At the beginning of midnight, a carriage approached and gradually slowed down, stopping a few hundred meters away from Hong Xiaoduo and her companions' carriage.

Hong Xiaoduo opened her eyes and looked around. Seeing that they probably also planned to spend the night there, she temporarily relaxed her vigilance.

Although it wasn't winter yet, it was still a bit cold at night under the covers. I sat up and added a few branches to the fire in front of me, and then I saw someone walking over.

The man who approached was middle-aged. As he got closer, he realized that the person by the fire was a young woman. He quickly stopped and asked in a low voice, "I see there's a fire and a kettle over here. May I ask for a bowl of hot water from you, young lady?"

Just because he lowered his voice so as not to disturb the people resting in the tent, Hong Xiaoduo thought he was a good person. She wouldn't refuse; she watched as he poured her a bowl of hot water, thanked her, and left.

Hong Xiaoduo was no longer sleepy, so she simply sat by the fire and, somewhat bored, used a stick to stir the embers onto the newly added branches, watching the branches smoke and then watch as sparks slowly ignited into flames.

When she saw a pair of black boots appear in front of her, she was startled. Had she been daydreaming? How come she hadn't heard a sound?

At this distance, if it's a bad guy, a whip is definitely useless; only a sword will suffice.

Looking up from the black boots, she saw a man dressed in a dark blue robe, with long, willow-like eyebrows and a jade-like figure, who was extremely handsome and looking at her.

Sensing no danger from him, Hong Xiaoduo released her hand from the sword hilt.

"If you're tired, you can go inside and rest. We have people on night duty," the man said.

He didn't introduce himself or anything, but since she chose to spend the night right next to them, she should know they were safe.

"Thank you, but even if I go in to sleep, I won't sleep soundly. It's okay if I don't sleep; I can catch up on sleep tomorrow." Hong Xiaoduo said the truth with a smile, not afraid of being misunderstood at all.

The man pointed to a chair by the fire and asked, "Do you mind?" He had come over to tell her that she could rest since she was a young woman traveling with seven children and he thought it must be tough for her. Of course, he wasn't sure if she would actually go to rest.

He intended to leave after speaking, but he didn't expect the young woman to be so straightforward. She lowered her guard after just one glance at him.

Hong Xiaoduo smiled and gestured for her to sit down.

The man sat down: "Young lady, you've let your guard down so easily?"

"If you were really a bad person, would I still be sitting here in good health?" Hong Xiaoduo said this, but in her heart she was also reminding herself that she couldn't be so careless in the future.

That's true," the man smiled.

He had been traveling for years as a镖师 (bodyguard/escort), and had met many elegant and graceful women in the martial arts world, but compared to the woman in front of him, she was far inferior.

"You really believe the reason I just gave you for coming here?" the man asked again.

Hong Xiaoduo nodded and said, "Otherwise what? Do I have to imagine some kind of conspiracy? It's a simple matter, why make it so complicated?"

"By the way, you also have female bodyguards?" Hong Xiaoduo asked, a little curious.

"Her? She's not exactly a bodyguard, she's my junior sister. The bodyguard agency belongs to my master," the man told me with a smile.

After thinking for a moment, I asked her, "Are you visiting relatives and friends? Or...?"

Hong Xiaoduo thought for a moment: "Travel."

"Travel? These days, things aren't very peaceful in many places." The man found this answer somewhat incredulous.

Also, who would travel with a group of children?

Hong Xiaoduo knew that no one would believe what she had just said, but she didn't intend for them to believe her anyway. Even if they asked, she couldn't possibly tell everyone the truth about herself and her children.

Once it's light, we'll all set off. There's no need to be completely honest and tell the truth!

"It's alright. Turbulent travels are what truly hone a person." Hong Xiaoduo wanted to say, "Aren't you also on a镖局 (bodyguard/escort) mission when things are turbulent?"

But then I thought about it for a moment and realized that this was not right. I couldn't say it. If the world were at peace, the bodyguards might lose their jobs, and the escort agencies wouldn't have any business to take on.

The man wanted to say that his elders were very magnanimous, but he knew that saying such things was inappropriate.

They were strangers to each other, and the other party was a young woman; it was already somewhat inappropriate for him to act this way.

"I'm leaving now, sorry to have bothered you." The man knew, of course, that the travelogue wasn't the truth, but it did remind him that it was time to leave, so he got up to take his leave.

Hong Xiaoduo smiled and nodded, but didn't get up to see her off. She added some more dry branches to the fire and lay back down in her chair.

I wonder if it was because the air was not polluted in ancient times that the sky was so clear, the stars were so distinct, and the night sky was truly beautiful.

She found Vega, then Altair, and then other constellations.

No matter how long the night was, dawn eventually broke.

Tian Shu was the first to come out of the tent, followed by the other children. They found a place to relieve themselves, then came back to wash up and pack their things.

The镖局 (bodyguard agency) members who got up early were quite surprised to see the children busily working in an orderly manner, as if they were heating up food by the fire. In no time, the large and small group had packed up the tent and put it back on the donkey cart.

Just then, the sound of a child crying came from the carriage that had come from the previous night.

The middle-aged man who came to ask for hot water glanced in this direction several times.

Hong Xiaoduo asked Tianxuan and Tianji to go and ask what happened. In no time, the two boys ran back and told her that the people on the bus were in a hurry yesterday and forgot to buy food. A three-year-old child on the bus was hungry and that's why he was crying.

"Let's spread the food evenly over there," Hong Xiaoduo said to Tianxuan.

Tianxuan wasn't sure what the appropriate value of this uniformity point should be, so she simply asked her directly.

Hong Xiaoduo thought for a moment and said, "Didn't big brother ask you to be in charge of the food? You can decide how much to distribute."

After saying that, he walked away without offering any hints.

She didn't go far, wanting to see how Tianxuan would handle the situation. It wasn't a test of the child's character, but rather a way to train her.

Tianxuan thought about it very seriously, went to the carriage to check all the food, and after considering it, took out a small portion and sent it over.

The child's crying in the carriage stopped, and the middle-aged man who had asked for water quickly came over, thanked Hong Xiaoduo, and offered her money, saying that his master had asked him to.

Hong Xiaoduo confiscated it, saying that we were not selling food.

Upon hearing her say this, the man thanked her again.

Hong Xiaoduo checked everything and found nothing missing. The horse-drawn carriage and donkey cart were all ready, so she led the children onto the carriage and set off.

As we passed the escort agency's convoy, I saw a young woman in a tight-fitting outfit looking at me with a very unfriendly gaze through the car window.

Hong Xiaoduo was speechless. She had never had any contact with her, let alone any conflict. What was going on with this hostility?

Having not slept a wink all night, she was too lazy to think about when she had offended the other person, but little did she know she had gotten herself into trouble...