Wanwan, We've Struck It Rich

The trees seemed to cry out, "Brothers! Please save us! We're dying of thirst!"

Zhou Wanwan quickly took out some water and poured some for them.

After they finished drinking the water, they all looked at Zhou Wanwan and said, "It's so delicious, so sweet! Can we have some more?"

Zhou Wanwan looked at them with a half-smile and said:

"Giving you water is no problem, but can you answer one question for me?"

Did a few men transport some gold bars and grain to Long Live Mountain recently?

These trees were deep in thought when one of them suddenly said, "Oh, I remember now, there were indeed more than a dozen people who transported all that grain and gold up the mountain."

Zhou Wanwan directly supplied them with energy, and after a while, they discovered that their tree roots could move.

The trees were completely dumbfounded. "We... we can move around now? We're free now, we don't have to live in the soil anymore?"

The other tree stared intently at its roots and said, "I guess I'm finally getting better. Could it be that I've encountered some kind of deity?"

Zhou Wanwan smiled as she looked at them and said:

"If you lead me to the treasure, I will take you back, and you can drink as much water as you want."

Our village has enough water pipes.

The trees hopped and skipped forward, and Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said, "Where did your skin go?"

The trees chuckled, "The villagers nearby stripped us bare. They have no money for food, so they can only eat our bark."

Another sapling hopped around and said:

"Oh dear! It's alright, it's a good thing that our skins can help them."

At least they won't starve to death. You don't know how pitiful those people are.

In winter, many people starve to death. In that village over there, Dao Family Village, people often starve to death.

Yesterday I saw a woman holding her child crying here, and she dug up some wild vegetables to take home.

Zhou Wanwan looked at it and asked, "Do those villagers often go up the mountain?"

The little tree nodded and said:

"Yes! Villagers often go up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables and mushrooms."

Some people peel off the bark directly, while others just collect some branches.

But they still weren't getting enough to eat; yesterday, that child's face was so cold it turned purple.

Zhou Wanwan smiled and said:

"How about this, if you help me find gold and grain..."

"Shall we go to the villages below and deliver food to them?"

The little tree's eyes lit up. "Really? Really? You're so kind!"

Xiao Shu led them for more than ten minutes, then suddenly stopped and said, "I don't know if they're talking about this cave, but it's the only one on the whole mountain, and it's very well hidden."

Zhou Wanwan looked around, but she really couldn't see any trace of a cave.

The little tree chuckled and said, "Look, there's an intersection behind this old tree."

Zhou Wanwan parted the vines and sure enough, she saw an intersection inside. The vines were fake; someone had deliberately placed them there.

Zhou Wanwan parted the vines and saw the cave, which was very spacious.

The Old Scholar Tree protected Zhou Wanwan with its roots as she slowly walked inside. Feng Yueyao, who was beside her, followed her in, saying, "Wanwan, it's so dark in here! I'm scared."

Zhou Wanwan lit the candles and said, "There's nothing to be afraid of, don't worry! The Old Scholar Tree is protecting us!"

The Old Scholar Tree has a very developed root system that extends directly into the ground.

These roots can see inside, and it chuckled, "Wow! Wanwan, we're rich!"

The Old Scholar Tree quickly used its roots to move the several boxes of gold bars and several boxes of silver out of the house.

Looking at the thousands of sacks of grain, it said, "There's just not enough grain. There are far too many people in our mountain stronghold; it's very difficult to feed them!"

Whether Zhou Wanwan is worried or not, the Old Scholar Tree doesn't know.

Anyway, the Old Scholar Tree is quite worried every day. Thinking about the more than 100,000 people in the village, it feels very anxious.

Zhou Wanwan smiled and said, "Little by little, we'll make a fortune! The village has plenty of grain; it should last us a while."

Back in the Valley of Valley of Evildoers, those trees brought back tens of thousands of bags of grain, enough to last for a while.

Including the original grain in the mountain stronghold, there were a total of 20,000 bags of grain.

The Old Scholar Tree shook its head and said:

"I had someone do the math, and we now have over 20,000 bags of grain in our mountain village."

That's enough for our mountain stronghold to eat for two months, and we still have to be careful with how we eat it.

Zhou Wanwan frowned and said:

"Two months is enough time. Our sweet potatoes have already ripened twice and have all been planted."

I'll try to urge them again after I get back today; that way, I can save some time.

Feng Yueyao looked at Zhou Wanwan and said, "Wanwan, what were you talking to yourself about just now?"

Zhou Wanwan chuckled, "It's nothing, let's move a hundred bags of grain first and go check out the Dao Family Village at the foot of the mountain!"

The Old Scholar Tree led the two of them to the Dao Family Village very quickly.

The Little Pine Tree pointed to the dilapidated house ahead and said, "This house should be where she and her daughter lived before, because she said her home was at the foot of the mountain."

Zhou Wanwan took the Old Scholar Tree to this house, and then heard a sound coming from inside:

What are we going to do if this continues?

There are no crops in the fields, and nothing to eat on the mountains; we can't live like this."

The woman, holding her child, cried, "Father, Mother, why don't you just sell me? We can at least get a couple of coins, enough for the child to have some porridge."

The old woman sighed and said:

"Don't talk nonsense. How could we sell you? It's us old folks who have dragged you down."

If anyone's going to die, it should be the two of us. Your father and I have decided that tonight we'll go up the mountain with the villagers and find a cave."

The woman burst into tears:

"Father, Mother, you can't do this! What will I do if you're gone?"

As you know, the child's father has always been in poor health, and the family's farmland depends on you two.

The man on the bed coughed violently, saying between coughs:

"It's all my fault for dragging this family down. I'm the one who deserves to die, not you guys, cough cough cough..."

"Mom and Dad, if I'm gone... cough cough cough, please take good care of my wife and child."

The woman cried out, "No, husband, don't leave me all alone!"

The man looked at her, his eyes filled with tears:

"Fool, how could I bear to leave you all? But... cough cough cough..."

In this cannibalistic world, what can we do?

You must take good care of the child, okay? And your parents, I can't be by their side, you must take good care of them."

The woman sobbed uncontrollably, her child crying incessantly. Between sobs, she murmured:

"What should we do? Who can save us? Waaaaah..."

Bodhisattva, Heavenly Lord, where are you? Can you help us? Waaaaah...