Chapter 069 The Misery of the Refugees
Shen Ning fell silent instantly.
After a pause, she said, "Let's go and have a look."
Yuan Yue seemed to have guessed it, and without objecting, she bowed and said, "Yes."
The village was not far from the canning village, and it took less than half an incense stick of time to get there after getting on the carriage.
The village is not small, but it is very dilapidated. Most of the houses are simple adobe and thatched houses. As dusk falls and it is dinner time, there is only a few smoke rising from the houses in the village.
There were some people huddled beside a pile of rocks at the entrance of the village. They were pale and thin, with numb expressions. When they saw a carriage coming towards the village, they sat up one after another and stared at it.
The carriage was followed by guards, who did not dare to step forward. Shen Ning vaguely heard someone whispering, "My lord, give me something to eat."
Yuanyue drove the cart all the way to the house where the peach peels were stolen and turned around: "Miss, this is the house."
Shen Ning lifted the curtain of the car and saw a dilapidated and simple thatched house.
Since coming to this world, the most difficult days for Chen Ning were the first few days in the yard left by Zhao Mu. However, in fact, Qingyuan Village was already a relatively wealthy village because it was close to mountains and rivers and the land was fertile.
Most of the people in this village are refugees from other places who have drifted here. They have no land and no money to settle in the city. After paying rent to the farmers' land all year round, there is very little left, or they can only sell themselves into slavery.
Chen Ning had vaguely heard that the slavery in the Daxuan Dynasty was worse than that of animals. Ordinary families, as long as they could barely survive, no one would be willing to be someone else's livestock.
The refugees found a place to settle down, and as the number grew, it became a notoriously poor village known far and wide. People called it the Refugee Village.
They relied on helping farmers work during the busy farming season to exchange for some food, or working as a handyman on weekdays to earn a few copper coins, barely making ends meet for their family.
In order to maintain stability, Chen Ning had not allowed anyone to recruit refugees from the village before. Because the population was too mixed, it was difficult to manage and prone to problems, so no one came here.
This was the first time she saw refugees up close...
In recent months, several states have been hit by drought, resulting in poor harvests and more refugees than in previous years.
Shen Ning got out of the car and walked calmly to the wooden door made of broken planks. She saw through the window, which had only a wooden frame for ventilation, that in the dark room, a skinny woman with a pale face was boiling peach peels in a pot.
The clothes she was wearing did not fit her well, and seemed to have been altered from men's clothes. She was wearing black straw sandals that exposed her toes.
An old man was lying on the bed, and two little children, a boy and a girl, were waiting by the stove. They looked to be four or five years old, their clothes were ragged and dirty, but their little faces were clean.
Shen Ning could even think that it was not because they didn't wash clothes, but because after washing their clothes, they would have nothing else to wear.
The two children looked at the pot on the stove with big eyes full of joy, swallowing silently.
The peach peels dumped in the garbage dump were the food they looked forward to the most. This was their dinner... the soup made from the peach peels they had risked their lives to steal from the canning farm.
"Mom, are you ready? I'm hungry."
"Be good, it will be ready soon." The woman's thin hands stirred carefully.
Shen Ning looked at the situation inside and felt as if her heart had also been immersed in the soup made from the peach peels... sour and astringent.
At this moment, a child suddenly saw Shen Ning outside the window, and she stretched out her hand: "Mom, there is someone outside!"
The woman was already feeling uneasy. When she suddenly turned around and saw the people outside, her expression immediately changed.
She opened the door tremblingly, and when she saw the carriage and guards outside the house, she fell to her knees.
She had seen this carriage before when she stole peach peels. It was from the canning factory.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We didn't steal on purpose. We just couldn't afford to eat and our child was crying from hunger. Please spare us..."
Shen Ning immediately helped the man up: "Don't eat the peach peel then."
The woman sobbed, "Okay, no, no, I won't eat anymore. Please spare us."
Shen Ning stretched out her hand, and Yuan Yue handed over a bag of steamed buns she had brought from the farm. Shen Ning handed the buns to the woman and said, "Let the children fill their stomachs first."
The woman looked at the steamed bun sticking out of her pocket, and was suddenly shocked. She looked up at Chen Ning in disbelief...
Just as Shen Ning's carriage stopped outside this family's house, in a slightly larger house not far away opposite, a group of people were gathered around a table, looking at the situation outside through the window.
"Widow Zhou went to the canning farm and stole some peach peels to boil water for her child. Now the people from the farm are chasing her."
"You damn rich, heartless bastard, you wouldn't even let go of a rotten peach peel?"
"Just kill these bastards!"
Several strong men looked at the man at the table with ferocious and angry faces: "Boss, kill them."
"Yes, kill this woman!"
At this moment, a laughing voice sounded: "Okay, go ahead... Did you see the two guards beside her?"
The person who spoke was a woman wearing a red long dress, with long hair draped over her shoulders and a flower pinned to her ear. She had charming eyes and was playing with the ends of her hair in her hands slowly.
There was a word tattooed on her left cheek: Slave.
Someone scoffed: "We don't even care about those dozen guards, let alone two young boys!"
The tattoo on the woman's face was still stained with blood, which was shocking, but she seemed completely oblivious and smiled seductively: "Yes, two young men, if you go there, it will be a good opportunity to sharpen their knives."
The aggressive men were stunned for a moment, one of them said in disbelief: "The second in command said that those two guys are very powerful?"
The woman snorted and said nothing more.
At this time, the leading man said solemnly, "Things are getting tense lately. The Xinzhou Army must have secretly appointed a new leader... They've been unusually alert lately, so please don't meddle in other people's business."
The others immediately clasped their fists and said, "Yes."
The woman in red walked to the window and looked outside. Suddenly, she chuckled, "This girl is quite good-looking. Why don't I take her back and use her as entertainment for Big Brother?"
The masked man looked up and warned, "Don't meddle in other people's business."
The woman in red chuckled. "I'm just kidding... these black-hearted rich people..."
The woman in red had just said half of her words when she saw the widow who was kneeling and begging for mercy being helped up. Then, she saw the rich woman handing over a package.
It's edible.
"Huh?"
The woman in red chuckled: "This one doesn't seem so evil and rotten. I'll go take a look."
The masked man stopped him in a deep voice: "Mu Yao..."
However, the woman in red had already walked out without looking back.
Shen Ning handed over a bag of food, and the woman took it tremblingly, her eyes full of disbelief: "My dear, what are you doing..."
"Fill the children's stomachs first."
Shen Ning soothed in a gentle voice: “Don’t be afraid, it’s useless to pour out the peach peel. I’m not here to take anyone away.”
The woman burst into tears and kept thanking them. She turned around and took out a steamed bun from her cloth bag. She broke it in half and gave half to each child. After hesitating for a moment, she took out the second one and said, "Give this to grandma."
After saying that, the woman quickly handed the cloth bag to Shen Ning with both hands: "My dear, your..."
Shen Ning waved her hand: "This is for you."
At this time, some of the villagers who had just gathered began to shout: "Give us something to eat too."
Someone actually knelt down and said, "Female Bodhisattva, please give me something to eat. I haven't eaten for two days."
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