The mother and daughter exchanged a look and didn’t hesitate any longer. They quickly turned onto the official road.
The Qin Village where they lived was only about half an hour from the nearest Yunxi Town, but they didn’t dare head there.
Cui Zhu had mentioned that she and Grandma Gui had previously stayed in Yunxi Town. No one knew whether people sent by Princess An were still lurking there. If they ran into them, it would be troublesome.
If they bypassed Yunxi Town and kept following the official road, after another hour or so they would reach Zhaohua County instead.
Zhaohua County was a large county town with well-developed transportation and a fairly big river port. There were many traveling merchants coming and going.
With more people, there would be more chances to blend in, so it was relatively safer.
So in the pitch-black night, the two of them continued walking along the official road.
By the time they passed Yunxi Town, the sky was already turning gray.
“Girl, you must be tired. Let’s rest by the roadside, eat some flatbread and drink some water before we go on,” Madam Zhou said.
Both of them carried small bundles. Inside were only a few clothes and a bamboo water flask.
Because of the hot weather, the flatbread was stored inside the space. When they needed to eat, Qin Suining would secretly take it out under cover of the bundle.
After confirming no one was around, she quickly opened it and took out two golden egg pancakes.
These were made by Madam Zhou in the space using eggs from their own hens.
In the past, they could barely afford to eat eggs. Every egg was saved and sold to buy daily necessities like oil, salt, and seasoning.
But after the disaster, Madam Zhou’s mindset had changed completely.
All these years of scraping together money just to support that man’s studies—only to end up nearly losing their lives.
Just thinking about it made her teeth ache with anger.
If Qin Shubai had been right in front of her, she would have fought him to the death.
The two ate in silence and quickly finished their meal before continuing on at a faster pace.
Not even an hour later, they had already reached the city walls of Zhaohua County.
It was already daylight. The city gate was crowded with people coming and going.
After checking carefully, they joined the end of the queue.
The person in front of Qin Suining was a middle-aged man carrying baskets of fruits and vegetables, still wet with dew.
Ahead of him were several others dressed similarly—farmers from nearby villages coming into the city to sell produce.
“Mother, let’s also buy some vegetable seeds,” Qin Suining whispered.
With so much fertile land inside the space, leaving it empty was wasteful.
“Alright, we’ll take a look once we’re inside,” Madam Zhou agreed.
Soon they reached the gate and paid four copper coins each to enter the city.
There was a lot they needed to buy: food, daily necessities, housing supplies.
Grain was the priority, along with vegetable and fruit seeds.
They already had some grain stored in the space.
They went into a grain shop and squeezed through the crowd. Only then did they learn the prices had increased.
“Prices went up again? They just went up a few days ago!”
“This is leaving us no way to live!”
“Even old rice has gone up—what used to buy ten jin of millet now only gets five!”
The crowd erupted in complaints.
The shop assistants, already annoyed, coldly replied:
“Take it or leave it. The owner said drought is spreading across several prefectures. Prices will only keep rising.”
Hearing this, the crowd fell silent.
No one was foolish—they all understood the situation.
Soon they began rushing to buy grain.
Madam Zhou and Qin Suining also bought without hesitation, choosing good quality grains and seeds.
The shop even arranged delivery using ox carts, which saved them trouble.
They arranged to have everything delivered to a quiet alley near Wutong Street, where they could transfer items into their space safely.
After buying everything, they went to a seed shop and purchased more seeds, including grains, vegetables, fruit trees, and even medicinal herb seeds.
They even bought medical books for learning herb cultivation.
After finishing their purchases, they stopped at a restaurant for a meal.
After eating, they met the middle-aged man again, who had already completed the paperwork: household registration, travel permits, and horse sale documents—all properly arranged.
Madam Zhou paid the remaining fee.
With the horse carriage ready, they left the city quickly.
They had entered empty-handed but left with everything prepared.
Later, while traveling, Qin Suining listened to the floating “bullet comments” again—people from another world discussing them.
Some said they had escaped successfully, others insisted they would be hunted down again.
But she no longer cared.
She only knew one thing:
She didn’t want to die.
And neither did her mother.
They would live—and if possible, they would take revenge.
Ignoring the noise, she quietly took out a wooden bucket from the space and filled it halfway with river water, just as a precaution for travel.