Those days when I exiled the paralyzed, deposed crown prince to farm

Zhao Ye remained silent, staring intently at the rooftop where the starry sky could be seen at a glance, his eyes long since dulled.

The night wind blew into the house, making Ah Man even more panicked.

She brought the food to Zhao Ye's mouth: "Zhao Ye, eat something, you haven't eaten all day."

Zhao Ye didn't eat anything in the morning either.

As evening approached and Zhao Ye remained in the same state, A-Man suddenly understood.

Zhao Ye was planning to starve himself to death; he was going on a hunger strike.

Aman, holding her bowl and chopsticks, shed tears: "Zhao Ye, please eat something. People will die if they don't eat. If you die, I won't live either."

He heard the little maid's desperate and helpless cries in his ears. Zhao Ye's lips moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he could only let his helplessness sink into his chest.

He looked at Ah Man, who was crying with tears streaming down her face, and a strange feeling welled up inside him.

Could it be that she... has fallen deeply in love with him?

Otherwise, any normal person would have abandoned him and moved on to another life by now.

"Aman," Zhao Ye called her name, "Don't cry."

Ah Man indeed stopped crying. She wasn't crying for herself; it was the thought of Zhao Ye's death and her inability to go back that brought an overwhelming sorrow to her heart, engulfing her entirely.

His gaze fell on the bowl in Aman's hand. Aman was overjoyed and cried tears of joy. She quickly scooped up a large spoonful and fed it to Zhao Ye. Zhao Ye opened his mouth and swallowed the mouthful of thick porridge.

"Aman." Zhao Ye saw the bowls placed on the other side. They didn't have much rice, so they could only cook porridge to save it. But Aman always gave him the thick porridge, while she ate the clear soup porridge with only a few grains of rice in it.

"I'm thirsty, give me that bowl."

"That bowl is mine... you can have this one."

"Give me."

Zhao Ye tried to move his hands, but they remained hanging limply at his sides, without any strength at all.

Ah Man immediately obeyed and brought over the bowl of bland, watery soup.

"From now on, we don't need to be so clear about the distinctions. What I eat, you eat too," Zhao Ye said.

Ah Man didn't hear anything else, but she heard what happened afterward.

Her eyes were sparkling, which meant that Zhao Ye had the determination to live!

This is a good thing, a really good thing!

Ah Man was also happy. She smiled, revealing two small dimples on her face.

She said, "I went to the market today and bought some seeds. We can plant things in the empty space in the backyard. As long as they grow, we'll have an endless supply of food in the future."

Yong'an has a lot of wasteland that the government doesn't care about, and the people can cultivate it at will.

However, the land in Ningzhou is barren, and the grain produced is often unsatisfactory.

If another natural disaster were to strike, the rope would surely break at its thinnest point, costing the lives of the poor.

Ah Man then said, "Before, you were pampered and ate the finest food in the Crown Prince's residence. Now that we're in Ningzhou, you'll eat whatever I cook, okay?"

After all, surviving is the most important thing right now.

"it is good."

"Luckily, I often went out to do farm work with my family when I was a child, so growing fruits and vegetables was definitely no problem for me!"

Ah Man tried to make amends for herself.

After all, children from poor families mature early.

"Um."

"Look at these wild vegetables, aren't they delicious?"

It wasn't very oily, just a tiny bit of saltiness, but that was enough to make Ah Man crave it.

A bowl of porridge and a little bit of wild vegetables dressed with coarse salt—that was enough for a meal.

Although the conditions are tough, life has to go on, right?

What could be more luxurious than being alive?

For Aman, obviously not.

"Zhao Ye".

"Um."

In the darkness, Aman mustered her courage and called out, and Zhao Ye answered softly.

"Zhao Ye".

"Yes, I'm here."

Ah Man breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that there would be no master-servant relationship in the future, which was fine as it was.

She said, "Then let's get along like this from now on. This isn't the Crown Prince's residence, you're not the Crown Prince, and I'm not a servant anymore."

Zhao Ye was very quiet. The moonlight streaming in from outside made it possible to vaguely see that his chest was heaving more powerfully than yesterday.

"Then you don't need to be so nervous when I wash your body in the future," Ah Man said.

Zhao Ye was determined to die. He had shown his most shameful, humble, and desperate side to another person. He no longer had any thoughts about death.

He was just thinking, what would happen to this girl if he died?

"It's okay that you're not feeling well right now. I'll go up the mountain to find some herbs. Let's eat well and take our medicine properly. You'll get better someday."

Aman kept rambling on and on, saying that she was really exhausted today. She had been running around in the mountains for a long time and had fallen into a trap set by hunters.

As he spoke, the voice grew softer and softer until it turned into a faint snore.

By the moonlight, Zhao Ye glanced sideways at Aman, who was sleeping on the ground.

She scrubbed the floor with water again and again, curled up on the ground, while he lay on the wooden plank that Ah Man had dried and put clothes on for him to sleep on.

He saw Aman's toenails that had been flipped off, and Zhao Ye's gaze became complicated.

A man like him, with a body like his...

He would only be a burden to her.

Half-dead, despised by family, and cursed by the people, living was more painful than dying.

He didn't know what Ah Man was after; perhaps she really wasn't after anything.

[Ding--]

It was that familiar sound again. Ah Man's eyes widened as she looked at the number on the system screen, which had already exceeded two thousand.

At this time, some of the system's previously locked functions were also unlocked, displaying storage space and grain, oil and general merchandise.

However, the newly unlocked space is only about twenty square meters, and it's completely empty.

The items available for exchange in the grains, oils and general merchandise section are pitifully few: five catties of wheat flour, two catties of soybean oil, and that's it.

Ah Man took all the items and stored them in her storage space.

Seeing the wild vegetables she had dug up yesterday, Aman suddenly had an idea. In the morning, she cleared out a patch of empty space in the backyard and sowed the seeds she had received on it, hoping that they would sprout.

"Zhao Ye, how about we have wild vegetable buns for lunch today?"

After a busy morning, Aman finished planting the vegetables, and the sun made her face rosy.

When Aman was in the Crown Prince's residence, she received excellent treatment and food, and she grew up to be very beautiful. However, during the three months of exile, Aman lost a lot of weight, and her originally fair face became chapped and dark from sunburn.

If you tie your hair up, you won't be able to tell the difference between men and women.

"I'm sorry, I can't help you."

The morning sun was scorching, and Zhao Ye watched A Man busy outside the courtyard, his eyes swirling with emotion.

If his hands could still move, he might be able to help her.

He always watched Ah Man busy herself, but he couldn't do anything himself.