It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

Chapter 271

At this moment, even though I was heartbroken, I dared not shed tears.

As the sun sets, the village entrance, without any shade from the trees, becomes increasingly hot and stuffy, making it impossible to stay there for long.

After everyone returned home, Jiang Yan buried his head in the table. After a long time, he got up and took out the bamboo tube with only a thin layer of water left from a secret place and took it to Jiang Ying's house.

It had been more than ten days since the half-month deadline given by the county government, and she only had this little water left in her hands.

We had held on for so many days because we saw clouds in the sky and thought there was hope for rain, but now we don’t know when the rain will actually fall, and we don’t know how many people will not be able to hold on until that moment.

The pitifully small amount of water in the bamboo tube circulated among the children in the village, and finally returned to Jiang Yan.

This is a habit developed while traveling. I just use my fingers to dip some water to slightly moisten my mouth to "relieve" the pain caused by thirst.

The entire Dongshan Village soon fell silent.

From then on, Jiang Yan also hid in the house and did not move, reducing her body's need for food and water.

Whether it was late at night the next day or early in the morning of another day, Jiang Yan smelled the scent of soil in his drowsy sleep.

She had been looking forward to this breath for a long time, but after a few breaths of confusion, she quickly regained consciousness.

Jiang Yan walked out of the house with light steps, raised her head and stretched out her hands until the raindrops actually fell on her face and hands.

“It’s raining!!!”

“It’s raining!!!”

On the other side of the wall, Jiang Yan and Jiang Ying both shouted excitedly, and then the whole village became agitated.

Jiang Yan hurried back to the house, opened all the movable containers and placed them in the yard one by one. Finally, he sat on the ground under the sky and felt the favor of the rain.

First it was a soft, fine rain, then it turned into bean-sized raindrops. Jiang Yan collected a small cup of water and couldn't wait to bring it back to the house to boil and cool it down.

By the time the sky had turned pale, lightning and thunder had resounded throughout Rongcheng County. Amidst the faint cheers of the entire city, hailstones the size of ordinary pebbles and even eggs fell alongside the heavy rain.

Jiang Yan quickly covered his head and rushed back to the house with several clay pots that could not withstand being smashed. The hen, which had just regained some energy after drinking the rain water, clucked and flapped its wings and fled around in the dim house until it bumped into Jiang Yan's legs as if it had found shelter.

Jiang Yan ate the last few grains of roasted wheat with the still warm water, extinguished the oil lamp and lay on the kang, staring intently at the roof with wide eyes, though he could not actually see any details.

Hopefully, hail of this magnitude wouldn't break the roof above her.

……

The fierce hailstorm and heavy rain soon dissipated. Jiang Yan felt that he had not even finished a full nap when he heard Jiang Ying's greetings and reminders from next door.

"Jiang Yan, the rain has stopped. We must seize the opportunity to store more water."

This single rain alone wasn't enough to reassure the Dongshan villagers that the drought was over. Even if it were, it wouldn't mean it would rain again in the coming days, or soon enough, to replenish the dried-up wells and rivers.

Jiang Yan took out a shovel from the storage room based on his memory and shoveled away the hailstones that had piled up in several layers on the ground. He moved the large hailstones into large containers such as water tanks and wooden barrels, and picked up the small pieces that had rolled on the ground and put them into small wooden barrels.

Grandpa Jiang Shun is back, so she doesn’t have to worry about the problem of not being able to repair the broken wooden barrel for the time being.

The entire Dongshan Village, together with Jiang Lu's family, Aunt Yu and He Sanmei who were staying there, collected all the unmelted hailstones and the accumulated water in the pits that had not evaporated within their ability.

Later, a large pot was set up in front of the ancestral hall to melt some of the hailstones, let them settle, boil them, and then put them into the newly made bamboo tubes.

Aunt Yu followed the crowd and brought a bucket of hail.

Compared to the unity displayed by Dongshan Village, Aunt Yu couldn't help but give He Sanmei a cold look as she added firewood to the fire before leaving. She really couldn't figure out how she had offended this god...