Song He'er didn't want to linger in this place any longer; she just wanted to get as far away as possible, so she quickened her pace.
"Wait a minute, didn't we say last night that we were going to trade some seeds or food with those dog-headed soldiers? Even if we couldn't get much, it would be enough to tide us over for now, right?"
Song Xiaoyu stopped and took out a few copper coins from her pocket.
"The soldiers have taken all my money along the way, and now I only have this much left. I don't think I can buy anything with it."
Zhang Xiue sighed, "We earned a little money selling things on the street before, but we spent it all on quilts yesterday, so now I'm empty-handed and have no money left..."
The copper coins we exchanged in Xizhou were scattered among several people. It's the same to spend them now, but we're afraid the soldiers won't accept them.
Chun Di took out the money from her own pocket and handed it to Zhang Xiu'e. "We've been fleeing all the way through the snowy mountains, and this is all we have left. Everyone still has some, right? Let's pool our money together."
As soon as he finished speaking, the others gathered all the loose copper coins they had and gave them to Zhang Xiue.
"This...you're giving it all to me? I'm going to go alone?"
Zhang Xiue stared with her round eyes and looked around.
After thinking for a while, Song He'er stepped forward and replied, "Third Aunt, you have a bad temper. I'll go with you. With me by your side to keep you in check, you won't get into a fight with those soldiers."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Xiue laughed, "I'm not that short-tempered. Forget it, you're still young, you should stay with your stepmother. I can go by myself. Let your third uncle stay here to help take care of the child."
Song Xiaoyu was a man who doted on his wife. Seeing Zhang Xiue facing the soldiers alone, he was naturally unwilling, so he said, "He'er, stay here. I'll go with your third aunt."
"No need, why send so many people! Nian-jie needs someone to take care of her, right?"
"Just let Chunrao keep an eye on things. I don't feel comfortable letting you go alone, and besides, the road isn't clean..."
Speaking of uncleanliness, Song He'er was indeed a little scared. How could there be so many dead people along the way? This place was almost like a mass grave.
"Third Aunt, why don't you let Third Uncle go with you? Nian'er isn't very young anymore, it's enough for us to keep an eye on her. Third Uncle is a man, so he's naturally braver. If you see anything unclean on the way, you'll be safer with him by your side."
After listening to Song He'er's advice, Zhang Xiu'e sighed and nodded in agreement.
"Then the two of us will go. You two just keep walking a little further ahead and wait for us in a clean place."
"Okay, I understand."
As soon as she finished speaking, Zhang Xiue and Song Xiaoyu left together.
Song He'er looked at the well-behaved Nian'er, patted her forehead, and asked, "Is Nian'er hungry?"
"Um... Fifth Sister, I didn't eat enough last night..."
Song He'er thought about it carefully for a long time. It was not a good idea to let everyone continue to go hungry like this. She had to take out something from her space. Otherwise, even if the adults could endure it, the children would starve.
Thinking of this, Song He'er stepped forward and said to Qin Xiaoniang, "Mother, I think there's another grove if we go any further. It doesn't look like the kind of trees that bear fruit, but it's very clean. Why don't we rest there for a while and then wait for Third Aunt and the others?"
Following Song He'er's gaze, Qin Xiaoniang saw that the woods ahead were indeed a good place. The smell here was really too unpleasant. If she walked up to the trees, the smell of the grass roots and tree bark could dispel the nausea in her stomach.
"Alright then, let's all go there and rest for a while."
Chunrao and Chundi usually didn't talk much and rarely offered opinions, so when they heard Qin Xiaoniang decide to go to the front to rest, they had no choice but to go with her.
"Fourth Aunt, you're not feeling well, so stay and look after the children. Once we get there, Fifth Aunt and I will go out and find something to eat. If we find any wild vegetables or something, we can fill our stomachs."
Chunrao frowned. "He'er, how could there be wild vegetables in this desolate place? Besides, I feel it's very unsafe here. We'd better not go too far."
Seeing her sister's timidity, Chun Di complained irritably, "Sister, why do you always think about things that haven't happened yet? We don't have anything to fill our stomachs right now. If we wait like this, we'll just starve to death. If we go out to find something, there's a glimmer of hope. Would you rather sit and wait to die, or go out and find food?"
Chunrao sighed and replied helplessly, "All the food we painstakingly prepared has been lost on the snow mountain. It's like a rope always breaks at its weakest point!"
"Alright, sister, you just focus on helping your mother and third sister-in-law look after the children. He'er and I will take care of them. As for Madam Tian, you and Li Qiang should take good care of your own children..."
Currently, only Song Xiaoyu and Li Qiang are men in the team, and no one has seen the steward Su Yu yet.
As Song He'er walked, she asked Li Qiang, "Steward Li, why didn't Steward Su come to see us? Is he with the General?"
Upon hearing this, Li Qiang lowered his head, as if he had something difficult to say.
Seeing his hesitant manner, Li Qiang's wife became anxious and punched him in the chest, asking, "A man shouldn't be so hesitant; just say what you have to say!"
"Why did you hit me? Just say it! Su Yu is missing. Like Madam, she disappeared on the way, on the snowy mountain!"
Missing on the snow-capped mountains?
Song He'er suddenly thought of the corpse, the male corpse that had been thrown down from the mountain, was it Su Yu?
Upon closer examination, this conjecture does indeed have some basis, since few people in the general's mansion resembled the body of that corpse...
As Song He'er was pondering this, Li Qiang's wife suddenly screamed, "I remember now, that night, a dead body suddenly fell down the mountain... Could it be...?"
Qin Xiaoniang immediately interrupted her, "Alright, stop talking. Madam Zhou is staying in Xizhou now. If something happens to her husband, she should be the first person to worry, not us. We should just mind our own business."
Li Qiang became increasingly confused as he listened, and finally couldn't hold back any longer, asking, "She stayed in Xizhou!!! This is treason! Didn't those soldiers question you?"
"I did ask!"
"So what did you say?"
"Just say he might have died on the way. Leave the search to the government. Don't keep asking around, okay?" Li Qiang's wife replied irritably.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
