Yesterday, the village was perfectly peaceful. It was the most orderly village Yang Xi had seen since leaving Zhang County. Today, however, many houses were burned.

Most of the village’s houses were built of straw, making fires difficult to extinguish. Only collapsed mud walls remained of the burned houses.

Yang Xi counted and found that at least seven or eight families had lost their homes. Not only their houses, but also most of their belongings, had been destroyed.

The village was filled with weeping. Yang Xi and the group did not enter the village, but quickly passed by the entrance.

Zhou Yu listened to the cries in the village and said, “Yesterday those two children had eyes like wolf cubs—it must have been them who set the fire.”

Yang Xi shared the same thought. “Ah, there’s no such thing as unprovoked hatred. Every cause has its consequences.”

Zhou Xiaomei asked with concern, “Did the family of four leave yesterday?”

Yang Xi replied, “Of course, they’re gone. If they stayed, they’d die.”

Ye Shi felt uneasy in her heart and said, “When will there ever be an end to these troubled times?”

Blaming all the suffering on the world’s nature!

Yang Xi thought to herself that things would only grow more chaotic in the days to come and that it would take at least ten or eight years to bring an end to the troubled times.

The carriage was quiet, but even after a while, they could still hear crying. Because a fire had broken out in the village, no one paid any attention to Zhou Yu and his group, which actually made things easier for them.

Due to the heavy snow, there were no pedestrians on the road, which made it difficult for the three families. They shoveled snow as they walked, and after a day’s walk, the snow on the road finally showed signs of compaction.

Once they reached Hu County, they could leave Jiazhou after just two days’ walk.

The group discussed going to Hu County first, but neither the Zhou nor the Wu families were able to enter the county town. The soldiers saw that the pass was for out-of-town residents, and those with non-local household registration were not allowed to enter.

The Zhao family was able to enter, and the old man Zhao asked, “Sir, do you need any shopping? If so, I’ll drive into the city.”

Zhou Yu looked at his wife, “Is there anything you need to buy?”

Yang Xi shook her head, “No, we still have plenty of food.”

The old man Zhao looked at Wu Shan, who also shook his head, “We’ve already bought everything in Zhang County.”

Zhou Yu, “Then let’s continue our journey.”

What a pity, they thought they could have a good day’s rest.

The group continued on its way. As it was getting dark, they could see a village ahead. It wasn’t big, with only a dozen or so households.

They were constantly rejected by the village along the way and had no intention of entering.

The Zhou family’s carriage led the way. Zhou Xiaodi stopped at the entrance of the village and carefully observed the young man who was blocking the road. After a while, he remembered, “It’s you.”

The young boy’s lips had turned somewhat blue. No one knew how long he had been waiting at the village entrance; even his speech trembled as he said, “At last… at last, I’ve waited for this moment.”

After a careful look, Zhou Yu also recognized the young man. He was from the family of four who had been driven away. “Were you waiting for us?”

The young man was freezing. “It’s dark now. You have nowhere to stay. Come with me. My father has rented a house and has a place to stay.”

After saying that, the young man hurriedly added, “My father doesn’t have a fever anymore. He’s almost well. He doesn’t have the plague. You don’t have to be afraid.”

Yang Xi was very curious. “Why did you get ahead of us?”

The young man said, “We left before the snow got heavy.”

The other young men didn’t say anything, obviously not wanting to mention the arson.

Zhou Yu got off the carriage and told the Wu and Zhao families that it was not the plague and agreed to stay overnight in the village.

The Zhou family was willing to spend money, and with Zhou Xiaodi and Third Yang, the Zhou family did not suffer from staying overnight, while the Wu and Zhao families suffered greatly, and now they only wanted to have a good sleep.

Following the young man into the village, the house rented by the young man’s family was not small, with eight rooms.

The young man introduced, “My father is a peddler who travels around the streets. He is familiar with several nearby counties. The house belongs to his father’s friend.”

The young man’s family occupied two rooms, leaving exactly six rooms. Zhou, Wu, and Zhao each occupied two rooms.

After the rooms were divided, the young man said again, “My father’s illness is almost over.”

As he finished speaking, the man of the house emerged from the main room. He looked about thirty-five or thirty-six, and his complexion had indeed improved.

Standing still at the doorway, he introduced himself, “My name is Ye Shun. I changed my name while traveling the streets. I hope my sales will be successful.”

He then thanked him, saying, “I’ll never forget your kindness in sending me the medicine.”

Zhou Yu swept his gaze over the courtyard and said, “Were you so certain you could wait for us?”

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have rented such a large house with eight rooms.

It was clearly intentional. Ye Shun’s tone was smug. “There’s nothing I don’t know about within a hundred miles, and with the heavy snow, you can only take this route.”

Seeing the group’s exhausted expressions, Ye Shun continued, “Everyone, please rest. I won’t bother you.”

Zhou Yu said, “Thank you.”

Ye Shun quickly replied, “I should be the one saying thank you.”

Now that they had a place to stay, Zhou Yu shared a room with his younger brother, Third Yang, and Yan Bing. Li Zheng and the other servants made a wooden plank in the kitchen.

Yang Xi and her son lived with her mother-in-law and younger sister. They slept on the warm kang at night and were reluctant to get out of bed in the morning.

Even at dawn, the house was still quiet. Everyone was exhausted, and it was a rare good night’s sleep, so no one was up.

Yang Xi lay there for a while longer. Only after hearing the sound of chopping wood did she carefully dress and get out of bed. Looking at her still-sleeping son and younger sister, the corners of her lips couldn’t help but curve upward.

Cautiously, she opened the door and stepped outside. Li Zheng was chopping firewood, while the other two servant boys—one was feeding the horse, and the other was carrying firewood to the kitchen.

Ever since they had servant boys, Zhou Yu and Zhou Xiaodi felt much more at ease.

Yang Xi saw Ye Shun’s wife returning from outside, carrying tofu and pork bones. “Is someone in the village slaughtering a pig?”

Zhang Shi was not good with words. After a few seconds, she finally replied, “The other village drives carts to sell meat—it’s still at the eastern end of the village.”

Yang Xi noticed the woman’s nervousness and said, “Thank you.”

Zhang Shi pursed her lips. “Mmm,”

Yang Xi blinked. Ye Shun was eloquent and talkative, while his wife was a woman of few words—their temperaments were far too different.

Zhou Yu heard his wife talking and said, “I’ll go buy some meat.”

Yang Xi said, “I’ll go too.”

“Okay.”

Just as the couple was about to take the silver, the door of the main house opened, and Ye Shun said, “Your faces are too unfamiliar. Nowadays, the villages are very resistant to outsiders. I come here all the time when I go around the streets and alleys. The villagers are familiar with me. You can ask my wife to help buy meat.”

When Yang Xi heard this, she didn’t want to cause too much trouble: “Then I will trouble you.”

Ye Shun had a lot to say, but he didn’t dare to get close until he was well. He smiled and went back to the house.

After hearing the news, the other two families also took out silver to buy meat. They wanted to make up for the hard journey.

After discussing, they decided not to leave today and rest for another day.

Yang Xi bought ten pounds of meat and three large bones. They had bone soup noodles for lunch, vegetarian noodles for Yan Bing, braised pork for dinner, and vegetarian buns for Yan Bing.

They were going to bed early in the evening. Just as they fell asleep, there was a knock on the door and the sound of dogs barking in the village.

(End of this chapter)

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