The hand that had been pulling at her had now reached the front of the young woman’s chest.
The girl immediately screamed shrilly, resisting as she cried, “I won’t eat! Let go of me!”
But what awaited her was a merciless slap, causing her exhausted body to collapse limply to the side.
The girl’s parents finally reacted, standing up to push the Escorts while shouting angrily, “You beasts! Let go of my daughter! Is there no law anymore?”
The Escorts immediately kicked out viciously: “Law? Right now, I am the law. Do you still think you’re government officials?”
The courtyard descended into chaos. Xiao Mo’er belatedly realized why her sister-in-law had made everyone smell so foul.
She quickly moved closer to Xie Mingzhu, her breathing almost stopping from fear.
Amid the chaos in the courtyard—children’s frightened cries, the young woman’s agonized sobs, parents’ furious curses and expressions of helplessness—all mixed together, Xie Mingzhu felt as if cold winds were whistling past her ears.
She instinctively hugged the children beside her tighter.
Both she and her sister-in-law had decent looks. While her sister-in-law might not be as beautiful as her, she was younger.
It was such a close call. If she hadn’t thought of it earlier, they would be the ones being dragged away now.
The first night of their exile journey was destined to be turbulent.
The woman’s agonized cries continued endlessly. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed before the backyard door opened again. A young woman, moving like a walking corpse, was shoved back into the courtyard, and the door was locked once more.
The young woman’s clothes were torn to shreds, barely covering her body. Several compilers from the Hanlin Academy who saw this quickly turned their faces away in shame.
Her body was covered with countless wounds.
When her family stood up, Xie Mingzhu thought they would remove their clothes to cover her. Instead, it was her father who stepped forward, eyes bloodshot, without hesitation reaching to strangle her already bruised neck.
Her mother and siblings initially moved to intervene but seemed to remember something and stopped.
As if the girl’s loss of virtue had dishonored their family’s reputation—even though they had already been stripped of their property.
So she had to die. Only through death and blood could the shame on their family’s honor be cleansed.
Xie Mingzhu watched with her heart pounding. For a moment, she wanted to stand up and stop them, but the children in her arms reminded her.
She wasn’t alone, and she didn’t have the capability.
Now, she could only protect herself. She couldn’t be blamed for being selfish.
Besides, hadn’t they earlier looked down on their own group for reeking of urine?
No one stopped the girl’s death. It seemed most people thought this was her best outcome.
Her father strangling her was considered taken for granted.
Only after she died did her mother hold her body and weep.
But what use was that now?
Amid the mournful sobbing, the backyard door opened once more. A courier station attendant shouted hoarsely, “Who is Jiaoxing’s family? Come here. Jiaoxing served the masters well. Here’s some food and wine for you.”
The Li family, who had earlier felt ashamed that their daughter hadn’t died to preserve her purity, suddenly stood up upon hearing “food and wine.” “We are! We are Jiaoxing’s family!”
Seeing this, the attendant handed them a clean food box. “Take it. Your girl pleased our masters, so this is your reward.”
While speaking, his eyes kept searching until he saw that the girl who had just been delivered was already dead. He snorted coldly, “Little bitch, still daring to bite people! Good thing she’s dead, saves me the trouble of doing it myself.”
Once the food box was obtained, how could Jiao Xing’s family bother to curse her for being shameless? Starving desperately, the family didn’t bother with manners and reached directly into the fragrant wine and meat, eating with great relish.
The aroma of wine and meat wafted through the backyard, and the family of the girl who had just been strangled unconsciously swallowed their saliva.
The mother who had been holding her daughter’s body and weeping now cried even more bitterly.
Xiao Yunshi, however, couldn’t help but gasp softly and whispered, “Mother, do you think they regret strangling that sister?”
“They probably already do,” Xie Mingzhu replied, noticing the accusatory looks the girl’s brother and sister-in-law were now giving their father.
It was late February, and the nights still carried a chill. Just before dawn, a light rain began to fall.
At this time, the narrow space beneath the stable showed its value.
But those people were still afraid of getting dirty and refused to come near the stable, stubbornly enduring the rain.
By morning, when it was time to set off, some children and elderly began coughing.
Xie Mingzhu wasn’t particularly worried. Since their family smelled foul, they were assigned to walk at the back, minimizing the risk of infection from others.
Unexpectedly, she noticed that the young women who hadn’t been returned last night no longer had to wear leg irons.
To be honest, not having to drag iron shackles was something to be envied.
However, Xie Mingzhu saw the escorts occasionally riding past, openly groping the women’s breasts and buttocks in full view of everyone.
Even though she had traveled through time to this era from modern times, she still found it hard to accept.
Needless to say, the male exiles from the Hanlin Academy felt the same.
Now they shifted their contemptuous gazes from Xie Mingzhu’s family to those young women.
But ultimately, what wrong had those women committed? Who wouldn’t want to survive?
Imperceptibly, the exile group had divided into four factions.
One consisted of families who would rather die than submit—though they had paid a heavy price.
For example, after the light rain on the first night, some caught colds. Unwilling to beg the escorts for help or offer them benefits, they even forcibly scarred their young women’s faces. Consequently, several children and elderly died along the way after struggling for a few days.
Initially, everyone felt a sense of shared sorrow, but under the extreme torment of exhaustion and hunger, that grief quickly faded.
Then there were the young men from the Hanlin Academy, followed by the families who relied on their daughters to eat and drink well.
As for the filthy, stinking Xie Mingzhu and her family, they formed their own group.
In truth, Xie Mingzhu felt deeply grateful to those women. If they had all chosen death, how could the young women in the group have endured?
Sooner or later, the escorts would have turned their attention to her and her sister-in-law.
If the escorts threatened the children then, she would have no choice but to obediently wash herself in the river.
So she quietly told her sister-in-law and the children, “Don’t look down on those sisters like others do. Our family remains intact partly thanks to them!”
Finally, she pointed at Xiao Mo’er and said, “Especially you and me—we owe them the most gratitude.”
After a long period of interaction, Xiao Mo’er developed a sense of admiration for her sister-in-law, Xie Mingzhu.
She finally understood why her brother, when choosing a second wife, had passed over noblewomen and instead selected this merchant’s daughter—it was because he recognized her intelligence.
As for intelligence, Xie Mingzhu didn’t possess much.
She had merely received a formal education, giving her a somewhat broader perspective and a bit more caution.
As for the exiled convicts now, most had likely guessed the reason why Xie Mingzhu’s family was so filthy and foul-smelling.
It certainly wasn’t because they lacked hygiene.
Yet, they couldn’t help but admire her toughness—being able to endure such filth and stench.
If it were them, they wouldn’t be able to bear it. Whenever they rested by rivers or streams, they would scoop water to wash their faces.
But Xie Mingzhu’s entire family was now caked in grime.
A neat, uniformly dirty bunch.
Especially as they traveled further south, where temperatures rose, the stench on their bodies grew increasingly pungent.
Fortunately, most people in the group now reeked of sweat, so the mosquitoes didn’t target just their family.
In the entire procession, the cleanest were the young women who took turns accompanying the Escorts each night.
Particularly Miss Jiao Xing of the Li family. She was the first woman to yield to the Escorts, so even though she wasn’t the most beautiful, the Escorts appreciated her compliance the most.
Her family, naturally, ate and drank well along the journey. Even her young brother eventually had his shackles removed, only to be put back on when passing through towns to maintain appearances.
Thanks to her, the Li family lived quite comfortably on this journey.
Then there was the Su family. Originally a fourth-rank official household, they initially resisted. But later, Su Yurou saw that the Escorts kept their word—as long as the women cooperated, their families would be treated fairly.
Su Yurou had some reputation in the capital as a talented and cultured woman, and she valued her dignity deeply. Yet, she was also a filial daughter, willing to sacrifice her body and endure humiliation for her family’s sake.
Next was the Lu family.
If the Lu family had realized this earlier, perhaps the old man and the young man wouldn’t have died.
Now, relying on Lu Wanwan, the Lu family didn’t feast lavishly, but they had shelter from wind and rain at night.
On lucky days, they even got to stay in the firewood sheds of post stations.
As for those who would rather die than submit, some families, fearing their daughters or young daughters-in-law couldn’t endure the torment, slashed their faces themselves.
In more extreme cases, mothers led their daughters and daughters-in-law to hang themselves.
One morning, seeing the trees hung with corpses like cocoons, even Xie Mingzhu was deeply frightened.
The Escorts found these people tough to handle and simply ignored them, focusing on delivering them to Lingnan as required.
The young men suffered the most.
With them as the Escorts’ primary targets for venting, the filthy Xie Mingzhu family became almost invisible in the procession.
Moreover, their stench was unbearable to ordinary people, and the Escorts considered them the true tough ones.
If they were cowardly, they would have slit their throats long ago to end it all.
But here they were, tolerating the overwhelming stench day after day.
So, the Escorts preferred not to bother them.