The adults ate roasted meat, but the baby had to be cooked separately. Song Zhuiyan took out a ceramic pot, put in a handful of rice to cook porridge. The child looked to be six or seven months old, but in fact he was already ten months old. It was said that his biological mother had died, and the one holding him now was his father's concubine.
The relationships between people in ancient times were complicated. A man might have a bunch of concubines who gave birth to a bunch of legitimate and illegitimate sons. These women might all be concubines of the same person, and the legitimate wife might have also died.
Song Zhuiyan deduced all of this from their conversation, concluding that Liu Cheng was merely a relative who had accidentally saved them.
Having only heard part of what was being said, Song Zhuiyan felt that the relationships between these people were too complicated. They tried to be wary of her and Zhong Qingyi while speaking, but unintentionally revealed some information from time to time.
Whatever, I'll part ways with these people later. It's true what they say, one wrong step can lead to eternal regret. I saved them out of kindness, and now they're clinging to me.
They didn't know who the other person was, and the other person had no intention of telling them, yet they insisted on following them, wanting their protection—it was bizarre.
Cook the porridge until it's very soft, then scoop it out and let it cool before feeding it to the baby.
After feeding these people, Song Zhuiyan thought about discussing with Zhong Qingyi about finding a chance to slip away. However, before they could even start, they heard Liu Cheng's guards making a fuss.
"Young master has developed a high fever, what should we do?"
"Young master, young master..."
The remaining three guards surrounded Liu Cheng, howling in fear, almost to the point of tears, their expressions suggesting that if anything happened to Liu Cheng, they would have no choice but to atone with their own deaths.
After thinking for a moment, Song Zhuiyan took out fever reducers from her spatial storage. They were Western medicines that Song Tantan had brought from the supermarket. They weren't ibuprofen suspension, but white pills. She had originally kept them for herself and Zhong Qingyi, just in case, but she had already put in quite a few. Giving a few to Liu Cheng wouldn't hurt.
After taking out the pills, Song Zhuiyan walked up to Liu Cheng, swiftly pried open his lips, inserted the fever reducer, and fed him a sip of water to help him swallow it.
"What did you feed the young master?" By the time the guard realized what had happened, Liu Cheng had already taken the medicine.
"Fever-reducing pills. This medicine is a secret recipe of my Song family. It is very effective. Wait and see. If it doesn't subside after an hour, give her another pill." Song Zhuiyan didn't look at the guards, but calmly looked at Liu Cheng.
In Yangcun Village below Xiangyang City, Song Tantan rested for a few days and his injuries had recovered by half. Now, apart from the wounds still hurting a little and his face being pale, he was basically fine.
Ye Moxun has also improved a lot, but he is still in poor health and his complexion is very pale. He can only sit up and cannot walk.
"You can stay home by yourself, right? I'm going out today." Song Tantan left him a lot of food, all placed on the bedside table. The room was dimly lit, and Shuanzi and his family rarely came in, except to deliver food.
There were a total of fifteen households in this village. Since Duke came here to fight with the so-called insurgents, only three households remain, all of whom are old, weak, sick and disabled.
This place is called Xia Yangchun. Its geographical location is very awkward. It is under the jurisdiction of Xiangyang City, but it is outside the city. To enter the city, you have to go through the city gate. It is very close to Xifeng. When the war was going on, as soon as Duke's people came out, they were the first to be killed. They wanted to enter Xiangyang City but couldn't.
The city gates were tightly closed, and arrows were only shot down from the city towers. Later, the rebels defeated Duke, and Duke's army did not leave Xifeng again. It had been almost a year since then. The city gates leading into Xifeng had not been opened for almost a year, and the city gates leading into Xiangyang City had also remained closed.
"This so-called rebel army seems to be a motley crew of no good. In order to survive, the leader led the refugees to rebel. Later, after occupying Xiangyang City, they started to enjoy themselves with food and drink and didn't care about anything else. In the end, it was the poor people who suffered the most."
Ye Moxun shook his head, increasingly pessimistic about the current situation.
"Based on the limited information we've gathered, we can't say for sure how chaotic things are outside. However, these three households in Xiayangchun are safe for now. People on both sides are afraid of dying, and no one dares to leave the city. Shuanzi and his family are living a relatively peaceful life, except for a lack of food," Song Tantan said meaningfully.
"You want to send them food?" Ye Moxun lowered his voice, quickly guessing what she wanted to do.
"Yes, so I have to go out for a while, at most half a day, I'll be back soon." She took out all the medicine that Ye Moxun had stored in her space.
These are all poisons. The ones I carried with me before got soaked and were no longer usable, so I threw them away long ago. Luckily, I have plenty stored in my space, enough to cause trouble. I'll keep them on Ye Moxun's person for self-defense.
"Okay, don't worry, I'll take good care of myself," Ye Moxun said, nodding as he leaned against the wooden bed.
At noon, Song Tantan returned under the scorching sun. Together with Shuanzi and his sister, they each carried a bag of grain into the house. Song Tantan carried a bag of 30-jin rice, while Shuanzi and his sister carried 40-jin sweet potatoes and 20-jin potatoes.
They were almost exhausted by this. Even though Shuanzi is twelve years old this year, he is very thin and looks less than ten years old. It took him a lot of effort to bring back forty pounds of sweet potatoes. His sister Xiaocui was the same.
Xiao Cui is ten years old this year, but looks less than eight. She brought back twenty jin of wild beans from the mountain. She fell countless times along the way, but she gritted her teeth and made it back.
"How much grain did you put out in total? You didn't put it in the cave again, did you?" Ye Moxun found it somewhat amusing.
"Otherwise, although the method is old-fashioned, it has always worked. Don't worry about these details. The key is food. Having food to eat is the right thing to do. Who cares about anything else?" Song Tan waved his hand dismissively.
She put a total of 300 catties of grain in the cave, including 100 catties of rice, 100 catties of sweet potatoes and potatoes, along with wild vegetables. It should last for two months.
Shuanzi's family consists of three people. His mother is lame in one leg because she was killed during the war with Duke's rebel army. Shuanzi's father and grandparents all died, and his mother risked her life to escape from Xifeng with him and his sister.
They are not natives of Xiayang Village. That's right, they are actually from Fengcheng. The other two families are also refugees who fled from Fengcheng. One family is a grandfather with two grandsons, and the other family is a mother with a son.
They fled to Xiayang Village in the chaos. Some of the people from Xiayang Village fled into Xiangyang City, while those who couldn't escape were killed by Duke's men.
Shuanzi and his family hid on the mountain for quite some time before coming down when things calmed down below. They then settled here and stayed for more than half a year.
At first, they were terrified, fearing that the two sides would clash and fight again. But as time went by, both sides held their city gates and neither side was willing to step out of the city. They showed no intention of fighting at all. So Shuanzi and his group settled down in peace.
Anyway, they'll just live one day at a time. If they really start fighting again someday, they'll just escape back to the mountains.
After eating wild vegetables for so long, the three families looked pale and were even staggering when they walked. They never expected to find so much food in the cave today.
After Shuanzi and his sister brought back the remaining rice, they told the other two families that there was food in the cave and that they could go and get it themselves. The rest were sweet potatoes and potatoes.
They recognized rice as a refined grain, but they had never seen sweet potatoes, corn, or potatoes before and didn't know if they were safe to eat.
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