Chapter 62

Chapter 62

In the middle of the night, other refugees entered the post station. Xie Licheng heard the commotion but didn't get up to check it out. He held the sleeping Gu Zhangyuan in his arms and stayed awake the rest of the night.

Those who entered the station tried pushing their door, but when they found it wouldn't give, they didn't force their way in. They went to other rooms to rest and left one by one the next morning.

Their careful behavior showed they weren't all that tough—they probably figured the folks staying here weren't worth messing with, so they just rested at the station for half the night and then took off.

Turns out, they weren't wrong at all. Xie Licheng really wasn't someone you wanted to mess with, and it was smart of them not to pick a fight with him.

After daybreak, Xie Licheng caught a bit more sleep, making sure his stamina stayed above eighty.

When he got up, they didn't hit the road right away since it was still raining out. He didn't want Gu Zhangyuan getting soaked, so the two of them hung around the station for half a day.

In the afternoon, once the rain let up, they got back on the road.

On the way, they ran into a few refugees fleeing the disaster. When they saw Xie Licheng still had food on him, a few came over looking to trade for some.

They chose to trade instead of just grabbing the food mainly because Xie Licheng was so big and intimidating—even with numbers on their side, they didn't dare try to rob him.

Xie Licheng wasn't lacking in gold or jewels at the moment, so he said, sounding pretty uninterested, "What do you want to trade with?"

The man who came over to negotiate smiled and said, "We don't have much silver left on us, just some worthless trinkets."

Hearing that, Xie Licheng didn't feel like dealing with him. He wasn't about to trade his food for junk—he wasn't that easy to fool or that soft-hearted.

Seeing Xie Licheng getting impatient, the man quickly emptied his pockets.

He said, "Hold on, don't rush. These things ain't worth much, but they're still pretty good. You might not care for them, but your husband might like them."

Hearing that, Xie Licheng finally glanced over.

The man laid out four things: a finely made little backpack, a bronze mirror the size of a palm, an oil-paper umbrella, and a bright piece of cloth.

Gu Zhangyuan had seen plenty of fine things in his day—he didn't even bother glancing at the bronze mirror or the fabric.

But out of the other three things he didn't care about, that little backpack was truly exquisite. It must've been woven by someone with real skill, and it was shaped kind of like a little rabbit.

Seeing him eyeing the backpack, Xie Licheng tossed the man two steamed buns.

The man carefully handed the backpack to Xie Licheng, then walked off happily clutching the buns.

Once she saw that Xie Licheng was a fair guy, another woman in her thirties came up.

The woman was really good at embroidery. She pulled out two embroidered handkerchiefs, hoping to swap them for some food.

Gu Zhangyuan took the handkerchiefs and looked them over, a spark of interest flashing in his pretty eyes.

He said to the woman, "Did you stitch these yourself?"

The woman nodded. "I... I used to be an embroiderer in the prefectural city. I'm pretty good with a needle."

Hearing that, Gu Zhangyuan asked excitedly, "How many people are in your family now?"

The woman didn't get what he was asking and stammered, too scared to tell him the truth. She was afraid that if they knew she was alone with a kid, they might hurt her or her son.

Gu Zhangyuan was sharp and had a pretty good idea what she was worried about.

He said, "Don't be afraid. We're not bad folks, and we're not gonna hurt you. I just wanna know your situation. If you don't have any family left, you can come along with us. We need someone who's good at embroidery, and you'd have a better life if you came with us."

The woman was half-trusting, half-wary. She stared at Gu Zhangyuan's face for a good long while before speaking up cautiously, "I... there's no one left in my family, just me and my young son."

"What about the others?"

"The others... they ran off and left us mother and son a long time ago. So yeah, you could say we don't have any family left."

Gu Zhangyuan looked over at Xie Licheng, who then said to the woman, "Go bring your child over. We'll take you both somewhere safe."

To get her to go along, Xie Licheng first handed her a piece of steamed bread.

This time, the bread was made from white flour—plump and steaming hot, looking real tasty.

The woman was still scared, but thinking about their situation, if she really could go with Xie Licheng and Gu Zhangyuan, it would be a lot safer than traveling on her own.

The woman hesitated, then went back and brought out the kid she'd been hiding.

Her kid was real young—probably only five or six.

She was just a woman on her own—how the heck had she managed to travel all this way with a kid?

Gu Zhangyuan had a soft heart. He couldn't stand seeing such a little kid suffer, so he quickly handed him a meat bun.

The kid took a bite and immediately blurted out in surprise to the woman, "Mom, this one's got meat in it! It's super, super good. Mom, you gotta try a bite."

The woman secretly swallowed her spit, then quickly refused, saying, "Mom's not hungry, and she doesn't like meat buns. You eat it, go on."

Truth was, she still didn't fully trust Gu Zhangyuan and the others, but she and her kid desperately needed someone to lean on right now.

Because people had seen her with a kid—and if those folks got hungry enough, some of them might start eating children.

In famine times, it wasn't uncommon for people to eat kids, eat women, and eat young men.

That's why she'd been so on edge these past couple days, and why she'd rushed over with her kid the moment she heard Gu Zhangyuan's offer.

It wasn't that she was naive—she just had no other choice left.

Xie Licheng said to them, "Don't be scared. Come with us to a spot away from everyone, and I'll take you somewhere real safe. Don't be afraid when you get there either."

Xie Licheng's words sounded a lot like he was trying to lure them off to some weird place.

The woman was scared and uneasy, but she was also afraid that if she said no, she wouldn't be able to protect her kid on her own.

She looked at Gu Zhangyuan with teary eyes and said, "Young master, I... I've got no choice but to trust you. Whatever you want me to do, I'm begging you—please don't hurt my child."

Seeing how scared she was, Gu Zhangyuan reached out and took her hand, saying, "Don't be scared. I promise you, neither you nor your kid will get hurt with us."

After that, following Xie Licheng's lead, they deliberately headed to a spot far away from everyone.

The woman and her kid were both terrified, shaking the whole way there.

Once there was no one else around, Xie Licheng sent them straight into Peach Blossom Village.

The villagers of Peach Blossom Village had long gotten used to Xie Licheng's habit of suddenly dropping people off in the village.

So when a strange mother and son suddenly showed up in the village, nobody thought much of it.

Xie Licheng left right after dropping them off. He didn't say much to the mother and son—the villagers would fill them in soon enough.

Sure enough, just as Xie Licheng figured, the moment he left, some villagers gathered around them.

The villagers here had plenty to eat and drink, unlike the refugees outside. The way they looked at people was gentler, unlike some of the men outside, who sized up her and her child like they were inspecting merchandise.

Moreover, among these villagers, there were more women and feminine men, which made her feel a little safer.

A woman noticed how pitiful the mother and child looked and hurried over to talk to them.

She said, "Don't be scared—this isn't a dangerous place. This place is called Peach Blossom Village, and everyone here was brought in by the Benefactor."

"Yeah, we're all just like you—the Benefactor rescued us from outside too."

"It's great here—no bandits, no crooked officials. There's plenty of fruit and game in the mountains, and you can fish in the village river."

With everyone chattering away, the mother and child quickly got the picture and gradually let go of their earlier fear and unease.

The woman asked in a low voice, "How... how did he manage to get us here all at once?"

Hearing her question, the group eagerly jumped in to explain.

...

Meanwhile, after Xie Licheng came out, he and Gu Zhangyuan kept moving.

A passerby who had seen the woman noticed that she and the child had vanished after leaving with them. One kind-hearted soul couldn't help but run over to ask what was going on.

Xie Licheng didn't want to bother with him, but Gu Zhangyuan patiently explained, "Them? We'd wanted them to come with us, but the kid wouldn't stop crying and throwing a fit, so we just went our separate ways."

The man was skeptical but didn't dare push it, so he left with his doubts.

Watching the man walk away, Gu Zhangyuan said to Xie Licheng, "That guy's pretty decent. Even if he's not a saint, he's not a bad guy either."

Xie Licheng knew what he was getting at and said, "If we get the chance later, we can bring him in as well."

Unfortunately, after that, those people stayed on high alert, and Xie Licheng never got a chance to talk to that man alone.

About two days went by like that, and then came a bright, sunny day.

A sunny summer day is scorching hot.

Gu Zhangyuan couldn't take it anymore and just took the little donkey back into the pocket world.

He went back to Peach Blossom Village. Before he'd left with Xie Licheng, he'd told Xuan Cui and the others that he'd return straight there next time. So Xuan Cui and Yuan Qiao had already come back from Peach Blossom Town to the village ahead of time.

At the farm, they spent their time either cooking or picking fruit. Since they weren't working nonstop, they didn't get too tired.

The farm had plenty of fruit trees, and Xuan Cui later discovered corn could be planted there, so she figured out how to grow it.

Xuan Cui got the idea to plant corn because some villagers came to the farm to buy corn for seeds.

A lot of the villagers were farmers. They didn't know what corn was, but they had a rough idea of how to plant it.

So quite a few people traded wild greens, wild fruit, rabbits, and pheasants for the seeds.

Xie Licheng had said the corn seeds couldn't be given away for free, but he hadn't said they had to be paid for with money.

Seeing that some brought a good amount, Xuan Cui took out some corn and traded with them.

Through those trades, she learned how to plant corn, and she and Yuan Qiao tried planting half a mu of land.

When Gu Zhangyuan got back, she was squatting in the cornfield, studying the corn.

The corn Xie Licheng had planted earlier had sprouted ears in just over ten days, supposedly thanks to some kind of fertilizer, but regular corn couldn't grow that fast.

No matter how much she stared at the corn every day, it wasn't going to sprout overnight.

When Gu Zhangyuan came back from outside, Xuan Cui and Yuan Qiao pestered him for news.

After chatting with them, Gu Zhangyuan said that if the chance came up, he'd ask Xie Licheng to take them out to see the world too.

Yuan Qiao's face lit up. "Really? Then I definitely want to go out and see!"

Xuan Cui, though, wasn't keen on going out. She'd been hurt protecting Gu Zhangyuan before, and her injuries still hadn't fully healed.

Just thinking about those vicious-looking people outside made Xuan Cui's heart clench with fear. She figured it was better to stay at the farm—it felt even safer than the town.

And at the farm, she didn't have to worry about anything—just take care of the young master's daily needs. Cooking now and then and tending the fields made for a simple, fulfilling life.

The day Gu Zhangyuan came back, Chen Yaosan also showed up at the farm to trade for corn. He brought a bunch of stuff—animal hides, deer antlers, bear paws, and a basket of mushrooms.

Xuan Cui didn't know what to trade for, so she had Gu Zhangyuan go to the farm entrance to take a look himself. Gu Zhangyuan traded him for two animal hides and a pair of bear paws.

The man had brought a lot of valuable stuff, and Gu Zhangyuan didn't want to shortchange him, so he gave him twenty corn kernels and ten taels of silver.

Chen Yaosan hadn't expected to get silver out of the deal, so he thanked Gu Zhangyuan and left.

Xiao Zhuang had already accepted him as his father, but he didn't live with him yet.

He was a rough-and-tumble guy, and Xiao Zhuang was more comfortable living with the village head and Xiao Ruan than with him.

Xiao Zhuang usually visited him often and stayed for meals, but at night he'd go back to the village head's place.

After trading for corn, Chen Yaosan planned to plant Xiao Zhuang's plot of land. As for buying land or a house, he could think about that slowly later.

He could still live off the mountains for now, and Xiao Zhuang had a plot of land too, so the father and son wouldn't starve.

Xie Licheng's delicate husband was generous; he could sell him more things in the future and probably get quite a bit of silver.

Once he had more silver, he could consider whether to go to town.

To be honest, going to town was nice, but he didn't have any great skills now and could only rely on the mountain's bounty to survive.

If he moved to town, there were very few people there now, and he might not find work.

...

The animal hides Gu Zhangyuan had traded from Chen Yaosan, he planned to use with Xuan Cui and the others to make a pair of leather gloves for Xie Licheng.

Actually, Xie Licheng's Fengyuan had better and more hides, so there was no need to buy them from someone else.

But Gu Zhangyuan had never made leather gloves before, and he felt the hides in Fengyuan were too high quality—he was reluctant to use them for practice. So when he saw the hides Chen Yaosan brought, he suddenly bought two from him.

After buying the hides, Gu Zhangyuan started researching with Xuan Cui.

Yuan Qiao looked at the two big bear paws, unsure how to handle them.

He was quite skilled at cooking, but he'd never dealt with such things, so he was momentarily stumped.

In the end, Xuan Cui couldn't stand it and helped him braise the bear paws.

Once the food was ready, they couldn't bear to eat it.

Gu Zhangyuan said to them, "Go, put the things in cold storage, and save them for my husband to have when he gets back."

The three of them usually lived at the farm, which was stocked with all kinds of ingredients. There was pork, beef, mutton, chicken... even goose and pigeon meat.

They could eat whatever they wanted there, unlike Xie Licheng, who was out braving the elements day in and day out. Gu Zhangyuan figured any good food should go to Xie Licheng first.

That day, Xie Licheng stopped by, and Gu Zhangyuan told him that they would make him some extra good food, and if he wanted to eat, he could just go to the cold storage and grab it. Gu Zhangyuan also brought Yuan Qiao to take his measurements, planning to make him a few outfits while it was still warm out.

Someone like Xie Licheng burned through clothes quickly.

Whether he was out fighting or working in the farm or the fields, his clothes tended to wear out easily.

Gu Zhangyuan had gone through his wardrobe and found that the clothes inside were all strange. He thought those clothes were fine to wear around the farm, but if worn outside, they would really be a bit improper, because in his eyes, those clothes were all torn up and incomplete.

Xie Licheng said to him, "I have plenty of clothes. If I run out, I can also buy some in town outside. You don't have to go to all that trouble, having the servants help you make clothes for me."

But Gu Zhangyuan insisted, saying, "How can those clothes compare to ones I make with my own hands? Don't worry, I'm someone who hates getting tired, so I'll just make you one or two sets, definitely not more."

Xie Licheng nodded at that. He also felt that those clothes were different from the ones his husband personally made, so he ultimately didn't refuse Gu Zhangyuan's kindness.

His life now was truly different from before.

He had his husband to worry about his food and drink, and his husband made his clothes too. He was no longer a rough, uncared-for man with nobody to look after him.