Six-year-old Miao Guihua lay on the bed, her head swimming. She was simply too hungry.
At first, she had wailed from hunger, begging her mother to find something to eat. But after two days, she could no longer cry. Her eyes glowed green with hunger, and the only thought left in her mind was finding food.
Yet there were clearly people in the city. Her mother had carried her and searched the entire city with money in hand, but they had found nothing to eat.
They heard there was Guanyin Clay outside the city to eat, so Miao Guihua followed her mother there. But there were too many people digging mud by the riverbank; the two women simply could not squeeze in.
In the end, they dug up some grass roots. Later, even grass roots were gone for her.
There were naturally grass roots elsewhere, but by then they were too hungry to walk. They simply could not go that far.
After more than ten days of hunger, she had gone numb. Her stomach no longer growled, and she needed a stick just to walk.
"Mother, I'm hungry." Miao Guihua weakly called to the woman collapsed beside her, but the woman gave no response.
She wanted to cry, but she could no longer shed tears. Looking around, she used her fingernails to scrape several pieces of white plaster from the corner of the wall and stuffed them into her mouth to chew.
Her mother had not allowed her to eat this before, but she was truly so hungry now.
The wall plaster tasted bitter, and it absorbed water terribly. After eating a few pieces, her mouth became parched.
Guihua picked up a stick from the ground and shakily hobbled toward the water vat. With great effort, she plunged more than