Xu Yuehuai pressed on her wound, and after a while, the bleeding stopped.

However, the wound from which the blackened part had just been cut off was extremely painful. Xu Yuehuai was covered in a fine sweat and gritted her teeth to endure the pain.

Now that the bleeding from the wound has stopped, Xu Yuehuai breathed a slight sigh of relief.

She then said to the boy next to her, "I'm fine now, don't worry, go back to rest."

Upon hearing this, the young boy saw that Xu Yuehuai indeed had no other injuries, so he nodded and continued to rest.

Xu Yuehuai, you've already taken care of the little boy's minor injuries today.

Xu Yuehuai also treated her other wounds, which are now bandaged with small strips of cloth.

She quickly went back to rest, ignoring the coughing sounds around her.

However, the coughing continued unabated, echoing intermittently around her throughout the night.

Xu Yuehuai pretended not to hear those sounds and rested well for the night. When she woke up the next day, she had regained some of her strength.

She stretched and looked around. She saw that many people around her were sick, and their condition seemed to be getting worse. Their faces were all bluish-purple, as if they had been poisoned.

However, they hadn't come into contact with any other poisonous substances along the way, and it was impossible for everyone to suddenly become poisoned.

Then there's only one reason: perhaps these people have contracted some disease, maybe even a plague.

After thinking about this, Xu Yuehuai carefully observed the people around her and heard them coughing incessantly, which made her condition seem particularly serious.

With so many disaster victims here, Xu Yuehuai herself is barely able to take care of herself, let alone find any doctors or anyone to come and save them.

When faced with such a disaster, everyone can only prioritize their own safety.

So, Xu Yuehuai took the opportunity to slowly walk out of the temporary refugee camp, wanting to escape secretly so as not to stay there and get infected with the disease by others.

When Xu Yuehuai stepped outside, she saw that the surrounding area was indeed completely blocked off. Many rocks and trees blocked their way, surrounding the entire Qili Village, leaving no other way to escape.

After carefully examining the area, she wanted to find other routes to escape so she could quickly head towards Wuling Kingdom and perhaps run into Qi Guze and the others.

Just as Xu Yuehuai was trying to escape secretly, several villagers from Qili Village suddenly surrounded her.

What are you trying to do?

"If you need to take care of sanitation, there is space over there."

"All the roads here are blocked. Don't even think about finding a way to escape from here. It's impossible, and you might even get hurt. If you're in danger, you'd better go back right away!"

The villagers of Qili Village were telling Xu Yuehuai not to leave.

Hearing what the villagers were saying, she felt that they had some other purpose. Now that they were blocking her from leaving, they must also be preventing the other villagers from leaving.

It wasn't just the disaster that trapped them here; the villagers have also been keeping them confined, preventing them from leaving, and it's unclear whether they were acting on the orders of others.

Xu Yuehuai hadn't recovered much of her strength, and surrounded by so many villagers, she couldn't leave openly. She could only quickly retreat back to the young boy's side.

The young boy had been observing Xu Yuehuai's situation the whole time. Seeing that she seemed to be trying to sneak away, he quickly asked her when he saw that she had returned.

"Miss, are you planning to run away?"

"If you're alone, it will be extremely difficult for you to escape; there's simply no way you'll get out."

"How about I escape with you after my grandfather recovers?"

"Anyway, I don't think the government officials are planning to come and help us. With so many villagers trapped here, if we run out of food, we'll all be doomed. We might as well find a way to escape first."

After hearing what the young boy said, Xu Yuehuai felt that the boy had some courage.

"You're right. Rather than waiting to die here, we'd better find a way to leave."

"If we can escape, we'll have a chance to survive."

"But if we stay trapped here, we might really only have one way out: death."

Xu Yuehuai also understood very well that even if the people around her did not have the epidemic, she absolutely could not stay here and had to find a way to continue her journey as soon as possible.

The young boy nodded and said to Xu Yuehuai, "I only hope that when you escape, Miss, you can take me with you. I will definitely not be a burden to you. I am very strong and can lift very heavy things. I will definitely be able to help you."

Seeing the boy's sincerity, Xu Yuehuai nodded and agreed that if he wanted to escape, he would take the boy with him.

The young boy was overjoyed to see this, a smile playing on his lips.

Xu Yuehuai then stayed in the temporary refugee camp, looking for an opportunity to escape secretly.

During this period, the health of the people in the temporary refugee camp deteriorated, and more and more people fell ill.

Some knowledgeable people, upon seeing the symptoms of illness in those around them, were suddenly so frightened that they retreated a great distance and couldn't help but shout.

"It's the plague! Those people have the plague!"

"They've all contracted the plague! What are we going to do?"

Why haven't the imperial court officials come to rescue us yet?

"Are we all going to be trapped here and die?"

After hearing the shouts, Xu Yuehuai had already prepared herself mentally, knowing that those people were most likely infected with the plague, and she was right.

Upon hearing the news, the young boy quickly protected his grandfather and moved further into a corner, worried that he and his grandfather might be infected by others.

But seeing that Xu Yuehuai didn't seem surprised, the young boy understood why Xu Yuehuai had secretly run away earlier; she probably already knew about this situation.

"Sister, what should we do now? Those people have contracted the plague. If we don't escape quickly, we'll probably be affected too."

Xu Yuehuai asked the young boy to change how he addressed her, saying he could just call her "older sister."