Seeing them both kneeling, the villagers hurriedly avoided them, but their grain-harvesting actions came to a halt:
"Then when are you going to get lost?"
"Immediately, immediately. We'll go home right now and call our family to come harvest," Tian Yuanshan said urgently.
Qin Sang didn't believe them at all. Even if they started harvesting today, they would surely do it slowly, dragging it out as long as possible.
However, the villagers ultimately couldn't bring themselves to be too cruel, so they warned the two:
"Fine, but from now on, don't say you're from Tianjia Village, and you're not allowed to draw water from the well." The two brothers bowed and scraped, saying they would definitely not go to draw water, and only then did the villagers leave.
After walking a few steps, everyone suddenly heard a strange buzzing sound.
Qin Sang's heart skipped a beat. Why did this sound like a helicopter from a TV show?
This is ancient times; how could there be a helicopter?
Before Qin Sang could turn around to look, she heard a villager beside her shout:
"It's locusts! The locusts are coming! Run!..."
Without Qin Sang even turning her head, a dark cloud drifted over her. Immediately after, they fell from the sky like hail, hurting as they hit her body.
Qin Sang hurriedly hung her shoulder pole and raised the wooden buckets to protect her head. The sound of thumping impacts rose and fell one after another.
The villagers all ran toward their homes, but only the two brothers, Tian Yuanshan and Tian Jinshui, ran toward the fields:
"Don't eat it, it's not tasty. Please, Lord Locust, don't eat it..."
"Oh, Heavens! How are people supposed to survive like this..."
Qin Sang was in no mood to watch the miserable state of the Shanshui Brothers and ran toward home with her head down.
On the way, she almost collided with people running to the fields. After all, some families had not listened to the warnings of Qin Sang and the village chief, believing they could hold out until the Heavens sent rain, so they hadn't harvested the grain in their fields—families like Tian Hongmei's.
Other families had harvested half and left half, essentially preparing for both possibilities.
Qin Sang ran while holding the bucket over her head, the thumping sounds echoing inside it. From a distance, she could hear Da Huang barking wildly in the courtyard, along with the voices of Da Zhuang and San Gui:
"Quick, cover the medicinal herbs with oilcloth! I'll go find Mother."
"Brother, go quickly! Mother went to the well to fetch water."
"Brother Da Zhuang, stay safe!"
"The vegetables in the backyard..."
That day in Town, Qin Sang had heard that those displaced people were fleeing the effects of a Locust Plague. She had talked to Da Zhuang and Si Jin about what to do if they encountered a Locust Plague. It seemed they had remembered her words; although they were panicked, they weren't in chaos.
Qin Sang saw Tian Dazhuang running out covered in a bedsheet, with only his eyes showing.
Qin Sang picked up her pace:
"Da Zhuang, go home! Mother is fine."
"Mother... It's good that you're okay."
The two ran home, not even having time to close the courtyard gate; covering the medicinal herbs was the priority.
San Gui and Er Fu were already covering them, but there were many herbs in the courtyard. Eldest Brothers Wife, Si Jin, and Eldest Girl all ran toward the vegetable garden with clothes covering their heads.
Thanks to Qin Sang's quiet nightly watering, the green vegetables in the backyard were growing lushly. These were the locusts' favorite things to eat, so the three could only try to salvage as much as possible.
Third Brothers Wife was there shooing the chickens while covered by a bedsheet, and an oilcloth had also been placed over the rabbit hutch.
Seeing Qin Sang return, Da Huang stopped barking wildly and ran around helping to chase the chickens. For a moment, the phrase 'chickens flying and dogs jumping' had a literal image.
Fortunately, the oilcloth Qin Sang had prepared was sufficient, and since the mugwort leaves were mostly dried and had a strong scent, they didn't attract many locusts. It was all covered within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
Qin Sang went to the livestock shed in the backyard to take a look. The mule and the horse were pacing uneasily in the shed. Many locusts were landing on the animals. Qin Sang took a cleaning duster to brush the locusts away and draped oilcloth over both animals. Without the locusts' biting, the mule and horse finally settled down.
The locust army, blotting out the sky and sun, whistled past. Everything green within sight was quickly covered in black. By the time the black flew away, the green had vanished without a trace.
It was as if a giant hand had stripped the green clothes off the back mountain. In just the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, only a desolate yellow remained, devoid of life.
Having grown up in a later generation, Qin Sang had only seen records of Locust Plagues in books or novels. Now, seeing and experiencing it firsthand, she realized how terrifying a Locust Plague truly was.
Anything that could be called a disaster had a degree of destruction that could be easily imagined.
While she was lost in thought, Eldest Girl walked over at some point:
"Grandma, your hand is injured."
Qin Sang snapped back to reality and looked down at the back of her hand. Locusts don't eat meat, but they do bite people.
Several cuts had been bitten into the back of her hand, but it wasn't a big deal—just flesh wounds:
"What about you all? Is everyone okay?"
Everyone had used bedsheets and clothes to cover their heads and faces, so most of the bitten areas were on the backs of their hands and fingers.
Qin Sang went to her room to get a spare porcelain bottle and poured some iodophor into it.
Only after cleaning each person's wounds with a piece of clean linen did she feel at ease.
"I don't know how my parents are doing." Third Brothers Wife stood at the door, gazing toward the neighboring village.
When she had returned to her maternal home, the two of them had naturally mentioned that a Locust Plague might occur, but it wasn't necessarily believed.
Qin Sang instructed:
"San Gui, you're fast on your feet. Go there once, check on the situation, and bring back news so your wife can rest easy."
Tian San Gui agreed, grabbed a bamboo hat and a water canteen, and headed out.
Eldest Brothers Wife was relatively calm; being in the same village, she knew her parents had already harvested their grain.
Qin Sang still told her to go back and check if her family was alright.
Da Hua was very filial. She nodded and left with Eldest Girl.
The courtyard gate was open, and Qin Sang saw Qiao Lei supporting Old Man Qiao as they tremblingly approached:
"Da Zhuangs Mother, the Caoer can't be cut anymore. The Caoer by the roadside has been completely ravaged by the locusts. This old man was still hoping to exchange it for a few more days of food with your family, but that's no longer possible."
Qiao Lei handed over a basket:
"Aunt, this is the Caoer Grandpa and I cut today. When the locusts came, we hid it under our bodies, so it wasn't eaten by them."
Looking at this half-basket of Caoer and seeing the locust bites on the faces and hands of Qiao Lei and Old Man Qiao, Qin Sang was speechless.
Was Caoer really more precious than human life?
"Si Jin, go weigh half a catty of flour for Old Man Qiao. Lei-zi, help your grandpa sit down. I'll apply some medicine to disinfect the wounds."
She took a cotton ball from a pack, soaked it in iodophor, and cleaned the four or five bites on Old Man Qiao:
"Mother, let me help you."
Er Fu walked over, also took a clean cotton ball, poured a bit of iodophor, and began wiping Qiao Lei's wounds:
"Mother, is it like this?"
Qin Sang took a look and nodded:
"Just like that."
After Qin Sang finished cleaning Old Man Qiao's wounds, the people coming down from the mountain also passed by Qin Sang's house. Everyone had varying degrees of injuries on their hands and faces. Widow Xia's nephew, Daner, had even bumped his head, and Caoer had severe abrasions on her arm.
"The two children were panicked and wanted to run and find me. Daner didn't step firmly, but fortunately, Caoer caught him in time, or he would have rolled down the hillside."
Widow Xia explained. Recalling the scene at that time, her face turned pale with lingering fear.
Whether it was Daner or Caoer, she had raised them both and had long regarded them as her own. She would be heartbroken if anything happened to either of them.
Qin Sang offered some comfort and treated the wounds of Daner and Caoer, while Er Fu helped the other bitten villagers with iodophor disinfection.
Although each family was worried about their own situation, life was still more important. The vegetable gardens at home were already beyond saving, and they couldn't let anything else happen to the people, so they all waited in line obediently for the iodophor to be applied.
Someone spoke up regretfully:
"The locusts really came. Da Zhuangs Mother, you really had foresight. Fortunately, my family listened to you early on and harvested the grain in the fields. Otherwise, if we had waited until now, we would have truly harvested nothing."
"My family too. Although we didn't harvest much, at least we didn't let the locusts have it."
"Yes, Da Zhuangs Mother, everyone in our village should thank you."