu Er's family. On this journey, everyone was looked after except for Little Sister Gu and her husband, and Big Brother Gu's family.

Seeing that Little Seven was crying, Old Madam Gu became furious and rushed forward to beat up Gu Dashan: "You heartless wretch, you beast! She is your sister, and you actually want her to die. Are you even human?"

"Old Man Gu, you look over there at your eldest son. He wants to kill his own sister! Are you going to do something about it?"

Master Gu was sixty-five years old, and after a day's journey, he was exhausted. He couldn't be bothered with this matter. To him, one grandson wasn't much different from none at all. Dead is dead.

Gu Xiaomei saw that Gu Laotai was supporting her waist, and Gu Lao Yezi remained silent, crying even harder.

Not far from a campfire.

Gu Jinan heard Gu Laotai's words and his eyes turned red: "This is to cost Xiao Yu her life."

Anything without food is just an excuse.

"Eat more, knowing that food is precious and expensive. You have been hiding a bag of food for so long, while your sister-in-law's family, big aunt's family, second uncle, third uncle, and fourth uncle's family, each carry a small bag of food hidden in their clothes. Each bag is about the size of a bowl. How come there is no food?"

To hoard so much food yet be unwilling to give out even half a bowl to save a small fish, while they and their son go out every day to find food for the whole family!

Mrs. Cui had a sorrowful expression on her face, so thin she resembled a skeleton. She looked at Gu Xiaoyu who was in a coma and silently wept.

Gu Jinshu held Gu Jin Cheng, both siblings were too afraid to speak.

Gu Jinyan looked at them, then at Gu Dashan who was still kneeling in the distance, knowing that this couldn't go on. He said to Cui Shi, "Mother, I'm going out for a while. You and elder sister take good care of Xiaoyu."

Before Cui could speak, the person had already run into the night.

Gu Jin'an, though young, was clever and capable. After asking several close family friends for help, he finally borrowed half a bowl of grain and found a doctor to treat Gu Xiaoyu.

The doctor surnamed Du often treated the disaster victims on his way to escape, exchanging for a certain amount of grain or water.

He applied golden wound medicine to Gu Xiaoyu's wounds, bandaged them, and after giving him a few more acupuncture treatments, he put away his silver needles and said, "Since I have no pen and ink, I won't write the prescription. I will come over every day to give Xiaoyu acupuncture to dissipate blood stasis. Let's see again in three days."

Gu Jinan and several others wept bitterly.

Doctor Du looked at their excited faces and finally reminded them: "Xiaoyu was injured in the head. If she can wake up in three days, it's good, but if not... you have to be prepared."

Gu Jinfan and a few others heard this and their faces turned pale.

Dr. Du couldn't bear to see them like this, so he put on his medicine bag and took his leave.