Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Being Bullied

It was already dark when the Du mother and daughter came out of the woods. Gu Wenqing and Tian Dalang had returned, and the fire was already burning.

Mrs. Du put down the firewood in her arms and said, "This firewood is enough for us to burn until the middle of the night."

Tian Qingde's wife, Mrs. Bai, smiled at Mrs. Du and asked her to come over and sit down. "My Erlang is clever. He exchanged a clay pot with someone and just boiled some water. I'll give you half so you can soak the pancakes in it."

Mrs. Du said gratefully, "Thank you for your kindness."

Mrs. Bai smiled slightly and said, "Although this is our first meeting, my master said that both our families are going to Songjiang City. We should help each other in the future. Both of our families will survive and reach Songjiang City."

"Why."

Gu Youan glanced at the two brothers of the Tian family. Tian Dalang was steady, and Tian Erlang was smart. The Tian couple were good at raising children and were also good at being human beings.

While they were talking, two more people came over from the post station in front. One of them had a bulging belly, and no one knew what he was hiding. Another one was carrying a half-worn backpack, which he obviously had exchanged with the servants in the post station.

Both the Gu and Tian families stared at the backpack. It was a three thousand li journey to Songjiang City, and having a backpack to carry things would save a lot of trouble.

Tian Erlang stood up and said, "Dad, Mom, I'm going to take a look around the front."

Tian Qingde said, "Don't cause trouble."

Gu Wenqing also wanted to go, but was stopped by Gu Wen: "Eat your cake and rest early."

"Dad, I'll go ask if there's any medicine you can take."

"Don't go. I know my body well. I just need to rest for one night." Gu Wenqing felt an itch in his throat and couldn't help coughing lightly.

Gu Wenqing disagreed and felt that his father was just forcing himself.

Mrs. Du pulled her son aside and said, "Listen to your father."

Seeing that his parents said this, Gu Wenqing had no choice but to give up. He sat down, drank some water from the gourd, and buried his head in eating the cake.

After a tiring day, little girl Axuan was very sleepy. Gu Youan picked up his sister and took her to the woods to relieve herself.

Ah Xuan yawned while lying in her sister's arms, and asked dazedly, "Did you eat the cake?"

"have eaten."

The two sisters walked into the woods and until they were out of sight, Gu Youan fed her a peeled egg, and Ah Xuan's eyes lit up.

"Don't talk, eat quickly, don't let anyone find out."

A Xuan nodded and kept stuffing eggs into her mouth.

Gu Youan smiled when he saw how cute she was.

While Gu Youan was giving Axuan some special treatment, Mrs. Du quietly put two pills to Gu Wen's mouth. Gu Wen was stunned for a moment, then opened his mouth and swallowed them with warm water.

Gu Wen felt two warm objects in his arms. He touched them and called his eldest son, who had just laid down, to his feet: "Help me go to the woods."

Gu Wenqing didn't say much, he helped his father up.

When Gu Youan returned with his younger sister, he saw that his father and eldest brother were not there, so Mrs. Du said, "I'm going to the woods to relieve myself. I'll be back soon. You two sisters, go to sleep. Mother will watch over you."

"Um."

Gu Youan held his sister and lay on the hay to rest. The hay must have been dried in the sun, and the tip of his nose was filled with the fragrance of hay.

Mrs. Du took out two old clothes from her bag and put them on her daughter. She leaned against the wall to rest, but her hands were not idle, as she massaged her daughter's calves inch by inch.

At first, Gu Youan’s legs felt painful from being pinched, but after a while he got used to it and fell into a deep sleep.

After a while, Gu Wen and his son Gu Wenqing came back.

Gu Wenqing looked at his mother with curiosity. His mother had been with him when he went to the front to collect hay just now. When did his mother exchange eggs with someone?

Gu Wen was still running a fever. He was breathing heavily after walking for a while. When he sat down against the wall, he felt dizzy and uncomfortable.

Mrs. Du gave each of the father and son an old piece of clothing: "After all, it's the beginning of autumn, and the night is cool, so put on some clothes to sleep."

Four or five families were lying in a row against the back wall. The Gu and Tian families had a bonfire, and three families over there had a bonfire. The families were not far from each other, and at this moment, they were all quiet.

In the light of the fire, Gu Wen and Mrs. Du looked at each other. Mrs. Du gestured for him to look at his daughter. Gu Wen probably guessed something in his heart and closed his eyes to rest.

Gu Youan slept very soundly. In her dream, she dreamed of Youzi. She told Youzi that she was going on a long trip and didn’t know when she would be back, so she asked her to take good care of herself.

Youzi cried and asked her where she was going and if he could take her with him. Gu Youan hugged her and tried to comfort her, but just as she opened her mouth, she was suddenly awakened.

There was a suppressed cry coming from the woods, and then it was silent for a moment, as if she had heard it wrongly.

After a while, strange noises were heard again in the woods. Gu Youan was about to look up when her mother held her down, saying in a barely audible voice, "Don't move. Go back to sleep."

Gu Youan suddenly stopped moving and tightened his arms around Axuan.

The fires had gone out, but the moonlight was still bright tonight, as it was Mid-Autumn Festival. After a while, I could vaguely see a man and a woman emerging from the woods.

Gu Youan was not stupid. He understood the reason and closed his eyes and continued to sleep.

The second half of the night was very quiet. Holding A Xuan as her little heater, Gu Youan fell asleep again. She was woken up at dawn.

This time, I was woken up by a noise from the post station ahead. It seemed that someone said a woman had disappeared and ran away.

The officers scolded and asked people to look for the criminal official. The family of the criminal official whose son had escaped was terrified and hurried out to look for him. Half an hour later, two wet bodies were carried back. They had actually jumped into the river and died.

Several families living at the back wall packed their few belongings and waited to leave. Having heard that someone had died up ahead, they figured they would have to wait a while before they could leave, so they all sat there without saying a word.

Gu Youan silently poured the cooled water that had been boiled last night into the gourd, and then returned the ceramic pot used to boil water to the Tian family and expressed his gratitude.

Gu Wen and Tian Qingde exchanged glances and sighed inwardly. This was just the beginning.

Death wasn't a big deal, but failing to cover the required fifty li in a day was a life-threatening matter. The officers made arrangements with the post station and urged the criminals on their way.

It was another sunny day today. After taking the medicine and feeling better, Gu Wen walked more easily than yesterday and even asked his little daughter to lie on his back.

Mrs. Du refused and told Axuan to get down and walk by herself, and then carry her on her back when she couldn't walk anymore.

Axuan was also well-behaved. She would walk by herself when told to, but she kept saying she was hungry all the way.

Someone had been killed in the morning, so there was no time to care about the food and drink for these prisoners. All they had was a pot of clear cornmeal porridge mixed with water to fill their stomachs. They had already walked for an hour, so how could they not be hungry?

There were people everywhere, and even if Gu Youan had food in his hands, he couldn't hide from people without being discovered. No matter how much he felt sorry for the little girl, he could only let her go hungry.

Because we were delayed in the morning, we only had a quarter of an hour break for lunch and ate a piece of dry and hard corn tortilla before we were urged to continue on our journey.

The autumn heat was extremely severe. Unable to withstand the scorching sun and lack of water, the weak and sick people could not endure it and several of them fainted on the way.

The escorting officers were probably afraid that there were too many people dying and it would be difficult for them to report back, so there was a small river at the bend ahead, and they gave the prisoners a quarter of an hour to fetch water.

Gu Wenqing took the gourd from home and wanted to fetch water, but Gu Youan refused: "We still have water to drink, no need to fetch water."

"When I drank it just now, there was only a bottom left. How could it be enough?"

Gu Youan still refused to give the gourd. He said the raw water in the river was so dirty it was not drinkable.

"An An, give me the gourd."

"No."

Mrs. Du also said, "Since Dalang wants the gourd, I'll give it to your brother An An."

Gu Youan held his breath. His living habits could not be explained in a few words.

Gu Wen saw what his daughter meant and said, "Now is not the time to be particular. Listen to your mother."

It was only mid-afternoon, and they would have to walk a long way under the scorching sun, so they would all need water. Gu Youan knew her father was right, and there was nothing she could do but take care of the younger ones first.

Gu Youan opened the gourd and told Axuan to drink all the remaining water. After drinking, Axuan covered her stomach and shook it back and forth: "Sister, Axuan's stomach is rumbling."

Gu Wenqing touched his little sister's belly, took the gourd and went to the river upstream to fetch water. After fetching water, he scooped up the water to wash his face, drank two sips of water, stood up comfortably, and shook the water off his hands.

Looking at her brother like that, Gu Youan had only one thought in her mind, which was to find a way to get another gourd to hold water.

After resting for a quarter of an hour, they continued on their journey. After walking for an hour, Gu Youan felt thirsty. Gu Wenqing noticed it and handed the gourd to her. Gu Youan shook her head. She could still bear it and refused to drink it.

We walked even faster in the afternoon than in the morning. After hurrying and hurrying, we finally arrived at the resting place of the post station before dark.

This post station is even smaller than yesterday's post station. The guest rooms for the officials who came and went were definitely not suitable for these fugitives. If they wanted to stay in the post station, they could only go to the stables and squeeze with the livestock.

Even if it was a stable, the five of the Gu family would definitely not be able to rob the others. They could just stay outside the post station without worrying about it. There were no deep mountains or old forests, no man-eating beasts, and it was just a cold wind, which they could bear.

There is no grove behind the post station. There is a large reed marsh on the left side of the post station, which is snow-white.

"Reeds are good things."

Tian Qingde came over and said, "When I was a child, my family was poor. The winter was so cold that I couldn't sleep well. My family couldn't afford to buy a new quilt, so I followed the adults in the village to the reed marshes to pick reed flowers and stuff them into my quilts and cotton-padded clothes to help me survive the winter."

Although Gu Wen's childhood was not as hard as Tian Qingde's, he still knew the wonderful uses of reed catkins.

"If the officers don't care, we can go and grab some to take with us. We can use them on the way and in Songjiang City."

The winter in Northeast China is so freezing that if you are unlucky, even if you can make it to Songjiang City, you will still freeze to death in the winter in Northeast China.

The Gu family went to take a seat under the back wall just like yesterday. After a while, Tian Jia Erlang came over from the front. Gu Youan saw that Tian Jia Erlang was carrying a bamboo basket on his shoulder, and he didn't know where he got it from.

Tian Erlang smiled at Gu Youan and said, "Two taels of silver each. You can still buy it now."

There is a huge reed marsh here. Ordinary officials or runners passing by and staying at the post station would never look down on such cheap things as reed catkins. Only the convicts exiled to the north would look down on reed catkins in order to keep warm and survive.

If you want to carry reed catkins, you must buy baskets. The post station runners do business with people like them.

Gu Wenqing sighed, "Two taels of silver for a backpack. How can an exile with nothing to his name afford this?"

"Since the price is this high, naturally someone can afford it. It's just a matter of each person showing their unique abilities."

In the past, even if the exiled criminals had any valuables on them, they would have been stripped clean while they were in prison.

As I said, this group of exiles was different. They left home in a hurry. If they said they didn't carry anything with them, no one would believe them.

Tian Erlang said, "I see you brought quite a few clothes with you. You can choose two nice ones to exchange for the backpack."

"You can keep the clothes for yourself and spend the money to buy a backpack," said Mrs. Du.

Gu Youan also thought it was feasible. Her space was filled with her mother's dowry, which contained a lot of silver, so she didn't need the two taels. She opened the bundle and gave the silver to her brother.

Gu Youan turned to her mother and said, "Mom, get another gourd, and better yet, buy a pot."

There were also clay pots and ceramic pots in her space, but the craftsmanship was too good and they didn't look like things from the Zhou Dynasty at first glance. It was difficult to use them, so she had to spend money to buy them.

This is also what Mrs. Du meant. She wanted to get a gourd to hold water and a pot. She couldn't always use the Tian family's pot.

It's better to do this sooner rather than later. Since his parents have agreed, Gu Wenqing put the silver in his arms and went to the front to find a way to buy a backpack.

Tian Erlang handed the backpack to his brother and said to Gu Wenqing, "I'll take you to find it."

"Thank you, Brother Tian."

The officers escorting the fugitives and the officers at the post station were in cahoots with each other. They all knew that the fugitives might be hiding valuables in their hands. They dared to sell them things like a backpack for two taels of silver, a bowl for one tael of silver, and a coarse linen coat for five taels of silver.

Some people intend to hide their money and use it when it is most important, but the reed flowers are right in front of them. If they miss this reed marsh, they will never have this good thing again.

At the back door of the inn kitchen, an old woman took five taels of silver and threw a worn backpack and a bamboo tube filled with water to Gu Wenqing.

The old woman squinted at Gu Wenqing and said, "You've come at a good time. If it were two months later, when the weather got colder, my backpacks would have cost at least ten taels of silver each."

Tian Erlang said with an apologetic smile, "You wouldn't be at a loss if you didn't sell it to us. It would fetch a higher price in winter, but there wouldn't be any exiles passing by there."

The old woman sneered, "Don't worry. There are always corrupt officials who deserve to be beheaded or exiled. And our emperor is a man who doesn't tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes. If there is no one this year, there will definitely be one next year or the year after. There will always be a time for us to punish the fallen ones."

The old woman glanced outside the door at the women with dishevelled hair who still looked quite pretty, and said proudly, "You used to be so high and mighty, but now you have to survive under my thumb. By nightfall, I wonder how many noble ladies will go out to the reed marshes to wash themselves clean for a bite to eat, and then crawl into the beds of lowly and rough men in the middle of the night."

The old woman laughed heartily, with malice evident in her eyes.

Anger flashed in Gu Wenqing's eyes. The emperor was not a good emperor, and his father was not a corrupt official!

Tian Erlang saw that something was wrong and quickly pushed Gu Wenqing away: "Come on, let's go pick some reed flowers."