At her age, Nianjie'er could already tell good from bad. When she heard Song He'er teasing her, her face immediately fell, and she puffed out her chubby little mouth.
"Fifth Sister only makes fun of me. You have a prince who dotes on you, but I don't. I'm more pitiful than you."
As soon as she finished speaking, Song He'er stood there awkwardly, stunned. At such a young age, she was already gossiping about others. It seemed she needed to be disciplined properly.
"Song Nian'er! Don't you want to get hit?!"
Zhang Xiue didn't defend her own and slapped him right across the buttocks.
Only Qin Xiaoniang stood by and stopped them, saying, "Alright, the child doesn't know any better. Why did you hit the child?"
"How can you talk nonsense like this? If we don't teach her a lesson today, she'll become even more lawless in the future!"
Seeing that even her own mother was angry, Nianjie could no longer hold back her grievances and burst into tears.
Wow~~
Hua Hua walked over, shook Nian Jie'er's sleeve, and said in a sweet, soft voice, "Don't cry. The longer you cry, the more your feet will hurt. What will you do if there's no carriage and you can't walk?"
It's true that children communicate most easily with each other. Nianjie, who had been crying for a while, has finally stopped crying.
Song He'er breathed a sigh of relief and pulled Nian'er aside to comfort her, "Does Nian'er's foot hurt? We'll put some medicine on it and it won't hurt anymore..."
As she spoke, Song He'er took out a small purple bottle from her sleeve, opened it, and gently applied the white ointment inside to Nian Jie'er's ankles and heels.
Zhang Xiu'e was a little surprised and stepped forward to ask, "He'er, when did you prepare the medicine?"
"It was His Highness. When he fell off the cliff, his hand was injured, right? So he took out the medicine he always carried with him and applied it. Later, he fainted, and I've been carrying this medicine with me ever since. It's a good thing; it relieves the pain after applying it for a while!"
Song He'er just picked up an excuse to get by. Jiang Huaifu always carried antidote powder, which was a white powder. When did he get this ointment?
This was simply a way of subtly telling them that the frostbite cream had been taken out of the space, so that they wouldn't suspect anything.
"It really is a good medicine. Look at the aroma, it's truly extraordinary!" Li Qiang's wife praised.
After applying the medicine, Nianjie stopped throwing a tantrum, put on her shoes, and continued walking with the others.
They didn't even stop to rest at noon in order to keep going.
Finally, when the moon rose above the treetops, the group arrived safely at Xinzhou Post Station.
The biting wind stung her face, and Song He'er looked at the tall building with flickering candlelight in front of her and breathed a sigh of relief.
"According to the map, after crossing this river, we'll reach Xinzhou. Mother, we've finally arrived..."
Qin Xiaoniang's eyes also reddened. She hugged her daughter and comforted her, "Finally, we don't have to live in fear anymore. Here, no matter how hungry or how hard it is... we feel at ease."
Zhang Xiue had carried Nianjie'er all the way and was now panting heavily from exhaustion. She had no mind to listen to those exclamations and was only thinking about getting to the report as soon as possible and then finding a place to rest for a while.
"We need to register and sign now, otherwise even if we get in, the court won't have a record of us and will still launch a massive manhunt. In serious cases, it could even implicate our clansmen. Let's hurry in; I see there are soldiers on night watch ahead."
"Um."
After saying that, the group began to walk towards the lit area.
The night watchman saw a figure moving around and quickly came over with his sword.
"Who goes there? How dare they approach this place!"
Zhang Xiu'e shielded Nian Jie'er behind her, stepped forward, and respectfully replied, "We are prisoners being escorted to Xinzhou by the imperial court..."
The soldiers who arrived from behind held torches and shone them on the faces of the women in turn.
"Where are the soldiers who were escorting you? Why did you come on your own?"
"...On the way, we encountered landslides and mudslides, which scattered many of our people. The soldiers are also nowhere to be found, perhaps they are dead... who knows..." Zhang Xiu'e replied calmly.
Upon hearing this, the officers and soldiers scrutinized Zhang Xiu'e, staring at her with disbelief: "You mean, you came by yourselves?"
"yes."
"Ha! You've got guts. You knew there was no point in running away, so you obediently came. You should know that anyone who fails to arrive at the designated location within the time limit stipulated by the imperial court will have their entire family executed, including your maternal family."
Zhang Xiue nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, that's why we obediently did it ourselves, didn't we?"
Seeing that Zhang Xiue and the others were relatively obedient, the officers and soldiers did not make things difficult for them. They simply asked according to procedure, "Who are you from? What are your surnames and names? How many people are in your family?"
Zhang Xiu'e cleared her throat and replied slowly and deliberately, "The entire family of General Song Xiaoqi, the General Who Guards the North, and his wives are in the capital."
The soldiers holding torches opened the roster in their hands, looked at it carefully for a long time, and then raised their heads with a hint of suspicion.
"The Zhenbei General's Mansion has a total of 28 male members and 30 female members. How many people do you have?"
Qin Xiaoniang stepped forward and replied slowly, "We men and women walk separately. To be honest, we haven't seen the general and the others since the day we left the general's mansion."
“I know that. The higher-ups have already given instructions, and all the men have signed the papers. They are now in Xinzhou. But what about you women? Did you all die on the way?”
Qin Xiaoniang smiled, showing no sign of nervousness, but rather a calm demeanor.
"The mistress of the general's mansion is still there, but she has disappeared since the mudslide. As for the others, they were probably all swept away by the water... Searching for them is the court's business, not ours. Perhaps the escorting officials have already reported the deaths? Your Excellency should take a closer look."
The officers and soldiers were speechless after being refuted by this watertight argument. Although it was not easy to believe, they could not find any flaws in it either, so they could only ask them to go to the post station to sign and register.
After everyone followed the soldiers inside, a steward took out all the portraits on the general's exile list.
After checking each item carefully, they were finally allowed to sign and put their fingerprints on the document.
"Sir, what are we mainly doing here? Is there anything the imperial court will provide?" Li Qiang's wife asked.
The officers and soldiers were amused by this remark.
"Who are you? You're an invading force of the imperial court! And you expect the court to give you anything good as compensation?"
Li Qiang's wife quickly shook her head, "No, no, no, that's not what I meant. I meant, what can we do for the court? For example, farming? Mining ore? Don't we need tools for all of these?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
