Can't a princess ascend the throne?

Chapter 96 Black Mine

What was this for her?
At that moment, none of the people hurrying by had the energy to glance at Jiu Que; everyone was focused on their work. Jiu Que didn't understand at first, but when her gaze fell on the overseers scattered around, whips in hand and menacing in their eyes, she understood.

Such strict security, this can't be a legitimate mine, can it?
Walking with his head down, Jiu Que cautiously glanced around out of the corner of his eye. It was a depression, but it was hard to say whether it was formed by over-mining, as there were an absurd number of miners here. In just a few steps, Jiu Que inexplicably felt a huge wave of sorrow, hatred, and resentment. Just then, an old man with white hair and beard, carrying a large stone, passed by. His face was covered with wrinkles, and his body was extremely thin. Because of the warm weather, he wore only thin clothes, and his chest was exposed, withered like an old tree root, looking exactly like an old man. He was probably really too tired, so the old man couldn't help but stop to catch his breath. However, the sharp-eyed overseer immediately noticed that a whip had lashed out and struck the old man hard in the chest.

Jiu Que heard only a scream, and a two-finger-high whip mark instantly swelled up on the old man's chest, the skin so thin it was almost torn apart by the flesh! The next moment, the old man's shrill scream rang out.

"Ah—Sorry, O supervisor, I didn't mean to stop. I'll be right there, I'll be right there!"

The old man swallowed back the rest of his scream, bowing and scraping, not daring to look at the whip mark on his body. He hurriedly picked up the stone and walked away. Although he staggered a bit, he managed to get away. The overseer only gave him a sinister look and did not continue whipping him.

"What a spineless wretch! Wouldn't it have been better if he had known better earlier? What a worthless life!"

Hearing this, Jiu Que clenched her fists tightly, feeling a pang of sorrow in her heart. The old man, struggling to lift that irregularly shaped stone, had blood seeping from his shoulder; she wondered what kind of damage it had caused…

"Don't mind your own business."

The woman whose age was unclear snapped out of her daze, glared at Ying Jiuque, and dragged her through the bustling crowd without stopping. Just then, the aroma of food wafted over, and Jiuque realized where she was. Sure enough, after a few more steps, an open-air kitchen came into view, where several women were already busy at work.

The women were also filthy. Jiu Que saw a woman with mud on the back of her hand reach out and stir the mixed grains and cotton wool in the wooden basin. The cotton wool was also grayish-black. He really didn't know if it was the original color or if something else had been added.

Upon seeing Jiu Que, even the busy women took a moment to glance at her.

"Wang Mo, is this the child they brought back? Oh, look how skinny he is, he must have had a hard time before he came here?"

Jiu Que forced an awkward smile.

"I... I really haven't been doing very well before..."

She hadn't had a good time on the estate before.

"My father remarried right after my mother died, and he didn't really like me..."

However, Lin Wei has now been kicked out by her.

"My uncle didn't like me the other day and kicked me out of the house..."

She wasn't wrong; after all, he was kicked out of the capital by a secret order from the old emperor.

In just a few words, she portrayed herself as a pitiful, unwanted child, utterly unlucky and neglected by her parents. The women who had initially paid little attention to her involuntarily stopped what they were doing, their eyes softening with pity. Even though she knew she was destined to never leave this godforsaken place, anyone would feel a pang of sympathy when faced with someone weaker than themselves, especially since these women weren't inherently bad. They were, after all, a group of pitiful souls.

So, looking around, and seeing the overseer wasn't nearby, the women stopped what they were doing and pulled out their treasured food from unexpected places. It was a small piece of bread the size of a fingertip, or a piece of salted meat the size of a fingertip. Because the overseers were watching so closely, the women could only hide so little food. Even with seven or eight women surrounding them, they only gave Jiu Que a pitiful handful of food. But Jiu Que wasn't disgusted at all; although her stomach was rumbling with hunger, she still didn't accept it. After all, these women didn't look well either; they probably suffered from hunger themselves and had painstakingly saved this little bit of food. She couldn't take their food away.

"Thank you all for your kindness, but this food was saved up by you all. I can't accept such a gift without doing anything. How can I take your food?"

"What, what fortune?"

The older sisters didn't understand Jiu Que's literary words, and they stared at him with a mixture of repression and curiosity.

"You've been to school? Why do you speak so differently from us?"

"I also think she looks like an educated girl. Hey, these days, even boys rarely go to school. I didn't expect a girl like you to be so good at studying, that's impressive!"

Now the sisters' smiles looked even more genuine.

The woman named Wang Mo, who had initially come into contact with Jiu Que, stared at him with complicated emotions for a few moments before waving away the women who were looking at him like he was a rare treasure.

"Alright, alright, hurry up and cook. Do you want to get scolded later?"

These words were very impactful. The women who had wanted to ask more questions immediately scattered and noticeably sped up their work. Actually, the meal they prepared wasn't complicated. They boiled a large pot of water, sprinkled in mixed grains that had been ground into clumps, added a lot of wild vegetables, and finally carefully poured in a few spoonfuls of a can of grayish-white granules.

The big pot of soup was now ready, followed by some hard cornbread buns, which looked exactly like the ones Jiuque had eaten before.

"Don't just stand there. To survive in this place, you have to pay the price. Go and help."

"……OK."

Jiu Que paused for a moment, then quickly took a few steps to help an older woman with a bad back carry down a whole basket of hard, dry cornbread.

Several people nearby initially wanted to help, but they were stunned to see that Jiu Que could lift it all by himself without any effort. How can this child be so strong? Is he just showing off?
"Don't take it, be careful not to strain your back. There are no doctors around here. If you get injured, you can only tough it out. If you can't take it anymore, you'll die."

“…I, I understand.”

Being in an unfamiliar place, and seemingly a dangerous one at that, Jiu Que silently put down his things, using only one-tenth of his usual strength, and yet he still received praise.

"Young people are really different! Look at that strength!"

(End of this chapter)