“Take these things and get lost quickly.”

A small cloth bag smashed in front of Gu Yundong, revealing a dozen or so shriveled small potatoes inside.

Gu Yundong leaned against a large rock behind her, her face pale and weak all over. As she lifted her head, she met the somewhat harsh face of a woman.

She finally understood her current situation—she had traversed from a post-apocalyptic world of roaming corpses to the Great Jin Dynasty, inhabiting the body of a thirteen-year-old peasant girl with the same name and surname. She had parents and siblings.

In the seventeenth year of Hongqing, due to drought, Yongning Prefecture suffered a complete crop failure, causing the people to live in dire straits. Large numbers of refugees began to migrate to nearby prefectures in search of survival. And her whole family had been on the road fleeing the famine for almost half a month now.

The person in front of her, who threw the potatoes with a somewhat charitable expression, was the original owner’s step-grandmother, Madam Zhao. Standing beside her were Uncle Er and Uncle San’s families, all of them indifferent as they watched her family of four being expelled from the fleeing crowd.

Gu Yundong had no strength left in her body, partly due to hunger, and her mind was still dizzy, unable to even straighten her body a little. She shifted her gaze, ignoring Madam Zhao, and glanced over Uncle Er and Uncle San’s families who stood by coldly, finally landing on Old Man Gu sitting on the rock.

She had a step-grandmother, but a biological grandfather.

Old Man Gu felt somewhat uncomfortable under her clear gaze, cleared his throat, and sighed softly after a while, “Yundong, don’t blame us, it’s really difficult for everyone, and we don’t have much food left either. Your mother is also useless, she can’t help with anything other than eating and sleeping. This world is too chaotic, everyone can’t even take care of their own families, we really don’t have the energy to take care of you anymore. You, you’ll have to rely on yourselves. This bag of potatoes should be enough for your mother for a couple of days. After that, you’ll have to figure out on your own whether you can survive or not, it’s also up to the will of heaven.”

Gu Yundong sneered inwardly. Having survived two years in the apocalypse, she had long witnessed the cruelty of human nature. Old Man Gu’s behavior, blatantly doing evil and then finding excuses to blame it on heaven, was truly audacious. Unfortunately, she had no strength now, otherwise, why would she let him ramble on here?

She scorned. But a small figure beside her stubbornly wiped his eyes and said with a choked voice, “We have labor. My dad disappeared to divert the attention of bandits, he will come back, you, you…”

Gu Yundong knew he was the original owner’s younger brother, Gu Yunshu. He was only five years old this year but looked no more than three or four.

The original owner’s father was named Gu Dajiang. Two days ago, they encountered a group of bandits. Gu Dajiang and Uncle Er, Gu Dahe, acted as bait to divert the bandits’ attention and create an opportunity for the others to escape. Later, Gu Dahe returned, but Gu Dajiang was nowhere to be found. In everyone’s eyes, Gu Dajiang was probably killed by those bandits, with little hope of survival.

But little Gu Yunshu refused to believe it. He felt his father was still alive and would come back.

Old Man Gu didn’t want to say much more. He just waved his hand and said, “Enough, that’s it. Take care of yourselves.” After a pause, unable to bear leaving his grandson behind, he asked Gu Yunshu, “You can come with us if you want.”

Madam Zhao, standing aside, was not pleased, “Take? What take? We don’t even have enough food for ourselves. If he comes with us, he’ll have to find his own food, eat dirt…”

Before she could finish her words, Gu Yunshu had already grabbed Gu Yundong’s hand tightly, his mouth tightly shut, “I’m staying with my big sister.”

Gu Yundong instinctively wanted to pull her hand back. She wasn’t used to physical contact with people, especially in the apocalypse, where being wary of others was almost instinctual. But now she had no strength, and this little brat seemed afraid of being separated from her, holding her fingers tightly.

Because of this, Gu Yundong could clearly feel his small, trembling hand. She pursed her lips and ultimately said nothing.

Old Man Gu was irritated by Gu Yunshu’s fearful attitude and stood up somewhat annoyed, “As you wish.”

With that said, he left directly with Madam Zhao and the others.

Gu Yundong’s mother, Yang, who had been standing aside all this time, looked bewildered. She still had a bamboo basket on her back, with a three-year-old girl sleeping soundly inside. The commotion hadn’t even woken her up.

Seeing Old Man Gu’s group leaving, Yang didn’t know what to do and took a few steps to follow them. But then she hurried back, squatting beside Gu Yundong in confusion and asking, “Dongdong? Let’s go, come on…”

Yang wasn’t very bright, but she recognized people. She still hadn’t figured out why their family of four had been abandoned by the Gu family, just wondering why the Gu family didn’t wait for them.

Gu Yundong was still recovering her strength. Even speaking was laborious for her now, let alone explaining. It was Gu Yunshu who quietly reassured Yang, “Mom, big sister is tired. Let’s wait a while before we go.” Big sister had fainted earlier, which gave Grandpa and Grandma an excuse to leave them behind.

Gu Yunshu was worried. With Dad gone, big sister sick, Mom confused, and little sister weak, he was now the only male in the family. Although he was only five years old, he had to take on the responsibility of taking care of his family.

Gu Yunshu tried to straighten his small body, looking back at Gu Yundong, who had closed her eyes to rest.

At this moment, Gu Yundong was actually happy. Having survived for a year in the apocalypse, she had learned to take each day as it came. Although this place was also in turmoil, at least there were no zombies or mutated flora and fauna. After surviving the disaster, her life would gradually improve. The future here was full of hope.

As for the original owner’s family… they had given her a chance to be reborn. As long as they didn’t cause her trouble, Gu Yundong would repay them. She wouldn’t abandon them.

Just as she was thinking, she suddenly heard hurried footsteps.

She lifted her head slightly and saw Uncle Er, Gu Dahe, returning after leaving.