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Jiang Sanlang and his party hadn’t returned yet, dozens of young and able men had gone with him to cut bamboo and make arrows.

Some were in the woods collecting firewood and searching for water sources, ferrying the purified water up the mountain in bamboo pipes and pots.

By this point, the sky was bright, and the adults and children in the cave were starting to wake up.

Chaos ensued once again as many people anxiously tried to make their way down the mountain, especially the women, for they had to relieve themselves below the mountain.

But the narrow and winding path made it impossible to quickly descend, leaving many people all atwitter.

Upon seeing this, several older women set up a simple latrine at a cliff-facing corner of the cave entrance using bamboo poles and old hemp cloth, solving everyone’s need to relieve themselves.

The next hurdle was finding drinking water, an even more daunting task than relieving themselves.

Without water they couldn’t cook, and without food, everyone would go hungry.

They could bear the hunger for a day or two, but any longer and they would start to feel weak.

The Jiang family brought two gourds of water; Sister-in-law Zhou of the Jiang family picked one up and shook it, feeling that only half the water was left.

Filching none of it, she used some to wash the pot clean, added rice, and directly poured the water to cook porridge.

To rinse the rice at this point was a luxury, because there were no water sources nearby.

Old man Jiang mentioned that to fetch water one must either travel several miles or find a narrow spring flowing from the crevice of the mountain.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, Yingbao stealthily went to the gourd, pulled out the plug, pressed her hand over the mouth of the gourd, and poured half a gourd of water into it, repeating the action with the other gourd as well.

She wanted to fill them completely, but doing so might have raised suspicions. If there was only half a gourd left, maybe their grandaunts would think they were wrong.

After performing such a ruse, Yingbao walked away nonchalantly and took out some boiled water chestnuts from her pocket to give to her little brother to snack on.

Jiang Jie and Jiang Wu, upon receiving the treats, did not forget to share one each with Wei Zhan, Yuanbao, and Huzi.

The five young boys sat around on mats, playing rock-paper-scissors; the loser had to bark like a dog.

The two puppies played around next to them, occasionally joining in and barking.

“Sister-in-law He, do you still have any water?” Clan Leader’s wife from the Tang family came over to borrow some water to cook with.

Sister Zhou regretfully responded, “I just used it to cook the porridge. Why don’t you check if there’s any left?”

Upon hearing this, the Tang matron was a bit disappointed, she looked at the two large gourds by the mountain wall and decided to pick one up and shake it.

It wasn’t as light as she imagined. On the contrary, it seemed quite heavy, suggesting that there was still a lot of water inside.

You must know that these two large gourds were bigger than water basins; half a gourd of water was quite a lot.

Upon discovering this, the Tang matron was overjoyed, “Oh, there is still quite a bit of water here! I’ll use it right away, thank you, Sister Zhou.”

She then carried the gourd of water back to her own side to cook after saying so.

Sister Zhou was left puzzled but didn’t give it much thought.

She knew she had left some water, but not much; it didn’t seem to be enough to cook with.

But with Tang claiming there was plenty of water left, Zhou was quite confused.

After a while, Tang returned the gourd of water and even brought over two freshly baked pancakes.

“You don’t have to be so courteous, we are making our own pancakes too.” Zhou was embarrassed to accept the pancakes.

Tang matron laughed, “This is for the children to fill their stomachs, go ahead and take it.”

Reluctantly, Zhou accepted the pancakes.

After the old woman Tang had left, Yingbao quietly shook the gourd and found that there was very little left.

After a moment’s thought, she again unplugged the stopper and poured half a gourd of water in, then went to administer the acupuncture to Chen Sanyou.

Chen Sanyou was much better. He could already walk a few laps in the cave, but when he spoke, his mouth was slightly skewed, which was an after-effect and would not be easy to recover.

Upon seeing Yingbao, Chen Sanyou’s smile was kind, and he stammered his thanks, “Tha…thank you, Yingbao.”

If it weren’t for this girl, he probably would have been chanting with the Buddha by now.

“You’re welcome.” She had been paid after all, even if the money hadn’t arrived yet, as long as Grandpa Chen Sanyou was alive, his sons wouldn’t dare default on their debt.

After finishing the acupuncture and reminding him to take his medicine on time, Yingbao sat back down with her mother and the others.

Spring Lady and her two sisters-in-law were kneading the dough and making pancakes. They wanted to use this free time to turn all the flour at home into dry food for easy carrying.

By midday, everyone was growling with hunger, especially those without food, who were watching with envy as the Jiang family and Chen, the Clan Leader’s family’s pots.

Chen, the Clan Leader, couldn’t bear it any longer, borrowed a large iron pot from the Jiang family, and had his daughter-in-law cook a large pot of rice porridge to share with everyone. Old Man Jiang also shared some pancakes with the children.

Just then, a shout came from the foot of the mountain, “Bandits are coming!”

Immediately, many strangers sprang out of the woods, brandishing machetes, spears, bows and arrows, and farming tools.

“They really are bandits!” Everyone started panicking.

Clan Leader Chen bellowed, “Don’t panic! Anyone who can shoot arrows, come here quickly! We need a few more people to guard the entrance, don’t let them up!”

Most of the young men had gone to the bamboo grove to cut bamboo and make arrows, and it was unknown whether they were safe.

Inside the cave, under the direction of Clan Leader Chen, everyone took their positions. Some took up bows and arrows aiming at the mountain trail while others held long bamboo poles guarding the entrance.

Fortunately, the entrance of the cave did not face the mountain trail directly. After the bandits had fired a few useless arrows, they started shouting and pushing their way up the path.

Clan Leader Chen sneered, “What fools.” Charging up that kind of trail was practically suicide.

As the bandits turned around the mountain wall, the moment they revealed their heads, they were jabbed with a long bamboo pole.

These bamboo poles specifically jabbed at the bandits’ legs, giving them no chance to react.

A bandit screamed and was jabbed off the cliff, his fate unknown.

Another one was also stabbed and fell, although he was hung up by the rocks below, it was likely he would not be able to climb up again.

The women and children inside the cave were all huddled in trembling at the very end, even the dogs didn’t dare to run around, they huddled in their young owner’s arms without making a sound.

Yingbao wasn’t scared at all, she and her two older cousins were standing at the edge of the cliff, sticking their heads out to look down.

The cliff was steep and deep, and there were jagged rocks at the bottom. If a person fell down, they would either die or be crippled.

After several consecutive losses, the bandits finally became smarter and retreated from the trail.

However, they didn’t leave, but instead set up camp at the foot of the mountain, apparently planning to starve the people on the mountain to death.

Old Man Jiang took a peek and quickly retreated, telling Old Man Jiang, “I see there are more than a hundred bandits under the mountain, all of them armed with weapons and bows and arrows, they seem to be here for revenge.”

Last night, Jiang Sanlang and the villagers ambushed and killed many bandits, so in theory, the bandits shouldn’t dare to come again.

Yet, today they appeared again and seemed to have captured two villagers to guide them to the Tiger’s Mouth.

So, these bandits were most likely here for revenge.

“I wonder how Sanlang and the others are doing.” Old man Jiang lamented.

He wasn’t worried about his own situation, as long as they didn’t go down the mountain, the bandits wouldn’t be able to do anything to them.

But his three sons were still outside. What if they strayed into the bandits’ encirclement?

Clan Leader Chen, stroking his beard, said, “With so many bandits attacking the mountain, Sanlang and the others must have received the news. Zhuzhu said they sent two sharp lookout scouts. If anything happens, the scouts will definitely run back to inform them, you don’t have to worry.”

This did nothing to assuage Old Man Jiang’s worries.

If his three sons encountered an accident with the bandits, how could he and his wife carry on?