This is an abandoned land, under the blood-red sky, the vast wilderness, the sparse inhabitants, the dilapidated camps, and the numb crowd. Everything shows a deep decadence. The only thing that is unique is that it is more abundant in the main world.

A seven-eight-year-old girl with thin and ragged clothes and hair as dry as she was wearing a large water basket that was not commensurate with her body, walked through the dirty tent interlaced. From time to time, she had to pay attention to the malicious gaze of several hungry wild dogs not far away.

Her name is Xi Mulan. She was a poor child who grew up in her hometown. Because her parents died, she grew up in her uncle's house since she was a child. This is a very common thing in this place. Famine and wars are caused by many people. Many people die in natural disasters and man-made disasters. The children left behind can only live in the homes of their poor relatives who are not rich.

Her name sounds nice, but her parents both don’t know a poor man from the bottom. The reason why they call Mulan is just because the place they live is called Mulan. In this place, when you shout everywhere, several children named Mulan look at you.

My uncle's family is also very poor, and there are a few children to support, so Xi Mulan, who is seven or eight years old, can do all the work most of the children can do at this age. She has no complaints and is satisfied with having a bite. Moreover, most of the children around her have grown up like this, and she is no different from them.

When she approached her uncle's dirty tent, Mulan struggled to remove the water basket from her shoulders, and poured it into a large iron pot outside the tent. Next, when her second brother came back to pick up the firewood, she could set up a fire to prepare for today's late meal.

Not long enough, the second child of my uncle's family, a little boy of the same age, black and thin, and equally ragged, walked over with a bundle of firewood on his back, with blood marks of thorns on his face, and a hatchet full of cracks in his hand.

The two children made the firewood, put the iron pot on, set the fire, then took out half a bag of barley from the tent, poured it in carefully a few taels and stopped immediately, fearing that if there were too much, there would be no food for tomorrow. Then, they kept stirring it with a long wooden spoon, for fear that the barley would get stuck on the bottom of the pot and a few more pieces of food were missing.

After the water boiled, a faint smell of food wafted out, and two younger children emerged from the tent. The three- and four-year-old boys were all surrounded by the iron pot, looking at Mulan's stirring of the dilute soup porridge as if they were pilgrimage.

The child who was picking up the firewood carved out a small bale of hay-like things from the tent. This was not hay, but wild vegetables. He put it in before the porridge was completely boiled to fill the food that could only be called water.

But they were not in a hurry. The four children of all sizes kept aiming at the distance and exposed their thoughts. They were waiting for their father and uncle's tall figure to appear, because if they were lucky, the head of the family would carry a piece of meat they had obtained after hunting, which was their happiest moment.

Such expectations will not always be realized. Hunting outside is full of dangers, injury is common, and death is not uncommon. Two older children have begun to understand this, so in addition to expectations, there is also a hint of worry in their eyes, which is very contradictory.

Poor families generally rarely have trash things like big families. This is very valuable. Mulan's uncle and aunt treat four children equally, and even take special care of Mulan because she is the only girl in the family. But this is useless. This family is so poor that she can only scoop half a spoonful of porridge at most. Moreover, the sensible Mulan will secretly share the half spoonful of porridge with two younger brothers.

My aunt returned home first, looking tired. She worked in the tribe for a short time, laundry, sewing, digging, and doing all kinds of work. Her heavy physical labor made her look like a fifty-year-old woman under thirty. But before returning home, she tried to smile on her face and waved the three pancakes in her hand flauntfully, which were delicious that children rarely eat.

Today's expectations did not disappoint the children. When the man walked towards the tent with a huge piece of meat, the four children rushed towards him cheering; at the same time, other families in the tribe were cheering. A successful hunting could make this small tribe feel as if they were having a festival.

Although poor and hard, life will always go on!

The tribes did not cook but did not fry, but the large pieces of meat dripping with blood were cut into the size of a child's fist and threw them into the iron pot. Soon, the scent of meat spread throughout the tribe camp, and every household was filled with joyful laughter;

Although such a tribe is small, it will not abandon every tribe. Here, people are more important than others.

The woman looked at the excited smiling faces of the children with satisfaction and turned to the man she had always been silent.

"What kind of beast is the one who is hunting today? It's so big that it's enough to eat for three or five days!"

The man remained silent. The woman who had lived with her for nearly ten years found a trace of unusualness from her subtle movements, and she did not continue to ask, because she knew that if she should say it, her husband would definitely say it, otherwise, she would fight it alone.

After a while, when the children ran away and played with other children, they said depressedly:

"We crossed the Red Water River!"

The woman was shocked, and the wooden spoon stirred in her hand almost fell into the iron pot. For this wasteland, the other side of the Hongshui River was another world. If this was hell, there was paradise there. Not only were there abundant plants and trees, but there were also groups of wild animals. People living on the other side of the river seemed to be from people in the same world as them. They were not only rich, but also high, making people unable to have a trace of confrontation in their lives.

"Why did you cross the river? If this is discovered, will the hunting team still come back alive?" The woman was frightened.

"What else can we do? Recently, there are fewer and fewer animals here. The camel bull was discovered here, but after it was injured, it swam to the other side. Everyone did not hunt big beasts for three days and could not give up for it for a while before chasing them to the other side. It is not considered unruly!"

The man said in a muffled voice.

The woman sighed, "That's right, but it's really weird to have an immortal on the other side of the shore. They are obviously not present, but they just can't hide any of their faults. If they are not lucky, come to the door..."

The man stood up, "I'll talk about what happened in the future. You have to eat your stomach first. The children have not eaten meat for seven or eight days!"

The woman no longer talked, and it was useless to regret it. Seeing that the meat porridge was ripe, she changed her smile to cover her sad face and shouted to the children:
Chapter completed!