Sold immediately after wearing it? I took my family and fled the famine.

Master Qian clearly felt the gazes fixed on his carriage. He sat on the edge of the carriage, holding a teacup. The tea had long since gone cold, but he kept holding it without putting it down.

His servants had already sent away two refugees from Yongzhou yesterday. The two men tried to approach the carriage to "borrow a light," but the servants stopped them three steps away. Qian Baozhu had been unusually quiet these past two days, no longer complaining about the porridge being too hot or too cold, but simply staying inside the carriage and refusing to come out.

Mr. Qian said privately to the butler, "Wait two more days? I'm afraid I can't wait two more days."

Carpenter Liu rearranged all the tools on the cart, placing the saw, plane, chisel, and all the bladed tools within easy reach.

His wife moved the grain sacks from under the cart to the innermost part of the bedding, and pressed them down with her back when they slept at night.

Zhang Gensheng sharpened the pig-slaughtering knife again and again, the blade gleaming blindingly in the firelight. He squatted beside the cart, the knife resting horizontally on his knees, his eyes fixed on the dark, unfathomable gazes deep within the cave, muttering a curse only he could hear.

But there were also happy ones. When Chen Xiucai heard "wait two more days," he breathed a sigh of relief.

His daughter, Chen Zhilan, started coughing again last night. He was worried that there would be no doctor or medicine if they set off, so he thought that if they stayed for two more days, his daughter could at least take two more doses of medicine. Although Mr. Qian's face was not good, Ma Dadan said that it was "the last two days", so he could only grit his teeth and wait.

Jiang Xing had no objection to the decision; two days would be enough for her to go to Nanshan to find the medicine.

She had to go up the mountain today. Her grandmother and third uncle's legs couldn't take it anymore. The two old people were getting on in years, and if they delayed any longer, even if the swelling went down later, their knees would still have lasting problems.

She tidied her basket, tucked her short knife behind her waist, and just as she reached the cave entrance, she heard a series of hurried footsteps behind her.

"Miss Jiang! Wait!" Doctor Gu, carrying his old medicine chest, caught up breathlessly. The hem of his blue cloth robe was tucked into his belt, and his steps were much larger than usual. "Go find the medicine, I'll go with you. Those herbs can all be found in the mountains. I know the place, so I can help you find them faster."

Jiang Xing glanced at him, said nothing, but simply moved aside, tacitly agreeing.

Before Dr. Gu could catch his breath, another series of chaotic footsteps came from behind him.

Li Shitou walked at the front, the dark-faced man, followed by the twenty-odd people who had gone up the mountain with him that day, some from Wangjiagou and some from Zhoujiazhai.

"Miss Jiang," Li Shitou rubbed his hands together, his fingers, red from the cold, twisting them together, "we...we also want to go up the mountain with you."

Jiang Xing looked at him without saying a word.

"We're not going to dig for medicinal herbs," Li Shitou quickly explained, his voice a little urgent. "We're going to dig for wild vegetables, to find something to eat. The fern roots and kudzu roots you led us to find the day before yesterday are almost gone, even though we've been eating them sparingly. The children at home are crying from hunger, so we're going with you. You dig for herbs, we'll dig for wild vegetables, we absolutely won't cause you any trouble."

Several women nearby chimed in, their voices clapping and gesturing.

A young woman from Wangjiagou was holding an empty basket in her arms, her eyes red. She said that she had emptied the rice jar yesterday, and this morning she fed her child half a bowl of wild vegetable soup. The child was so hungry that he couldn't sleep, and she really had no other choice.

Jiang Xing neither agreed nor refused, only saying, "I'm going to Nanshan, and I'll be going very deep. There might be wild animals there. The mountain isn't mine, and I can't stop you if you want to go. But I'm going to find medicine today, and I don't have time to worry about others. If you encounter any danger, don't blame me for not warning you."

Her tone was flat, so flat that it sounded more like a statement of fact than a warning.

Those people listened, but their expressions didn't change much. Li Shitou nodded and said, "I understand." The young wife, holding her basket, also nodded, but the gesture was clearly perfunctory. Her mind wasn't on any danger; all she could think about was finding food on the mountain.

The snake meat we ate that day was found by Jiang Xing and his men, as were the fern roots, kudzu roots, and polygonatum roots they dug up.

This girl is capable; following her will lead to food. This thought weighed more heavily on everyone's minds than the word "danger."

Jiang Xing said no more and turned to walk towards Nanshan. Doctor Gu followed beside her with his medicine box on his back, and about twenty people trailed behind them in twos and threes.