After that, Lin Youcai went to plead with Lin Shucheng again: "Third Brother, as the village chief, my words still carry some weight. As your elder uncle, I beg you—take us along. I promise we won’t cause trouble. If anyone falls ill and needs Tiezhu’s mother to treat them, we’ll definitely exchange medicine for it. With more people, we can also look out for each other."
Lin Shucheng didn’t respond and instead looked at his daughter.
Lin Jinyue thought for a moment: "We can take you along, but we must agree on three rules, and we have to sign a Severance Letter."
Lin Youcai agreed immediately: "Fine."
Lin Jinyue continued: "First, if you want to travel with my family, you must follow my father and brother’s commands during critical moments. If anyone dares to cause trouble, our family will leave on our own. Second, if conflicts arise between my family and Lin Youliang’s family in the future, no one is allowed to mediate or stir up trouble. Third, on this journey of fleeing famine, we must prioritize our own family and won’t have extra food to spare for others."
Lin Xueqing added: "If anyone dares to scheme against my sister, my father and I will break their legs!"
This remark was clearly directed at Lin Youliang.
With the three rules clarified, Lin Xueqing wrote the Severance Letter.
Without paper or pen, they tore a piece of the newly exchanged cloth, bit their fingers, and wrote in blood—a clear sign of their determination to sever ties with the Lin family.
Otherwise, even if they didn’t take Lin Youliang’s family along today, they might cling like sticky plaster, claiming they happened to be traveling the same route. Dealing with such antics every day would be unbearable.
Lin Youliang was truly panicked now. Seeing Lin Youcai ready to enforce clan discipline and the entire village siding with Third Brother, he felt a wave of fear.
To survive, they had no choice but to press their fingerprints on the Severance Letter, not daring to cause any trouble.
Lin Youliang felt utterly aggrieved.
But at this point, asking them to head north again was impossible—Prince Jing’s forces had already advanced there. Who would dare to wander recklessly? If caught, who knew if they’d end up as slaves or thrown into a boiling pot?
Once everything was settled, Lin Youcai instructed everyone to tidy up the area.
Although this cave was safe, it wasn’t a place to stay for long.
With Prince Jing’s army about to attack outside, they didn’t dare venture out.
Lin Shucheng arranged for the young men to climb up the sturdy tree trunks to the mountaintop, keeping an eye on the situation in Nan’an County from time to time.
They estimated that Prince Jing’s forces had already arrived, and there was no telling if other refugees had hidden in the mountains. With someone keeping watch from the trees, Lin Shucheng told everyone to return to the cave and wait to see how things unfolded.
This was the place where the villagers of Lin Family Village had previously taken shelter. Though they had tidied it up a bit, it remained messy inside.
The cave was dimly lit, but there were a few air vents. Lin Youcai and the others gathered the leftover firewood and lit a fire.
As the flames brightened the space, Lin Jinyue let out a startled cry: "Ah—"
She sprang to her feet. No wonder her leg felt sticky and cold—a centipede was crawling on her!
And it was a huge one at that, sending shivers down her spine.
Not just her—even Jiang Yun was startled and quickly told her son to catch the centipede, as it could be used for medicine. She was too afraid to touch it herself.
Lin Xueqing swiftly caught the centipede and also nabbed a small snake hiding nearby.
Having spent years in the wilderness in his previous life, Lin Xueqing wasn’t afraid of such creatures. He even asked, "How about snake stew for dinner? This snake should be edible, right?"
Lin Jinyue leaned in for a closer look. Indeed, though the snake looked intimidating, it was non-venomous.
Lin Xueqing deftly skinned the snake and tossed it to her father to handle.
Lin Shucheng set up a pot, took the seasonings his daughter had secretly slipped him, and prepared to stew the snake meat with fine rice.
After eating, Lin Jinyue leaned against a nearby rock, her gaze somewhat vacant.
Lin Shucheng was the first to notice something was off and quickly moved closer to ask, "What's wrong, daughter? Was the snake stew not tasty? Ah, usually the housekeeper does the cooking. Your dad will practice a few more times; I'm sure it'll be delicious in a few days."
Lin Jinyue snapped out of her daze and smiled, saying, "No, it was quite tasty. I was just thinking about how long we'll have to live like this."
She was itching all over. The Farm System had water, but there was no bathtub or shower gel, and she was worried about polluting the river, so she didn’t dare bathe in it. She could only fetch water to wipe herself down.
But the original body had been fleeing famine for over a month and hadn’t washed her hair or bathed in a month. Her hair was tangled and infested with lice, and she could rub off handfuls of grime from her body. This was deeply uncomfortable for Lin Jinyue, who had a slight case of mysophobia in her previous life.
Not just her—even Lin Xueqing, who had often rolled in the mud on missions in her past life, couldn’t stand it.
Lin Jinyue took a deep breath. This kind of life had to end quickly. Now that she was in ancient times, she didn’t expect modern villas, luxury cars, or various forms of entertainment and leisure. But at the very least, she couldn’t stay as filthy as she was now, so dirty even a dog would turn away.
She immediately picked up a branch and began drawing on the ground. Her current location was around Xinyang in Henan. To reach Guangzhou, over a thousand kilometers away, they would have to take detours and stick to remote paths. It was uncertain whether they could make it in half a year.
Lin Jinyue scratched her unbearably itchy head. "No, we need a carriage!"
She couldn’t endure this life for half a year—even a month felt unbearable.
Lin Shucheng was startled. "Daughter, you want a carriage?"
This worried Old Lin greatly. Where could he possibly conjure up a carriage for his daughter?
While Lin Jinyue had solved the problem of food and shelter and was now fretting about improving their living conditions, the villagers were far less fortunate. They were all starving.
The flatbread Lin Jinyue had given out earlier hadn’t been of much use. Some families were reluctant to eat it, some had theirs snatched away in the chaos on the road, and others, favoring sons over daughters, hadn’t given any to the girls.
Lin Sanya, the granddaughter of her clan’s granduncle, was particularly unlucky. First, her food was stolen on the road, leaving only a palm-sized piece of flatbread. Her granduncle decided to give it to her younger brother, Shitou, and Sanya ended up fainting from hunger.
Now, her granduncle’s family was considering simply burying Sanya right there.
Lin Jinyue watched in horror.
Thankfully, her parents had transmigrated.
In truth, the people of Lin Village were relatively fortunate. In typical famine-fleeing groups, able-bodied men were often prioritized, while children and the elderly were the first to be abandoned.
In Lin Village, the elderly included Lin Youliang, Lin Youcai, her granduncle Lin Youxi, and two elderly women. The children hadn’t been sold off either. In a group of about fifty people, there were even seven girls.
But this was ancient times, and their mindset was such that when pushed to the brink, girls would inevitably be the first to be sacrificed.
Lin Jinyue couldn’t bear it.
After all, she had the original host’s memories. In her childhood, the original host had been closest to Lin Sanya.
Setting that aside, Lin Sanya was only an eight-year-old child. If there was no food, that was one thing, but now that her Spatial Dimension had plenty of provisions, she couldn’t just stand by and watch Sanya be buried alive.
Lin Jinyue took half a piece of dry flatbread and went over.
Her third granduncle, a man over sixty, actually knelt and kowtowed to her for half a coarse grain pancake that no one in her family liked to eat. "Er Ya, Sanya's life is owed to you. If we manage to survive, from now on, let Sanya and Shitou serve you like oxen and horses."
As he spoke, he tried to pull his son and grandson Shitou beside him to kowtow to Lin Jinyue.