The person in front was dressed in rags, with messy hair, as if he hadn't washed himself in a long time. He looked like a beggar who had come out of a slum, filthy and unrecognizable.

"Mother, these people smell awful."

Qin Xiaoniang covered her mouth and nose and replied softly, "Living in this kind of environment, this is already quite good. If it weren't for the fact that we are in the royal palace in Xizhou and have the care of the young prince to change our clothes, we might be smelly right now!"

Zhang Xiue shook her head and retorted, "You can't say that. Isn't there water in the river ahead? Even though it's winter, the river isn't frozen. You can get some cold water to wash yourself. It's just pure laziness! Don't make excuses for their bad habits."

Song He'er strongly agreed with Zhang Xiu'e's statement: a person may lack ability, but they cannot lack ambition.

“Third Aunt is right. These people just drift along, living one day at a time. But we are different. We want to live better than everyone else, so that we won’t have lived in vain.”

"Yes, our He'er is really ambitious!" Third Aunt affectionately patted Song He'er's forehead.

The group laughed and walked towards the most crowded area...

But the next moment, as soon as they stepped onto that land, a disheveled woman burst out, brandishing a stick and yelling at them, "Go somewhere else, this is where we stay."

Zhang Xiue composed herself, stepped forward, and asked dismissively, "Is it your first name or your surname written on it? We're all exiled from here by the imperial court, so why can you stay but we can't?"

The woman grinned, looking utterly unreasonable, as if she wanted to stare a hole through Zhang Xiue.

"Why should we? Just because we saw this place first. Don't you understand the principle of first come, first served?"

Qin Xiaoniang looked around and realized that the woman had come from a tattered tent dozens of meters away, still quite a distance from the open space.

"I'm telling you, you're being completely unreasonable. You live over there, so why can't we live here? How many heads and legs do you have? There's so much space for you to sleep in, why are you trying to take over this piece of land too?"

The woman was clearly not one to fight. Seeing that there were many people around, she quickly waved and called over a few more crazy women, each with their hands on their hips, acting like bosses.

"See? These are all our people. If you don't want to get beaten black and blue and unable to get up, you'd better leave here obediently."

Zhang Xiu'e found it laughable to see her spouting such arrogant words. How could a group of women, whose combined strength was not as great as hers, possibly beat them to a pulp? It was simply a joke!

"Want to fight?" Zhang Xiu'e said as she approached the group of dirty women, cracking her joints as she walked.

Song Xiaoyu and Li Qiang simply stood there and watched with smiles, so as not to let the women think that a group of men were bullying a weak woman, which seemed unfair and like taking advantage of someone in distress.

"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!"

Zhang Xiue ignored their words, picked up a tree branch from the ground as she walked, and then threw it forward quickly and accurately. In just an instant, a string of leaves beside her were knocked down by the branch.

The crazy women turned pale with fright, staring blankly ahead, not daring to utter another word.

"Will you let us stay or not?"

"You...you wait! Just you wait!" The group of crazy women shouted before running away, presumably to get reinforcements.

Qin Xiaoniang stepped forward, pulled Zhang Xiue aside, and whispered a reminder: "What if they have more men around them than we do?"

"What are you afraid of? Do you think we don't have men? Don't worry, they've been living here for so long that their bodies have been ruined by hunger. They don't have much strength, so we can beat them. Don't worry."

Hearing this, Qin Xiaoniang was a little worried, but she didn't say anything more.

After all, we've walked for so long, we really need to stop and rest. Besides, this place is excellent; the ground is clean, the air is fresh, and there's a small forest in front that can block the wind and sand from getting in.

Li Qiang and Song Xiaoyu casually chose a flat spot and set up their tent, while Zhang Xiue found some good tree branches nearby and set up a pot to boil water.

Since they had no other vegetables, they could only soak the dried biscuits in hot water to soften them before eating.

Song He'er found this food unpalatable and decided to find something else to eat.

"Third Aunt, did you ask the soldiers to buy salt?"

Upon hearing Song He'er's reminder, Zhang Xiu'e quickly took out the bag of salt from her bosom and handed it to Li Qiang's wife, who was cooking.

"I forgot, I also bought salt. Adding some in will prevent the food from being bland."

Song He'er looked towards the group of women cooking not far away and saw that their steaming pots were filled with something green that looked like wild vegetables.

“Mother, Third Aunt, I think there should be something to eat around here. Otherwise, what are those people cooking in their pots? Could it be tree leaves?”

Zhang Xiu'e looked in the direction Song He'er pointed and saw that there were indeed green vegetable leaves in the steaming pot.

"Are there really wild vegetables in the woods?" Zhang Xiu'e asked.

"I don't know either, why don't I go and take a look?"

"The same old rule applies, let your fifth aunt go with you!"

"good!"

With everyone in agreement, Song He'er and Chun Di happily walked towards the middle of the woods...

As we passed by that group of people, a young girl kept glancing in their direction.

"He'er, I think all of them are mentally unstable..."

"Why?" Song He'er asked with a smile.

"Look at the way that girl looked at me just now. She was acting suspiciously, like she had some ulterior motive. It was kind of scary!"

"Fifth Aunt, you're overthinking it. They've been here for a long time and rarely interact with the outside world, so it's normal for them to be withdrawn. Maybe we're even abnormal in their eyes!"

Chun Di gripped Song He'er's arm tightly and whispered, "Let's hurry back. After all, we're both young and frail. If those women come looking for trouble, we won't be able to handle those lunatics!"

"good!"

The forest was quiet and still, with only the rustling of leaves in the wind. It was winter, but it was strange that the trees here were so lush and green in such cold weather.

Splat~~

A strange sound came from behind...