Chapter 28 – Past Life: One Tragedy After Another

Early the next morning, Madam Chen got up to prepare breakfast for her parents-in-law.

The family usually only ate two meals a day, but to help the elderly recover, she made a separate breakfast for them.

However, she found that the rice in the cupboard was gone.
Which wretched soul did this? They even stole the compensation grain from a fallen soldier’s family!

Panicked, she rushed to wake the second branch (her husband’s younger brother’s family) to chase down the thief. But as soon as she knocked on the door, it swung open.

Seeing the empty room inside, she instantly understood.

Madam Chen’s vision darkened, and she couldn’t believe it.

Even if Wu Erlang (her brother-in-law) had no regard for his sister-in-law and niece and nephew, he should’ve at least considered his own parents!

Still holding onto a shred of hope, she ran to the village entrance and looked around. She asked a few old men who had been chatting there early in the morning—none of them had seen Wu Erlang’s family.

That meant they must have left in the middle of the night. How could she possibly catch up?

Madam Chen turned pale. Her health hadn’t been good to begin with, and now this devastating blow was the final straw.

Even so, she managed to stay rational—this couldn’t be revealed to the elderly couple.

Back home, she sat on a stool, her legs trembling, and called her daughter over to whisper instructions.

Wu Daling bit her lip, hesitant to speak, but eventually went to the house next door.

After stammering through her explanation, Lady Song (Song Niangzi) felt suspicious but didn’t press for details. She gave her five jin of rice.

It wasn’t until Madam Chen regained some strength and went next door herself that she learned Wu Erlang’s family had taken the food and run off.

Without hesitation, Lady Song went to the kitchen and gave her half of her household’s remaining grain. Madam Chen was so moved she dropped to her knees on the spot.

Lady Song didn’t dare accept the gesture and quickly helped her up.

“Eldest Sister-in-law, what are you doing? Right now, our two families need to look out for each other. Besides, Mother treats me like her own daughter.”

That made Madam Chen cry again.

She was still the same timid and soft-spoken woman as before—it was only for her family’s sake that she had forced herself to act strong.

In the days that followed, Madam Chen pretended everything was normal. But a lie doesn’t stay hidden forever.

Old Madam Ge (Mother-in-law) was bedridden, and Wu Erlang and his wife never visited her. But Old Master Wu often went out.

Once or twice, Madam Chen could cover for them. But after several days with no sign of the second branch at all, it became obvious.

Old Master Wu stormed into their room and kicked the door open. Nothing much seemed missing, but a thin layer of dust had already settled on the table.

“Old Wu… this… this is a sin…!” he roared before suddenly collapsing.

“Father!”
“Grandpa!”

Old Master Wu had suffered a fatal stroke from the anger and grief.

Old Madam Ge heard the commotion outside and tried desperately to drag herself off the bed. But she fell headfirst to the ground and suffocated to death on the spot.

Before Madam Chen and her children had even recovered from the shock of Old Master Wu’s death, they discovered Old Madam Ge had also passed.
It felt like the sky had collapsed.

In just one month, the Wu family held three funerals in succession.

Times were hard. There was no money for proper ceremonies—they used a few jin of rice to ask the villagers to make two simple wooden coffins. The bodies were carried up the mountain and buried next to Wu Dayuan’s memorial grave.

After returning home, Madam Chen fell severely ill and never recovered.

Watching the young Lady Song, who came over often to chat with her after she became bedridden, Madam Chen opened her lips to speak—but in the end, she never said the words: “Please take care of my children.”

She knew her time was near. What she couldn’t let go of were her two children.

But Lady Song was still young. Perhaps she could remarry with the children. Madam Chen didn’t want to burden her.

Before her death, she called her son and daughter to her bedside. With eyes full of sorrow and guilt, she looked at them.

She murmured instructions about what to do after she passed, told the siblings to take care of each other, and asked them to seek help from the house next door. There were many things she hadn’t finished saying, but—

After a gut-wrenching wail, Madam Chen’s consciousness faded away.

After helping handle the funeral, Lady Song saw the two children weeping until they could barely breathe. She didn’t say much—just told them to pack their things and move in with her.

When Wu Sanlang’s in-laws came for the funeral, it was suggested that the two children go live with their third uncle.

But after thinking it through, Lady Song decided against it.

It wasn’t that the Qi family refused—but Wu Sanlang was a live-in son-in-law, and now that he wasn’t even home, the situation was awkward.

Besides, leaving the two children alone wasn’t safe. The girl, Wu Daling, was fourteen—at a delicate age. It would be far too dangerous.

So she had them move in.

Realistically speaking, apart from Lady Song, the rest of them were children, so there was no immediate worry about running out of food.
Lady Song occasionally went out to trade for supplies.

But after over a month, news spread that Qizhou had been surrounded by imperial troops.

Unlike before, where they guarded the borders voluntarily, this time it was a forced defense.

Two months later came another alarming report: General Jiang had broken through the weaker defenses at Jutang Pass and marched into Qizhou.

The news threw everyone into panic. Society descended into chaos, like a last, desperate carnival before death.

The only silver lining was that commoners were now free to leave Qizhou. No one was stopping them.

In the village, more people starved to death. Others took advantage of the chaos to flee. Bands of vagrants roamed the countryside, committing all kinds of crimes.

Lady Song shut her doors tightly every day, listening to the growing unrest outside and staring at the dwindling food reserves in the house. She made up her mind.

They had to escape. That was the only way to survive.

Their tile-roofed brick house had once been a source of pride—but now it was a death sentence. If the people outside decided to rob, her home would be the first target.

But with only women and children in the house, fleeing like this was impossible.
She took He Yanxin’s old clothes and quickly resized them for herself and Wu Daling.

She gently stroked the fabric, buried her face in it, took a deep breath, and silently wept.

He Yanxin didn’t have many clothes left. One set had been buried with his memorial tomb—this was all that remained. Still, she forced herself to tear and soil the garments to make them look filthy and ragged.

Honestly, their figures didn’t resemble men at all—but there was no other choice.

She cooked the remaining six jin of rice into roasted grains and had everyone hide some in their clothes. She also smeared mud and ash on everyone’s faces and hands.

Then, she and Wu Daling each carried the younger children—He Chengze and Song Chengsi—and the five of them slipped out of the village under the cover of night.

She hadn’t told a single soul in the village.

After all, when others left, no one thought to take them along either.

In fact, the He and Wu families had always lived on the edge of the village. Their ties with the rest of the villagers had never been close.

They had only settled in Anshan Village a few decades ago during wartime. Compared to families that had lived there for generations, they were outsiders.

Though they got along fine day-to-day, when it really came down to it, no one would help them.

Especially her—an orphaned girl married far from home, with no support. With He Yanxin gone, she had no backing.

So she told no one.

What she didn’t know was that just three days after they left, the He family home was ransacked.

Driven mad by hunger, some villagers led groups of vagrants to storm the house.

At the brink of death, human cruelty reached its peak. Some came for food. Others came for Lady Song and Wu Daling.

Finding the house empty, the furious mob vented their rage by smashing and looting everything.

In modern terms, Lady Song was directionally challenged. The Wu siblings had only ever been to town once or twice.

Originally, they planned to visit Wu Sanlang’s in-laws in the county and travel with them. But somewhere along the way, they took the wrong path.

Afraid to ask anyone for directions, they deliberately avoided other people.

It wasn’t until two days later that they realized they’d gone the wrong way. But by then, they had no idea how to turn back, so they could only continue forward.

Fortunately, their skinny, weak appearance didn’t attract much interest from others, and they remained unharmed.

Eventually, they encountered a refugee group of over a hundred people. After asking around, they learned that the group was heading south.

Traveling with a large group was far better than wandering blindly. A few men in the group looked especially strong, and the leader carried an aura of righteousness that made them feel safe.

Lady Song thought it over and decided to join them.