Chapter 90: Hui’an Mansion

The weather was hot at noon. They had been walking all morning without stopping.

Su Yin glanced at the scorching sun.

There was a nice tree on the official road ahead, which could provide some shade.

“Let’s take a rest in front,” she suggested.

Zhou Youcai said, “No, we’re not tired yet.”

“Yes! Let’s keep walking,” another voice chimed in.

Because of their reasonable arrangements, they could rest in the carriage for a while whenever anyone felt tired, and then switch places.

After such a cycle, they didn’t feel too tired.

“People may not be tired, but the cattle and mules need to rest,” someone reminded.

“I almost forgot,” another replied.

When they arrived at the front, they drove the cattle cart and mule cart directly to the tree, where adults and children were resting.

As soon as they sat down to rest, a family pulling a cart and an ox cart followed them and rested not far away.

There were twenty people in that family, large and small.

The two parties nodded and greeted each other from a distance.

“Uncle, keep the knife in front of you,” Su Yin instructed.

None of them asked anything, and they knew the reason just by looking at the refugees around them.

Mother Su took out a pancake and a piece of dried meat from the package and stuffed it into Su Yin’s hand.

“Mom, you eat the dried meat, and a piece of pancake is enough for me,” Su Yin said.

On one side, Mrs. Xu’s family ate one pancake. Half of a piece of cake was torn, with one half given to the mother-in-law and the other half eaten by herself and her children.

Each family also took out dry food to chew on.

In the house next door to theirs, some children saw them eating and clamored for food.

Farmers usually eat two meals a day, and there is no lunch at noon. If they are hungry, they usually rely on staying up or drinking water to fill up.

But Su Yin couldn’t.

Traveling on the road consumed a lot of energy, and there was less fuel and water in her stomach, making it easier to get hungry.

Every time she walked for an hour, her stomach would growl. By noon, she had reached her limit.

So she usually had to eat a little to keep something in her stomach so she wouldn’t panic from hunger.

Of course, the prerequisite for all this was to have resources. If there wasn’t enough food, she could still survive.

When she ate, others would eat more or less when they saw it. After all, water was precious now and couldn’t be wasted.

When the scattered refugees saw them eating, many rushed over to beg for food.

When these people saw Su Yin and the others with dazzling knives in front of them, they knew at a glance that they were not easy to mess with, and they did not dare to come forward to ask for it.

However, the family next door was not so lucky and they all rushed towards them.

Even if they tried to drive them away, they couldn’t.

When someone came to snatch the bread from the child’s hand, the man from that family immediately raised his hatchet and hoe and hit the crowd, and then drove away the beggars.

After a short rest, the group set off again.

When that family saw Su Yin and the others setting off, they immediately followed them.

Su Baozhu noticed, “Yinyin, they are following.”

Everyone was extremely vigilant now, for fear of any accidents.

Su Yin glanced at the people behind them and said, “As long as they don’t get too close to us, don’t worry about them.”

“Yeah,” they agreed.

An hour later, the family following behind was obviously a little exhausted.

“Dad, can you please slow down? I can’t walk anymore,” a girl in the team who was about thirteen or fourteen years old said.

The man driving the car did not stop, “No, slow down, we are getting further and further away from the group in front.”

“But they are going so fast, I can’t keep up,” she protested.

Not only could they not keep up, but several other young ones and the old ones were too embarrassed, and they all gritted their teeth and followed.

“What’s going on? Why can they walk so fast?”

“No. There are old people and children in their team,” someone explained.

The man in charge looked at his family members who had slowed down, and then looked at the distance between them and Su Yin’s party.

“Please bear with it a little longer,” he urged.

“Dad, why do we have to follow them?” the man’s eldest son asked.

The man driving the car said, “You didn’t see it just now. When they were eating, they just put the knife there, and no one dared to come forward.

It can be seen that these people are powerful and know some things better than us. This along the way, they must know better than us how to survive.”

“Follow them, and we can learn from them.”

“We can’t lose sight of them.”

“You all have to be patient. I think they will rest soon. Then we can rest for a while,” he reassured them.

Hearing what Dad said, the others could only grit their teeth and persist.

But they endured it until sunset, but they didn’t rest yet.

“Dad, why don’t they rest yet?” one of the children asked.

The driver was also confused.

He didn’t know why they didn’t rest yet!

But soon they thought they found the reason.

“Look, we’re at Hui’an Prefecture ahead.”

“It turns out we’re at Hui’an Prefecture.”

“They’re following Hui’an Prefecture before dark.”

“Dad, can we have a rest?” the youngest daughter asked in a childish voice.

“Well, you can rest now,” the father said.

The whole family breathed a sigh of relief.

Su Yin and his party who were walking in front also saw the towering city walls, but the tall city gates were tightly closed.

Su Yin’s eyes fell on the skinny refugees outside the city gate. These people were all ‘naked’ and had little possessions. Everyone was lying or sitting motionless.

Even if someone came, they just raised their eyelids and took a look, then ignored them. A group of people from Nanjing found a place to set up camp.

Yang Dashan and others had already begun to look for a suitable place outside the city gate, but Su Yin said, “Uncle, we are not staying here.”

“Ah?”

“Why?”

Everyone was confused.

“It will get dark soon,” Su Yin pointed out.

At that moment, several people in government uniforms began beating gongs and drums, announcing to the newly arrived refugees.

“In a quarter of an hour, someone from the rich households in the city will come to give out porridge. Each person will receive a bowl.

You can just take the bowl to the straw hut over there and queue up to receive it. No snatching. If anyone disobeys the order, I won’t be the first to spare them.”

When the newly arrived refugees heard they could receive free porridge, they were all very happy.

“It’s worth saving a little bit,” someone remarked.

There was enough for a family to have a decent meal.

The Zhang family, who were following Su Yin, were particularly excited.

“Dad, did you hear? There’s free porridge!” the eldest son exclaimed.

“Fortunately, we came with them. Otherwise, we would have missed this porridge donation,” he added joyfully.

“Let’s quickly find a bowl and line up over there. If we get there late, it will be gone,” the youngest daughter urged.

Butcher Yang and others were also thrilled about the free porridge.

“Yinyin, look at Hui’an Mansion; it’s nice. You can get free porridge here,” one of them said.

“Yes! This is much better than Yongqing County,” another agreed.

Su Yin, however, was not happy at all. Her eyes fell on those lying on the ground.

The people standing there moved slowly, while the new refugees lined up eagerly.

“I’m afraid this porridge won’t taste that good,” she thought to herself.