Exile? A mad, wicked woman empties the national treasury to escape famine.

"Lingyun, the prisoner you escorted this time is really generous. I've never seen such a generous person before. Take your money back and keep it with you. The money this young lady gave you is enough."

She had only a few dilapidated houses, which she originally intended to give to Ling Yun and the others for free. However, Ling Yun always gave her some copper coins, and she didn't care about the amount of money. She would always leave two rooms for Ling Yun and the others.

However, this only applied to officials like Ling Yun who were on official business for the court. As for the other exiled prisoners, if they were given money, she would prepare two rooms for them; if they weren't given money, she would just let them rest in the courtyard as Ling Yun had suggested.

Lin Yun scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

Previously, because the eldest prince was in the group, he had deliberately kept his distance from the princess. Unexpectedly, the princess disregarded past grievances and brought them all along when she paid the money to the princess's aunt.

Aunt Wang, unaware of their affair, smiled and beckoned Ji Yunshu to walk into the house.

"Quickly, young lady, come in and take a look. I have several rooms ready. You've paid the money, so come and see which rooms you'd like to stay in. The rest are for Lingyun and the others."

Ji Yunshu didn't say much and followed Aunt Wang into the house.

She didn't have high expectations for the accommodations in this place. As she walked from the courtyard inwards, it was easy to see that Aunt Wang had cleaned every room.

It looked quite clean, but the conditions were rudimentary. When I entered the room, there were only a few simple beds with a thin quilt on each bed. The quilt was yellowed and worn from washing, and it looked very basic.

Ji Yunshu had already anticipated this situation, so she wasn't too surprised. In her previous life, when she was a special agent, she had lived in environments that were much dirtier and worse than this. Aunt Wang's house was relatively better than this.

Aunt Wang felt a little embarrassed because Ji Yunshu had given her a lot of money. In the past, the people who came only received a few copper coins, which was enough to get by.

Ji Yunshu gave her several taels of silver this time. Holding the silver, she felt that it was not quite right for Ji Yunshu to live in such an environment.

"Young lady, why don't you stay here for now? I'll go to town and buy you some new bedding."

"No one usually comes to our courtyard. It's just me, my husband, and my granddaughter living here, so we haven't prepared any new bedding or anything like that."

But we live very close to the street, it won't take long to go buy them. You take everyone and rest in the yard for a bit, I'll go buy you a few new ones right away!

As she spoke, she hurriedly walked out.

He had only taken a few steps when Ji Yunshu called out to him from behind.

"Aunt Wang, you don't need to bother. We have bedding in the carriage. When everyone gets off, I'll have them bring the bedding down from the carriage. You don't need to buy new ones."

However, some members of our team have mobility issues and will be staying here for the next few days. We would appreciate it if Aunt Wang could help look after them.

Aunt Wang quickly nodded. She hadn't expected that Ji Yunshu would be so generous as to give her several taels of silver to stay here, yet wouldn't even let her buy herself a quilt.

"Alright, alright, don't worry. You can stay here comfortably. If you need anything, just let me know."

Ji Yunshu smiled faintly, took out a few more taels of silver from her pocket, and stuffed them into Aunt Wang's hand.

"Aunt Wang, we'll be staying here for the next few days. Please just make us whatever food you can find."

"It doesn't need to be too fancy, just enough to fill our stomachs. As for the portion sizes, just make enough for our family and the officials in charge of the coffin-making; don't worry about the others."

Aunt Wang seemed to be an honest person, and she didn't mind giving her more money. As for the lives of the other exiled prisoners, that was not her concern.

Aunt Wang smiled and nodded, "Okay, okay, I know, I know."

This wasn't the first time Lingyun had escorted exiled prisoners to stay at their place, so she knew some of the rules.

The exiled prisoners were all preoccupied with their own survival. When Ling Yun needed to relieve himself, he would give them some cold or spoiled steamed buns so they wouldn't starve.

But if they want other good treatment, they have to have their own money, like Ji Yunshu, who uses his own money to solve the problems of accommodation and food.

She wouldn't show much consideration to those who didn't give her money.

She used to feel sorry for the exiled prisoners, but after seeing more of them, she realized that some people are never satisfied.

The two chatted and laughed as they walked out.

Ji Yunshu suddenly remembered the wells they had seen when they entered from outside the city, and asked with some confusion,

"By the way, Aunt Wang, we just came in from outside the city and saw that many wells in the city were steaming, and the water in the wells was making a gurgling sound. What's going on? Is it like this by nature?"

Are there many wells like this in your city that emit steam?

If there are many, she'll start taking action.

If I put two wells into my space, I won't even need to boil water in winter. That's so convenient.

At this point, Aunt Wang also looked puzzled.

"No, the water in those wells used to be cold, but for some reason, it has suddenly become warm in the last few days, and the temperature is getting higher and higher."

It used to be cool enough to handle, but now it gets quite hot, and everyone has to add cold water before they can use it.

Ji Yunshu was somewhat surprised. "Do you know why? Has the city lord of Yuncheng reported this matter to the imperial court?"

Aunt Wang looked bewildered. "I haven't heard of any reason. At first, everyone wanted to investigate, but they couldn't find anything, so it was dropped. It only started happening recently."

It's unclear whether the city lord reported this to the imperial court, but no one cared anymore. On the contrary, everyone thought it was quite good; in winter, they wouldn't need to boil water, and there was readily available hot water. Everyone was overjoyed.

As Aunt Wang spoke, she smiled broadly, clearly quite pleased that the well water had become warmer.

For poor families, having hot water in winter is indeed a luxury. Wealthier families can use coal to heat water, but poor families can't even afford firewood. Hot water in winter can save many lives.

Ji Yunshu had a feeling that something was off about this matter.

Recalling yesterday afternoon, seeing the fish suddenly emerge from the water, the dark mass of birds and beasts in the sky, the well water suddenly heating up, and the sunset so red it looked like it was about to bleed, all these things gave her a vague idea.

However, since she hadn't read this part of the original book, she didn't dare to draw any conclusions. Besides, the matter was somewhat unbelievable; she hadn't heard of any earthquakes occurring since she traveled to this ancient era.

She must be overthinking it. With that thought, she and Aunt Wang walked into the yard.