At some point, a strong wind started blowing outside, blowing up yellow sand. The air became extremely polluted, and the stars in the sky were all covered by thick clouds.

Ling Ling squatted at the door, tears in her eyes almost never stopped. She was sensitive to what would happen next, but she didn't dare to think about it.

She heard footsteps behind her, and she clutched her sleeves, tears falling faster.

"Your grandfather wants to talk to you, go quickly." The gentleness in Fu Yin's voice was a little stiff.

Seeing the child walk into the house with his head down, he leaned against the wall with a thoughtful look on his face.

He couldn't feel much sympathy for human death, or perhaps it was just his nature. If only Shen Huaixu were here, she wouldn't be as dull and bewildered as he was. He wanted to see Shen Huaixu.

On the night the old man passed away, Anhe Village experienced its heaviest rain in three years. The rain washed over the entire village, and the sound of the rain seemed as if heaven and earth were comforting the dead soul.

Ling Ling stayed by the old man's bed and cried for a long time. Finally, he curled up and fell asleep with tears on his face.

The rain lasted for half the night, and all the dust in the air was washed away. The whole village looked brand new. It was the first time that Fu Yin breathed fresh air in this village.

He helped Ling Ling bury the old man next to a large tomb. The tomb was built by the surviving villagers of Anhe Village and was where the dead villagers of Anhe Village were buried.

Ling Ling knelt down in front of his grandfather's grave with his frail body, kowtowed three times, then knelt down in front of the grave and kowtowed again. Finally, he turned around to face Fu Yin, bent down and was about to kowtow.

The corner of Fu Yin's mouth twitched. He raised his hand to the air and was about to stop it, but then clenched it and let it drop.

Perhaps I was infected by Shen Huaixu's superstition, but I always felt that it was a bit strange and weird for this kid to kowtow to him after he kowtowed to the deceased.

"What are you doing?" he asked strangely.

"Before he died, Grandpa told me to obey your orders from now on and to let me live." Perhaps because she had been crying for a long time, her voice was very hoarse. "General, please let me follow you out of the village. From now on, it's up to you whether I leave or stay."

Fu Yin lowered his eyes to look at her. "I can take you to the capital. If you want to avenge your family, you must tell the story of what happened in Anhe Village to the Emperor... ahem, His Majesty. This may be dangerous. Are you willing?"

Ling Ling slowly raised his head, a small, faint fire ignited in his dead eyes, "Will you help me?"

Fu Yin looked down at her from above, his expression indifferent, like a god without sorrow or joy looking down upon an ordinary ant. However, the words he spoke were extremely pleasant to Ling Ling's ears - "I must not be the only one."

The news that she could hope to avenge her relatives and villagers diluted some of the sadness of her grandfather's death. Ling Ling cheered up and waited for Fu Yin to take her away from Anhe Village and into the outside world, but she waited for a whole day.

After waiting for a long time for Fu Yin to come back leisurely from outside, she immediately went to meet him and asked anxiously: "When are we leaving? Don't worry about me on the way, I can take care of myself..."

She took out from her arms all the belongings her grandfather had left her: a piece of silver, a dozen copper coins and a small stone - a gleaming white stone.

Fu Yin looked at the stone in her hand and asked, "Was it kept by your grandfather before?"

"They all said it was a gem and would be very valuable if sold outside, so Grandpa always kept it close to him..."

Fu Yin picked up the small stone and looked at Ling Ling silently again, without telling the child about the harm of stones.

A cub who just lost his loved ones, it's better not to make things worse. Otherwise, if Shen Huaixu finds out, he will definitely blame him.

"This is my reward for taking you away." He shook the white stone. "It's mine."

Ling Ling opened her mouth but said nothing. She lowered her eyes and looked at the silver coins in her palm. This was the first time she had so much silver. This should be enough for her to go to the capital, right?

She had heard her grandfather say before that the capital was very far away from their village, and it would take several days and nights to get there by car. They had no car, so they could only walk, which would probably take even longer... At worst, she could drink more water, eat less, and save the food for the general. No matter what, she had to go to the capital.

Fu Yin didn't know what she was thinking about. He looked up at the sky and said, "It's time to set off."

He had just taken a walk around the village. Most of the adults who survived in the village had been severely contaminated by radiation and their bodies had collapsed. In addition to Ling Ling, there were two other surviving children, one was only five or six years old, and the other was ten years old.

They saw him, a stranger, walking around the village with a blank look in their eyes. Fu Yin approached and asked them if they wanted to leave Anhe Village, but they just shook their heads and said, "We can't survive here. We can't survive here."

It was as if he had predicted his own fate long ago.

Fu Yin had no choice but to leave them some dry food. When he brought Ling Ling back to the capital, someone would come to rescue them soon.

He took a step forward, and when Ling Ling looked up to ask something, he raised his hand to cover his mouth and nose, and with his other hand sprinkled white powder at Ling Ling.

After a while, the person in front of him fell limply to the ground, and the silver coins in his hands scattered all over the floor.

Fu Yin looked down upon the little money on the ground, and was worried that Ling Ling would wake up and ask him to pay for it, so he had no choice but to bend his knees and squat, slowly picking up the silver and money.

He put Ling Ling into a sack, wrapped the sack with an invisibility cloak, picked up the sack and soared into the sky.

When Fu Yin was working as a "human trafficker", Shen Huaixu was eating melons - fresh melons brought back by his father.

"The Shangguan family actually has Red Books and Iron Certificates?" She frowned in dissatisfaction. "How many Red Books and Iron Certificates has His Majesty issued? Why are they so cheap?"

"Chinese cabbage?" Shen Su repeated.

Chen Huaixu hurriedly explained, "It's cabbage. Isn't it white? It just comes to mind."

Chen Su laughed. He knew his daughter had a habit of giving things nicknames, so he wasn't surprised. "That's true. Your Majesty values ​​friendship. Several old ministers who served you well in the past were rewarded with red-lettered iron certificates. Shangguan Zhu has been traveling for a few days, but seeing that the situation is irreversible, he resigned at the court this morning and returned home."

"I remember you said that Shangguan Zhu has always claimed that he was completely unaware of what Shangguan Yi had done, and today he resigned from his post - does he want to protect the other branches of the Shangguan family?" The more Shen Huaixu spoke, the worse his expression became.

This old fox is really good at scheming. He was able to escape like this. It is really unbearable.

"That's right. The Du and Shu families are also involved. The wives of the Shangguan family's first and second branches have each petitioned their natal families to protect their husbands' reputations. The second branch wasn't involved in this matter from the beginning, but the first branch seems to have been involved in a lot of unclear accounts and will not be able to escape unscathed."

Shen Huaixu rolled her eyes, remembering the secrets of many meritorious officials in Chinese history who died inexplicably shortly after resigning from office. She blinked and asked softly, "Dad, do you think His Majesty will let the Marquis of Zhenyuan go easily?"