boyutpedia Chapter 6: Starting with Raiding and Exile 3
Chapter 6: Starting with Raiding and Exile 3
After two days of marching, the officers and soldiers were given a steamed bun at noon and a bowl of thin porridge with a steamed bun in the evening.
When they arrived at a county town, the prisoners who had money went to the head constable to get silver to bribe him so they could go into town to buy some supplies.
Qingmo also gave 10 taels to the official, and then followed the crowd into the city to buy things. Jiang Qinghuai entered the Jiang family, and Qingmo only glanced at him before ignoring him.
She saw several households heading towards the mule market, and since she didn't want to walk, she decided to buy a cart herself. She figured she could suffer more than herself; a horse-drawn cart was too ostentatious, a mule would be just fine.
She picked out an adult mule for 12 taels of silver, along with a carriage and saddle. She didn't haggle, not wanting to waste time, and drove the mule cart to the grain store to buy 100 catties of fine grain.
I also bought some coarse salt, cooking pots and pans, two water sacks, an oilcloth, a flint, salted fish, and cured meat.
There weren't many seasonings in ancient times, but she had them all in her space. She went to a deli and bought 20 flatbreads, 20 steamed buns, and 20 mantou. She also went to a pastry shop and bought a pound of various pastries. She put all the cooked food into her space, and put the rest of the grains in the mule cart.
Then I took a thin quilt from my spatial storage and put it inside. That's fine, anyway, no one will know what I bought. If I need anything, I'll just pretend to take it out of the mule cart later.
Back in the exile group, they saw that many people had bought carts. The wealthy bought horse-drawn carts, the average bought mule carts or donkey carts, and the poorest bought handcarts to pull themselves.
After all, everyone needs to buy food, and traveling is already difficult; if they are carrying dozens or hundreds of kilograms of food, they will be even more unable to walk.
The officials were also pleased with this, as buying a cart would make the journey faster. After all, they also had a mission: to deliver the prisoner to his destination within three months at the latest. Moreover, there were too many uncontrollable factors on the road, so arriving earlier was certainly better.
Almost every household has bought grain, so they can eat their fill and walk much faster now.
Qingmo is really lazy. She genuinely doesn't want to cook. What she makes is probably just edible, but she has no choice. People will be suspicious if she doesn't cook.
The journey was relatively smooth for half a month, but the weather was unbearably hot. Qingmo hadn't stocked up on ice, and she couldn't eat ice cream during the day.
I was drenched in sweat every day, but thankfully I slept on a mule cart. I could sneak into the space at night to take a shower and wash my hair every few days. The space had a washing machine for washing clothes and a dryer for drying them.
But on the surface, she was just as dirty as everyone else.
Men would jump in and wash themselves if they encountered this, while women could only fetch some water to wipe themselves down. Washing their hair was easy, though, since it would dry quickly under the blazing sun.
The further south you go, the more mountains and ridges there are, but it's also more dangerous. There are wolves and wild animals in the mountains, so you have to be vigilant at night. Fortunately, there's plenty of good food too.
When they came across mountains and forests, the prisoners could go there to hunt rabbits and pheasants, dig for wild vegetables, and catch fish in the river.
Fortunately, there is no war or natural disaster. The Chu Kingdom, where the original owner lived, is relatively peaceful. As long as we are wary of bandits and wild animals.
In peaceful times, no bandits would dare to rob the imperial court. Besides, how much money would exiled prisoners have? They might as well rob merchant caravans.
The Jiang family is living quite well. Qingmo observed that there were several nights when guards brought things to the female lead.
During the day, she should be hiding in the shadows. She's only at the first level of Qi Refining, so she's just a nobody. Aside from having slightly stronger senses, she's not very useful.
Because she fled from famine in her first world, she didn't learn any skills or points to buy any cultivation techniques or learn professional fighting techniques. She was just strong, which was enough to deal with ordinary people, but she couldn't handle anyone with even a little bit of martial arts skill.
Trying to cause trouble won't work. Just play it safe. Maybe if you play it safe, she'll... die of old age. You have to believe that even great effort can't create miracles.
The journey was relatively smooth, so Qingmo multitasked, using her mind to plant a little bit of each of the following in her spatial dimension: grains, vegetables, and fruits.
We collect chicken, duck, and goose eggs, and have allocated 200 acres specifically for planting various medicinal herbs, especially ginseng, which is plentiful mainly because it's valuable; the rest are for reserve.
The scumbag father's collection mainly consisted of medicinal herbs, fabrics, ginseng, bird's nest, abalone, and other tonics, totaling 183 boxes. In addition, there were 26 boxes of gold, plus some in the secret room, 5 boxes of jewelry, and 5 boxes of antiques and calligraphy.
With so much fabric, medicinal herbs, and tonics, it's usually part of a wealthy family's dowry. I'm guessing it's the dowry the first wife gave to her two daughters.
Sigh~ These boring days, all I can do is count money in my social media space for fun.
Time can pass quickly, or it can feel like an eternity. Before long, a month's journey had been completed, and we were almost halfway through the trip.
They resupply again along the way, and Qingmo also bought a lot of things, especially several new sets of clothes.
Seeing how happy Qingmo was, the Jiang family did want to find her. Her grandparents had come to her, asking her to travel with them so they could look after her on the road.
Qingmo merely glanced at them coldly. "You didn't care before, and you don't need to care now. Everyone should mind their own business."
The two men's faces stiffened for a moment after hearing this. They then spent a long time arguing with Qingmo about filial piety, scolding her for being disloyal and unfilial, saying that if she were bullied in the future, the Jiang family would not support her, and that with her reputation for being unfilial, she would never find a good family to marry into.
What a joke! I never intended to get married. This old lady can't stand the hardships of marriage.
In ancient times, getting married meant having parents-in-law above you, children and grandchildren below you, and a husband with three wives and four concubines—it was like being a beast of burden.
Given her family background, even if she is now an exiled prisoner and the Jiang family returns to the capital in glory after a general amnesty, all that will remain for her is a tool to gain benefits for her family.
She wouldn't be the mistress of a noble family, but she would definitely be the first among the concubines of a high-ranking noble family.
In the future, she will either become a concubine in a noble family or the wife of a poor scholar. Whoever wants to marry can marry. Qingmo said that she could not marry either and could not endure such hardship.
As long as she lacks morals, no one can hold her hostage.
Forget about filial piety. If you insist on making her observe filial piety, then when she gets to her place of exile, she can go to the space to cultivate. Once her cultivation level is high enough, you can remove all the filial piety from her. That wouldn't be a bad idea.
The array in the cultivation room is made entirely of top-grade spirit stones, enough to sustain her cultivation for ten thousand years if she were only at the Qi Refining stage.
If one's cultivation level is above Foundation Establishment, the higher the cultivation level, the more spiritual energy one absorbs. This will not last for many years; at most, it will be enough for her to cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage.
In other words, if she only cultivates to the Qi Refining stage in each world, it would be enough for her to cultivate in about ten worlds.
Without replenishing spirit stones, the cultivation room will soon be devoid of any spiritual energy. Who knows if we'll be able to replenish our spirit stones even once in ten times? It all depends on luck.
Sigh, life is tough.