CHAPTER 225: CHAPTER 225: IT’S ALL DESTINY

Seeing that June was approaching, the village well could no longer draw up much water. Sun Wuye, unable to persuade his fourth brother, decided to leave them be.

Unexpectedly, when bidding farewell to Sun Siye, Sun Siye suddenly asked Sun Wuye to take his children and grandchildren away, as he and his wife were too old to leave.

In the end, it was Sun Wuye who gave the order, forcing Sun Siye and his wife out of the village.

Once they left the village and were on the main road, Sun Siye realized just how many people were escaping the calamity. There were many older than him, trembling with each step they took.

Even in such a state, they cherished their lives. He was healthier than them, so how could he not cherish his life?

Sun Siye came to understand this, and willingly joined the band of refugees.

However, they hadn’t traveled far, still not reaching Bohai City, when Prince Jin sent soldiers to conscript men, forcibly taking two from among them.

The last time Sun Wuye’s family was conscripted, it was Sun Sanji. This time it was Sun Erji’s turn.

In Sun Siye’s family, of his five sons, only the youngest had never been conscripted. The four older brothers had taken turns, but this time was different. They had to flee, to travel far away.

What did this mean? It meant that the one conscripted would be abandoned by the family.

Let one of the four go, but the four daughters-in-law disagreed, and the four sons were unwilling. But sending the youngest, Sun Siye couldn’t bear it.

Finally, Sun Siye had no choice but to suggest drawing lots.

He reasoned that with five sons, it was unlikely the lot would fall on the youngest.

But fate seemed against him; the youngest drew the shortest straw. Sun Siye refused to accept it and demanded another draw, this time including the grown grandsons.

He had eight grown grandsons. With thirteen in total, drawing one seemed unlikely to hit the youngest, right?

Yet, after another round, it was still Sun Wulin with the shortest straw.

Sun Siye closed his eyes; it was heaven’s will!

Sun Wulin, although unwilling, had to resign himself to fate.

Before leaving, Sun Siye instructed Sun Erji to look after Sun Wulin, saying he was young.

Was Sun Wulin really young?

No, he wasn’t.

He was thirty-two and had four children, two sons, and two daughters.

In fact, he was older than Sun Erji, but since Sun Siye had always favored Sun Wulin, he felt his youngest had never grown up.

Seeing she couldn’t persuade them, Yu Xiaolian didn’t waste her breath further and said she’d go buy some food to take on their journey tomorrow.

Sun Siye hastily told Yu Xiaolian that food was expensive, to buy coarse grains instead of fine ones.

Yu Xiaolian didn’t look back, "Don’t worry about it!"

Sun Wuye called after her, "Let Daji go with you to carry it, okay?"

"No need, no need. I’ll just let Su Jingchen go with me."

Yu Xiaolian had white cloth bags for packing rice in her market; after all, she sold rice and flour at Taotao Residence. These bags were commonly used items, so she had quite a few in her market.

Su Jingchen kept watch for her while she took out a bag of rice and a bag of white flour.

Rice could be used to cook porridge, and white flour to make dough drop soup.

They put the rice and flour in the carriage trunk and went with Su Jingchen to buy some fodder for the horses, tying it to the back of the trunk.

With others around, it wasn’t convenient for her to feed the horses the peas from her market. Though there was grass along the way, there were times there wasn’t any, like now.

She opened two bundles of fodder for the three horses to eat. Seeing no one around, she quietly took out two handfuls of peas and sprinkled them among the fodder.

When Yu Xiaolian and Su Jingchen returned, besides the rice and flour, they also brought back some charcoal, which Yu Xiaolian had bought back in Yangcheng. She had stored it in her space when they left Yangcheng, and hadn’t used it since arriving in Luocheng as the weather was warm.

Yu Xiaolian also took some potatoes and sweet potatoes.

To Sun Wuye and the others, Yu Xiaolian said she bought them outside and suggested roasting potatoes and sweet potatoes if anyone was hungry at night.

Sun Wuye asked Yu Xiaolian how much she spent.

Yu Xiaolian vaguely replied that she didn’t spend much.

But Sun Wuye grabbed a handful of the rice, so white and devoid of husks, and glanced at the fine white flour, knowing these things could not be cheap. Even coarse grain was at a high price; such fine grain was surely expensive.

While Sun Wuye and Yu Xiaolian were talking, some people in the temple had already fallen asleep, snoring.

Yu Xiaolian scanned the area with her eyes, noticing there weren’t enough blankets. Two people sharing one was barely sufficient, and some had several patched clothes draped over them.

Some people lay directly on the ground with nothing underneath, asleep like that, which made Yu Xiaolian feel uneasy.

But for her to buy new blankets for everyone was unrealistic. At this time, most blankets were self-made from cotton, and ready-made ones were hardly found in shops.

Moreover, after buying two more carriages, Yu Xiaolian only had over two hundred Silver Taels left, which the Sun family had entrusted to her from all their savings.

Yu Xiaolian took off her padded jacket and covered it over a little girl who was curled up and sleeping soundly on the ground. "I’m going out for a stroll!"

"I’ll go with you!" Su Jingchen followed Yu Xiaolian again.

As Yu Xiaolian stepped out of the dilapidated temple, she still heard Sun Wuye reminding her not to spend money recklessly.

Su Jingchen asked Yu Xiaolian, "Where are you going?"

Yu Xiaolian, without stopping, continued to survey, "I want to find a pawnshop to pawn some things."

Only by pawning some things could she quickly get money.

After walking two streets with Su Jingchen, Yu Xiaolian finally found a large and imposing pawnshop.

Yu Xiaolian planned to pawn a glass cup, which she had wrapped in a white cloth beforehand. The glass cup was not eye-catching, and she knew roughly its value, so the pawnshop couldn’t deceive her.

Yu Xiaolian successfully exchanged it for five hundred Silver Taels.

Yes, she wanted silver, not silver notes.

In the coming years, Yu Xiaolian did not plan to accept silver notes, nor to deposit money in a money shop, because she knew well that chaos would soon ensue, and during chaos, silver notes would become mere scrap paper with no money shop to redeem them.

Everyone would be fleeing with their Silver Taels, including the money shop owners, who would prioritize their family’s lives over any reputation.

In Great Liang, there weren’t regular households with hundred-tael silver ingots. Usually, the hundred-tael ingots were Official Silver, uniformly made by the Government for use, which ordinary folks couldn’t use.

Even fifty-tael ingots were rare. The most common among the people were ten-tael ingots.

The pawnshop owner gave Yu Xiaolian ten-tael ingots, totaling fifty of them.

The fifty ingots weighed a full thirty pounds, which Yu Xiaolian packed, secured, and carried on her back.

Once out of the pawnshop, she found an empty alley and threw the package into her space, only keeping twenty taels on her person.

"Let’s go, to the tailor shop."

Yu Xiaolian bought the cheapest ready-made clothes from the tailor shop, regardless of gender or size.

Because the Sun family had people of all ages, from the very elderly to toddlers just learning to speak.

While she couldn’t make blankets, she could buy them cotton clothes. Although the clothes were only cotton wadded, they could still ward off the cold wind.