CH 200

On a muddy dirt road, Li Huowang and his group, who had returned to their normal appearance, continued on their way. It had been several days since they escaped from the town. At this moment, everyone's face was haggard. There was no way around it - if you can't eat well or dress well, this is the result.

When they arrived at a slightly flatter area, Li Huowang wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. "Let's take a break."

As soon as he said this, everyone collapsed and lay on the ground, gasping for breath.

Bai Lingmiao carefully took out the last piece of yellow cake from her arms, broke it in half, and handed it to Li Huowang. "Li Shixiong, eat something."

Li Huowang looked at her and reached out to pinch her stomach, which was flat.

This action made Bai Lingmiao feel ashamed, but she couldn't refuse.

"Don't hold back, I know you have a big appetite. Eat as much as you need. I'll figure out something else."

"I'm really not hungry. You eat it." Bai Lingmiao pushed the cake back.

This time, Li Huowang was too lazy to take it and opened the map again, looking for a way to replenish their food.

They didn't have enough food or supplies, and they needed to replenish them as soon as possible.

He had thought of robbing those bandits, but as soon as he thought of the relationship between bandits and thieves, Li Huowang dismissed the idea.

It's hard to say whether these bandits were the woman's sentries.

It was not worth it to provoke the thieves just for some food after they had just successfully escaped.

"Rob ordinary civilians?"

Li Huowang rejected this idea immediately. He would never do something as inhumane as his master Danyang Zi.

He was Li Huowang, not Danyang Zi. He wouldn't rob bandits or oppress civilians, but he still needed to get enough money and food, which was difficult to do.

Just then, Gouwa walked over with a grin on his face. He reached for the cake in Bai Lingmiao's hand, but she knocked it away.

"Bai Shijie, give it to me. Li Shixiong isn't hungry, but I am."

"No, this is all the food we have. Eat your own!"

"I already ate mine."

"Then go hungry for a few days. You won't die."

Dejected, Gouwa put his hand into his loose clothes and scratched his ribs.

He turned around and looked at the other people nearby. But this time, no one had any food, not even the most considerate Yang Xiaohai.

Gradually, his eyes fell on the women who had been rescued from the bandit stronghold.

"If I knew these women were going to be such a burden, I would have left them behind. They're just wasting our food."

Gouwa's words made the women look fearful and helpless, huddling together.

"Are you even a man? Why are you talking so much nonsense!" Chun Xiaoman couldn't stand it.

"I'm just saying what I think. What's wrong with that?""Don't... don't leave me! I'm useful, I know where there's food, it's not far from here, I can take you there."

This statement drew everyone's attention to the group of women.

The speaker was a woman with a big mouth. She obviously didn't rely solely on her mouth to survive if she had been robbed by bandits.

Seeing everyone looking over, the woman anxiously lowered her head.

"Is what you said true? Can you really get food?" Li Huowang walked over and stood in front of her, asking.

He suddenly realized that he had just been overthinking things. With this group of locals from the Later Shu Dynasty to guide them, what use was a map?

"Well... there's a village nearby... my fourth aunt has fields there... I can borrow some..." The woman said.

Li Huowang looked at the map again and found that it wasn't marked.

"Hehe... there are too many small villages and hamlets, I can't mark them all." Jinshan Zhao walked over awkwardly and explained.

"Brother, if you don't understand, you don't understand. Why pretend? How much trouble have you caused me?" Lv Zhuangyuan's teasing made Jinshan Zhao blush. "Big brother, I'm not lying. Do you know how many places like this there are in the Later Shu?"

"Enough talking, we don't have time. Let's go take a look first. You lead us to your fourth aunt's house," Li Huowang said decisively, making everyone who was still resting stand up.

Then, the group followed the woman with a big mouth and walked towards a stone mountain in the distance.

When they arrived at the foot of the barren stone mountain, the woman didn't stop and led the group to climb up the lonely mountain.

At first, there was still a path, but later on, there was no path, and they had to use all four limbs to climb up.

Several times, Li Huowang thought the woman was tricking him. This place didn't look like there was a village here.

But after a lot of effort, when they climbed to the top of the mountain, a picturesque scene appeared before his eyes.

This was a flat-topped mountain, and there was actually a village on top of it.

More importantly, he saw large swathes of green fields, which were rare in the poor Later Shu Dynasty.

"Who's crazy... who's got nothing better to do? They actually built a village here, it's exhausting." Gouwa complained, rubbing his sore legs.

"I guess, maybe to avoid excessive taxes and corvée labor, or to avoid conscription. It's nothing more than these few reasons," Jinshan Zhao guessed.

"Ah, when you think about it, the people in this world are really suffering. There's so much work to be done," Lv Zhuangyuan said, gaining a cheap sense of satisfaction from comparing himself to those worse off.

While they were talking, Li Huowang had already asked the woman with the big mouth about the location of her fourth aunt's house and was walking towards it.

It looked peaceful here, and every house was clean and bright.Everything outside has no influence on here at all. It's like a real paradise.

"Senior Li, our village is similar to this. Although there are fewer people, they are all good people."

Find the original at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

Seeing everything in front of her, Bai Lingmiao remembered something and a hint of joy appeared on her face.

"After settling down, it seems like a good choice to live here with other people like this." Li Huowang thought to himself.

His keen perception allowed him to hear the sound inside the house.

A large group of people from outside the village walked into the village, which must have attracted the attention of the villagers.

But as the big-mouthed woman accurately said the name of her fourth aunt, their hostility decreased a lot.

They thought everything was starting to develop in a good direction, but when they heard that their distant relatives came to borrow grain and that family didn't even open the door for them, they became irritated.

The big-mouthed woman stood at the closed door with two door gods and looked at the others anxiously.

Tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes as she choked out, "I...I really...don't know...don't leave me...I have nowhere to go..."

The others standing still became restless and annoyed. If there was no more food, they would have to go hungry.