Chapter 235

Soon, both Wu Lan’s and Liu Qing’s families learned that Xu Ran and his  family were going out. They all rushed over to express their concern, and Xu Ran asked them to help take care of his family’s fields.

He summoned all of them into his house.Then he talked about the epidemic as well as his plan.

It was about the cave that Liu Tong mentioned last night.

Xu Ran said, “Recently, the epidemic is becoming more and more serious and the villagers here will be affected sooner or later. Thus the village will definitely not be a safe place. We have to leave in these few days. Last night, Liu Tong and I thought of an idea, which is to find another place for us to stay. In this way, when something urgent does happen, everyone can move away quickly.”

Upon hearing this, Xu An asked quickly, “Xu Ran, now in the village, people can only go out but not in. How can we go out and find another place to stay?”

“Yeah! We’ve been living in this village for so many years. I wonder where else can we live!”

Xu Fa and the others echoed.

Xu Ran replied, “Xu An, don’t you often go up the mountain? And do you know anything about the situation on the mountain?”

Xu An shook his head, “You know I seldom go up the mountain, so naturally I know little about it. Well, do you mean that we will all move to the mountain?”

Xu Ran nodded, “That’s right. These days we will go to the mountain to find some available places in the mountain so that we can later move things up there and get everything ready to live. If anything happens in the village, you can all hurry up the mountain. The Yamen will definitely not send soldiers up the mountain to search for you. Since there are so many of you, you can find several more hiding places on the mountain, so that you can run away even if the soldiers come up the mountain for you. As long as we survive the epidemic, we will be fine. I’ve bought a lot of food from Zhuo Yun before, so all of us don’t have to worry about eating. ”

Then Xu Ran paused to see how everyone there reacted. It was Qin Shuwu who spoke first, “I am not familiar with your village, but I will follow your arrangements. Surely my family will cooperate well.” All the others from the  Qin Family around him nodded in agreement.

Zhuo Yun also said, “Although I often come to live in the Xu Village, what I am most familiar with are only the orchards and Xu Ran’s house. And although I have been to the mountain a few times, I know little about it. Surely I’ll also follow your arrangements.”

Xu Ran then turned to Xu An and his family. Xu An replied, “Xu Ran, we’ll also follow your instruction. You are concerned about us before you leave. We will definitely cooperate with you. We agree with you that we should go to the mountain to find places to live. Just as you said, as long as we can survive the epidemic, we are not afraid of any difficulties. ”

“Yeah! Xu Ran, It’s up to you.”

“Yes, we will listen to you.” Other people present also expressed their agreement with Xu Ran.

Suddenly, Xu Ran felt that all the burden was on him. Still, he was touched by their trust.

The person among them who used to be most familiar with the mountain was Liu Tong, but now it should be Gao Quan. Thus Xu Ran called Gao Quan over and asked him, “Gao Quan, do you know how many huge caves there are in the mountain?”

Gao Quan indeed often went up the mountain to collect Chinese medicinal herbs. Thus he was very familiar with the back side of the mountain. He thus hurriedly replied Xu Ran, “There are at least four or five big ones there. However, two of them had traces of beasts and are not available for living. The other three are fine, but they are far away from each other.”

With that, Gao Quan looked at Xu Ran, waiting to answer Xu Ran’s next possible questions.

Xu Ran asked, “Are there small caves near the big one? These small caves may not be easily to be seen. If people don’t research carefully, they can’t find them.”

Gao Quan nodded, “Yes, there are, but not many. Those small caves are really hard to find. I myself was not able to find them out until I went there several times.”

Xu Ran nodded, “As long as there are such small caves, it’s fine. When you go up the mountain, you can put some objects in the big cave, and more objects in the nearby small ones. You all need to know where the small caves are, so that you can later go back there to get them when you want to eat or use something. You should keep the caves secret, so that other people who also go up the mountain will not see them and rob you. Later, if there is an outbreak of epidemic in the village, the villagers will definitely go up to the mountains to hide themselves. This time we will not take the dogs with us, but leave them all behind to protect you.”

Now they had more than ten dogs. When these dogs stood together, it was a quite spectacular scene.  However, just because there were so many dogs, they had eaten a lot of food every day. Thus each of the dog grew big and strong. And as they followed Tangtang and Guoguo to the mountain every day and had a lot of exercises, they didn’t look fat.

After the decision was made, Xu Ran asked each of the families to send a person, together with Gao Quan and Liu Tong, and the party quietly slipped up the mountain at last.

The first cave they went to see was the one where Xu Ran used to stay with Liu Tong. At this time, maybe it was because there were many people in their team that they found the road to the cave was easy and smooth. When they reached the place, Xu Ran saw that the land was still there, all green and covered with chili plants.

Xu Ran pointed to chilies and said, “From the very beginning, it was these chilies that fed our family. Tongtong discovered this place. If there wasn’t the chili, we might have starved to death.”

Xu Ran smiled and then led the group of people into the cave before them.

The cave was very clean and there were no traces of wild beasts in it. It was a very big cave. Xu Ran said to the group, “I’ve mentioned this place before. It is big and quite clean. It is not a problem for us to hide from the wind or rain in the summer. As it is deep in the mountain, no one can hear us even if we shout inside the cave. As long as no one comes near, it is safe.”

Then Xu Ran asked Gao Quan if there was a hidden small cave nearby. Gao Quan pointed in two directions. Xu Ran asked Gao Quan to take them over to have a look. From a place full of weeds, Gao Quan found a cave out and then took them in.

This cave was very dry. As it was so hidden, no one should have ever entered, and it was not small, available for more than 20 people to stay inside.

Then they went to another cave, which was much smaller than the previous  one. However, this cave was very wet inside. And as they walked inside further, they found that there was a spring there, and water came out continuously from underground.

Seeing all these, Xu Ran immediately decided on the cave. As for other places, they just went to have a look.

Here, not only was the cave big, but also there was water source, which really saved them a lot of troubles.

Xu Ran consulted other people on the scene, and no one had any objections. But they suggested that they should still do some preparation in other caves.  After all, the reason why they went up the mountain was for safety and they didn’t want to be discovered.

To this, Xu Ran had no objection, either. After all, safety was the most important thing.

Gao Quan then took them to the other caves. At last, they still decided on the first place.

And they all agreed to have more preparations for the cave.

Later, Xu Ran took a group of men to cut the trees. The cave entrance must be blocked, so it was best to make a big wooden door.

Because there were so many people working together, the work was done very quickly. At present, villagers were all deterred by the danger of the epidemic and many of them didn’t even come out at all. Plus, Xu An helped to cover up in the patrol, so these things they did were not found bu other villagers.

By the time everything was settled on the mountain, and all the objects and the like were all taken to the mountain to hide, five days had passed, which was a day earlier than Xu Ran had planned.

So at night, Lu Qi came naturally.

He asked when to leave and talked about the epidemic situation in the town. More importantly, he had developed a method to treat the epidemic in the past few days, so they didn’t have to worry about it.

This was really good news and Xu Ran immediately decided to set out in three days. It was just the beginning of July.

As they had been busy running up to the hill lately, they had not packed up anything. And before he left, Xu Ran felt that there were still things to be done, such as writing a letter to Lin Hua and informing the village head and his dad of his situation.

Lu Qi had thought it was too late for them to leave until three days later. But after listening to Xu Ran’s explanation, he didn’t insist on his own opinion. He just agreed that whatever the situation, they would set out in three days.

Xu Ran nodded and agreed. He couldn’t delay what he had promised. Thus they could only wait three days later! Still, he could not help wondering when the epidemic would come to an end.

Xu Ran sighed.

On the second day, Xu Ran asked Liu Tong, Tangtang and Guoguo to pack their things up. He himself first went to the Xu Family, sending some rice and meat over. At the same time, he secretly gave Xu Houcai some money, telling him that his family was going to stay outside for a while.

Xu Houcai knew that he couldn’t control him, so he didn’t ask much about it. He just reminded him to be careful, take care of the children and come back early.

Xu Ran realized that Xu Houcai was really old now. In addition, coupled with the hardship brought about by life, he had lost the ferocious look he once had in the past. Now he was like a very old man. Therefore, Xu Ran couldn’t bear to listen to his advice at this moment. And he gave more money to him and let him take good care of himself.

He reminded Xu Houcai that Xu Hui and other children had grown up, so that he didn’t have to worry too much. It’s good that he had brought them up. As for other things, just let the children deal with them themselves!

Xu Houcai nodded in agreement, but he was not sure whether he would do it or not.

When Xu Ran left, he met Xu Hui. Both of them didn’t say anything. Xu Ran darted him a few glances and then went away.

Xu Ran had been to the Xu Family many times over the years, but the number of times he spoke to Xu Hui or Xu Qiang was limited to opening the door greetings. Gradually this had become a routine for them every time he came.

After coming out of the Xu Family, Xu Ran went to the village head’s house. The village head was a little afraid of seeing Xu Ran, because something bad would always happen every time he met Xu Ran, especially during the the recent occasions.

Xu Ran stood at the entrance of the courtyard for a long time before the village head came to open the door for him at last. Xu Ran repeatedly promised that nothing would happen so that he wouldn’t be worried and opened the door for him.

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