Li Lanzhen walked at the back of the children. When they were almost at the village entrance, she quickly took out a basket from her spatial storage, put the tofu and soybeans in the basket, and carried it on her back.

Sanwang pushed Lihua away.

She felt sad for these children.

Shi Tou rushed forward and blocked Li Hua's path.

He raised his fist at Sanwang and said fiercely.

"Try hitting me again, and I'll beat you to a pulp!"

Sanwang puffed out his chest and took a few steps toward the stone.

"Come on! Let's try it, you little newbie, I'll knock your teeth out with one punch!"

Yan Ming was furious and immediately rushed forward, raising his fist to punch San Wang in the mouth.

Li Lanzhen grabbed him.

"stop!

You are all children from poor families, why hurt each other?

Moreover, since you all have no parents and no home now, you should help and love each other, not hurt each other.

The ones who did bad things and killed the whole village were Pear Blossom's aunt and uncle. You can't hold her responsible for this.

Pear Blossom was also a child with a tragic fate. Her parents died, and her uncle and aunt took over their house but kicked her out. When she was four years old, they even sold her.

How are you any different from her aunt and uncle in treating her like this?!

Perhaps Li Lanzhen's words touched these children.

They sobbed softly, wiping away their tears.

But everyone quieted down, and the tension subsided.

Sanwang glanced at Lihua and said, blushing.

"I'm sorry, Pear Blossom, I shouldn't have treated you like that."

Your aunt and uncle are both bad people. They brought men in black from Youzhou City and killed the whole village. Your aunt also killed your grandparents, claiming they hid you.

Upon hearing this, Pear Blossom squatted down and burst into loud sobs.

Xue Bao said, "Keep your voices down. Do you want to attract the soldiers? It's not right for us to all be standing here. Isn't there an ancestral hall? We'd better talk inside the ancestral hall."

Shanxing glanced at him and said, "Let's go, let's go to the ancestral hall together."

Upon arriving at the ancestral hall, the children were all in low spirits, their heads bowed and eyes red as they found a place to sit down.

Li Lanzhen glanced at the basket on the ground. The vegetable pancakes should have been divided up by the children, but she didn't know if they had eaten them.

She took Douhua and Datou out of the basket.

"Big Head, Douhua, come out. Come out and sit down for a while to rest, then we'll eat something before we leave."

As soon as Douhua came out, she hugged Li Lanzhen's leg, tilted her head back, and chuckled.

"Grandma, I'm hungry, I want some pancakes."

Li Lanzhen picked her up and said, "Okay, Grandma will get you some cakes to eat."

Yan Ming walked over and took Douhua from Li Lanzhen's arms.

She then took out a lot of wild vegetable cakes, steamed buns, and three water bags filled with spring water from her spatial storage using the basket on her back.

"Shanxing, do you have any bowls? Take some out and pour some water for us to drink."

Shanxing asked a little girl to go to the back to get a bowl.

Li Lanzhen gave each child a meat bun and then slipped a wild vegetable pancake into their hands.

"Eat up, rest for a while, and then we'll go home."

The words "go home" left the children of Lishu Village stunned for a moment, their eyes reddening, and some children silently shedding tears.

Li Lanzhen looked at Shanxing, whose eyes were slightly red, and asked her.

"Shanxing, I want to take these nine children back to our village."

You should come with me too.

In this deserted village, it's not easy for you children to survive. Winter is coming, and it will be freezing cold with no food. How will you live and get through the winter? If you lose another child because you don't have enough to eat or wear, you will be even more heartbroken!

Shanxing lowered her head and stopped eating the steamed bun in her hand.

Li Lanzhen wasn't in a hurry to urge her.

This is, after all, the place where they were born and raised; it is their home. Although their parents, grandparents, and relatives are no longer here, as long as this place remains, their home is still here!

The children in Lishu Village all looked at Shanxing and let her make the decision.

Li Lanzhen was also hungry. She lowered her head and ate a steamed bun in a few bites, then started eating the wild vegetable pancake in her hand.

After taking a sip of the spiritual spring water, Shanxing finally spoke.

“We will go with you, but we do not belong to your village. Once Youzhou City begins to recover, we will go to the government office to beat the drum and appeal for justice, to avenge the villagers in our village!”

Then we'll come back here.

Li Lanzhen nodded and said, "Of course, this is your village. We were also very sad when we left our own village. Nobody wants to leave their hometown and live in a strange place."

But there's nothing we can do now. That's just how the world is. We ordinary people never have a peaceful day.

Maybe things will get better in a couple of years!

Sanwang suddenly stood up, threw the wild vegetable pancakes in his hand into Li Lanzhen's basket, and glared at her angrily.

"No, I won't go with you! You're trying to trick us into leaving and then take over our village!"

Li Lanzhen said with a smile, "How about this, you come with us and see where we live. If you want, you can stay; if you don't want, you can come back here."

Xue Bao looked at this stubborn boy and liked him very much.

He smiled and said, "You should come with us for now. There are many soldiers searching the mountains outside. I'm afraid they'll find this place, harm this village, and then arrest you and send you to the battlefield to die."

Shi Tou nodded, not holding a grudge against San Wang for trying to beat him up at the village entrance.

"That's right. We have several older brothers who went to Youzhou City to look after the work in order to support us younger siblings. Unexpectedly, they were arrested."

The next day, when we went into Youzhou City to investigate, we heard that he had been sent to the battlefield.

There has been no news from them for over a year.

Douhua, who was in Li Lanzhen's arms, stood up, holding a meat bun in her hand. She toddled over to Sanwang, took his hand, and stuffed the bun into his mouth.

"Brother, Ci, Xiang, live a good life with Grandma."

For some reason, Sanwang suddenly remembered something, squatted down, and hugged Douhua tightly in his arms, silently shedding tears.

Inside the ancestral hall, adults and children alike fell silent, quietly eating their vegetable pancakes.

Suddenly, a person came running in.

"Sister Shanxing, hurry up into the mountains! A lot of soldiers have arrived!"