I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

Just as they stepped out of the kitchen, Ning's father called out from outside the yard.

Zhao Qi went over and opened the door, and two adults came in.

As they walked home from the street, a thin layer of dust settled on them. Patting his shoulder, Ning's father said, "We need to pack up and go."

"Sigh..." Zhao Ningning sighed and went back to the kitchen to prepare the seasonings.

Ning's father went to the yard to repair the carriage, while Zhao Qi went to help Ning's mother tidy up the kitchen utensils and the steamed buns that had been prepared that day.

After packing her things, Ning's mother took a basket of steamed buns to the neighbor's house to talk to He Shi.

Let them prepare early and be ready to set off at any time.

After returning home, the family of four took a shower and rested in bed.

Zhao Ningning volunteered to keep watch. Instead of waiting inside the house, she went to the courtyard and found a secluded corner to hide in.

Taking advantage of the space's convenience—being able to see and hear what's happening outside—Zhao Ningning simply lay down on the sofa to "keep watch."

As the night passed, the streets appeared peaceful, except for the increasing amount of ash drifting in from the horizon.

Ning's father put on a mask and a cloth and went out to find the village head.

They came back and said: The village head and the others are preparing to set off tomorrow morning.

The people of Wangli Village informed each other. In another house, He Shi and Zhou Jian packed their things early. Hearing that they were leaving the next day, He Shi was still a little reluctant to part with the money she had spent on renting the two rooms.

Even if I'm reluctant, there's nothing I can do; I have to stay alive.

These past two days, she has processed the grain that Zhao Ningning's family had previously sent into dry rations that can be eaten directly on the road, enough to last for quite a while.

It just so happens that we're setting off again tomorrow.

She had baked the meat jerky she made earlier until it was thoroughly cooked, then rubbed it with salt, making it taste salty and savory. She gave one to her son.

Zhou Jian ate it with great care, taking small bites, and ate one stick for two days.

After putting the food and water in the car, Mrs. He rubbed her hands back and forth, looking at the sky with worry.

"Luckily we're with your sister and the others. They've helped our family so much along the way..." Mrs. He said. "If it weren't for her, my daughter and I would be no different from being blind."

She used to farm in the village day after day. Although it was not easy for a widow to raise two children, she gritted her teeth and got through it.

These days, fleeing famine on the road is not something you can get through by just gritting your teeth.

"Once we're on our way, when you have time, give the dried meat to your sister and ask her about the few tricks you didn't learn last time," Mrs. He instructed her son.

Zhou Jian nodded. His sister had dragged him to practice boxing before they fled the famine. But after they were caught off guard and hit the road, he was tired and hungry and became quite lax. After encountering bandits several times, Madam He took it seriously and made Zhou Jian practice more diligently.

She also learned a couple of moves from Zhou Jian.

The two didn't go to the yard; dust was falling everywhere. They practiced a set of boxing moves inside the house before going to bed.

In the middle of the night, Mrs. He suddenly heard a noise at the front door.

"Little Sword! Little Sword!"

There was a knocking sound outside. He listened intently and realized it was her daughter's voice!

She hurriedly got up to open the door, and only when she walked into the yard did she realize that the sky was rather bright tonight—like when the wildfire had just started that day.

She opened the door, and Zhou Lanxiang outside called out urgently, "Go! Go quickly!"

"The wildfires are coming!"

"How could this be..." Mrs. He called out to Zhou Jian as she ran into the house.

After He Shi got up, Zhou Jian heard the commotion and got up as well. He got dressed and came out, and the two of them worked together to lift the cart onto the ox.

After putting on the quilts, he stuffed them into the cart and, without even closing the gate, drove the oxcart after Zhao Ningning's house.

Having visited the village head twice, Ning's father, familiar with the area, followed the small streets of the city to the village head's rented house. Even before getting close, he could see many people there.

A number of people from Wangli Village had already gathered near the village head's house.

Not only did they gather here, but other alert people on the way here also noticed something was wrong and got up in the middle of the night to prepare to leave.

When there are many people, it gets noisy and chaotic at the front.

"Is everyone here?"

"Village head! When are we leaving?"

"Who's missing! Why aren't they here yet!"

"It seems the Zhao family hasn't arrived yet..."

"We still have a few more to go! Why don't we leave a message and head out? We can't keep waiting!"

Seeing the streets becoming increasingly chaotic, the village head was also very anxious.

He also sent his two sons out to warn everyone to be alert and not to sleep too soundly at night, so that if anything seemed amiss, they would immediately get up and gather at this location.

After waiting another quarter of an hour, seeing that most of the people had arrived, the village head finally nodded.

The people of Wangli Village hurriedly followed his directions, some pulling carts, others driving them.

Zhao Ningning looked around the group. The light was red, and she could only make out the outlines. She could only see who it was when she got closer.

But, it seems we didn't see Old Zhao's family in the group. Where did they go?

So you've just left the group?

Zhao Ningning shook her head, banishing the curiosity from her mind, and focused on helping her father see the road.

Meanwhile, a group of people from the Zhao family ran towards the south gate of Huangshi County.

"Mother, you! Are you telling the truth?!"

Zhao Laosan was panting heavily as he ran. If his mother hadn't been dangling him ahead with a large radish, he wouldn't have bothered running towards the south gate of the county town at this time.

Didn't you see the sky looked strange? Are all the people in the county town running north?

"Stop talking nonsense and come with me!"

Granny Qian's small, triangular eyes gleamed with cunning. She and her family took a shortcut and ran against the flow of people to the south gate of Huangshi County—the place where their carriage had been confiscated.

It's a mess here right now. It seems there's a riot by refugees who fled famine outside the city, and all the yamen runners have gone to manage the city gates.

There were only one or two people guarding the area around the tent and the fence.

"Let's go! Let's go inside and pick out a good one!"

Granny Qian was incredibly bold. While the constables turned to patrol, she took her two sons and slipped inside.

They hid from people and crawled into the tent one by one.

There were no lights in the tent, so they couldn't see clearly. By touch, Granny Qian found a sturdy vehicle and then felt that there was a carriage inside!

Her face lit up with joy, and she took her two sons' hands, exclaiming, "This is it!"

Zhao Laoda and Zhao Laosan rubbed their hands together and each pulled the cart on one side.

Granny Qian stood guard at the tent entrance, and the moment the patrolmen passed by, she took off running.

Her two sons followed behind her, running.

Fearing being caught, the three of them didn't even dare to turn back until they reached the gate of the fence. The guards noticed something was wrong and wondered why there were three people pulling a cart and running outside.

He quickly drew his sword and shouted, "What are you doing!"

"Get out of here! Get out of here!"

Granny Qian raised her wood-chopping knife. "Let us pass!"

The vehicle is moving at a constant speed; if you don't dodge, you'll get hit!

The constables were still deadly. He glanced at the stolen car with a troubled expression and silently moved half a body away.

Neither Zhao Laoda nor Zhao Laosan expected that they would get the car back so easily.

They even got a nice car with a cargo box!

They pulled the cart all the way to the street corner before stopping. Granny Qian said smugly, "Let's go! Get in!"

The rest of Lao Zhao's family were waiting there when they saw the truck being brought over, and they were all taken aback.

"This! This car..."

The sky was dim and reddish. Old Zhao thought he was seeing things, so he rubbed his eyes and looked again: it was clearly a bright red wedding car!

"Mother..." Madam Sun gasped, "This carriage..."

The others remained silent, but their eyes betrayed their disbelief.

Granny Qian asked in confusion, "What's wrong with this cart? I picked out the one made of the best materials; it's heavy when you pull it, which means it's a good cart!"

Following his wife's surprised and suspicious gaze, Zhao Laoda turned around and froze on the spot.

Seeing his elder brother's expression, Zhao Laosan turned around to look.

He was stunned when he saw it.

Instead of rushing to escape the famine, the family members were playing coy, which infuriated Granny Qian. "What's wrong with the cart! It's perfectly fine..."

As she spoke, she turned around and was stunned.

In the dim light, a bright red wedding car stopped behind them.

I don't know where these yamen runners got them from, but the wedding carriage was decorated with big red flowers. Even in poor lighting, you could spot this extremely conspicuous carriage at a glance.

"This, this!" Granny Qian pointed at the carriage, "Why is it a wedding carriage!"

Zhao Laosan frowned, looked away, and said, "A wedding car it is then, we need to hurry up and leave!"

"No!" Granny Qian said, "The wedding carriage is too conspicuous!"

When fleeing famine, the more discreet you are, the better. Who would use such an obviously bright color like a wedding car?!

"Then what do you suggest we do? It's too late to go back and exchange it now!"

Zhao Laosan steered the cart forward, saying, "It's a miracle those constables didn't chase after us!"

The fact that they were able to snatch something from the government was something the Zhao family would never have dared to dream of under normal circumstances.

Zhao Wenyuan helped Cao Rouan into the car. "Yes! Grandma, let's hurry up, or we won't be able to catch up with the village head and the others."

"By the way, where are our horses?" Zhao Wenyuan asked. "Why can't I see them?"

"Where did the horses come from!" Granny Qian glanced at the wedding carriage with disdain, then hesitated for a long time before saying, "I went inside to look, but there were no horses in the tent, only a carriage!"

There wasn't even a single piece of firewood on the carriage, and I have no idea where the other things had been taken.

"Let's go, let's go, don't delay any longer." Old Zhao was a little unhappy. Although the wedding carriage came with a side carriage, the color was too ugly.

More importantly, without horses, the whole family would have to pull the cart by hand again.

Regardless, it's already quite good that they managed to salvage a car frame.

The Zhao family hurried along, and finally met the people from Wangli Village just before leaving the city.

A large crowd was gathered ahead, all eager to leave the city as soon as possible. The north gate was in complete chaos, and even the yamen runners could not be seen.

It's unclear whether there were no officials present or if the refugees had pushed them away.

Zhao Ningning, whose mule cart moved forward and then stopped intermittently, simply stood on the front of the cart and looked ahead and behind. What she saw there was quite something.

"Wow!" Zhao Ningning exclaimed, "Wow, what an eye-catching carriage!"

Following her gaze, Ning's father, sitting in the hood of the car, looked over and couldn't help but burst out laughing: "This...this is really...hilarious!"

Ning's mother and Zhao Qi were extremely curious about the commotion they were making. They went to the front of the car and looked back. A bright red wedding car was following behind their procession.

Using a wedding carriage to travel was not a big deal; in a year of famine, the only thing that mattered was escaping with one's life. However, the people sitting in that carriage were none other than the Zhao family, the Zhao family's mortal enemies who had traveled to ancient times.

The silk red flowers on the bright red carriage were pulled off by Granny Qian and stuffed into the carriage, but the carriage itself was still very conspicuous.

She was fine while driving, but now that she had stopped, Granny Qian felt like countless eyes were staring at her. Sitting on the hood of the car, she felt like she was sitting on pins and needles. After a while, she hid inside the car.

Fortunately, there was a sedan curtain that could block it for a while.

The Zhao family laughed for a while. Zhao Ningning thought, "Mother, is it because they didn't have the money to redeem the carriage when they went to the city, and somehow they managed to get this red carriage?"

"It's probably..." Ning's mother wasn't the type to nag others about crickets, but this time it was really... somewhat comical.

"Alright, alright, let's focus on getting on our way." Ning's mother returned to the carriage and pulled Zhao Ningning in as well.

Zhao Ningning sat down next to her and asked, "Do you want to take a nap first? We still have to travel later."

Since getting on the road was of utmost importance, Ning's mother did not refuse, saying, "Then you all help keep an eye on things, and you can sleep here after we leave the city."

Zhao Ningning nodded and closed the carriage door for her.

Zhao Qi sat at the front of the carriage, helping to watch the horses. Because the city gate was blocked, the mules and horses were getting a little irritable, walking and stopping frequently.

He had to jump down every now and then to stroke the horses and mules.

As we walked slowly, just as we were about to reach the city gate, a commotion suddenly broke out behind us.

Zhao Ningning immediately jumped up and stood on the front of the car to look back.

The sky was a deep reddish hue, and only the shadowy figures in the distance and the sounds of shouting and fighting could be seen.

—What's going on over there?!

Zhao Ningning became alert. "Dad, something's not right."

Without saying a word, Ning's father immediately called to his son, who was stroking the horse's mane, "Xiao Qi, get in the car quickly."

Zhao Qi put the comb away, clung to the front of the car and climbed onto it, and Ning's father reached out and pulled him onto the car.

The commotion grew louder and louder.

Things started to get restless ahead.

Caught in a pincer movement, Ning's father frowned.

"Should we move away from here first?" Zhao Ningning thought of the stampede.

"It's too late, the road here is blocked." Ning's father shook his head. "We can only try to push forward and see if we can get out."

They had already lined up at the city gate from the back of the exit queue, and were about to leave the city. They had no choice but to choose the lesser of two evils and take a gamble by going to the front.

"You two sit properly," Ning's father instructed, gripping the reins and cautiously observing his surroundings.

"I'll go tell Grandma and the others," Zhao Ningning said, then jumped out of the car and ran to the back to tell Zhou Jian and the others.

Upon hearing that there might be danger, Madam He's expression turned serious, and she told Ningning to go back quickly.

After Ningning left, Madam He looked around with a probing gaze, her heart pounding.

Everywhere there were crowds of people, and sounds came from all directions, and it seemed that there really were... shouts of fighting and killing.

The sound grew closer and louder until it was right behind us!

Mrs. He felt a sense of urgency; she desperately wanted to leave this place!

"Kill! Kill them all! We can't get out anyway! Kill them all, at least we'll die with a full stomach!"

After a loud, rough laugh, the voice shouted again:

"Nine suns will burn the heavens, and the Great Zhou Dynasty will perish!"

The old dynasty has fallen, and a new king has ascended the throne!

Zhao Ningning overheard this and asked, "What do you mean by 'destruction' and 'new king'?"

—Is someone trying to take advantage of the chaos to declare themselves king?!

Upon hearing these slogans, Ning's father's face darkened. He gripped the reins and looked around, trying to find a way out of the sea of ​​people.

Unfortunately, the surrounding roads were packed with people, making it difficult to even turn around, let alone get out!