According to the description of Cao'er and her daughter, Ye Zhou's current location should be three to five days' walk from the edge of the woods.

There are no dirt roads for people to walk on in the woods. All roads were trampled by wild beasts in the past. When there were wild beasts and wild vegetables in the woods, people flocked into the forest. But after that, they no longer came in.

After all, the bark of the trees has been almost stripped off, and the forest can no longer provide anything to humans.

And even if we go deeper, not to mention whether we can survive the beasts' mouths, even finding the direction may be a problem.

Besides, the refugees’ physical strength could not support them to continue walking.

Although this method of exhausting all fish has had a huge impact on the forest ecology, it also provides one advantage: even if you do not bring weapons into the forest, you will not face life-threatening dangers from wild animals.

This also provides Ye Zhou with a layer of protection.

Without Cao'er and her daughter leading the way, Ye Zhou didn't know which direction to leave the woods.

Although he had a compass, he didn't know which direction the exit was.

The only purpose of the compass here is to prevent him from going around in circles.

If Ye Zhou wanted to get out, he could only use the dumbest method, which was to walk to the end of one road. If there was no way out, he would turn back and continue walking in another direction. This was not only dangerous, but also very time-consuming.

What he is worried about now is how to recruit enough people. Once he has recruited enough people, he will start to worry about attracting customers.

Although the supermarket is relatively safe in the deep mountains and forests, they have another characteristic, which is that they are sparsely populated.

Those who still go into the mountains at this time are either like Cao'er and her daughter, who want to find a place to wait for death, or they are people who were originally planning to look for food outside the woods but ended up getting lost.

It took four days, but Cao'er and her daughter finally felt better. They were just like grass. Even when they were in dire straits and not a drop of rain fell, they still held on to the soil with their weak roots. Give them a drop of water and a ray of sunshine, and they would come back to life again.

Anyway, Ye Zhou felt inferior to them and admired them very much.

As a modern man, he enjoys the benefits brought by modern industry, but what does that have to do with him?

He has never made a screw or assembled a machine. He is just lucky to be born as a modern man and enjoy the benefits brought by the great ancestors.

He couldn't have the sense of superiority that others didn't have. If he was a member of the army fleeing famine, he might have been among the first group of people to starve to death.

Cao'er and her daughter felt uneasy staying in the supermarket. They always felt that they were not productive and would be kicked out after a while. So they tried every way to find things to do. They had to mop the floor and wipe the cabinets every day. For such a big supermarket, they actually managed to clean it carefully every day.

The next day it wasn't dirty at all, so I continued cleaning.

Ye Zhou couldn't stop him, and he felt that it was a good thing this way. Having something to do gave him a sense of belonging and he wouldn't have to think about anything else.

"Mom, this mop is so useful." Cao'er's eyes have never dimmed since she entered the supermarket. She finds everything new and marvels at it. She even exclaimed at the floor tiles on the first day she arrived.

"The immortal master has magical powers, these things are nothing." Cao'er Niang is "well-informed" and has heard the storyteller's stories before. She pointed at the lamp and said, "That's a fairy lamp, it burns with fairy spirit, that's why there is no fire or smoke."

Cao'er's mother whispered again: "We have to be careful. The immortal master has eyes and ears that are all around him. He knows everything. We have to be sincere!"

Cao'er's mother now no longer regards Ye Zhou as a human being, but as a stone statue in a shrine, to be worshipped with awe.

Ye Zhou who happened to be passing by: "..."

He really became an "immortal master".

The two words "Master" were more powerful than immortals, and they struck Ye Zhou so hard that he was burnt on the outside and tender on the inside.

So he pretended not to hear and walked quietly along the wall.

"I wonder if there will be meat to eat tonight." Cao'er swallowed.

What she eats now is either white flour or rice. The white flour buns are not yellow at all, and are whiter than the powder that the ladies in operas use to apply on their faces.

There is also meat. If the immortal master had not forbade them to eat too much fatty meat, Cao'er could eat large amounts of fatty meat three times a day.

But almost every meal contains meat and oil.

"Keep your voice down!" Cao'er's mother said sternly, "It would be bad if the immortal thought we were greedy."

Cao'er nodded quickly. Now that she no longer had to worry about food and drink, she talked more and became much bolder.

Now they not only have enough food to eat and water to drink, but they also have three sets of clothes to change into, and they don’t have to wash them by hand!

It was Ye Zhou who demonstrated to them the first time they washed clothes.

Fortunately, the washing machine used in the store is not a new high-tech product. It only has a few buttons for washing, spinning and drying. It was originally used to wash small items such as towels, but it can also be used to wash clothes.

"Everything here was made by the immortal himself. With a breath of his magical power, anything can be accomplished!" Cao'er's mother said confidently.

Washing clothes is not an easy job. You have to hammer or rub them. Small items are okay, but large items may take an hour to wash clean, and then you have to wring them dry. If there are a lot of dirty clothes at home, washing them can take half your life.

Now, there is no need to wash the clothes with a chicken. Just throw the clothes in, take them out and wring them dry, then hang them on the rack and they will be dry in half a day.

Although the clothes the immortal gave them were light and thin, and washing them by hand was effortless, they would be better off wiping the loading racks twice instead of wasting that time.

Because they wear the clothes themselves, it doesn't matter if they get dirty, but cleaning the shelves is working for the immortal master and they can't waste even a moment.

"If the immortal master hadn't said that we are not allowed to work because it's dark outside, I could have continued to clean it." Cao'er even felt a little regretful.

She felt that she had to work harder, and it would be great if she could faint from exhaustion one day so that the immortal could see her and know her sincerity.

Cao'er's mother nodded, she thought so too.

The immortal didn't want them to kowtow or make offerings - although they didn't have anything to offer, they didn't even feel safe if they were not allowed to work from morning to night.

They were all farmers who had never woven cloth in their lives. Families that could afford a loom were well-known local wealthy families. Cloth could be worth as much as copper coins! Sometimes even more valuable than copper coins.

As for needlework, if you can fix patches well and make clothes without unraveling, that is considered a good skill.

Therefore, their thoughts are very simple. The emperor requires them to pay taxes, the landlords collect rent from them, and the immortals should also ask them to work more, which is in line with the image of a "master" in their minds.

There was no fixed amount of tax the emperor required them to pay. If the year was good, it would be more, and if the year was bad, it would be less. Regardless of good or bad years, the amount of grain left over was almost the same every year.

Fortunately, their family doesn't have many people. If there were two more, they wouldn't be able to afford the head tax alone.

Although the landlords collected 60% of their rent, the peddlers who occasionally came to the village said that in some villages the rent had increased to 80%. Even if they borrowed food and seeds from the local landlords, they could not feed themselves. The debt kept growing, and even if the family was not slaves of the landlords, they were almost broke.

As for gods and Buddhas, they do not believe in them as long as they are sincere.

If these peasant women want to go into the temple and burn incense, they have to pay.

Gods and Buddhas do not protect the poor.

Even if a wish comes true, you still have to repay it. This shows that even the gods and Buddhas are above, and they also need money from the human world to bribe them.

While Cao'er and her daughter were talking, Ye Zhou was packing his things. He would go to the edge of the forest with them tomorrow morning, so he found a large backpack and filled it with dry food. Self-heating food took up too much space, so he basically brought compressed biscuits and sausages, which were filling and did not take up space.

Because he was going to sleep outdoors, he had to bring two tents. In order to save space, he brought the most expensive and portable one in the supermarket.

On New Year's Eve, he also brought pepper spray and a machete.

The machete had no scabbard, so it could only be wrapped with a cloth strip to avoid hurting oneself while moving around.

The next morning, before the sun came out, Ye Zhou set off with Cao'er and her daughter.

Originally, only one person would be enough, but Ye Zhou was worried that if he left the supermarket, the person who stayed behind might not keep an eye on the electrical appliances and get electrocuted and get caught in a fire.

Now the only thing he can rely on is this supermarket.

Without this supermarket, he would really be waiting to die.

He was very self-aware. The natives lived like this in these famine times, so he, a modern man with lazy limbs and poor stomach, would be even worse off. At least the natives could distinguish wild vegetables and fungi, but he would die if he ate a poisonous mushroom.

It is better to be safe than sorry.

They were not in a hurry and walked at a normal speed. For safety reasons, they did not travel at night. Although there were no wild beasts, Cao'er and her daughter both had night blindness to varying degrees. If there were potholes or cliffs on the road, they would fall down and if they did not die, they would break their arms and legs.

Ye Zhou didn't bring a flashlight. It was one thing that he was not in a hurry, but it would not be good if he met someone on the road and saw him holding a flashlight.

If the other person is a bad person, you will be sowing the seeds of disaster for yourself.

Anyway, he can never gamble because he doesn't have the money to gamble.

After walking slowly for five days, Ye Zhou finally saw the road outside the woods.

Although it was just an ordinary dirt road, Ye Zhou suddenly had a wonderful feeling that he had returned from primitive times to civilized society.

But that was only a momentary feeling.

He did not approach rashly, but looked over from the slightly higher hillside with a telescope. There were many ragged refugees on the roadside. They were lying or sitting on the roadside, occasionally stretching their necks to look into the distance, hoping that a noble person would pass by and give them some food to fill their stomachs.

Their conditions were not much better than Cao'er and her daughter.

It seems like they will lose their temper in the next second.

It's even more terrifying than zombie movies. They are obviously living people, but they are as stiff as corpses, which is even more terrifying than real corpses.

"You all come together and be careful." Ye Zhou took out the small knife from his bag and gave one to Cao'er and her daughter.

Cao'er held the knife, her little face flushed with excitement.

She was a little scared, but her fear was not as great as her excitement, so the immortal asked her to do something!

There is a saying that only men can do things. Although she is not a man, in the eyes of immortals, she is no different from a man.

"If the other party has bad intentions, run if you can. Don't try to hold on. If you can't run, draw your sword and fight back." Ye Zhou said seriously, "I will watch you, but it will take me some time to get there. You have to be careful."

Cao'er's mother was not nervous at all: "Fairy, we were hanging out with these people before we entered the forest. We are not rich ladies or wives from wealthy families. Who would care about us?"

They all wore wigs, and their wigs and clothes were specially made for rolling in mud puddles.

There is no problem integrating perfectly into the refugee group.

These wigs are all real hair, and are not cheap nowadays. They were mostly exported in the past, but now there are more people wearing wigs in China, so Ye Zhou bought a batch when he was purchasing goods. He didn't expect that they would come in handy here.

After confirming again and again that the disguise was perfect, Ye Zhou nodded to them.

Cao'er and her daughter bent their waists and walked out slowly and tremblingly.

·

When Cao'er and her daughter just went out, some people turned their heads to look at them, but after a glance, they turned their heads away numbly.

In order to save energy, people basically closed their eyes and dozed off, not moving at all, and looked no different from corpses.

They are now just living for the sake of living, without looking forward to the future, and without any spark of hope in their eyes. They just hope to get through today. As for where tomorrow will be, that is something to consider tomorrow.

Cao'er and her daughter had no extra kindness to give. They had seen many refugees and had once been one of them. They believed that the immortal's willingness to save people was extremely kind. Even if he saved only a few people, his merit was comparable to that of a bodhisattva.

Even the real Bodhisattvas have not come down to earth to save them!

Cao'er and the others did not walk around or look around, but found a place on higher ground to sit down and pretend to take a nap.

They were all refugees. They also stopped the carriage when the nobles passed by, knelt down and kowtowed, hugged the horses' legs to prevent them from moving, saying that they were begging, but in fact they were robbing. The women and children cried and knelt, while the men climbed onto the carriage and squeezed into the carriage.

They want to survive and fill their stomachs, and the threat of death is greater than their conscience in harming others.

Therefore, if the lucky nobles did not have strong men to escort them, they would become refugees like them after being robbed.

Unlucky nobles would die in the fight with the refugees.

So what if the refugees are weak? So what if they look like dead people?

Many ants can kill an elephant. Everyone is equal in the face of survival. Propriety, righteousness, integrity, and status are all secondary. Fists are the only truth.

Cao'er and her daughter were quick to identify the people. They could easily tell which men were honest and which were not. Such keen eyes were developed during their escape from famine.

Generally speaking, men with families are not too bad. First rule out single ones, and then see who else in the family is besides the man. If he brings his mother and little girl with him, that's the best.

After all, little girls were the first to be abandoned on the road to escape famine, followed by the elderly, then the little boys, and finally the women.

After identifying the person, Cao'er and her daughter began to take action.

They first went to look for targets that were a little further away from where the crowd was gathering. These men were gathered with their families, both old and young. Although the whole family was dying, each of them was still breathing.

Cao'er and her daughter approached them under the pretext of borrowing a light.

There is no need to persuade them too much. As long as you make it clear that they can have food and survive by following them, they will not refuse.

After all, if someone comes to cheat them now, what can they get?

They were just a bunch of bones, and even if they were killed they would not yield much meat. Hunger had made them lose the ability to think.

If there is a piece of bread in front of them at this moment, they will rush forward even if they are hit by a knife or an axe and the person who eats the bread will die the next moment.

Ye Zhou held the telescope. His arms were starting to feel sore, but he held on and didn't put it down.

After all, if Cao'er and her daughter were in danger, he, as an adult male, would have to go and protect them.

He had a machete and pepper spray, so it shouldn't be a problem for him to buy time and then take them to the woods.

Of course, it would be best if they could take people away safely.

Although Ye Zhou was an atheist, he had to pray to God in his heart, hoping that he could pull the person in smoothly without any trouble, otherwise...

Otherwise, he will still not believe in God in his next life!