The child on the back seemed to feel his sister's fear and started to cry. The little guy had been hiding from his sister for the past few days and was already starving. He hadn't seen his parents for many days and started to cry without caring about anything else.
When the girl heard her brother's heart-wrenching cry behind her, she no longer cared about her sadness, and quickly took off the baby's sling, hugged her brother and started to comfort him.
Lin was pregnant at the time. Looking at the little girl holding the two or three-year-old baby in her arms, she couldn't help but feel pity for her. She hurried to the kitchen, heated up the porridge left over from the night before, and heated up a few buns in the pot.
When Li Erlang heard that the Hu people were attacking, he could no longer sit still and paced back and forth anxiously in the main room.
Li Yan looked at her anxious father and asked worriedly, "Dad, will those barbarians come to attack us?"
When the girl heard Li Yan's words, she couldn't help but shudder, hugged her brother's body, and trembled uncontrollably.
Li Erlang stopped, staring into the darkness outside and muttering, "That shouldn't happen. If the Hu people were to attack us, they would have been there in three days. They haven't attacked yet, so they must have been intercepted by the Northwest Army!"
After hearing what her father said, Li Yan asked the three siblings standing nearby, "How many days did it take you to walk from your county town to here?"
As if confirming Li Erlang's words, the girl nodded nervously. "That day, my sister and I secretly returned home and found that our parents were... gone. I was worried that the barbarians would come again, so I packed some bags and took my brothers south to seek refuge! I was a girl with two children, and we were worried about being targeted by criminals, so we hid during the day and only dared to travel at night!"
"So, do you have somewhere you want to go? And why are you here?"
The girl shook her head in embarrassment: "We have nowhere to go. I just want to run away and not run into the barbarians again!"
The girl looked at Li Yan with pleading eyes: "We have been on the run for three days and have no food left. Today we had no choice but to climb over the wall and hide in the pigsty. Miss, please be kind and give us a chance to survive!"
At this time, Lin came to the main room with food and asked the three siblings to eat first.
The three of them had been nervous for many days and were already starving. When they saw the hot food brought by Lin, the girl in the lead was so grateful that she wanted to kneel down to Lin.
Lin pulled the man back and said, "Hurry up and feed your brother. We can talk after dinner if there's anything else."
Although Li Erlang had just said that the barbarians could not attack, he was still very nervous. His wife, children and elders were here. If the barbarians attacked, what use would a weak scholar like him who could not even tie a chicken be?
Li Erlang was unsure whether County Magistrate Zheng had received the news that the Hu people had attacked Lulu County. He paced back and forth in the room anxiously.
After the three of them wolfed down their food, Li Yan stepped forward and asked, "Do you have any proof of where you're from? We can't take in people of unknown origin!"
Hearing Li Yan say this, the little girl hurriedly opened the bag she was carrying and took out the household registration from the bag: "This contains our household registration information, please take a look!"
Li Yan took the household registration information from the girl and glanced over it. It showed the girl's name was Chen Xiaocao, she was fifteen years old, and her two younger brothers were seven-year-old Chen Anan and two-year-old Chen Anan. They were from the small border town of Lulu. The registration detailed their parents' names and village, identical to the information the girl had just described.
Li Yan was not sure about the authenticity of the household registration information, so she handed it to her father standing beside her.
Li Erlang casually opened the household registration and carefully checked the information of several people based on their appearance descriptions. Then he nodded to his daughter, confirming their identities.
Life on the run was incredibly difficult, with daily hiding and fear! Finally finding a friendly-looking family, Chen Xiaocao felt like a drowning person grabbing a lifeline. She knelt down in front of them and said, "Please, please be kind and take me in for a while. I can do anything, chop wood, boil water, wash clothes, cook, anything. Please, let me stay for a while!"
Since her husband had confirmed that there was nothing wrong, Mrs. Lin couldn't bear to see the three children frozen like this. "It's freezing outside now. I'm afraid they won't last much longer. Feng'er's house is empty now. Get some hot water for them to wash up. They can stay at home tonight!"
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