With no one to stop her, Baoning got out of the car by herself.

Although she had been mentally prepared, she was still surprised by the scene in front of her.

There was a small courtyard in a barren forest. The gate was made of fences and swayed as if it would fall down with a gust of wind. The house was a low thatched house with two rooms. In the middle of winter, it was obvious that there were drafts on all sides. It had snowed a few days ago, and now the snow in the yard had not melted completely. It was half water and half snow, muddy and dirty.

This did not look like the residence of a prince, but rather a dilapidated yard that had been abandoned for a long time.

Bao Ning turned around and looked around. Not to mention the villagers, there were no neighbors. All he could see were trees with all their leaves fallen. There was only a narrow path in the direction where the carriage was coming from, winding and endless.

This place was difficult for an ordinary person to live in, let alone someone like the fourth prince who was already disabled

. It was said that the people in the Shaofu Supervisor were the most powerful, and now it seems that they are not at all. When Pei Yuan was prosperous, everyone was scrambling to curry favor with him and gave him the best things. Now he is unwilling to give him even a decent house.

Just as Baoning was thinking, the fence door suddenly opened, and a girl dressed as a maid walked out. She looked at Baoning and asked the driver, "Is this the Fourth Prince's wife?"

The driver nodded and said with a smile, "Cui Fu, are you happy now? You don't have to stay in this damn place anymore, someone is here to take over your job."

Cui Fu rubbed her hands and pursed her lips and said, "That's right, I'll go crazy if I stay here for another two days. Not to mention the food is not full and the accommodation is not warm, the Fourth Prince has such a terrible temper..."

Cui Fu finally remembered that she had to show courtesy when meeting the Fourth Prince's wife halfway through her speech.

She took back the second half of her sentence, bowed, glanced at Bao Ning again, and shook her head, saying, "She is so beautiful, it's a pity that she married such a cripple."

The coachman yawned, got on the carriage again, and waved, "Stop talking, get in quickly, and go back to the capital before dark."

Cui Fu said "Ah", without even saying goodbye to Bao Ning, and got into the carriage.

The whip hit the horse, raised its head and neighed, and left the yard with the coachman and the maid named Cui Fu.

"..." Bao Ning stood there, watching the shadow of the carriage going away, pursed his lips, and didn't know what to say.

The two of them didn't take her seriously at all, let alone the Fourth Prince's wife. In their eyes, she might not even be a master, but just an unlucky bride who was married to suffer. They wanted to stay away from her.

Forget it. If you rely on the mountain, the mountain will fall; if you rely on people, they will run away. It's better to rely on yourself than on anyone else.

Baoning sighed, pulled off the veil and held it in her hand, squatted down and rolled up her trouser legs, and walked into the yard with one slippery step.

She thought to herself that after changing her clothes, she had to clean the yard quickly, otherwise if she slipped and fell, it would be terrible.

The yard was not big, about ten steps away, and she soon reached the door of the hut.

The two rooms were next to each other and looked almost identical, except that there was a hole in the window paper of one of them. The cold wind blew through the small hole, making the entire window whistle, as if it would be blown to pieces soon. The other room looked slightly better, at least the window was intact.

Which one did Pei Yuan live in?

Bao Ning thought for a moment, took a step forward, and prepared to look inside through the small hole in the window paper. There

was a big broom standing on the wall. She didn't pay attention and accidentally touched it, falling to the ground with a "bang".

A low, hoarse voice suddenly came from the room: "Who?"

Baoning opened her mouth: "I am..."

Baoning had just said one word when Pei Yuan grabbed the cup on the bedside and threw it at her: "Get out!"

Baoning heard the sound of breaking air, and subconsciously stepped to the side, watching the cup break the window paper, brush past her nose an inch away, and fall into the snow in a beautiful arc.

Baoning stayed where she was.

There was no sound in the room.

After a long while, Baoning finally mustered up the courage and took a look through the broken window hole, and met Pei Yuan's cold eyes, which were defensive and disgusting.

"If you don't get out, do you believe I will slap you to death?"

Baoning was so scared that she retracted her neck again.

She had already prepared to marry a cripple, and she knew Pei Yuan always had a bad temper, but she never thought he could be so bad. It seemed that the hole in the window paper was made by him throwing something. No

wonder Cui Fu looked as if she had been pardoned when she left.

Bao Ning looked up at the sky. It was about 4 p.m. She had only eaten half a bun after getting up in the morning, and she was already very hungry.

Why don't you go cook first? No matter how fierce Pei Yuan is, he has to eat. When the meal is delivered, she can have a good chat with him, and maybe he will be less resistant.

But where is the kitchen?

Baoning walked around in circles, but she really didn't see anything that looked like a kitchen. There were only two thatched houses in the empty yard, and a very low small house in the corner of the yard, which should be a toilet. The yard was too empty, and the cold wind blew in without any obstruction. Baoning sneezed from the cold and walked towards another room.

She thought this was Cuifu's room, but she didn't expect to find a different world after entering.

The small place was about seven steps long and eight steps wide, half of which was a brick bed, and the other half was a simple small kitchen! There

was no decent furniture in the room, just a table with a broken leg, a wobbly chair, and a pot on the stove.

But even so, the room still seemed overcrowded. Not only was it dark and damp, but it also smelled strongly of coal smoke. There

were quilts piled up randomly on the kang, pillows pushed to the ground, and several women's clothes, bellybands and skirts, scattered everywhere.

Baoning thought that maybe Cuifu left in a hurry, so she crawled out of the quilt, put on her clothes and left, leaving nothing behind. Although there was nothing valuable left.

Baoning raised her hand and fanned under her nose. The smell was too pungent. She didn't care about the cold anymore, so she opened the doors and windows to ventilate.

The afternoon sun shone in, and the room suddenly felt brighter.

Bao Ning heaved a sigh of relief, feeling much better, and began to sort things out. There was nothing to sort out in the room, except for the clothes and miscellaneous items that Cui Fu had left behind, which were quickly gathered together and put into the laundry basket. Her wedding box was still outside the yard, and Bao Ning thought about sorting that out in the evening, so he prepared the meal first and sent it to Pei Yuan.

Cui Fu probably knew that she would definitely come today, so she didn't even make lunch or heat the kang.

There was no spark in the stove, and there were some leftovers from the previous meal in the pot. It looked like corn paste or something like that, stuck to the pot and giving off a not-so-pleasant fishy smell.

Baoning bent over and sniffed it, wrinkling his nose. It was already rotten, not from the previous meal, but had been there for who knows how many days. Baoning

was surprised. What on earth did these two people usually eat?

If you want to cook, you have to light a fire and clean the pot.

The firewood was piled not far from the door. Although there was not much, it was enough, and there were so many dead branches outside the forest that a fire would always start.

The question was, where were the vegetables and rice? Where was the water?

Bao Ning walked around the house and saw only a wooden barrel, which was filled with water about as high as a finger joint. It was not enough for two sips, let alone other edible things.

There was no well in the yard.

Bao Ning stood at the door in a daze, speechless for a moment. How did these two people live these days? Did they not eat or even drink water?

She thought about it for a long time and decided to ask Pei Yuan. He had lived here for quite a while and should know these things.

The hut was very shabby and the door was old, a piece of broken wood with dents and holes. The wedge used to lock the door had rotted away somehow, so the door could not be locked or closed tightly, and it trembled when the wind blew. The door and window were broken, and the stove was not lit. You don't need to guess how cold the room Pei Yuan lived in was. He was in poor health to begin with, so how did he survive?

Bao Ning sighed, raised her hand and knocked on the door: "Fourth Prince, can I come in?"

There was no sound in the room. She waited for a while, knocked again, and still no sound.

Bao Ning was puzzled, afraid that something might have happened to Pei Yuan as he was freezing and sick, so she pushed the door open without waiting for his response.

As soon as she entered the room, Bao Ning started coughing. The smell in this room was worse than that in the kitchen. The bitter smell of medicine was mixed with an indescribable sour smell that stung people's eyes. If you smelled carefully, you could even smell a faint smell of blood.

Pei Yuan was lying on his side on the small kang, sleeping.

He looked like he was sleeping unsteadily, with his eyebrows tightly drawn together, a circle of stubble around his lips, his hair half tied up and half loose, a mess, and the quilt he was wrapped in was not clean either, with yellow and red stains dried up into pieces, and cotton was exposed in some places.

Perhaps because of the pain, Pei Yuan clenched his hands on the pillow into fists, veins popped out on the back of his hands, and the joints were a little white.

This sloppy and shabby look, like a homeless man, how could he be associated with the fourth prince who was originally high and mighty and arrogant?

Baoning was stunned where he was, and suddenly felt a little sad.

Pei Yuan was awakened by her coughs and rolled his eyes impatiently. Being awake is much harder than being asleep. At least when asleep, you don't feel cold, hungry, or painful. But once you regain consciousness, those unbearable feelings will come back again. The wound twitched with pain. He gritted his teeth and endured it so that he didn't scream. The endless decay and itching were about to drive him crazy.

Maybe it was because of the fever. Pei Yuan felt that his mouth was very dry, and his entire throat was burning.

I want to drink water.

Pei Yuan sat up with his arms propped up, raised his hand to press his forehead, and half-closed his eyes to touch the cup on the table.

After searching for a long time, there was only dust on his hands.

Bao Ning couldn't bear to watch this, so he picked up the teapot and put it in his hand: "You just threw the cup away, and the water in the teapot is cold. Do you know where there is a well or a stream nearby? I'll get some water and make it for you."

The strange female voice came into his ears, soft and gentle, with a sense of warmth, which was out of tune with the cold environment.

Pei Yuan was startled and opened his eyes suddenly.