Chapter 001 Wake Up
The scorching sun hanging high in the sky shone cruelly on the earth, and the road paved with loess was dried and cracked.
No one wanted to go out in this kind of weather; even the street beggars had already taken shelter from the heat. Suddenly, a staggering procession appeared at the other end of the long road. It was a large procession of perhaps a hundred people, men and women, young and old, fat and thin. But what they all had in common was that they were all wearing white prison uniforms and saddled with heavy shackles and leg irons. Perhaps because the shackles and leg irons were too heavy, or perhaps because the weather was too hot, the procession was moving slowly. Even so, no one dared to stop. After all, the escort officer was watching them closely. If they dared to stop, the escort officer would surely whip them.
The few passers-by on the road saw this team and avoided them from a distance. After all, anyone with a discerning eye could see that this was a group of exiled prisoners.
This is indeed the case. These people are members of the Shi clan who were sentenced to exile because Shi Hanlin offended the emperor.
What? You ask which Hanlin?
Of course, it was the Hanlin who was loyal to the young emperor of the previous dynasty. At the coronation ceremony of the new emperor who had rebelled, he cursed the new emperor as "a vassal king who rebelled, was disloyal and unfilial, and was unworthy of being a king!"
It must be said that Shi Hanlin was indeed a loyal minister to the young emperor of the previous dynasty. Even when he was being dragged away by the guards under the order of the enraged new emperor, he did not forget to shout, "Don't even mention killing me. Even if you kill all my nine clans, I will not change my words. Prince Yan, you are not worthy of being a king!"
Well, if the former emperor, who has already gone to hell, heard this, he would definitely be very happy. But as one of the nine surviving clans of Shi Hanlin, Shi Qiushui really wanted to say something dirty...
Fortunately, although the new emperor was angry, he had not lost his mind and did not really send Shi Hanlin down with him. However, when the emperor was angry, the death penalty could be spared, but the punishment of life was not. The new emperor sentenced Shi Hanlin's nine clans - the Shi family, including hundreds of people, to exile to Lingnan.
This is the origin of this exile team.
Under the scorching sun, the exiled group was all agitated, but they endured it because of the whip-wielding escort officer. But patience has its limits. A round-faced woman in the crowd had reached her limit and collapsed. She suddenly raised her head and cursed Shi Hanlin's relatives at the front of the group, scolding them for allowing Shi Hanlin to anger the emperor and causing the entire Shi family to be exiled.
The round-faced lady's words were like opening a mechanism. The clansmen who shared the same idea as her started to curse at Shi Hanlin's relatives. Some even rushed forward to fight with them. Although the escorting officer rushed forward to separate them, the marching team still stopped.
"Lychees, oysters, and sea fish—you can eat them in Lingnan. There's delicious food in Lingnan. Being exiled to Lingnan isn't so bad... eh?"
At the end of the team, a father and daughter who had been walking with their heads down and muttering to themselves noticed that the people in front of them had stopped, so they also stopped and looked ahead. After realizing that there was a commotion ahead, the father and daughter had no intention of getting involved or joining in to watch the fun.
It was tiring enough to walk with shackles and fetters on their shoulders, so how could they have the energy to join in the fun?
As a father, Shi Yue looked at the big sun like a fireball in the sky, then looked at the shade of the tree not far away, and decisively pulled his daughter Shi Qiu Shui to sit under the shade of the tree.
Shi Qiushui: "Dad?"
Shi Yue quietly made a shushing gesture and whispered, "There's such a commotion up ahead. Even if the escort officer pulls these people away, he'll still have to regroup and give them a lecture. Plus, it's almost noon now. I reckon the escort officer will definitely tell everyone to rest soon. Let's quickly grab a spot in the shade to avoid being left stranded later."
Shi Qiushui nodded: "Okay."
Not long after Shi Yue and his daughter sat down, the escorting officer who had pulled the troublemakers away told everyone to rest where they were.
Hearing the escort officer's words, Shi Qiushui looked at Shi Yue with admiration: "Dad, you are awesome."
Shi Yue: "Hehe, now you know how powerful your dad is, right?"
"I know, I know." Shi Qiushui smiled at her father, then took out a paper bag filled with salted plums from her sleeve, took out two salted plums, put one in her mouth and the other in Shi Yue's hand: "Dad, here you go."
She then wrapped the remaining salted plums in paper and stuffed them back into her arms. These salted plums wouldn't have been a rare treat for Shi Qiushui before, but for the exiled prisoner, they were a rare treat, quenching thirst and cooling off. Before she was captured by the authorities, she had only managed to hide this small packet, so she had to eat sparingly.
On the other hand, Shi Yue, who was given the plum by her, had a complicated expression as he held it. He said, "Xiao Qiu, I'm not going to eat this plum. I studied very hard for ten years and finally passed the imperial examination. But before I could enjoy the blessing of being a juren for a few days, I was exiled to Lingnan. It's already bad luck enough. If I eat plums, I won't know how much worse it will be."
Shi Qiushui: ...
For a moment, she didn't know whether to complain first about the ten years of hard study that Shi Yue mentioned, referring to the ten years she forced him to study, or to complain about Shi Yue's twisted theory that eating plums would bring bad luck.
She wordlessly snatched the plums from Shi Yue's hand: "Dad, if you don't eat them, I will. I've never heard that eating plums is related to bad luck. Besides, we're already so unlucky, how much more unlucky can we be?"
Shi Qiu Shui grabbed the salted plum and stuffed it into his mouth. Hmm, it was sweet and salty, just delicious.
She remembered that these salted plums were also brought from Lingnan. It seemed that Lingnan, the place of exile, was not bad after all.
Shi Qiu Shui was still sighing to himself, and didn't notice that the sky outside the shade of the trees was no longer as clear as before. The sun that seemed to be scorching people to death was now blocked by thick dark clouds, and the air became increasingly sticky.
"Boom—"
Suddenly, a loud thunder exploded in Shi Qiu Shui's ears, and along with the thunder came raindrops as big as beans. Just when Shi Qiu Shui realized that it was raining, a lightning as thick as a bucket struck straight towards the willow tree where Shi Yue and Shi Qiu Shui were hiding. Shi Qiu Shui only felt a white screen in front of his eyes, and then he lost consciousness.
Before losing consciousness, Shi Qiu Shui’s last thought was: Oh my God, it turns out there is no such thing as the most unlucky, only more unlucky!
—
"Gao Cuifen, Gao Cuifen, I really don't know what to say to you. Do you know that you almost killed Xiaoshi's father and daughter this time?"
"Ma Yulan, don't scare people. What's the point of talking about whether it's fatal or not? They both just had food poisoning. The doctor said that after gastric lavage, it's nothing serious."
"No, Lao Gao, what you said is inappropriate. What Lao Ma said is also correct. Although the doctor said that Xiaoshi and his daughter would be fine after gastric lavage, didn't he also say that they were brought in on time. If they had been brought in later, their lives might have been in danger."
"Don't scare me with your life-or-death threats! The doctor said the father and daughter are fine. Why are you so nosy? If you really want to meddle in their affairs, then go pay for their medical bills!"
"Hey, Gao Cuifen, why should we pay for their medical expenses? They went to the hospital because of you!"
"Bullshit, I..."
When Shi Qiu Shui regained consciousness, the first thing that came into her ears was this series of quarrels. Several different voices mixed together, and she could only hear them vaguely. She had no idea what these people were quarreling about.
However, what is certain is that these people all spoke with a Youzhou accent.
hiss--
Shi Qiu Shui was puzzled. Wasn't she struck by lightning? Could it be that not only did she not die, but she also turned a disaster into a blessing and returned to Youzhou City?
She anxiously wanted to open her eyes to see what was going on, but her eyelids felt as if a heavy weight was weighing on them. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't open her eyes.
She could only listen to the voices getting louder and louder, until the sound of a door opening and a particularly serious female voice saying, "Why are you arguing? This is a ward, not the market at your doorstep. If you want to argue, go outside. You're disturbing the patient's rest here, don't you understand?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the quarreling voices immediately stopped.
This person was very good at speaking. With just one sentence, he stopped the quarreling people.
Shi Qiu Shui sighed silently, and suddenly realized that the man said this was a ward for patients to rest?
Patient? You mean her?
Before Shi Qiushui could think about it, that serious voice sounded again: "By the way, are the family members of the father and daughter who had food poisoning here? I have something to ask."
"I, we all are, nurse, what do you want?" This was the answer from the quarreling voices.
"Okay then, all of you come out with me first."
What followed was a noisy sound of footsteps and the sound of doors opening and closing, and then Shi Qiu Shui's ears became completely quiet.
No, what's going on?
Did those people leave?
Shi Qiu Shui was completely confused. She was extremely anxious and desperately wanted to know her current situation. She struggled with all her strength, trying to fight against her heavy eyelids.
Finally, she opened her eyes.
When Qiu Shui opened her eyes and woke up, the first thing she saw was a large area of white: snow-white walls, snow-white roofs, and even the quilt covering her was white.
Her first reaction was, what a waste, what a waste, how could such a pure white dye be used to paint the walls and roof?
Then she became a little confused. According to the previous voice, this should be a clinic, right? But she had grown up in Youzhou City and had never seen such a clinic in Youzhou City.
Could it be that she guessed wrong and she is not in Youzhou City now?
Shi Qiu Shui looked around with confusion in her eyes, and the first thing she noticed was the glass window on her left.
She gasped, "Oh my God, was she seeing things? This, this, this, this window is made of glass?!"
Or is it a piece of colorless and transparent glass that seems to have been created by nature?!
After being surprised, Shi Qiu Shui's expression became more serious. If she guessed correctly, she was not only not in Youzhou City, but also not in the territory of Dayu Dynasty.
After all, the craftsmanship of the Dayu Dynasty was not enough to produce such large pieces of perfect quality glass, let alone use such glass to make windows.
But if she is not in the Dayu Dynasty, where is she?
Shi Qiu Shui frowned, deeply confused. Suddenly, she felt a strong sense of dizziness and a flood of memories flooded into her mind.
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