Liu handed her a handful of copper coins, looking dazed.

Jiang Yun began acupuncture, and the child's purplish-blue complexion returned to normal. His weak breathing also improved. Fifteen minutes later, the unconscious child opened his eyes and kept calling for his mother.

Lin Jinyue breathed a sigh of relief; she had finally been saved.

Jiang Yun gave her a prescription containing very common herbs. Seeing that the clinic was unscrupulous, Jiang Yun charged her ten coins to pack three doses of the medicine and told her to go back and decoct it for her son.

Liu thanked her profusely and tried to give the silver bracelet to Jiang Yun, but she refused.

People already have it hard enough to live in this world, how could Jiang Yun possibly accept them?

With a little money left, Lin Jinyue and Jiang Yun went to buy some odds and ends, such as needles and thread, hair ties, bowls and chopsticks, and soap.

Basic daily necessities like toothpaste, toothbrush, and shower gel were all included in the starter kit, and I haven't finished using them yet.

But the quality was just too good. It smelled wonderful and the fragrance lasted a long time. On the way to escape the famine, the fragrance was so strong that it was as if the words "Come and rob me" were engraved on my forehead. So I decided to buy all these odds and ends here.

An hour later, Lin Jinyue and Lin Shucheng met up.

Lin Shucheng carried large and small bags, including a set of bedding, more than twenty water bags, and two pairs of shoes for each of his family members. The shoes were quite thick and looked expensive.

That's not all. Nowadays, anything edible in this city can be sold for exorbitant prices. Lin Shucheng even bought two candied hawthorns, one for his wife and one for his daughter.

Jiang Yun felt sorry for the money spent on those two strings of candied hawthorns. She could have just picked some sour fruit along the way. Her daughter had many ideas; she could have made candied hawthorns in her space. Why waste so much money?

She grabbed Lin Shucheng's waist: "You think you're so great, huh? Where did you get all this money to squander?"

Lin Shucheng was still laughing, but this time Jiang Yun was really angry. She didn't hold back and used all her strength, making him howl in pain. While enduring the pain, he explained, "Wife, wife, be gentle. I didn't waste any money."

As he spoke, Lin Shucheng handed her a handful of silver as if presenting a treasure. There was a ten-tael silver ingot and a handful of loose silver, totaling almost twenty taels.

Jiang Yun asked curiously, "Where did you get so much money?"

Lin Shucheng said in a low voice, "I didn't eat the meat pie this morning. I also have a few boiled eggs, a pickled fish, and a few grain cakes on me. So, I exchanged them for fifty taels of silver notes. I was just worried that in these chaotic times, silver notes are not as reassuring as real silver. They might become unusable after a while. So I'm using them up quickly. Quick, quick, I need to find a place to put them away. There are also iron pots, iron shovels, and all sorts of ironware. I agreed with the person that I could exchange them for five catties of coarse grains. Let's stock up on some. We might need them in the future."

With the money in hand, Jiang Yun hurriedly went to the pharmacy and bought some more life-saving herbs.

In particular, there are a few medicinal herbs that can treat miasma, but they are very expensive.

Lin Shucheng didn't follow, but instead asked Lin Jinyue, "We're exchanging grain for ironware, that shouldn't be against the rules, right? We didn't even sell it for silver..."

Lin Jinyue didn't hear the system's warning. "It seems okay?"

After Jiang Yun quickly bought the medicinal herbs, she still had ten taels of silver left for emergencies. Without wasting any time, they went to the blacksmith's house and bought all the iron products.

Although they only asked for five catties of coarse grains, grains weren't very valuable to their family, so they gave him a basket of coarse grains, which weighed at least ten catties.

For the sake of the basket of grain, Li the blacksmith quickly pushed the people out and pointed out a crack in the city wall, telling them to leave away from the soldiers, also afraid of getting into trouble himself.

Li the blacksmith instinctively assumed that Lin Shucheng's family had bought so much ironware because they wanted to become bandits in the mountains.

But he didn't say much, just took the food and made sure he could get through this period.

Who knew this family was so bold, buying so much ironware without fear of being questioned by the soldiers? The little girl even asked, "I see a well in the back. Can I exchange two eggs for water?"

Li the blacksmith was getting anxious: "No, no, you must leave now."

Lin Jinyue also became anxious: "Isn't there any drinking water here?"

She can replenish her water supply from her spatial storage this time, but what about in the future?

Li the blacksmith spoke rapidly, “There is no water in the city. Well water is undrinkable. Water from anywhere within a hundred miles is also undrinkable. At best, it will cause diarrhea; at worst, it will kill you. Hurry up and go. Ten miles south, there is a Xifeng Mountain. People from nearby Runan County and Ruyang County go there to fetch water.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Jinyue immediately understood. They had been searching for a clean water source for the past few days and had always felt something was amiss; it was indeed man-made.

This despicable bastard deliberately pollutes the water source just to make that dirty money!

Lin Jinyue had no choice but to think of other solutions, such as buying some more water bags.

As she was about to leave, she glanced at Li the blacksmith's house. Besides the iron pot, there were some exquisite iron products, crafted with superb skill, clearly not made by an ordinary person.

At this critical juncture, even though Li the blacksmith was extremely anxious, she still had time to drool over other people's blacksmithing skills.

Blacksmiths are easy to find, but good blacksmiths are rare. If we want to improve our lives and make some modern things in the future, we will need a good blacksmith. If we could take Blacksmith Li with us when we flee famine, that would be great.

The people in Prince Jing's territory are also living in dire straits, so it would be better to go to Lingnan with her.

However, I didn't know how to start the conversation.

Just then, a somewhat familiar woman's voice came from the back room: "Brother Li, who's outside?"

The woman lifted the curtain and came out, and was delighted to see Jiang Yun.

She said to Li the blacksmith, "Oh my, what a coincidence! This is the miracle doctor I told you about who saved our son."

Mrs. Liu thanked Jiang Yun profusely, and the blacksmith Li's attitude improved considerably; the couple practically knelt down to thank them.

Hearing that they wanted water, he lowered his voice and said, "There's no water outside the city, but we do know of a well..."

Liu led Lin Jinyue and the others through a maze of twists and turns until they arrived at a dilapidated temple. They moved aside the piles of debris to reveal a well. The water quality, which had been failing tests in various places, was normal when they came to this well.

Only then did they realize that it was Prince Jing's men who deliberately poisoned the water to monopolize the water source and buy it at high prices.

This is really...

Back at Li the blacksmith's house, the family members all looked gloomy and worried, saying they didn't know how long they could live peacefully, and that the dilapidated temple would eventually attract attention.

Lin Jinyue then spoke up: "Uncle Li, can you stay in such a place for long? Not to mention that you'll spend all your money on medical treatment and drinking water, your blacksmithing skills are quite good. I can tell that you've deliberately hidden away these fine items because you're afraid that Prince Jing will make you work, right?"

For a moment, Li the blacksmith's face turned ashen, and his eyes were filled with vigilance as he looked at Lin Jinyue.

This little girl is not even ten years old, how can she be so perceptive?

Lin Jinyue said calmly, "You don't need to be wary of me. Our family is just an honest, ordinary family."

"You see, with war raging now, nowhere is safe. If you trust us, meet us at the foot of West Peak tomorrow evening. Don't tell anyone else, take your important belongings, and come with us."