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

Ji Yunshu followed them into the house.

The room was not large, with only two rooms, one on each side of the main hall. The burly man occupied one room, while Ling Yun, who had come in earlier, occupied the other.

The rest of the people could only huddle in the main room, which was lit by a kerosene lamp. The other rooms were pitch black, so they all squeezed into the main room.

Ji Yunshu noticed that besides the burly man who had left earlier, there was another person in the room, also a man.

His appearance bears a resemblance to that of a burly man.

The two men were worlds apart in build; one was as fat as a mountain, and the other as thin as a monkey. But by looking at their faces, one could vaguely tell that they were brothers.

The skinny one, with shifty eyes, kept glancing between Ji Yunyao and Zhou Yanran. When he saw Ji Yunshu come in, his gaze shifted back and forth between Ji Yunshu and Xie Mohuan.

Xie Mohuan glared at him, but the man seemed not to see it and continued to look at Xie Mohuan with a smile.

When he turned his head and met Ji Yunshu's gaze, he saw that Ji Yunshu was staring at him with a half-smile, but there was no smile in her eyes. The thin man shivered, withdrew his gaze, and continued to stare at Ji Yunyao and Zhou Yanran in front of him.

The room was quiet; no one spoke. The burly man's eyes darted around before he spoke first, his tone softening slightly.

"Gentlemen, my name is Wu Da Wa, and my younger brother is Wu Er Wa. By the way, what brings you to our village in the middle of the night?"

Ling Yun and the others were all dressed in the uniforms of government officials. Anyone with eyes could tell at a glance that they were people from the imperial court and wouldn't ask any questions. But Wu Da Wa acted as if he couldn't see them.

Before Ling Yun could speak, Ah Cai's voice rang out from the side.

"Hehe, it's just a small job, escorting some exiled prisoners for the imperial court."

Wu Da Wa's eyes flickered slightly. "Oh, I see. You've worked hard, you've worked hard, hehe. Alas, it's just bad timing. This year, the village suffered a severe famine. Every household has no surplus food, and many people have starved to death. We don't have any extra food at home either. Otherwise, we could have made you a hot meal. It's really bad timing, really bad timing."

Speaking of this, Ling Yun became interested. "By the way, Boss Wu, we just walked in from the village entrance and found that there seems to be no one in the village. Is everyone asleep at this hour?"

They had been here before, also at night, and could still vaguely see that a few villagers' houses were lit up, and occasionally a couple of villagers would walk around the village. But this time, it was really strange.

"Alas, to be honest, the famine this year is too severe. Many people in the village can't survive and have left. Some have gone to seek refuge with relatives, while others have gone out to find food. Nowadays, there are indeed very few families left in the village. My parents have gone to see distant relatives to see if they can borrow some food. My brother and I have stayed at home to look after the house."

"After all, this is where we grew up, and we don't want to leave. If our parents could borrow some food to get through this period, things would be a little better." Old Wu's tone was full of helplessness, which was heartbreaking to hear.

Remembering the disaster victims they had seen along the way, everyone believed what Boss Wu had said.

Ling Yun sighed as well. "Alas, I am truly sorry. When we left the capital, we had some silver with us, but we've spent almost all of it along the way, and some was even stolen by the disaster victims we encountered. Now we're even having trouble feeding ourselves. Otherwise, we could have at least left you some dry rations."

In the past, when they passed through the village, Uncle Wu and Aunt Wu treated them very well. Several times they even brought them some food and didn't ask for any money.

Old Wu sighed.

"Oh, no need, no need. You're also working for the court. Your job is more important. We're two grown men. We can always find something to eat to get by. As long as we can get through this hot season, we can start planting crops."

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, everyone went to find a place to rest.

Everyone else just lay down on the ground, on the table, or on the chair, and fell fast asleep with their eyes closed.

Wu Laoda and Wu Laoer also went back to their room to rest; the two brothers shared a room.

After everyone else had rested, only the people from the Prince's Mansion were still awake.

Ji Yunshu went out, took two fine cotton quilts from the carriage, carried them into the house, and neatly spread them on the floor, asking everyone to lie down on the quilts and wait for a while.

It's only just nightfall, and everyone has just lain down to rest. They're not sound asleep yet, and some people might need to go out to pee later.

She mustn't let anyone else see her installing the air conditioner.

Knowing her plan, everyone followed her instructions and sat or lay down on the two quilts to rest.

Ji Yunshu quietly closed her eyes and glanced at the time in the space; it was only 11 p.m.

It's still early.

Unable to sleep, she went to the shopping mall and started looking for an air conditioner.

The mall was filled with a dazzling array of air conditioners of all kinds. Considering the limited space inside the carriage, Ji Yunshu spent a long time choosing and finally selected two air conditioners that took up the least floor space.

Using her mind, she moved the air conditioner to the living room of the small house. Then, she went to select two small generators.

She chose a solar-powered generator that could be placed on the roof of the carriage. As long as sunlight shone on the generator, it could generate electricity.

To prevent others from seeing the generator directly, she also picked out two fence-like objects from the mall. By fixing these objects around the top of the carriage, the generator could be hidden inside.

Unless someone specifically climbs onto the carriage, they won't be able to see what the generator looks like.

After finishing all this, it was around midnight.

She lay on the sofa to rest for a while, and after another half hour, she withdrew her thoughts and left the space.

It was hot, and the rooms were small, so everyone was crammed into two or three rooms. The air was filled with an unpleasant smell of sweat and sourness.

Perhaps they were too tired from the day, because everyone seemed to be completely oblivious to the smell and fell fast asleep.

The people in the Prince's mansion were initially sitting very energetically, but as time slowly passed, they couldn't hold on any longer. They leaned on each other and fell asleep.

Ji Yunshu closed her eyes and pretended to sleep for a while. When she was sure that everyone in the room was asleep, she got up and went to the door of Wu Laoda and Wu Laoer's room. She looked through the crack in the door and saw that the two of them were sleeping on the bed.

Ji Yunshu breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed she had been overthinking things; nothing should happen.

She turned and left quietly, returning to the front gate. It was hot, so the gate was not closed. Under the cover of night, Ji Yunshu went out of the house and came to the courtyard gate.

She easily found two carriages, climbed onto the roof of one, and used her mind to take out a generator from her spatial storage and install it on the carriage.