The white snow reflected the light, and Yang Xi carefully identified it and found that it was a boy of about sixteen or seventeen years old. After confirming that the boy was the only one following, Yang Xi said, “There is a boy following us.”

Zhou Yu stopped and turned to take a look. “Don’t worry about him.”

Yang Xi heard it and asked, “Have you seen him?”

Zhou Yu nodded, “Yeah, I saw him among the onlookers when I was making a sled.”

The sled was large, and while working on it outside, people occasionally gathered to watch. The only one who left a lasting impression on Zhou Yu was this young boy.

Yang Xi became curious about the boy. She noticed that although many refugees had left, only this boy had followed them.

Ziheng woke up at this time, rubbing his eyes with his little hands, and opened his eyes wide after adjusting to the light for a while, “Mom, where are we?”

Yang Xi tapped her son’s nose and said, “We are on our way.”

Ziheng curiously stretched his head and looked around, his mouth slightly opened, and he was a little excited, “Mom, are we safe?”

Although he was young, he could understand his parents’ anxiety.

Yang Xi touched her son’s head and didn’t intend to lie, “No, we would still face many dangers.”

Due to riots and plunder by foreign races, the people of Northeast China were displaced and became refugees.

Natural disasters such as floods continued in the south, and the plague was raging in the northwest. It was said that deserted cities had appeared in the northwest, and unburied corpses were everywhere.

However, the capital city was still in extravagance with singing and dancing. In addition to the refugees in the capital, there were refugees everywhere in the country.

Yang Xi felt heavy in her heart. She and Zhou Yu took the Wu family with them just to guard against the refugees. When it came to survival, people had lost their humanity.

The cold wind blew across her cheeks, and Yang Xi hissed. She thought about making a mask to wear on her face, but then she thought about the good looks of her family and gave up the idea of ​​making masks. At this time, they should blend in instead of standing out from the crowd.

They kept moving without stopping. Zhou Yu and Zhou Xiaodi took turns pulling the sled, and they moved very fast.

When they were hungry, they would eat some dry food and then continue on their way. They had to get out of the mountains before dark, and it would be best if they could find a place to stay.

The days got shorter in winter, and it was only when it got dark that they found the village where they would stay.

However, the village did not welcome them. Finally, after they took ten copper coins, the headman allowed them to rest in an empty yard. The dilapidated thatched hut had been uninhabited for a long time and could barely block the wind. The only satisfactory thing was that there was a one-meter-high earthen wall, which made it safer at night.

Younger brother Zhou followed several sons of the Wu family to collect firewood. There were three thatched huts, two for the Wu family and one for the Zhou family. Each hut had an earthen kang, which was a magical tool for winter in Northeast China.

There was a smile on Yang Xi’s face. Zhou Xiaomei went to pick up hay and Zhou Yu filled the leaking places with hay, which could barely block out some of the cold wind.

Once the fire was lit in the thatched hut and the temperature of the kang rose, the room was no longer so cold.

It was dark outside. Zhou Yu took his younger brother Zhou out for a while and came back with some firewood and a young man who had followed them all the way.

Yang Xi was cooking. She looked up at the boy in the light of the fire. He was wearing a tattered hat and the straw on his jacket was leaking out. The only thing that caught her eye was his 70% new cotton shoes. There was red frostbite on his face, but one could still tell from his facial features that he was a handsome boy.

Zhou Yu said, “He paid ten cents for one night’s stay.”

Yang Xi was surprised. She didn’t expect the boy to have money in his hand. She squinted her eyes and smiled, “Would you like to eat together?”

The boy smelled the porridge and licked his lower lip with the tip of his tongue, “Eat.”

As he spoke, he took out a cloth bag from his bosom and counted out two copper coins from the bag. “Is that enough?”

(End of this chapter)

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