Chapter 10: Applying Baby Cream to the Tyrant

Xiao Jingyuan sniffed the tip of his nose; it smelled fragrant, like something the women in the palace would use, but it felt a bit strange.

He didn’t quite understand how Xia Mo knew so much about the peculiar uses of Guanyin’s items.

“Have you talked to Guanyin?”

Xia Mo looked confused. “No.”

“Then how do you know how to use it?”

Uh…

“I don’t really know, hey, how do I know? It’s strange.”

Xiao Jingyuan looked at Xia Mo with a complicated expression.

In his heart, he thought: Xia Mo’s strange questions last night about kind-hearted lies probably had to do with these things.

If it wouldn’t harm him, then fine, he wouldn’t dwell on it; he didn’t have to know other people’s secrets.

After a night, they found that many more people were fleeing south on the road.

In the village ahead, a family was seen moving with their belongings.

There were old and young, dragging carts loaded with blankets, pots and pans, and even chairs?

In short, they had everything, like they were moving.

“Hey, ma’am, where are you all moving to?” Xia Mo stopped an older woman to ask.

The woman sighed, “I don’t really know; we’re just heading south.”

“Did you live in this village?”

“Yes.”

“But it doesn’t seem like there’s a famine here.”

The woman sighed again, “It’s not a famine. If it were just a famine, people would tighten their belts and endure it for a while. Do you know there’s a war? Someone from our village is serving at the border and sent news back, telling us to hurry south. They said the ruthless soldiers from Beizhou would arrive here in three days at the latest. If we don’t leave now, it’ll be too late.”

Xia Mo clicked her tongue secretly and looked over at Xiao Jingyuan.

She indeed guessed correctly; the war was coming.

He wore a serious expression, returning to his mature demeanor.

“Young man, who are you two…?”

“Oh, we came from Gubao Town, a small town near the Beizhou border. We’re fleeing the war to seek refuge with relatives in the south, having gotten separated from our parents.”

“You have relatives to rely on; that’s good. Is he your younger brother?”

Xia Mo awkwardly smiled, “Yes, he’s just really tired from the journey and isn’t used to being away from our parents, so he’s not talking. Please don’t mind him, ma’am.”

Xiao Jingyuan shot Xia Mo a glare, and she huffed back at him.

The woman understood; after all, he was still a child, and it was normal to feel uneasy being away from his parents.

Xia Mo gathered quite a bit of useful information from the woman, learning that their family planned to head toward the capital but felt lost and uncertain about whether they could even get there and what they would do afterward.

With so many refugees, it was clear that not everyone could find shelter. Their whole family was here, and if they couldn’t find a place to stay, they wouldn’t know what to do.

Not just their family, but everyone in the village felt the same way. To put it in her words, they would go as far as they could and take it one day at a time.

Listening to her, Xia Mo reassured her, “The south is different from the north. In winter, it doesn’t snow heavily and block the mountains. The forests there are rich in resources; even in winter, you can find plenty of food. You don’t necessarily have to go to the capital to make a living.”

The woman looked surprised, “Young man, have you been to the south?”

Uh…

Xia Mo noticed that Xiao Jingyuan was also looking at her.

She smiled and said, “I mentioned that my family has relatives in the south. In the Hundred Yue region, that’s the far south, where the land is vast and the population sparse. The mountains are filled with endless delicacies, and the rivers are teeming with fish.”

“Really? In the south, you can still go to the river to catch fish in winter?”

“Of course! It doesn’t snow in the south, and the water in the river is still warm in winter.”

After hearing Xia Mo’s words, the gloom on the faces of the older woman and her family lifted, filling them with hope for the future.

The woman went back to whisper to her family and soon returned to Xia Mo.

“Young man, let’s go with you. We won’t go to the capital; we’ll follow you to the Hundred Yue.”

Hmm.

“Ah?”

Xia Mo’s smile stiffened, and she instinctively turned to look at Xiao Jingyuan.

Xiao Jingyuan scoffed and turned his head away, as if he hadn’t noticed her signaling him.

His demeanor was full of mockery toward her.

“The relatives in my family don’t seem to be very wealthy,” Xia Mo could only say.

But the woman replied, “Don’t worry, young man. We won’t rely on your relatives; we’ll just follow you to the Hundred Yue and stop wherever we find a suitable place to settle down.”

Since they had said so, she could only agree to temporarily travel together.

During their rest, the woman’s two daughters-in-law got busy, setting up a pot and a stove.

The elder son unloaded the donkey from the cart and found a spot by the river to give it water.

The younger son pulled a decent-sized fish from a bucket on the cart and began to prepare it for cooking.

Their cart not only contained live fish but also had three live chickens, as they were moving along with both people and livestock.

The woman held her three-year-old grandson, sitting on a haystack and chatting casually with Xia Mo.

From their conversation, Xia Mo learned that her husband and younger son had been conscripted, and she had already been informed that her husband was no longer alive, while her younger son’s fate was unknown.

She lived with her other two sons; the elder son had married a few years ago and had a three-year-old son.

The younger son had just gotten married this year, and his wife was pregnant, looking quite far along, so she was likely to give birth soon.

She also had a little daughter, but she had already married off last year.

When the food was ready, the woman warmly invited the two “brothers” to eat together.

It had been a long time since they had hot food cooked on a proper stove; after all, instant meals couldn’t compare to food made over a fire, especially since they had given Xia Mo and Xiao Jingyuan each a steaming bowl of fish soup.

Xiao Jingyuan was injured and had been eating junk food, so drinking a bowl of fish soup would be a great supplement, so she didn’t refuse.

But she also understood that this family had just started fleeing; giving them some food now wasn’t much, but it would be difficult later on.

Not wanting to take advantage of them, she secretly filled her bag with vegetable buns, about ten in total, and gave them all to the woman.

The woman was quite surprised, knowing that it wasn’t easy for refugees, and insisted on not accepting them.

When she refused, Xia Mo wouldn’t drink their fish soup. The woman, unable to refuse her hospitality, insisted on taking six buns, which was just right for her family of six.

By the time she returned after delivering the buns, Xiao Jingyuan had already drunk half of his bowl of fish soup.

Eating convenience store food all the time wasn’t good; he needed to eat some home-cooked food.

Xia Mo hadn’t touched her bowl of fish soup yet, so she poured most of it into Xiao Jingyuan’s bowl.

Xiao Jingyuan looked at her in surprise; he found it hard to understand her.

In the half month they had been together, she had always taken advantage of every opportunity to eat and play without holding back. Why did she suddenly change now?

It seemed that ever since she sold herself that day, she had been different.

Xia Mo smiled and said, “You need to supplement your nutrition so your injuries heal faster. Stop looking at me like that and drink up.”