Chapter 10 "This is called a lighter."...

"This is called a lighter."

What is a lighter?

Qin Ren lit the candle with a lighter while frowning and thinking for a moment.

"This... is similar to the tinderbox you have there."

Liu Qingyue knew about tinderboxes.

Curious, he reached out to take the lighter from Qin Ren's hand, when a cylindrical object was shoved into his hand.

"And what is this?"

"This is a flashlight."

As Qin Ren spoke, he turned on the flashlight.

The flashlight beam was very bright, much brighter than the candle Qin Ren had lit.

Liu Qingyue looked at the lights that had come on, then pointed the flashlight at herself and started turning the lights on and off like an idiot.

Qin Ren reminded him from the side, "Don't shine it into your eyes, it will damage your eyes."

Liu Qingyue nodded, then shone the flashlight elsewhere and began to indulge in turning the lights on and off again.

Qin Ren was a little tired at this moment. He had been running around all day, and he was also injured. Thinking of this, he ignored Liu Qingyue, closed the basement door, and went out.

After watching Qin Ren leave, Liu Qingyue played with the flashlight by herself for a while, then lay down to rest, clutching the stun gun Qin Ren had given her.

The bed Qin Ren got for him was a single folding bed.

There was a mattress, a soft pad, and two quilts on the bed.

Knowing that Qin Ren wasn't a bad person and had even saved him today, he wasn't as wary as he was yesterday.

He was indeed exhausted, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.

At nine o'clock the next morning, the voices of strangers were suddenly heard outside.

Liu Qingyue immediately got out of bed and cautiously approached the basement door, peering out through the crack in the door.

At this moment, Qin Ren was talking to someone in the courtyard. Liu Qingyue noticed that he was in the same situation as Qin Ren; he also couldn't understand what Qin Ren's people were saying.

Fortunately, although he couldn't understand what other people were saying, he could still understand Qin Ren's words.

Qin Ren said, "Thank you, Third Uncle. I don't need anything here. I still have some money on hand, so don't worry, I won't go hungry."

The middle-aged man opposite Qin Ren said something, and then put the two boxes on the ground.

Qin Ren exchanged pleasantries with the other party for a long time before finally seeing them out of the house.

The visitor was named Qin Fumin, the third son of Qin Ren's grandfather's elder brother.

Qin Ren's grandfather only had one son in his entire life, who was Qin Ren's father who died young.

Now that Grandpa has passed away, Qin Ren is the only one left in his lineage.

According to seniority, Qin Ren should address the other party as Third Uncle.

The other party came by yesterday afternoon, but Qin Ren drove his old man's car to town at the time, so the other party had to come again today.

Qin Fumin no longer lives in the village; his family has now moved to the county town.

Because of the recent passing of Qin Ren's grandfather, Qin Fumin's father also seems to be in poor health, so he has been frequently taking his family back to the village to visit.

He heard yesterday that Qin Ren had returned and had been in a car accident, so he wanted to come and see him.

Seeing that Qin Ren was in good spirits and his injuries didn't seem too serious, he wasn't so worried anymore.

After seeing the person out, Qin Ren put the gifts they had given him into the kitchen.

To prevent himself from forgetting to return the favor, Qin Ren found a notebook and wrote it down.

Actually, he doesn't like visiting relatives or exchanging gifts.

But now that Grandpa is gone, many of the relationships are from his generation.

These elders were worried about him being alone, and he felt bad about disappointing them.

Qin Ren meticulously noted down everything that people had given him over the past two days, then packed his things and prepared to set off again.

He arrived too late yesterday and was delayed because he was rescuing a petty thief.

He needs to get there early today so he can sell what he bought.

Hearing that Qin Ren was going there again, Liu Qingyue, who had finally found some peace and quiet, felt reluctant to move. But then he thought of his family, and he quickly packed his things and prepared to leave.

Both of them ate something before setting off.

Liu Qingyue ate half a bowl of instant noodles, a poached egg, and a chicken leg.

Qin Ren ate a bowl of instant noodles, two poached eggs, a duck egg, and half a portion of stir-fried chicken.

Qin Ren made all of these things this morning, thinking that today would probably be very tiring, so he made a rather lavish breakfast.

After the two had eaten and drunk their fill, Qin Ren found Liu Qingyue a new set of clothes.

Liu Qingyue's clothes were nice, but in terms of warmth and convenience, they weren't as convenient as the clothes she wore now.

Another thing is that his clothes are too eye-catching; he doesn't look like someone fleeing a disaster at all, but rather like a piece of delicious fat meat.

Qin Ren found him a new set of clothes, which Qin Ren had bought before. Because the size was a bit small, he hadn't worn them much.

The style of the clothes is also quite traditional, the fabric is linen, and the color is dark, giving it a modern Chinese style.

These clothes are quite loose, allowing you to wear many layers underneath. They also don't look particularly unusual; they resemble the clothing of ordinary farmers in ancient times.

Liu Qingyue changed her clothes and wrapped her forehead with a cloth to cover her birthmark.

Even though he was wearing loose clothes that covered the cinnabar birthmark on his head, he still looked like a young man.

However, after changing his clothes, covering his forehead, and smudged his face a bit, he did look less striking than before.

Once everything was ready, Qin Ren led him into the passage.

It was 10:30 in the morning, and the world across the street was sunny and warm. The temperature was quite high when walking in the sun.

Qin Ren felt a bit hot, so he took off his coat.

Qin Ren asked Liu Qingyue, "Why is it so chaotic here?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Qingyue replied, "Northern Da Yong has suffered from severe drought for two consecutive years, resulting in a complete crop failure for the people. The imperial court not only failed to distribute disaster relief grain but also increased corvée labor and taxes, causing the entire north to suddenly descend into chaos."

Liu Qingyue was just a young man who had always been raised in seclusion. He knew very little about the situation in Da Yong, and his knowledge was very limited.

The sudden chaos in Nanning is likely not just due to the continuous drought in the north; there must be many other reasons as well.

As they fled south from the capital, they heard that the northern border had also been breached.

North of Nanning, there is another country called Linke.

Lin Ke had a consistently poor relationship with Da Yong, and his army frequently harassed the people on Da Yong's northern border.

Now that the north of Nanning is in chaos, Lin Ke must have been heavily involved.

Qin Ren: "Where did you get separated from your family?"

Liu Qingyue: "We've been separated for more than half a month. We're in Yuanxiang Prefecture, which is further north."

"The north is in chaos, so you're planning to head south? Has your family told you exactly where you're going?"

“We are going to Yuyang Prefecture. My eldest cousin is the prefect there. Yuyang Prefecture is located at the southernmost part of Da Yong. It is by the sea and there are many troops stationed there. It will be relatively safe there.”

When Qin Ren heard Liu Qingyue say that his eldest cousin was a prefect, he wasn't too surprised.

Liu Qingyue certainly didn't seem like a child from an ordinary family; his appearance clearly indicated that he had been pampered and spoiled since childhood.

The other party's eldest cousin is a prefect, and his father probably also holds an official position.

I just don't understand how someone with an official position could lose his own son.

Wasn't it very patriarchal in ancient times?

If Liu Qingyue were a girl, it would be understandable that her father wouldn't care. But a son has just disappeared like this. Logically, the other party should be very worried and anxious. How could he let him wander alone for so long?

Of course, Qin Ren's thinking wasn't that he shouldn't look for a girl just because she was lost. He just had some stereotypes about people in ancient times, always thinking that they were biased and favored men over women.

"Do you know how far we are from Yu Yang's residence?"

"It's still a long way off. We left the capital a month ago and traveled for about half a month before I got separated from them. I only had a maid and a servant with me at the time. We didn't have a carriage or any food, so we traveled quite slowly."

At this point, Liu Qingyue said with some worry, "We should hurry up and leave. There are many disaster victims behind us. Most of them are very pitiful, but sometimes they are also very scary. When they are extremely hungry, they will kill people for their own flesh, and they will also... Anyway, they are very scary. We should hurry up and leave."

Qin Ren nodded upon hearing this. He took Liu Qingyue's handbag and only let her take a stun gun.

This way, Liu Qingyue will walk more easily, and they can travel faster.

They walked all morning, and Liu Qingyue's face turned a little pale, and she started to limp when she walked.

Qin Ren pulled him to rest under a tree and asked with some concern, "What happened to you? Is your foot injured?"

"No, it's probably from traveling continuously; my soles got blisters."

"let me see."

"No……"

Before Liu Qingyue could refuse, Qin Ren reached out and grabbed his ankle, easily taking off his shoes.

Upon seeing this, Liu Qingyue blushed and cursed Qin Ren as a lecher in her heart, but dared not say it aloud.

Liu Qingyue blushed and said, "Don't look at it anymore. It's just a sore skin. You'll be fine after a rest."

Qin Ren didn't quite understand why he was being shy, and said to him with a bit of helplessness, "Don't be afraid, I'm not a foot fetishist, I won't do anything to you."

Before Liu Qingyue could say anything more, Qin Ren skillfully disinfected her wound and put a band-aid on the broken skin.

Qin Ren: "You can't do this. You're so weak. How are you going to get to Yu Yang's residence?"

Liu Qingyue felt a little aggrieved upon hearing this, "In the first place... we can't walk there anyway, we'd better get a carriage."

Qin Ren shook his head. "A carriage won't work. We can't take it back, and it might even become a burden. If... we could get a motorcycle from me, we could travel much faster."

What is a motorcycle?

"It's a type of vehicle, similar to a horse-drawn carriage."

"How do you get that?"

"I can't get one right now; I can only buy it when I have the money."

The road conditions here are very bad; the only way to ride a motorcycle is on an off-road motorcycle.

A decent off-road motorcycle will cost at least tens of thousands of yuan.

Qin Ren: "Alright, let's rest here for a bit, then see if we can find a door..."

Before Qin Ren could finish speaking, he saw two people in the distance.

The two men soon saw them too, but because Qin Ren looked very tall, they didn't dare to approach him easily.

They stopped fifty meters away from Qin Ren, and Liu Qingyue couldn't help but feel a little scared when she saw this.

Liu Qingyue whispered to Qin Ren, "Are they... are they trying to steal our things?"

Both he and Qin Ren carried backpacks, which were bulging and clearly contained a lot of good stuff.

A note from the author:

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