Qin Junyao and the others were unaware that they were being followed by villains and that a group of people was searching for the axe.
Due to the injury on the back of her head, Qin Junyao sat on the Hou family's donkey cart again for the journey. Besides her, there were only the Hou family children and the axe on the cart. Qin Xiaoyu refused to ride in the same cart as Qin Junyao and insisted on walking.
Qin Junyao felt uncomfortable on the cart, looking at the people walking around it.
The water and grass she took out from her spatial storage did not improve the physical condition of the people or the donkeys after they ate and drank. They were all still tired. Qin Junyao wondered if she could find something to do.
"Sister Qin, can you help me twist grass ropes?" the girl sitting next to Qin Junyao asked timidly.
This girl was named Hou Shantao, the youngest daughter of Hou Jing, the eldest son of Old Man Hou, and was the same age as Qin Xiaoyu.
"Yes, teach me," Qin Junyao readily agreed.
Hearing Qin Junyao say this, Shantao breathed a sigh of relief. Sister Qin hadn't scolded her. Hehe.
Next, Shantao taught Qin Junyao how to twist grass ropes.
These grass ropes were used to weave straw sandals, which were worn over cloth shoes to prevent the soles from wearing out.
The two of them twisted grass ropes side by side. When it was time to rest, they would let the stronger men weave the straw sandals, as sturdy straw sandals could last longer.
Just as Qin Junyao found the knack for twisting grass ropes, she felt the axe patting her from the other side.
"What's wrong, Axe?"
"Sister, those people behind us are bad guys," Axe said to Qin Junyao while looking back.
"Which ones?" Qin Junyao turned her head and saw only people in tattered clothes, all dusty and looking quite similar.
"Those carrying baskets. The person in front looks like a piece of tofu."
Tofu?
Qin Junyao thought that looking like tofu meant having fair skin. Later, following the direction of Axe's little finger, she found a man with a square face.
The emaciation caused by food scarcity made the bones on that man's face prominent. At first glance, he really resembled a square, solid piece of tofu.
Shantao, beside them, saw them looking back continuously and followed their gaze. "Sister Qin, what are you looking at?"
"Axe says the people behind us are bad guys," Qin Junyao did not dismiss the words just because they were spoken by a child.
Axe was young, but he didn't seem like an ordinary child. The Hou family children would cry over this and that, but this child, found by strangers, had adapted very well.
He drank the water offered and ate the food given, without complaining about the taste. He didn't seem like someone who had lived a good life, yet the flesh on Axe's body clearly told others that he had lived a very good life.
"Axe, how do you know those people are bad guys?" Shantao, like Qin Junyao, couldn't see anything different about those people.
"I just know. They're coming for us too," Axe said with certainty. He could feel that the square-headed man had been looking at him with ill intentions many times.
Shantao, being a child, believed children more. After hearing Axe's words, she slid off the donkey cart and went to find her father. Qin Junyao couldn't stop her even if she wanted to.
Hearing his daughter's words, Hou Jing called his second brother, Hou Ming, and they walked to the back of the donkey cart.
Indeed, the two Hou brothers sensed something unusual. After exchanging glances, they became vigilant.
The men of the Hou family hunted small animals in the mountains, making them more alert and robust than ordinary farmers.
If it weren't for the Hou family backing them up, no matter how capable Grandma Qin was, she couldn't have offended half the village and still lived there peacefully.
On the road of escape, it was a continuous journey of walking. Qin Junyao sat on the donkey cart, continuously twisting grass ropes. Occasionally, the sound of crying could be heard; it was from families who had lost loved ones.
After walking for about an hour and a half, Grandma Qin, carrying a basket, walked to the donkey cart and said to Qin Junyao, "Get down, let me sit up for a while. You still have the strength to twist grass ropes and your head isn't dizzy yet."
"Then, you carry the basket too."
Qin Junyao got off the donkey cart, gave Grandma Qin her seat, and took Grandma Qin's precious basket, which felt quite heavy to Qin Junyao.
"What are you holding it for? Carry it on your back quickly. Tell me, besides teaching you scriptures, what else did Guanyin Niangniang teach you? Can she teach Grandma too?"
"Grandma, let me tell you, Grandma is very smart. Do you know why we are heading west?"
Qin Junyao, struggling to hold the basket with one hand, reached into it with the other and put the contents into her spatial storage.
Her spatial storage required her left hand to touch it to put things in. She had discovered this last night.
"Why?" Little Axe, seeing Qin Junyao busy, helped ask Grandma Qin.
"Oh, you're quite good at joining the conversation."
"There are three routes for refugees. Those going to the imperial city will definitely be stopped halfway. We have a plague there. It's strange if the important figures in the imperial city would let us in."
"Then there are those going south. The south is so crowded that people trample each other. The farmland is scarce; we wouldn't gain anything if we went there."
"Coming to the west is different. There are fewer people and more land. Perhaps we can settle down and get a few acres of land to farm."
Before Qin Junyao could speak, Shantao chimed in again, "Then why didn't Grandma Qin tell my family when she left?"
"You little girl, your family has a house, land, money, and people. You can go south for a couple of years and then return, right? My family has no intention of returning. Oh, why am I telling you this? Yao Yao, you haven't told Grandma about Guanyin Niangniang yet."
After successfully putting more than half of the contents of the basket into her spatial storage, Qin Junyao put the basket on her back. Hearing Grandma Qin's words, she pouted.
She thought that the reason they weren't going back was because the Qin family had a bad reputation, making it difficult to find a suitable husband for the original owner and brides for their third uncle and others, so they wanted to take the opportunity to leave.
Also, they had no land and lived in village houses, which allowed them to leave without any reservations and not return.
Qin Junyao thought this but couldn't say it. Just as she was wondering how to fabricate a fairy tale, she saw the people in front suddenly start running, kicking up dust on the road.
"There's water, there's water ahead."
"Boss, put down your things and go get water first."
"Get the containers, I forgot the containers..."
The people on the road suddenly seemed to have taken a powerful pill, their strength overflowing. They rushed forward, carrying containers and basins.
"Sit tight," Hou Neng, the third son of the Hou family driving the cart, shouted to the children on the cart and whipped the donkeys to make the cart run faster.
While Qin Junyao was still stunned by the scene before her, Grandma Qin had already gotten off the cart and rushed to the front to have her second uncle, Qin Mu, and others run forward with basins.
Axe, sitting on the donkey cart, saw Qin Junyao falling behind and turned around, leaning on the luggage on the cart, and shouted to Qin Junyao, "Sister, hurry up."
After shouting, he suddenly straightened up and shouted even louder, "Sister, run! Tofu head is behind you."
Hearing this, Qin Junyao instinctively looked back and saw the square-faced man's hand reaching for the basket on her back. Startled, she stopped in her tracks.
The square-faced man and his group had been waiting for an opportunity to rob the Qin and Hou families. They had seen the container of clear water in this young girl's basket.
A person can go without food for several days but not without water. On this road, not many people die of starvation, but many die of heatstroke and dehydration.
The water that the brothers had exchanged for their wives and children was gone. Now was the perfect time to act.
"Sister, run, run!" Axe, holding onto the luggage and standing on the donkey cart, shouted with all his might at Qin Junyao, who had stopped.