C181

From time to time, the little girl would spit out such words. She was clearly just a child, but in the dead of the night, her eyes were filled with an vicissitudes of life, and it made one's heart ache.

Xi Mengyao shook her head, not wanting her to think any further, she asked her a few questions about the situation in other places.

After asking, she realized that this freezing disaster was actually more serious than she'd said!

What she thought she understood was only a drop in the bucket!

From the city where Paner was present, she faintly realized that this disaster had most likely affected all thirty-two cities in the south.

In the end, some people were still able to live off their family's surplus food. Some were unwilling to escape and still starved to death at their homes.

Taking these people into account, the amount of silver that had to be paid for this disaster was not small.

The more Xi Mengyao heard, the more shocked she became. She couldn't help but look towards Paner and ask, "Since there are so many disasters here, why didn't you all ask for help from a reputable official?"

Xi Mengyao could not believe that all the officials in this country all had the same mouth and the same heart!

"Where is he not calling for help?" The little girl leaned her head against Xi Mengyao's shoulder and shook her head: "Along the way, we have been fleeing, and we have also asked for a lot of people, nobles, and even some who are willing to help us, and some who even wrote down a report and handed it over to us, but we don't know why there hasn't been any news until now …"

"It should have been pressed down …" Xi Mengyao seemed to understand a bit as she shook her head.

If it was such a large sum of silver, then the stingy emperor …

She could not say anything else for the entire night. When the next day arrived, they picked some wild fungus seeds and made some soup for everyone to eat before heading back to Jade Pearl Village with the rest.

The village wasn't far from this place. They arrived after walking for half a day.

In the past, he had already seen some of the people who had arrived earlier and settled down in the village.

After Xi Mengyao and the rest went over, a strong man came over to welcome them: "Benefactor, you finally came!"

Xi Mengyao did not recognise him earlier, but when he opened her mouth to speak, she realised that he was one of the brawny guy that she met the first time. His surname was Qi, and he was nicknamed Qi Si.

He looked like he was in the best of spirits, and came over to grab Xi Mengyao's hand to talk.

He was stunned for a moment, then he scratched his head and smiled: "Benefactor's method is indeed correct, so when we came over, we saw that the village was almost empty, with only a few old men left."

They asked her for a place to stay, and the old man gave them all the rooms.

"And now you've cooked food and soup for us. In the end, there are still hospitable people here. I wonder how much better they are compared to that dog official in the capital!"

After Xi Mengyao heard this, she could only smile and did not speak further.

She didn't know if a few of the remaining people were real or fake, but since those people didn't openly chase them away, they probably wouldn't do anything to them in the future.

Right now, she was only afraid that these people would not have the time to bother with them. She was afraid that they would have other plans after contacting the people behind them in the capital.

That would be troublesome.

After she finished thinking, she smiled and called over the few people who were leading the group. She hid in a corner and said in a low voice, "The people you guys have met might not be simple as well."

"The reason why I asked you to come here is only to give you a temporary place to settle down. "The capital is in a state of turmoil right now, but there will definitely be a relief operation later on. You should all have a plan, where to settle down."

"We know." The few of them nodded, and the eyes of those who looked at them along the way dimmed.

No one knew how long this wait would take.

Seeing their reactions, Xi Mengyao was a little confused.

He could not help but look up at them and said, "What, from the looks of it, you are not surprised about the people here? Could it be … What have you encountered before? "

Those few people were still immersed in the bitter days that followed. Only after hearing the question did they raise their heads and look at each other, nodding strangely at four o'clock.

He pulled Xi Mengyao's sleeves and walked another two steps to an old tree outside the village. After confirming that there was no one around, he lowered his voice and said, "Yesterday, when we came, we saw whether or not there were some strong men hiding in the surroundings of the village."

They originally thought that it was someone who was on guard in the village by himself, but later on, they discovered that when they came over and stated their purpose, that group of people had already disappeared.

"What's strange is that they came back this morning and talked a lot with that old sister-in-law!"

As he said this, he seemed to have thought of something strange, and he couldn't help but reveal a surprised expression, "I secretly eavesdropped a bit earlier. Although I couldn't hear it clearly, I heard that old sister-in-law's voice. It was a young woman!"

"This is the weirdest part of the place, so you must not cause any trouble, just pretend that you don't know."

As Xi Mengyao instructed them in a low voice, she also stole a glance at them from the corner of her eyes.

She had already seen it. It was unknown when they had come over to talk, but they had all been standing in the corner, carefully watching this woman.

The woman looked to be around 50 years old, born of fate, with white hair. She had a stooped back and squinted her eyes to look at Xi Mengyao, causing her sharp gaze to soften immediately and turn kind.

After they looked at each other, she became even more generous and directly went over, looking at Xi Mengyao and whispered, "Miss must have come with the rest, but looking at your clothes, I'm afraid that you're wearing them well, perhaps a rich family came over to help?"

This old man's voice was rather comfortable to listen to. It seemed that she was well versed in the way of speech.

Xi Mengyao secretly thought in her heart, as she also gave a shallow smile on the surface, and shook her head: "You are overthinking things."

As she spoke, she smiled and turned around, looking at the old man as she relaxed her brows and pretended to be happy. She smiled and said, "I was just passing by. Look at my clothes, they belong to Master, I don't dare to get dirty. "

She made an excuse saying that she was in a hurry to return to the capital and needed to report to the old master and his wife.

"But who would have thought that we would meet them on the road …" After she said that, Xi Mengyao put on a pitiful expression, and shook her head as she sighed, "Actually, I also came here with my family when they were escaping. Now that I see these uncles of mine, I can't help but feel sympathy for them when I think about my previous predicament."

"Even if I had to risk being scolded by my master, I still wanted to settle them down."

As she spoke, she looked towards the old lady, only to see that she seemed to believe without a doubt that Xi Mengyao had a plan.

It seemed like these people were out here all year round. They didn't know what was going on in the capital, so they probably didn't recognize her.