Zhou Yu opened his eyes and stepped forward, drawing aside the carriage curtain. Two hundred meters ahead, villagers at the entrance were herding a family of four with pickaxes and other farm tools. The people were agitated, and some were already pelting them with snowballs.

Yang Xi leaned over and immediately noticed something was wrong. “Look at the man’s demeanor.”

Zhou Yu took a closer look. He was staggering even as he stood, evidently suffering from a high fever, his pupils constricted. “Put on the masks you prepared.”

Yang Xi’s heartbeat quickened. She hurriedly found masks and distributed them to her family, then had his younger brother Zhou deliver them to Third Yang and the Wu family.

Third Yang and Wu Shan approached. Wu Shan, seeing the villagers herding the family of four, clutched the mask in his hand. All he could think of was the plague. “Wasn’t it just a rumor?”

Zhou Yu gestured for the carriage to pull over. “Be cautious.”

Wu Shan dared not move a step forward. He knew that a common illness wouldn’t drive a family away from their village.

They were further away, unable to hear the conversation. All they could see was the family of four kneeling and pleading, oblivious to the pain of the snowballs hitting them.

Old Man Zhao also approached, his voice trembling. “Shall we take another route?”

This route was impassable, and the villagers ahead weren’t welcoming outsiders either. Some were already glaring at them.

Zhou Yu considered taking a different route. This one had fewer nearby villages, allowing them to avoid crowds and quickly escape Jiazhou. The other route would pass through more villages, and he wasn’t afraid of interacting with the villagers, but he was worried the villagers wouldn’t let the carriage pass.

Yang Xi dismounted and said, “The rumors are spreading. The people ahead are terrified.”

She had been startled just now, too, and her first reaction was plague—after all, that’s what she’d been hearing so much about lately.

Seeing everyone looking at her, Yang Xi continued, “If it’s really plague, they won’t just drive out a few people. I observed carefully, and I noticed that the family of four was only kowtowing in one direction. You see, some of the people are furious, some are reluctant, and some seem to be trying to persuade them. And their clothing was respectable, indicating they were villagers, not refugees from the northwest.”

Zhou Yu listened and observed carefully. Indeed, as his wife had said, the family of four was not refugees.

Wu Shan’s heart, which had been in his throat, eased a little, and he muttered, “I hope it’s a misunderstanding.”

Suddenly, the sick man in front of him stood up, trembling, and pointed angrily. From a distance, he couldn’t tell what he said. An old man among the people threw a bundle, and it fell to the ground, spilling a few copper coins.

Some people wanted to grab it, but fearing infection, they stared at the scattered coins.

The man withdrew his hand dejectedly, his energy drained away, and he fell straight back. For a moment, the scene became chaotic again.

Third Yang sneered, “This is being abandoned by his family.”

The villagers in front looked on indifferently. The man was seriously ill, the woman wailed, and the two teenagers knelt with hatred on their faces.

Old Man Zhao sighed, “Zhōu Xiānshēng, if we don’t change our route, we won’t be able to get through today.”

Zhou Yu felt responsible not only for his family but also for the entire team. He cursed King Jiang inwardly, saying that most of the difficulties in the southward journey were caused by King Jiang!

Yang Xi looked at the sky. “It’s going to snow soon, so let’s turn around and find a place to rest.”

She had come across a dilapidated temple that morning, but she didn’t want to go. It was indeed a good place to rest, and precisely because of that, it attracted a mix of people. Who knew who had once lived there? Even if the plague rumors were false, she wanted to avoid any danger.

Zhou Yu said, “Let’s turn around and find somewhere to stay.”

Yang Xi looked at the family of four ahead, remembering her son’s illness and lack of medical care. The helplessness she felt was like the sky falling, and the thought pierced her heart.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, thought for a moment, and said, “I’ll pour a few fever pills, wrap them in brown paper, and leave them here.”

It was all she could do.

Third Yang said, “Sister, don’t bother. I have a plan.”

Third Yang took out his bow and arrow, but instead of using Yang Xi’s pills, he poured out a few from his own porcelain bottle, wrapped them in brown paper, and tied them to the arrowhead.

Speaking of pills, ready-made pills were hard to buy, and pills for treating fever and other symptoms were even harder to buy. Third Yang was familiar with the owner of the bookstore, so he asked him to buy them for him. There were only three bottles in total, and he gave one bottle to Yang Xi. Third Yang treasured the remaining two bottles very much.

As Third Yang thought about it, he picked up his bow and arrow and drew it towards the family of four.

Zhou Yu and his group were quite conspicuous, and the villagers had been staring at them. Seeing the arrows being drawn, they were startled. Even though they were furious, they didn’t want to kill anyone, and fearing injury, they stepped back.

Third Yang fired his arrow, and in full view of everyone, the arrow landed steadily beside the man’s arm.

Yang Xi watched with her heart pounding in fright. If the aim was off, helping would turn into killing. She said, “You brat, you clearly could have stood a little farther away from people!”

Third Yang sheathed his bow. “That would have intimidated them!”

Zhou Yu tapped Third Yang on the head. “Not bad.”

Third Yang covered his forehead. “Jie, my Jiefu praised me.”

Yang Xi said indifferently, “Oh.”

The Zhao family left first, followed by the Wu family, with the Zhou family covering the rear.

Yang Xi looked back from the carriage window. The pill on the arrow was removed, mixed with snow, and fed into the man’s mouth. Whether he could survive was up to fate.

The group couldn’t find a place to stay on their way back. They weren’t allowed into the village, so they could only seek shelter from the wind.

Before they could even build the snow wall, snowflakes began to fall, and by the time they were ready to eat, the flakes were already heavy.

Yang Xi held a bowl of chicken soup and said, “We haven’t had a good rest since leaving Zhang County.”

Zhou Yu said, “If we want to frighten the people moving south, the area covered by rumors would not be small, and we would still have to suffer a bit.”

Yang Xi drank a bowl of chicken soup and couldn’t finish it. Seeing Zhou Yu trying to serve her more, she quickly blocked it and said, “I don’t want any more.”

Ever since she could eat meat again, she has been having chicken soup every day, and she had already had enough.

The first day it wasn’t enough, but the second day she drank it happily. As the days went by, Third Yang only drank one bowl and stopped.

The snow fell heavily, and they returned to the carriage to rest. Yang Xi touched the rabbit skin mattress and felt that the money was worth it. She didn’t suffer much every day when she slept in the wild, and the rabbit skin mattress played a big role.

The night was quiet, with only the sound of the burning fire outside.

When Yang Xi got up in the morning, she opened the carriage curtain and was stunned for a long time. The snow was falling heavily, reaching as high as an adult’s knees.

The sunlight shining on the snow was very dazzling. Yang Xi quickly closed her eyes. She had seen so much snow in winter that her eyes could not bear it.

The snow beside the carriage was cleared, and Zhou Yu was discussing with Wu Shan how to go.

Because of the heavy snow, it was not easy for the carriage to move.

Wu Shan frowned, “This snow came at a bad time.”

Old Man Zhao squatted aside, “In the early years, Jiazhou rarely had heavy snow in winter, but in recent years, heavy snow has never stopped.”

Zhou Yu, “Let’s go along the original route.”

Wu Shan and Old Man Zhao were silent. If there had been no heavy snow, they could still change the route, but now they could only go along the original route.

The carriage was not moving fast, and several families took turns shoveling snow in front. Fortunately, they did not go back too far yesterday and arrived at the village entrance at noon.

At just a glance, the group was dumbfounded.

(End of this chapter)

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