The next day at noon, while resting at the foot of a mountain, Zhang Xiantao, as usual, shamelessly approached Xingxing and handed her an oil paper package.
"Princess, try this. It's an egg and scallion pancake that was just fried this morning. It smells so good! The child from the farmhouse I'm staying with is so hungry for it that he's crying. I saw that the child's face was all dirty from crying with tears and snot running down his face, so I gave him a pancake to eat."
Xingxing didn't stand on ceremony and took one to eat. Zhang Xiantao was overjoyed to see the princess eat her cake, so she also picked one up, opened her mouth wide, and took a big bite.
"Yes, it does smell really good," Xingxing praised generously.
“My daughter Xiaohuan made it. She’s a great cook and can make a lot of food. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have brought her along. Xiaoyuan’s cooking isn’t as good as Xiaohuan’s, but she’s good at martial arts, so I brought her along too. In case we encounter robbers on the road, someone will be there to fight for me.” Zhang Xiantao started talking and couldn’t stop.
Xingxing blinked. Actually, her father and mother had arranged quite a few female guards for her, but because she was going to Xiyan City, she shook off all the guards not long after leaving the capital.
The Imperial Palace.
The emperor received a letter from the imperial envoy who was going to Xiyan City, telling him that he would reach Xiyan City after passing through one more county. Looking at the three words Xiyan City, the emperor suddenly remembered that the princess had said that a great disaster would befall Xiyan City and that she wanted to go to Xiyan City to provide disaster relief, but at that time he and the empress disagreed.
"That's right, the princess must have gone to Xiyan City. I only just realized it now." So the emperor immediately wrote a letter, ordering a group of secret guards to set off for Xiyan City to find the princess. After finding her, they were not to rush to persuade her to leave, but to let her stay there to help with disaster relief, according to her wishes.
At this moment, Xingxing got off the carriage, looked at the village with smoke rising from the chimneys in the distance, and breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, she had encountered a village that had not suffered from disaster. The villagers here must be doing well.
Zhang Xiantao jumped down from the carriage and ran over quickly. "Sir, there's a village here. Let's go and find a place to stay. I need to find a house next to yours to stay tonight."
Zhu Lin frowned slightly, finding this person incredibly annoying, chattering on and on. Was she a sparrow spirit in her past life, or a sparrow reincarnated in this one?
"Achoo! Who's cursing me?" Zhang Xiantao rubbed her nose and frowned.
Xiao Huan immediately chimed in, "Miss, it must be that Madam misses you."
"Don't say anything else." Zhang Xiantao covered her ears, not wanting to hear it. She was most afraid of hearing her mother say things like she was sad. Xiao Huan was a good girl in every way, except that she had a sharp tongue and always liked to say things that hurt her feelings.
The group entered the village, where children were playing and laughing, and occasionally the sounds of dogs barking and adults calling their children home for dinner could be heard.
Isn't this village too peaceful? In this world of constant natural disasters, it's truly rare to find such a tranquil village.
Zhu Qiuyu knocked on the door to ask for lodging, and Zhang Xiantao had her guards follow her. They insisted that they stay at the house next door so that they could be closer to the princess and it would be convenient to visit her at night.
Finally, they stayed overnight at the village chief's house. The village chief's house had a large yard and many rooms, so Zhang Xiantao and the others could stay there together, which made Zhang Xiantao very happy.
“Strange, why are the others unwilling to let us stay at the village chief’s house? They insist on making us come to the village chief’s house.” Zhu Qingruo whispered to Zhu Changge.
Zhu Changge also felt something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what the problem was. She hesitated and said, "Staying here isn't free; we'll be paid money. Maybe the village chief wants to charge us money?"
"Is that so?" Zhu Qingruo subtly observed the village chief's family and noticed that they were all dressed in coarse linen clothes with patches on them, indicating that they did not live a comfortable life.
That's normal, though. Farmers are lucky if they can have enough to eat and a brick house to live in. They don't have extra money to spend on clothes. The village chief's house is a brick and tile house, and it's very clean. Although it looks simple, it's quite tidy and comfortable.
“These four rooms are all empty. You can squeeze in if you want. The kitchen is over there. There’s firewood in there if you want to cook. Feel free to use it.” The village chief had a kind face, and his eyes crinkled when he smiled.
This village is called Chaimu Village. Everyone in the village has the surname Mu. According to the village chief, the villagers make a living by carpentry. Their carpenters are very skilled, and people from other villages, and even from the town and county, come to ask them to do their work. With this skill, their village has always lived a good life.
Zhu Qiuyu and the others glanced at the tables, chairs, cabinets, and other items in the room and believed the village chief's words.
Since they were staying at the same house, the two groups ate dinner together. When Zhang Xiantao saw Zhu Changge and Zhu Qingruo going to the kitchen to cook, she stopped them.
"Xiao Huan and Xiao Yuan will cook dinner tonight. I brought a lot of dried meat, so don't skimp on it for me. I'll treat you to meat porridge."
Unable to persuade her otherwise, Zhu Changge and Zhu Qingruo were happy to have some free time, so they stopped arguing. Why not accept someone cooking a meal for them?
When Xingxing heard Zhang Xiantao call her maid Xiaoyuan, she thought of her Yuanyuan. Yuanyuan had always been kept in a cloth bag. She was so well-behaved. Several months had passed since last year, and she had grown from a tiny little dumpling to a little snowball the size of a rabbit.
As it got heavier and heavier, Xingxing stopped carrying it in her cloth bag. Instead, she kept it in the carriage or inside the house. Yuanyuan was a lazybones who did nothing but eat and sleep.
Zhu Lin would take fruit from his space every day to feed Yuan Yuan. Yuan Yuan seemed to know that someone was feeding her every day, so the snowball didn't have to find food herself. She ate and slept peacefully every day without doing anything.
Except for sneaking out for a short while when he needs to poop, he sleeps the rest of the time, more like a pig than a monkey. No wonder he looks somewhat like a pig even though he is a monkey; he has the same characteristics as a pig.
Around 1 AM, a light rain began to fall outside. The village was extremely quiet; even the barking of dogs at dusk had disappeared, and only the sound of raindrops pattering on the tiles could be heard.
Suddenly, a shrill scream rang out, "Help! Help! Someone help! Murder! Murder!"
Xingxing suddenly opened her eyes. She was stunned for a moment. There was a luminous pearl on the table, so the room was very bright. She saw that Zhu Changge and Zhu Qingruo had both sat up.
"Junior sister, you stay here with Xingxing, I'm going to go check on her." Zhu Changge finished giving instructions, got dressed, and went out.
The screams woke everyone else as well. The village chief and his family rushed out of the house, frantically searching for straw hats and raincoats, saying that they were here again, making their lives miserable day after day, and they didn't know when it would end.
Zhu Qiuyu stopped the village chief and asked what was going on.
The village chief sighed heavily and said, "It's a long story. Our village seems peaceful and nothing seems to happen, but actually, a madman often appears at night in the swamp about two miles from the village."
That madman comes around every now and then to torment the villagers. He burns down houses, kills livestock, and even murders people. A couple of years ago, an old man went to the outhouse at night and was accidentally killed by that madman.
Zhu Qiuyu glanced at the boy, and Zhu Lin nodded slightly, signaling him to go and investigate whether it was really as the village chief had said.
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