Chapter 341 Ah Xiang, I Know Everything

The sky is a bit gloomy today.

The thatched hut was also gloomy, and the atmosphere was so heavy that it made people feel a little breathless.

Ning An grabbed Douzi's shoulders and spoke a long paragraph in one breath:

"Douzi, Zhang Erlang is already forty, more than twenty years older than you. He's old enough to be your father! And, I heard he has some mental issues and beats people... He already has many wives and concubines in his room, he doesn't even want to get married! Douzi, you can't go, they will hurt you!"

Douzi was not surprised to hear this:

"I know, I've heard what you said before."

"Then why did you go? Don't you know they just treat you as a toy, a thing?!"

Ning An's tone contained both regret and resentment.

Although she escaped from the marriage team, she would never forget the feeling of being sent to marry Tiele Khan, who was in his forties.

All the civil and military officials in the court, including her father, did not treat her as a human being at that moment, but just as an object that could be used for exchange.

She was dressed up grandly and gorgeously, just to be sent to the tent of a strange middle-aged man.

Ning An felt hatred in his heart.

On her way to escape, she even thought about it many times: if the Tiele Khanate did not go back on the peace talks, if she failed to successfully escape from the marriage team, what would be waiting for her?

She couldn't bear to see women being forced to marry older, lecherous men.

And now, Douzi actually took the initiative to agree to be Zhang Erlang's roommate, perhaps not even with the title of concubine.

Ning An wanted to shake Douzi awake.

She couldn't bear to see Douzi destroy himself like this.

But Douzi has always been sober.

She sat on the edge of the bed, her body swaying as Ning An rocked her:

"Ah Xiang, I know everything."

Douzi lowered his head and stared at his toes.

The front of the straw sandals was worn, revealing the curled toes.

"Because this way we can have enough food to eat and grandma can have money for medicine."

The autumn wind outside was blowing very hard, and Douzi spoke very slowly.

Very slowly, the ending tone of each word was stretched out in Ning An's ears.

I need to eat and take medicine.

That's all.

Douzi didn't cry or get angry when she spoke, but accepted everything calmly.

She was like a piece of mud by the water. When the terrible fate surged up like the tide, she could only wait and endure it there.

She didn't feel it was very bitter because most people she met seemed to live like this.

If she married into another villager's family, she would still have to give birth to children, cook, take care of the elderly and children in the family, be beaten, and even not have enough food to eat.

But if I go to Mr. Zhang's house, at least I can have food to eat and money for grandma.

When she goes to Zhang's house, she will exchange rice and flour in the village and ask people to help take care of her grandmother.

"you……"

Ning An was stunned for a moment after hearing what Douzi said.

She hadn't thought about it, never thought about it.

After coming to her senses, Ning An quickly took out the small cloth bag that Douzi had given her last night:

"I have money! You don't have to go to Mr. Zhang's house. I'll give you money for food and buy medicine for your grandma."

Douzi didn't take the money from the bag, but asked Ning An:

"This is the money you need to go home and buy a mule. If you give me the money, how will you go home? This is a lot of money, but my grandma's medical treatment and medicine will take a long time and cost more money."

"Ah Xiang, you know, salt is expensive, rice is expensive, and medicine is expensive too."

Ning An clutched the small cloth bag tightly and said anxiously:

"Douzi, wait for me. I'll go home after I buy the mule. My family still has money, lots of it. I'll bring it back to you when I get home. I'll buy you enough rice to last you a lifetime and find the best doctor for your grandma."

"I'm serious, I'm serious!"

Ning An spoke sincerely and confidently.

Douzi started laughing as he listened.

It sounded like a very good and lucky thing, and she wanted to believe it.

But she couldn't believe it. How could such a good thing happen in the world?

She envied Ah Xiang very much. Ah Xiang could talk about things that she dared not even think about, as if it were a daydream.

Douzi is not qualified to daydream, her days are filled with only white salt.

"I'm going back to the salt pond to work." Douzi got up and left.

Ning An wanted to tell Douzi that she was a princess and she was really rich.

But this thought only appeared for a moment and then disappeared.

Even if I told her, no one would believe that Princess Dayu would end up in such a situation, not to mention—

Her father is gone, Chang'an is destroyed, is she still a princess?

Ning An felt a sense of powerlessness.

In the next few days, Ning An and Douzi didn't talk much.

They weren't mad at each other, they just didn't know what to say.

It seems like no matter what I say, I feel sad.

A few days passed like this, and one day, Douzi went to the town and brought back a mule.

The donkey and horse dealer finally came to town.

Douzi went to pick out a very energetic mule and brought it back to the village for Ning An.

Douzi smiled faintly and said, "Axiang, you can go home now."

The next morning after the mule was brought back, Mr. Zhang's family sent someone to pick up Douzi.

Three or four servants came to the Zhang family, driving a donkey cart loaded with several bags of rice and flour.

They unloaded the rice and flour and placed them in Douzi's thatched hut, and took out a bag of money for Douzi's grandmother.

Douzi was wearing the most ordinary clothes, holding a very small and light bag in his hand and got on the donkey cart.

"drive--"

The donkey driver shouted, and the donkey cart carrying the beans left the village.

The salt inspector turned a blind eye as the beans were dragged away by donkey carts.

Douzi was originally unable to leave, but Mr. Zhang spent money to smooth things over, and the impossible thing became possible.

Ning An also got on the mule, but left in the opposite direction.

She wants to go back to Chang'an.

This is something I have been looking forward to for a long time, but now I can't feel happy at all.

Before she got on the mule, she saw Douzi leaving in a donkey cart.

She thought that being forced to leave her hometown and marry a foreign prince was already very miserable, but behind the mountains and beside the lake, there were people whose lives were even more miserable.

Douzi had no marriage certificate, no betrothal gifts, no dowry, and even no sedan chair. She was only taken away in a shabby donkey cart.

The mule passed by the salt pond by the lake and passed by the villagers who immersed themselves in the brine of the salt pond day after day.

Ning An looked at their cracked hands and feet, and the salt crystals in the wrinkles of their skin, and suddenly recalled some scenes from long ago.

She seemed to see Master Zhang standing in front of her with his gray beard shaking.

"Official salt is expensive, while private salt is cheap, so the people buy private salt. While official salt is expensive, the salt tax is heavy... What do you think of this, Your Highnesses?"

——"My father, the emperor, gave salt to all the people in the world as a reward, so that they would not buy private salt."

…

——"How much does the government charge you for salt?"

——"Ten coins for a bushel."

"Salt is very expensive. Official salt costs one hundred and twenty coins a bushel."

…

——"Ah Xiang, I know everything."

——"Because this way we can have enough food to eat and grandma can have money for medicine."

…

The seemingly unrelated images connected into one in Ning An's mind, like surging salt water.

She suddenly turned the mule around and chased in the direction Bean had left.

The mule trotted along with a clattering, bumpy ride.

The bumpy ride made Ning An's eyes sore and swollen, with tears welling up in his eyes that were about to overflow.

She was born and raised in the palace, and everything in the palace became a barrier. She lived in the barrier for so many years, and saw the flowers blooming inside.

The invasion and marriage of the Tiele Khans tore a crack in this barrier, and the brine from the salt lake completely destroyed the barrier, allowing her to truly see the frost and snow on earth.

The mule stepped through the puddle, and the salty smell rushed into Ning An's nostrils.

There was a broken dam and a bursting flood in her chest.

In Ning An's blurred vision, the distant beans looked like a salt crystal floating on the flood.

Not only Douzi, but also all the villagers around him turned into floating salt crystals.

——"My father, the emperor, gave salt to all the people in the world as a reward, so that they would not buy private salt."

Ning An rode on the mule, salty and bitter tears streaming down from between his eyelashes.

She burst into tears as she watched the donkey cart going away.

She's stupid. Very stupid.

My father will not give salt as a reward to people all over the world.

It was the emperor, the people in the capital, and even herself, who had taken their salt and cut off their livelihood.

"beans--!"

Ning An wiped her tears and chased after him.

She jumped off the mule and ran away, catching up with the donkey cart.

She pulled Douzi off the cart and put the small cloth bag in Douzi's hand:

"Here, I'll treat your grandma! Don't go!"

Ning An's tears fell.

Dayu is gone, her father is dead, she is no longer a princess, she is nothing in the outside world.

She is useless, she is not smart, even her gun was stolen, she can't save the world.

But she just wants to save Douzi!

Douzi, who was being held by Ning An, also had red eyes and finally couldn't hold back her tears.

"Ugly girl, what are you doing?"

The Zhang family's servants also jumped off the donkey cart, cursing:

"Once you've accepted the money, you're a member of Mr. Zhang's family. How can you regret it?"

"Get out of here now! If you keep pestering us, don't blame us for taking action!"

These servants were big and strong, and their arms were thicker than Ning An's calves.

Ning An pulled Douzi behind him, picked up a branch from the ground and said to them:

"The money can be returned to you, but Douzi is not yours."

The Zhang family's servants rushed over, and Ning An waved a branch to resist.

But the branches were brittle and easy to break, and they broke in an instant.

Several of his subordinates were quite strong, and Ning An could not compete with them in terms of strength alone.

Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap, tap!

A powerful sound of horse hooves rang out.

Horses are very precious, and in the small village, no one rides horses.

Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to it.

The sound of horse hooves came not from the plain, but from the mountain.

They saw several people on horseback emerging from the woods and rushing down, their clothes and hair fluttering.

One of the girls held a silver spear high in her hand and shouted towards this side:

"Ning An, take your gun!"