Chapter 3
Those exiled to the northwest included not only prisoners from the Sui Yu clan, but also various other people who were imprisoned for petty crimes. They were walking on the snowy road, carrying thick bundles of straw on their backs.
It was a very cold and snowy day, and there were no cotton clothes to keep warm. There were few people on the street. The vendors were wearing straw sandals and leaning against the wall to avoid the wind, wishing they could shrink into the earthen wall. Others would rather stay at home than go out.
The scene of smashing rotten eggs, throwing rotten vegetable leaves, and hurling stones that Sui Yu imagined did not occur. There was not even a crowd watching. Only the people living in the houses on the roadside were staring through the cracks in the doors or the leaky windows.
Sui Yu gritted her teeth and walked against the wind, no longer bothering to look at the surroundings. She squinted her eyes and stared at the snow covering the soles of her shoes, walking with difficulty following in the footsteps of her predecessors.
"Be patient and tie the straw around yourself when you can take a break," said Sui Hu.
Sui Yu didn't respond. She didn't dare to speak, as she would feel hot as soon as she opened her mouth.
When we left the city, there were already hundreds of people waiting outside. Some were pushing carts, and some were just carrying baskets on their backs. They were wearing all their belongings to keep warm.
Sui Yu hunched her neck and looked up. She was stunned by the hateful gaze and asked in a low voice, "Are there any flood victims among these people?"
Sui Hu squeaked vaguely.
After the jailer handed over the order to the escorting officers and soldiers, he left. Officers wearing iron armor and fur hats came over to count the heads. He waved his whip and drove the male prisoners to the front to clear the way.
"Hold your little brother, he will go with you." Sui Hu handed Sui Liang to Sui Yu and walked forward quickly before the whip fell.
Sui Yu looked at Sui Liang. She wondered if this child, less than six years old, could make it to the northwest alive. She softened her heart and said, "You stay with me during the day, and with your father at night."
Sui Liang lowered his head and didn't dare to look at her, and tried to retract his hand with resistance.
"Are you afraid of me?" Sui Yu asked.
Sui Liang froze for a moment.
The whistle blew, and the main force moved. Sui Yu hurriedly followed, lowering his voice and saying, "Follow me obediently, and don't make any noise. If you don't obey, I will eat you."
After saying that, he heard a laugh. Sui Yu looked over and saw that it was the two sisters Sui Hui and Sui Ling.
"You can still laugh?" she said unhappily, muttering, "Your family has really hurt us."
Sui Hui stopped smiling, suddenly lost her spirit, and her shoulders slumped.
"You have benefited a lot by relying on my father's influence." Sui Ling couldn't help but retort. After coming out of the prison and seeing her elder brother, she felt that she had someone to rely on. Seeing that a child born by a concubine dared to show disdain in front of her sister, she snorted disdainfully.
"Ling'er." Sui Hui called out in a more stern tone.
Sui Ling turned her head away and said nothing.
Sui Yu also shut up, not wasting energy on an argument. What she said was the truth, and what Sui Ling said was also the truth.
But she was really wronged, and could only curse her bad luck.
The hot air exhaled condensed into icy mist and stuck to his eyebrows. Slowly, white frost also hung on his hair. His clear mucus fell unconsciously. Sui Yu raised his hand to wipe it off and wiped it on the snow. When he stood up, he reached out and slapped Sui Liang's face.
In the past, she would have cried out in disgust. But after nearly a month of torture in the cell, she no longer resented anything.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, a pavilion appeared on the side of the road. The officers and soldiers blew their whistles, and everyone rested on the spot. Sui Yu quickly put down the straw bundle on his back and stuffed the straw into his thick linen clothes. When it was full, he stuffed it into his pants.
Sui Hu came over and saw her unbuttoning her belt without any hesitation. He frowned and wanted to say something but swallowed it back. He untied the bundle of straw on his back, took his silly little son into his arms and stuffed straw into his clothes.
"Don't just think about yourself, take care of your younger brother as well." Sui Hu was busy with his hands and gave instructions.
"Don't I still have you?" Sui Yu took off her straw sandals. Her socks were soaked. She rubbed the straw soft and stuffed it into the soles of her feet.
Sui Hu found these words irritating. He felt that his daughter had changed so much that she no longer cared about the affection between siblings.
"Why are we setting off only when winter comes?" Sui Yu finished his work and rubbed his hands and face with a handful of snow. He would have to live a long way if he walked, as his hands, feet and face would be covered with frostbite.
"The further north you go, the colder it gets. The snow is so thick you could bury a person. If we leave now, it will be almost spring by the time we reach Chang'an." Sui Hu pushed Sui Liang over and said, "Rub your brother's hand. You're his sister, take good care of him."
"The person who could take good care of him hanged himself after listening to you." Sui Yu said sarcastically.
Sui Hu didn't say anything. He stuffed the remaining straw into his linen clothes, and tied the remaining straw around his waist and legs with ropes.
"Uncle San, it's time to start." Sui Wen'an came over and called out to Sui Yu, "Sister Yu."
This was Sui Jiushan's only son. Sui Yu remembered that he had already married. She looked around but didn't see the person she remembered.
When they were on their way again, Sui Yu approached Sui Hui and asked, "Where's your sister-in-law?"
"I went back to my parents' home." Sui Hui replied.
Sui Yu understood that the powerful families had all rescued their daughters, and the remaining exiled people were all the unlucky and poor relatives of the powerful.
A little girl in front slipped and fell, and the woman holding her stumbled and fell into the snow, and the straw tied to her body fell apart. The woman didn't bother to brush the snow off herself, but hurried to gather the scattered straw. In this wilderness of snow, finding dry grass was as difficult as climbing to the sky.
"Hurry up and catch up." The officers and soldiers following behind shouted.
The people around helped pull a few straws and picked up the straws on the ground for her to avoid being whipped. When Sui Yu passed by, the child she was holding suddenly squatted down and picked up the remaining straws in her hands.
"Give it to me. I'll put it in the straw bale, and you put your claws in your sleeves." Sui Yu stretched out his hand.
Sui Liang pretended not to hear and put his hands behind his back vigilantly.
"Okay, you take it. I'm not the one who's cold." Sui Yu sniffed. It was really cold.
There was no sun on a snowy day, and a group of people walked against the wind, not knowing what time it was. No one dared to stop until the soldiers shouted to stop. Even the children who were too tired to walk were dragged along crying, and their tears froze into ice. They stopped crying because they felt uncomfortable.
Sui Yu couldn't walk anymore, and Sui Liang almost dragged her along, pulling her up again after she fell. The snow stuck in the straw tied around her body couldn't be shaken off.
Sui Yu reacted after her foot kicked the stick. She turned back and dug out the stick from the snow to lean on. Seeing that Sui Liang was still holding a handful of rotten straw, she snatched it away and stuffed it around her waist, scolding him, "Put your hands back in your sleeves. Your fingers are going to freeze off. Are you stupid?"
Sui Liang stared at her and cried, tears streaming down his face. His numb face was frozen and felt as if it was being cut by a knife. He wanted to wipe his tears, but he couldn't lift his hands.
Sui Yu also wanted to cry. She wiped his tears with her hands and moved closer to him. She saw herself in his eyes and looked like a monster.
"Your aunt was reluctant to take you away, so you can only suffer with her. Let's go." She had no choice but to continue moving forward with difficulty, leaning on the stick with one hand and pulling him with the other.
As the sky darkened, the crows in the trees cried eerily. Sui Yu had no strength left. She felt that if she fell down, she would never be able to get up. Just as she was thinking about how to die, the wooden whistle blew, and they had arrived at the post station. Finally, they could rest.
A group of people walked into the wall like puppets. When the wind stopped, they saw the dim flames jumping in the house and saw the hope of life again.
Sui Hu picked up Sui Liang and stood with Sui Wen'an. The second brother's family was killed by horse bandits, and now the three of them were the only male relatives closest to the Sui family.
"How will you settle your two sisters when you go to the Northwest?" Sui Hu asked.
"There's nothing we can do. We're lucky to be able to get here." Sui Anwen smiled bitterly.
Sui Hu didn't believe it. He didn't believe that the boss didn't leave a way out for the younger ones. Since no one said anything, he stopped talking.
The post station was quite large, but it was only used to accommodate officials. There was no room for refugees. Hundreds of them were crammed into the stables and woodshed. Prisoners like Sui Yu had to wait for others to choose their spots, finding a spot that was windproof but not snow-proof, spreading hay and huddling together to sleep. Even the hot porridge was only served to them after everyone else had finished, and it was already cold by the time it reached their mouths.
"It's better to die. There's no way to live." Someone cried in a low voice, not daring to cry loudly.
Sui Yu was so tired that she had no energy to complain. She sat on the hay, held the porridge in her mouth to warm it up, and swallowed it bit by bit. She suspected that she was on the way to death, but she also felt that she had miraculously returned to more than two thousand years ago, and she would not die so easily.
After finishing a bowl of leftover porridge, Sui Yu felt a little stronger. She picked up the jar and went out to collect snow. She came back into the house, hissing and rubbing her face and hands with the snow. Then she took off her socks and rubbed her calves and feet with the snow. She caught a glimpse of Sui Liang crawling over. She thought he was going to grab some snow, too. She moved the jar toward him, but he dodged her and grabbed a handful of straw tied around her waist before crawling off to another spot.
Sui Yu watched coldly, and after returning the rotten straw to its original owner, he slowly crawled back.
The woman who fell and dropped her straw had long forgotten what happened before. She didn't care whether there was one more straw or one less. She glanced at Sui Liang and continued to take care of the child.
"Rub his hands and feet, and rub his ears too." Sui Yu stepped over with the clay pot filled with snow and said to her father, "My hands and feet are starting to feel hot."
Sui Hui, who was standing by, heard this and immediately stood up and pulled Sui Ling out to dig snow.
As for the others, they drank the porridge and then huddled together to sleep. They had been hungry and cold all day, and they snored loudly as soon as they lay down.
Sui Yu pinched the silver coins mixed with straw in her socks, thinking about going out. As soon as she moved, Sui Hu called out to her and said, "It's getting dark. Don't move around. You might not be able to come back. Go back and sleep."
There were hurried footsteps outside the door, and Sui Hui and Sui Ling ran in in a panic. As soon as they sat down, a hunched figure appeared at the door. It was dark at night and they couldn't see who it was.
Sui Yu lay down quietly, and after the person at the door left, she asked Sui Hui who the visitor was.
"I don't know." Sui Hui said, "Sister Yu, the three of us sisters will sleep together, it will be warmer at night."
Sui Hu pushed Sui Liang over and said, "You guys go to sleep. Your brother and I will sleep outside. Call me if anything happens."
They did not take off their clothes and continued to stuff straw into their linen clothes and trousers. They slept together in a crowded space, covered themselves with straw, curled up, and hugged each other to try to keep warm.
Sui Yu hugged Sui Liang. The fat boy had long lost all the weight. She picked up his feet and tucked them between her legs. She whispered, "Go to sleep. I won't eat you tonight."
"Nonsense again." Sui Hui laughed again.
Sui Yu also smiled. She had lived another day, and she fell asleep with this thought in her mind.
I woke up from the cold several times during the night. In the second half of the night, many people woke up from the cold. In the dark, I could hear coughing one after another.
At dawn, everyone got up without being urged by the officers and soldiers.
The post station cooked ginger water in the morning. Sui Yu squeezed in and scrambled to drink a bowl of hot water. It didn't have much ginger flavor, but it was better than nothing.
"Here, come closer." She held the can to Sui Liang's mouth, "Drink more, finish it all."
As for the others, no one can drink unless they grab it.
The whistle sounded again, and hundreds of people stood in the same positions as yesterday, carrying bundles of grass and stepping into the snow to continue their journey.
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