The next day, before dawn, the officers roughly woke up the group of people with whips.
"Get up and get going, everyone hurry up."
Pei Yao rubbed her eyes, still half asleep. She hadn't slept well that night; it was quite a challenge to sleep by the roadside for the first time.
I spent the whole night swatting mosquitoes...
Swatting mosquitoes...
Swatting mosquitoes!!!
She hates mosquitoes!
After traveling for half a day, the group finally arrived at Shangtang County in Lingnan. The officials led them to the county government office to register their household registration. Then they split into two groups: one group of adult men went to work at the salt fields, while the other group of the elderly, women, and children went to various fishing villages to reclaim wasteland.
Parting is always filled with sadness, especially for those who have gone through countless hardships and barely survived.
Everyone was saying goodbye to their families, hoping that they could reunite after the work ended in five years. Even the usually taciturn Pei Erlang held his wife and daughter and shed tears: "Yunniang, I will be gone for five years. You must take care of yourself. Yao'er was injured a few days ago, and Xuan'er is still young. How can I not worry about her?"
After saying that, Pei Erlang hugged Pei Yao and Pei Xuan tightly.
"Yao'er, Xuan'er, wait for your father to come back." Pei Erlang's deep reluctance to part with his daughter, whom he had lost and then found again, was all contained in this one sentence.
However, the officers had no sympathy for them and did not give them much time to cry and say goodbye; they were only thinking about completing their mission as soon as possible.
After all, they've seen this kind of scene far too many times.
You can't pity someone forever.
Pei Dalang and Pei Erlang were sent to work at the salt field. The Pei family, along with the other two families, the Shen family and the Liu family, were taken to a small fishing village called Liangshuijing.
This small fishing village is very remote. It takes two hours (four hours) to walk to the nearest town, and that's for locals who are fast on their feet. For people like Pei Yao and her group, it would probably take three hours or more, and the winding mountain roads are very difficult to walk on.
The officials were unwilling to take this section of mountain road, so local villagers came to pick them up.
Because the village was too remote and the mountain roads were difficult to travel, most of the villagers with some money moved away, leaving only two or three fishing families who were reluctant to leave.
When the group arrived at Liangshui Well fishing village, everyone exuded a sense of fear and unease.
After all, they were all women and children. Although they hadn't lived as royalty before, they were still from wealthy families with several maids serving them. Now, having to live in this remote fishing village, they felt that the court was forcing them to die in a roundabout way.
Compared to the others' needless worries, Pei Yao felt much more at ease. At least the village looked beautiful, and she even saw plenty of wild vegetables along the way! These were a must-have for time-traveling farm girls throughout history.
We won't starve.
Who knows, it might even make you rich!
Pei Yao remained optimistic, after all, nothing was more bitter than exile.
She had seen it on short videos in her previous life. Lingnan is the modern-day Guangdong and Guangxi region. The climate here is almost summer all year round, unlike her previous city where the four seasons were distinct and the winters were freezing cold with snow.
For someone like her who is afraid of the cold, she still longs for the weather in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions.
However, the villagers who were leading the way soon shattered her illusions.
Villager Uncle Niu glanced at the group of people in front of him, dressed in tattered clothes and looking quite disheveled, and explained: "It's summer in the fishing village now, and it's still very hot. Spring, summer, and autumn are all about the same temperature here, so there's not much difference. But in a few months, it will be winter. The wind will be strong and it will be quite cold by the sea then, so it won't be good to go beachcombing anymore. Therefore, everyone should try to store up as much food as possible while it's still hot so that we can eat it in the winter."
Pei Yao looked bewildered. Winter? It'll still be cold? It seems her beautiful fantasy of eternal spring has been shattered.
After all that effort, I'm still going to freeze...
The others also wore bewildered expressions, but their thoughts were: since they didn't know where the food would come from, they should stockpile more grain.
Chunlin, the second daughter-in-law of the Liu family, asked, "Uncle Niu, could you please tell us how we can find food?"
Chunlin's question struck a chord with everyone, as they were worried about what to do in the days to come.
Uncle Niu was a kind old man. Seeing that they didn't know anything, he couldn't bear to see them go hungry, so he said, "The village is surrounded by mountains. You can go up the mountain to dig wild vegetables to fill your stomach."
After thinking for a moment, he added, "If you're craving meat, you can take the path at the end of the village and walk for half an hour to reach the beach. There are plenty of clams and oysters to eat on the beach."
When everyone heard that there were wild vegetables to dig, their eyes lit up with joy. What they didn't expect was that they could also eat meat. Suddenly, a glimmer of hope ignited in everyone's eyes.
They haven't had a single bite of meat since they were exiled five months ago!
The wild vegetables Uncle Niu Er mentioned, what are clams and oysters? What do they look like?
Shen's daughter-in-law, Qiaohui, timidly asked, "When I was at home, I read a book called 'A Small Account of Fishermen's Life.' It recorded some of the daily life of fishermen going out to sea, but I'm afraid it would be very difficult to do in practice. I wonder if Uncle Niu could take us there tomorrow so that we can learn from his experience."
Qiaohui spoke with genuine emotion; she was truly craving meat.
Uncle Niu was pleased to hear this and couldn't help but feel smug.
See? So what if they're from Kyoto? In the end, they still have to rely on an old man from the countryside to teach them how to eat.
Uncle Niu Er felt his back straighten up a bit.
Before leaving, he told them: "The tide will recede at dawn tomorrow. I'll be waiting for you all at the end of the village."
Everyone was very grateful, especially Qiaohui, a woman from a large mansion who was timid by nature and had an eight-year-old son to support. She really didn't know how to live.
She had never dug up any wild vegetables, although she had seen pictures of many wild vegetables in several wild vegetable diaries. But since she had never actually tried it, she was still unsure.
There are many empty houses left behind by villagers when they moved away, so there is no shortage of people to live in. Uncle Niu found a few houses that no one wanted and let them choose.
This group of people were all exiled together, and they inevitably took care of each other during their exile. Now they are somewhat familiar with each other.
The Shen family was small, consisting of just one woman and one little boy, and they chose a smaller house. The Liu family, on the other hand, had more members, including three women and two children, a boy and a girl, and they chose a slightly larger house.
The houses that everyone chose were not far apart, thinking that since they were all exiled, they should live close by so that they could take care of each other if anything happened.
The Pei family's house is located at the end of the village. The Pei family has the largest population, so they chose a large stone house with a yard. Although the house is old, it looks very sturdy.
There are five rooms in a row. The largest one on the far left is the kitchen. Chen Fang has one room, Yunniang and Pei Xuan have one room, Pei Yichen has one room, and Pei Yao has one room.
Everyone is very satisfied with the house.
The long journey had exhausted everyone, and as soon as they entered the courtyard, they sat down on the ground against the wall without any regard for appearances.
Take a break and slow down.
They no longer cared about the rigid rules and regulations of those old mansions.
This is what they learned during their exile. They had endured wind and sun all day, and the hardships of the journey had made pride and ladylike image worthless to them. It was much more pleasant and satisfying to be able to sit down on the ground after walking ten miles.
After resting for a while, Chen Fang and Yun Niang went inside to tidy up and check if there were any things left behind.
Pei Yao stood in the courtyard, looking around. The courtyard was a large open space, but because no one had lived there for a long time, it was overgrown with weeds. There was a small well in the corner, and Pei Yao went over to take a look.
Great, there's still water. Now we won't have a problem getting water.
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