Besides, they planned to take Beidi County to remove the county governor, not to fight the soldiers. So, maybe there was hope that her ineffective father would step down and that the North would no longer suffer from the Hu people.

Although all of this sounded unbelievable, Miss Shen thought it was worth a try. After all, if it weren’t for them, she would be dead by now, and Beidi County had been suffering for years. What more was there to worry about?

While she was alone in her room, Miss Shen realized she had forgotten something important.

_ 

Since they hadn’t eaten when they got up in the morning and had started discussing plans right away, Miss Shen felt overwhelmed by noon. She shyly mentioned it to Ying Yue.

When Ying Yue heard about food, she realized it was past mealtime and smiled a bit sheepishly. Ying Yue asked if Miss Shen wanted to eat dry food or something hot. Miss Shen thought that if there was rice, she could cook it herself without bothering Ying Yue.

She felt she couldn’t ask Ying Yue for help because she was the most experienced person there, and the other two—Bai Qi and Zhao Kuo—had fierce presences that intimidated her.

Later, while cooking, Miss Shen made a portion for the three of them. Since both pots were on, there was no difference in making one or four portions.

At the same time, Zhao Kuo was returning to Bianchun Mountain after dropping off some kids in Longxi County. However, his return trip wasn’t smooth. The wheel of his carriage broke when it hit a small stone.

Luckily, there were no valuables in the carriage, just some dry food. The carriage wasn’t too important, so fixing it wouldn’t be hard. Zhao Kuo looked at the sky, checked the time, then got into the broken carriage to eat before riding back.

_ 

In the afternoon, Miss Shen finally remembered what she had forgotten: the last few days of each month were when the Black Wind Village bandits were active, and they kidnapped people from various counties. This meant the Hu people were also taking people during these days.

Miss Shen hurried to tell Ying Yue about this, but it seemed she was just a step too late. After she mentioned it, Bai Qi and Jia Xu noticed a group of uninvited guests arriving at the mountain stronghold. They were Hu people from the Turkic lineage.

The Hu people shouldn’t have been able to attack the stronghold easily. However, after occupying the stronghold for a few days, they hadn’t taken any defensive measures. The first day they captured the village was dark, so the group had gone to rest.

The next day, Bai Qi went to find a topographic map to plan defenses, but Ying Yue, Zhao Kuo, and Jia Xu discovered a secret room in the warehouse where people were hidden.

After Bai Qi was informed and heard Miss Shen’s idea about Beidi County, things changed. They had no defenses in the stronghold, so Bai Qi and Zhao Kuo stayed in a room near Ying Yue to protect her if something unexpected happened.

Thus, the sudden appearance of Hu people wasn’t entirely surprising. For them, the Hu people were just experience points handed to them.

Around a dozen armed Hu people arrived, looking fierce. The leader, perhaps unlucky, spotted Bai Qi first and angrily questioned him. 

“Don’t you remember the date was yesterday? Where are the two-legged sheep?” he shouted. “Do you think you’re strong enough now and don’t need us anymore?”

The man then glanced around and noticed Ying Yue, unable to take his eyes off her. His gaze changed, and he looked at her lustfully. “Oh, where did this beauty come from? I’ve never seen anyone like her!”

This made Ying Yue uncomfortable and reminded her of unpleasant experiences with King Rui in the palace. Then the Hu man saw Miss Shen and leered at her. “She isn’t bad either; she must taste good,” he said, turning back to Bai Qi and scolding him again.

“I don’t know where your boss went. Forget it. I don’t want to see his serious face. Since you’re new to Black Wind Village and don’t know the rules, I’ll teach you today.” He rested his weapon on his shoulder. “Any beautiful women must be sent to us first. After we choose, you can have the rest. The tender ones should also be selected by us first. Right, brothers?”

“Yes!” the group of Hu people behind him shouted.

The leader then looked at Bai Qi again. “So, do you understand? If you do, let these two women out quickly! Otherwise, I’ll chop you down!”

In response, a serious young man raised his hand and pulled out a long knife he had sharpened all morning. The blade glimmered, and blood splattered.

In an instant, all the Hu people had deep red marks on their necks.

Bai Qi didn’t want to scare Ying Yue, so he chose to cut their throats instead of beheading them.

Bai Qi hoped these barbarians would give him useful information, but their words were nonsense, polluting the little girl’s ears for no reason.

“Ah…” Miss Shen was startled. After screaming, she quickly covered her mouth.

Ying Yue, who had seen Bai Qi covered in blood before, was mentally prepared and accepted the scene well. 

After all, the foreign people who killed our fellow countrymen in the Central Plains weren’t worth dying for. She shouldn’t be afraid, and couldn’t be afraid.

Thinking this, Ying Yue decided to distract Miss Shen, who was panicking. She quietly opened the task panel of “The Hu people dared not go south and herd horses 1.0” to check the task progress.

At that moment, a system prompt sounded in her ears.

[Congratulations to the host for getting a chance to draw a card. Do you want to draw a card now?]

It wasn’t a good time to draw cards. Miss Shen was still here. What if the character card she drew affected her? 

So, Ying Yue rejected the system’s question for now and focused on Miss Shen. She walked to the table, poured her a glass of water, handed it to her, and asked if she was feeling okay.

After ensuring Miss Shen wasn’t too shaken, she sent her back to her room to rest and calm down.

Ying Yue completely understood Miss Shen’s feelings at this moment.

After accompanying Bai Qi to send Miss Shen back, Ying Yue and Bai Qi returned to the place the Hu people had mentioned and confirmed it was indeed the meeting room of the original group of thieves in the mountain village.

The beautiful girl looked at Bai Qi, Zhao Kuo, and Jia Xu, and asked uncertainly, “Do you want to draw a card?”

Jia Xu looked calm, portraying the image of an incompetent man who only talked nonsense. “If you want to draw a card, then go ahead.”

In their current situation, it would be better to have another general. Bai Qi’s strength was high, but more force was better. A strong fist can establish order.

Although drawing a character card seemed unlikely, considering the little girl’s luck, it wasn’t impossible.

Bai Qi simply said, “Then draw it.”

Zhao Kuo, after Ying Yue spoke, didn’t care about whether this was a guaranteed draw. He started muttering, “Draw a civil official, draw a civil official,” and then put his hands together, looking like he was praying sincerely.

While Zhao Kuo was busy muttering, Jia Xu looked at him with a deep, unfathomable gaze.

Bai Qi noticed this, but when he glanced at Jia Xu, his eyes returned to normal.

The beautiful girl didn’t know about this yet. She looked at Zhao Kuo, who was making wishes with a helpless expression. She comforted him, saying, “Okay.” She also helped him manage his expectations. “After all, there might not be a character card, so don’t expect too much.”

Then, with Zhao Kuo’s prayers, Ying Yue opened the system’s card drawing page, raised her hand, and pressed the draw button. The screen flashed, and the system’s electronic notification sounded in her ears.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for winning the SSR card: Huo Qubing, the Twin Swords of Han Wu!]

The system confirmed that its host was truly lucky.

Although this lucky host might not know much about goods…

When Zhao Kuo heard the name, he reflexively said, “Huo Qubing, is this a physician?”

“This name sounds like a compassionate physician’s name,” he added. “Qubing, what a grand name.”

After hearing Zhao Kuo, the host was led astray.

The beautiful girl nodded. “That seems to make sense.”

“Right, right?” 

Listening to Zhao Kuo, the system felt its chip was overloaded. Just from that name, he interpreted it in a flowery way. Why didn’t Zhao Kuo do modern reading comprehension?

Another person who thinks like the system is Jia Xu.

At this moment, Jia Xu felt a big gap in time between himself, who lived from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Three Kingdoms, and his two colleagues from the Warring States Period.