Seeing the curiosity in Qi Nuan's eyes, Jiang Yu kept her in suspense.

You'll find out later.

Qi Nuan chuckled, "Alright."

She hadn't had a good night's sleep in days, but she quickly fell asleep nestled in Jiang Yu's arms.

Jiang Yu gently touched her chubby cheeks, feeling very happy.

He held her close, leaned against the car window, and closed his eyes to rest.

"Are we there yet?" Qi Nuan rubbed her eyes in Jiang Yu's arms and looked around.

What comes into view is a tall and majestic Taoist temple, but the roof tiles are already sparse and broken, and the once white walls have become mottled and unsightly.

The eaves, walls, stone steps, and rooftops were all covered with moss and weeds, making the place extremely desolate. Coupled with the fact that it was located deep in the mountains, it filled people with a sense of gloom and terror.

The mistress and her family haven't arrived yet.

Jiang Yu had Qi Nuan sit on the stone steps in front of the door, while she and Wang Er cut weeds.

Seeing that they had cut a pile of weeds on the ground, Qi Nuan felt embarrassed to sit down and took the initiative to run up to them and pull the weeds they had cut aside.

Wang Er laughed and said, "Little Mud, you can just sit and play. Your older brothers will take care of it."

"It's okay, I can manage," Qi Nuan said, struggling to pull herself up by a tree branch.

"No, I'm a little tired." Qi Nuan took some sesame cakes and a pot of water from the carriage and handed them to the two of them. She looked at the sun overhead, which was a bit dazzling.

"Why haven't the mistress and the others arrived yet?"

Wang Er took the sesame seed cake, took a bite, and then said, "We should be there soon."

As they were talking, they heard a sound.

"Brother Yu, Second Brother, Little Mud, we've arrived."

The mistress rushed up to them, saying, "Is there anything else to eat? I'm starving!"

"Come with me to get it."

Jiang Yu said something, and Xiao San followed her over happily.

"There are horse-drawn carriages too?"

Xiao San distributed the dry food to everyone, sat on the ground and started eating, looking at the Taoist temple in front of him with great surprise in his eyes.

"Wow, is this where we'll be living from now on? It's so grand!"

The others were also very excited and were full of energy after eating.

For those who are homeless, having a home and a house is their greatest desire.

The group worked together and quickly cleaned the main hall, the kitchen, and two other rooms.

Everyone was exhausted today, so we tidied up quickly, made some food, and went to bed.

Time slips away quietly.

In the blink of an eye, Qi Nuan is almost six years old.

The country has become increasingly chaotic in the past two years, and people's resentment has been building up for a long time, just waiting for the day it will explode.

Qi Nuan had considered moving to the south as soon as possible.

However, the regime is relatively stable now, and local authorities have strict controls on population movement. If it were just her and Jiang Yu, it would be fine, but now they are not alone, so this idea has to be abandoned.

After years of living together, she had long regarded these friends she shared her life with as her family.

Although she had stored a lot of food in her space, the population was now quite large, and she always felt that there was still not enough food.

It's just the autumn harvest, but they can no longer exchange their produce for grain. Taxes remain high, and the food left by farmers is barely enough to feed themselves; for some, even that is a struggle.

Beggars can now be seen everywhere in the city.

It had only been two months since they came down from the mountain, and the once bustling streets had gradually become deserted.

They lived a very leisurely life deep in the mountains.

They cultivated some land around the area and planted potatoes and corn in the space, reaping a bountiful harvest.

But they only ate a little; they saved the rest to make seeds.

Qi Nuan always managed to secretly store them in her space when they weren't looking, and with Jiang Yu's cover, they always escaped unscathed.

Others occasionally noticed that food was missing, but they thought they had misremembered or suspected the presence of rats.

There are currently nine people in the Taoist temple.

Wang Er is the oldest, nineteen years old; Jiang Yu, Xiao San, and A Hua are fifteen years old; A Mu and Qing Qing are thirteen years old; Xiao Xing is twelve years old; Xiang Xiang is ten years old; and Qi Nuan is six years old.

Jiang Yu was already considering what they would do if a famine struck.

Of course, Qi Nuan had already told Jiang Yu about the famine. She didn't consider herself a smart person, so she decided to leave such an important matter to someone more capable.

Everyone else listened to Jiang Yu, and as far as she was concerned, everyone just thought of her as a child.

They have earned a lot of money in the past two years. Ahua knows a little embroidery, and Wang Er and Jiang Yu occasionally go hunting in the mountains. In addition, they have earned a lot of money from the handicrafts they usually do.

If it weren't for famine and war, they could have continued living like this without any problems.

But there are no "ifs".

"Brother Yu, what did you buy today?" Xiao San asked hurriedly as he saw Jiang Yu driving the carriage back.

"I bought some candy, Brother Jiang Ming, do you want some?"

Qi Nuan jumped off the carriage and spread her hands out.

The mistress has now changed her name to Jiang Ming, which was given to her by Jiang Yu. She said that she has no parents and does not know her own surname, so she will take Jiang Yu's surname.

To be honest, Qi Nuan wasn't used to the term "mistress" at first, but she got used to it later.

However, the name Jiang Ming is better, and it's clear that the mistress likes it very much.

But the others still call him "Xiao San" (a nickname), even though he emphasized that his name was Jiang Ming, they wouldn't listen.

Therefore, he was very happy that Qi Nuan addressed him in this way.

"Only children eat candy, I don't eat it."

Qi Nuan didn't believe him and stuffed two pills into his hand, only to see him secretly laughing behind her back.

To Qi Nuan, they are all still children, even though she is the one being taken care of now.

But every time she came down the mountain, she would buy some candy to share with them. Life was already so hard, what was wrong with eating some candy?

While it's necessary to store up food, there's no need to be stingy with food.

"Second Brother, Sister Ahua, we're back."

Hearing Qi Nuan's shout, Jiang Ming said, "Second Brother took Amu and the others into the mountains. Only Sister Ahua and Xiangxiang are at home."

Jiang Ming and Jiang Yu unloaded the things and asked, "So much stuff?"

"Yeah, I won't go down the mountain anymore. It's not safe down there," Jiang Yu replied casually.

When Wang Er and the others returned in the evening, they were quite surprised to see so many things.

"Tomorrow, my second brother Jiang Ming and I will go down the mountain to buy a carriage and two more horses. We can't stay here any longer."

Their expressions were somewhat solemn, but they also knew that Jiang Yu wouldn't speak without reason.

Jiang Yu knew that the famine Qi Nuan had mentioned might be about to begin.

All he could do was protect the person in his arms.

"Ah Yu, do you think it's tiring to carry me around?" Qi Nuan looked at the starry sky and suddenly felt useless.

"No."

Jiang Yu didn't say anything else, only replying with the two words "Qi Nuan," but he knew that Qi Nuan was not a burden to him.

What is it? He didn't know either.

However, when he heard her call him A-Yu, he was very curious as to why she called everyone else "brother" or "sister," but only called him A-Yu.