After thanking the soldiers, the group entered the city. Since they were unsure whether Lu Guilan had left the city and Lu Daping needed to see a doctor first for his leg injury, the Lu family decided to stay in the city for a day to search for her.

As for Cheng Ke and Cheng Yang, He Jiu Niang knew that they were only protecting their family into the city as instructed by Madam Jiang. Now that they were going to stay in the city, she naturally couldn't delay them any longer. So, after discussing it with her family, she decided to take the responsibility of saying goodbye to the two of them.

The main reason was that the other family members were not very good at speaking, and Sun felt that He Jiuniang had performed very well recently, so it was best for her to speak up, and the others had no objections.

The Lu family paid the entrance fee for the two men together. Although they had money on them, the Lu family felt that since the two men had protected them, they shouldn't be stingy with such a small amount of money, so they paid it together.

"Thank you both for your protection. We are much safer now that we are in the city. Our family has decided to stay here for another day. We will not keep you any longer. Please convey my thanks to Madam."

He Jiuniang was very polite, preparing dry food and two bamboo tubes of water for them, which were still sweetened. In this kind of weather, it wouldn't hurt to drink some sugar water.

After entering the city, there were food and drinks available on the streets, but this was, after all, a token of their family's goodwill.

"Madam, you are too kind. My brother and I will accept it."

Cheng Ke accepted the gift, and He Jiu Niang then took out a small porcelain bottle and said, "This is a blood-nourishing pill that calms the mind and invigorates the body. It's a good thing, but it's useless for us rough folks to keep it. Consider it a thank-you gift for Madam."

Cheng Ke accepted it after only a moment's hesitation. He had heard Ling Xue mention He Jiu Niang's small porcelain bottles before. He had given the lady calming pills and heatstroke medicine, and the lady had indeed seen significant results after taking them.

After bidding farewell to the two, the Lu family began to divide the tasks. Old Man Lu said, "Eldest son and Fugui and the other strong men should go to the grain shop first and buy some grain; eldest son's wife should go to the clinic with Daping's family to check on his leg injury and buy some commonly used medicines to keep on hand. We don't know what we'll encounter on this journey, so we should be prepared in advance; second son's family and third son's wife should search around the city for Guilan's family and buy whatever they want to take with them; the rest of you should go and buy what you want, and then come back here and wait. If anyone runs off or gets into trouble or goes missing, our family won't be responsible!"

The last sentence was mostly addressed to the few outsiders. Along the way, apart from the Liu sisters who stood up for them once, the others hadn't caused any trouble and were fairly obedient. But Old Man Lu still wanted to make it clear beforehand that they shouldn't come looking for trouble if anything happened later.

Knowing that the Lu family was their only support, the group dared not say anything and kept nodding.

The three taels of silver distributed to each person in the bandit's den were used up by the adults for the city entry fee, but the children still had one tael left. Families with children wanted to use the money to buy some things, since they couldn't keep borrowing everything from the Lu family, who didn't owe them anything.

Those without children wanted to sell some of their leftover food. They figured they could just eat one meal a day from now on, and use the money to buy other necessities. They would be busy anyway.

In the end, only the old man and his wife, along with a group of children, were left waiting under a shed not far from the city gate. If nothing unexpected happened, they planned to spend the night there and leave the city early the next morning.

The little dog insisted on following He Jiuniang. Since she finally had a chance to act alone, He Jiuniang naturally wouldn't take the little burden with her. She shoved the child into Sun Shi's arms and turned to leave, ignoring the little dog's anxious cries.

He heard Sun's voice soothing the child behind her. He Jiuniang smiled smugly and ran even faster.

"Second brother and sister-in-law, you two go search in the east and north, I'll go in the west and south. It'll be faster if we search separately, otherwise the dog will make a fuss if we get back late."

The second son and his wife also thought this was a good idea, so they split up and took action.

Finding a family in a city is no easy task. Who knows if they've left or stayed, and if they've stayed, where they'll live?

Ganzhou City had also been ravaged by drought, but not as severely as Changzhou. In addition, the city was surrounded by refugees, and the streets were deserted, making it very desolate.

He Jiuniang wandered around, but found it all rather dull and didn't discover anything.

Everything in town has gone up in price. Even a plain steamed bun costs two coins, whereas before you could buy three for two coins.

Two coins in that era were equivalent to one yuan in the postmodern era. Even modern people would consider two yuan for a steamed bun expensive, let alone in ancient times.

Even the wells had yamen runners guarding them and charging a fee of one coin for half a bucket of water, which was an exorbitant price compared to the postmodern price of five cents for a ton of water.

Even so, long queues still formed by the well to buy water.

He Jiuniang didn't want to go over and join the fun, but then she remembered that Lu Guilan's family might come here to buy water, so she went to find the yamen runner to ask them questions.

"Go away, go away! Those who want to buy water, go to the back of the line!"

When the yamen runners saw people pushing forward, they immediately lost their temper and raised their whips to strike them.

He Jiuniang quickly grabbed the rope and slipped a few copper coins into the hands of the constable in the chaos, saying ingratiatingly, "Brother constable, don't be angry. I'm not buying water, nor am I cutting in line. I just want to ask if you've seen a butcher from Changzhou who looks quite strong, has a fierce air about him, and smells like pigs coming to buy water?"

The constable was initially quite angry, but since he had at least received the money, he thought about it seriously, but he really couldn't recall anything.

"It's been so long since the drought started, people don't even have drinking water anymore, where are we going to get water to clean ourselves up? Can you smell that everyone smells like filth?"

At this point, the constables' faces darkened further. They had been standing guard here under the scorching sun, and their body odor was stronger than anyone else's!

The other people in line joined in the commotion, and He Jiuniang felt a little embarrassed when she thought about how they could take a bath every now and then on the way.

"Hehehe, that's true, but the smell of pigs is always different from the smell of humans. Or, have you ever seen a human with a stronger smell?"

People who slaughter pigs year-round inevitably pick up a smell, and since people in this era don't really like to bathe, the smell is naturally overwhelming.

The constable remained silent, unable to recall anything, but some people in line did remember: "If that's the case, it seems there really is one!"

He Jiuniang rushed to the man and looked at him expectantly.

That person: ……

Those who know him are asking about him, but those who don't might think he's the piece of pork!

"Just yesterday, a little boy walked past me crying. He smelled really strong, like raw pork, and there were a few flies following him around..."

Speaking of that scene, everyone couldn't help but frown; it was truly...