Chapter 958 Fleeing Famine? There's No Way to Escape (Part 5)
"Alright, alright, Grandma won't kneel. My grandson is so clever. Well, we don't have anything good to eat at home, so we can't entertain them."
"Grandma is fine. Lady Peach Fairy will definitely bestow food upon us later and will certainly not mistreat the two guards."
The Ning family's carriage continued on its way, with the eldest brother slowing down to prevent his younger brother from falling behind.
Around noon, the carriage finally stopped in a deserted village.
At this time, Ning Song also received a carriage.
The Ning family members all circled around the two carriages, exclaiming, "Good heavens! With these two carriages, our whole family can ride in one, and the speed will at least double!"
Ning Song took a large bundle of grass from the newly acquired carriage and fed it to the two horses.
The new car still had two large buckets of water he had collected that day. "Grandma, hurry up and cook a meal. After we eat, let's take a good rest. It's getting cold, and we still have to keep going."
"Alright, alright, hurry up and prepare lunch. We'll have rice today."
There was an extra bag of rice, a large piece of pork belly, three kinds of green vegetables, and a bunch of seasonings on the carriage.
"Especially Da Sun, he's worked hard today, so he should eat more. We also have two other guests, so we need to take good care of them."
So, Ning Yan finally had a meal that tasted good at noon.
White rice, stewed pork belly, and stir-fried green beans with minced meat.
Let alone the fact that everyone is now fleeing famine, even back in our hometowns we rarely get to eat such a sumptuous meal more than a few times a year.
The two guards could really eat; they ate three large bowls of rice alone.
Seeing this, Li Xin became anxious and sped up his eating, finishing a whole bowl of rice. However, he only ate two pieces of pork belly before the old lady wouldn't let him eat any more.
"Let's eat tonight after you've digested it a bit, otherwise your stomach won't be able to handle it."
Not only him, but everyone else also ate little meat. It didn't matter for the guards; you could tell at a glance that they had never been short of food.
The little guy was obedient; he was afraid his stomach wouldn't hold all the good stuff, so he obediently finished the meat in his bowl and stopped staring at the vegetables.
After lunch, the Ning family rested in this courtyard, with Jia Yi and Jia Er seemingly tireless, guarding the gate.
Ning Song slept incredibly soundly that noon.
Ning Yan was afraid that he would go crazy from walking, so she directly talked to the little escapee and gave him a strength pill and a bottle of energy potion, asking him to give them to Ning Song as a reward.
With strength, he could walk more energetically.
So, not long after setting off in the afternoon, Ning Song received a powerful pill after completing the first hundred-step task.
[Host, eat quickly. You'll have more energy to walk after you eat.]
Although their family already had two carriages, the first carriage carried people and the second carriage carried goods, so some people still had to walk.
For example, my second uncle and his two sons, Ning Bai and Ning Huai, thought the carriage was too crowded and worried about tiring the horses. They always felt they could walk, and when they got really tired, they would take turns sitting on the carriage shaft. Even so, they still arrived at the Wucheng city gate in the evening.
At this time, there were some refugees scattered around outside Wucheng City. When they saw their carriage coming, they all looked over.
But upon seeing the two armored guards, the men immediately became docile. Robbing the disaster victims was one thing, but robbing the soldiers was a capital offense.
Ning Laoda stepped forward and asked the guards, "Officer, we want to enter the city to buy some grain, but we don't know how much it will cost."
The official glanced at their carriages. "Two carriages, twenty taels of silver."
Boss Ning: "No, no, no, we'll only send one person in, drive the carriage there, and come out as soon as we've bought what we need."
"Then ten taels of silver."
Boss Ning immediately understood that the reason why these refugees were stuck at the gate was because they simply couldn't afford to go into the city.
But can they avoid going into the city?
Ning Yan stepped forward and said, "Father, let's all go in together. We can find an inn, wash up, get a good night's sleep, and leave the city early tomorrow morning. There's not much difference between ten taels and twenty taels."
Boss Ning: Good heavens, ten taels of silver is nothing to me?
Ning Yan whispered in her father's ear, "If we could fill all our water bags, we would save more than ten taels of silver."
"Okay, pay up, and we'll take both cars into the city."
Once the twenty taels of silver were paid, the city gates were opened wide, and both carriages were driven through the gates.
The refugees at the gate were restless, but the gleaming swords of the city guards made them behave.
Inside the carriage, the elderly couple did not object to their eldest son's decision. With the Peach Fairy Goddess protecting them, what were they afraid of?
Wucheng is already close to the south, and the situation in the city is indeed better than the towns we passed through before, which is why the guards at the city gate charge such an expensive entrance fee.
After a carriage journey of more than fifteen minutes, we finally saw an inn.
The carriage stopped in front of the inn, and the waiter immediately came out to greet us, "Honored guest, please come in."
"Are there any rooms available? Is there a shower? Is there food?"
"Yes, yes, we have everything. Our establishment has water and upstairs rooms, so you can take a shower and eat."
"There are twenty of us. We need one large dormitory room, six regular rooms, plus showers, meals, and accommodation. How much would that cost for one night?"
The waiter calculated the bill very quickly: "A regular room is 200 coins a night, a dormitory room is 180 coins a night, plus bathing and meals, the total is 21.380 coins, not including breakfast tomorrow morning."
Ning Laoda gasped. Is taking a bath really this expensive?
"Then let's have two large shared rooms." Every little bit helps. Two large shared rooms cost 360 coins, which would save us more than a tael of silver.
"Please don't think it's expensive, sir. Our prices are already quite reasonable. This is only because we have a well with water in it. Otherwise, this amount of silver would definitely not be enough."
"Father, let's stay here."
In the original owner's previous life, the Lu family encountered her outside the city. The wailing young master took a liking to her through the carriage window and forgot all about crying. She was then honored to be taken into the city by the Lu family and stayed at this inn.
Boss Ning gritted his teeth and said, "Fine!"
It was only because it was his daughter who spoke up; if it had been his son, he would have slapped him across the face.
Xiao Er was all smiles as he directed Ning Lao Da to drive the carriage into the backyard, and Ning Lao Er quickly followed.
After the car was parked, the room was ready.
Buckets of hot water were carried into the communal sleeping area, and the men washed together on their side while the women took turns washing on their side.
Ning Yan didn't join in their fun, mainly because she was worried the bathtub might not be clean.
Of course, she couldn't stay there, so she made an excuse to go to the lobby.
The shopkeeper thought she had come down to ask for food, so he immediately told the waiter to bring up a portion of the food prepared for the family.
Three steamed buns, a dish of pickled vegetables, and a small portion of stir-fried wood ear mushrooms.
Ning Yan hesitated for a moment but still picked up her chopsticks. To be honest, this amount was really quite a lot. Moreover, food was scarce these days, and it was already very good to have plain cornbread.
Thank you so much, Big Eyes, for the 500 Qidian Coins!
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