A landslide caused by a heavy rain killed Cen Zhiqiu, an associate professor at the Agricultural University, and Jin Hengzhou, a water conservancy engineer.
When he opened his eyes again, the two of them turned out to be Yu Zhisui and Chi Jianchuan, who had just been married for three days in the lean years.
The dilapidated house leaked air, the flue was clogged, the water tank was bottomed out, and the food became damp and moldy. There were still three younger siblings at home, seven acres of thin farmland waiting for spring sowing, and the Cao family's old debts were pressing harder.
Fortunately, they still had one bushel of eight liters of grain left, and they still had each other.
Yu Zhisui experimented with planting, preserving moisture, accumulating fertilizer, and raising seedlings, and introduced modern agriculture into the barren land bit by bit; Chi Jianchuan repaired stoves, stabilized wells, dredged canals, and built roads, using limited wood and stone materials to protect the family's livelihood.
From saving a handful of seeds to planting seven acres of thin farmland; from repairing a village well to rebuilding the old Jiuli canal; from the five members of the Chi family struggling to survive, to the cooperation of villagers, the return of refugees to the fields, the rise of workshops, and the increasing abundance of warehouses...
They have to face not only natural disasters, but also food debts, land annexations, government requisitions, and human calculations.
This is not a story about one man saving everyone.
It was a group of ordinary people who learned to keep accounts, farm, build canals, and keep food in the famine years, and finally turned the methods of survival into rules that could be passed down.
Only when the mountains and rivers meet again in good times will they understand——
The so-called unity is never about sharing a hardship together, but working together to turn the days of no way out into a path for future generations.
