Su Yanxi turned to look in the direction of the voice.
She saw a young woman in red riding attire galloping toward them on a bay horse.
As she drew near, the young woman dismounted and bowed to Su Houye and the Marquise. “Huanying pays her respects to Uncle Su and Aunt Su.”
After speaking, she stuffed a money pouch into Liu Bantou’s hand. “Bantou, could you please wait a moment longer? I need to speak with the Su Family.”
Liu Bantou weighed the pouch in his hand, satisfied with its heft. “Alright, but make it quick. Don’t delay our schedule.”
Chen Huanying also came from a military family.
Her father was a fourth-rank Guangwu General who had once served under Su Houye.
“Miss Chen, why have you come?” Su Houye asked with concern. “Didn’t I send word to your father forbidding anyone from seeing us off?”
The Emperor, perhaps due to his advanced age, had become increasingly unpredictable in his moods.
The court was already filled with tension and suspicion, with everyone fearing for their safety.
The Champion Marquis Family were now convicted criminals.
Su Houye feared that his former subordinates might misread the situation and plead for mercy before the Emperor or take other actions that could implicate them.
Therefore, his first act after being convicted was to send messengers to notify all his former subordinates house by house.
He forbade them from pleading for mercy, from doing anything for the Champion Marquis Family, and even from seeing them off at the city gate.
At this time, the more distance they kept from the Marquis Family, the safer they would be.
Chen Huanying’s gaze drifted toward Su Qingyu, and the tips of her ears turned slightly red.
She said quietly, “Uncle Su, I came of my own accord.
I’ve heard some news…”
At this point, she glanced around.
Finally, she leaned close to the Marquise’s ear and whispered something.
The Marquise’s face instantly changed color.
Then she bowed deeply to Chen Huanying with heartfelt gratitude. “Miss Chen, thank you!”
Chen Huanying helped the Marquise up and said solemnly, “Aunt, take care on your journey!”
After speaking, she gave Liu Bantou another pouch of silver. “Bantou, the journey to Shachang is long and arduous. Please take good care of the Su Family’s elderly and young.
When you return to the capital, our Guangwu General Residence will remember this favor.”
Liu Bantou stuffed the silver into his sleeve, beaming. “Of course, of course. Don’t worry, young lady.”
Having said this, Chen Huanying swiftly mounted her horse.
She pulled on the reins, her gaze sweeping over the Su Family members before settling on Su Qingyu. “Take care!”
With that, she rode away.
The Su Family officially began their exile journey.
Thanks to the two pouches of silver Chen Huanying had provided, their first day passed relatively smoothly.
The guards didn’t give them any trouble.
Even when Du Qiang occasionally wanted to whip them, Liu Bantou stopped him.
However, Su Xuan’er and Su Rui’er were still very young. Even though the three Su brothers took turns carrying them, the two little girls still suffered heatstroke from the intense heat.
That evening, Liu Bantou took them to an abandoned temple for shelter. He removed their cangues but kept their handcuffs and leg irons on.
The guards started a fire and brought out wine and meat to eat and drink.
The Su Family’s valuables had all been confiscated by the guards, leaving them only with the cornbread and flatbreads given by the commoners earlier.
Since cornbread kept better than flatbread, the Marquise first distributed one flatbread to each person, to be eaten with water from the waterskins.
Su Qinghe found medicine for heatstroke among the pills Doctor He had given them and administered it to Su Xuan’er and Su Rui’er.
But the two little girls remained listless and dispirited.
Su Qinghe then carefully broke the flatbread into small pieces, soaked them until soft, and fed them to his two young daughters.
However, the little ones seemed to have no appetite and refused to eat.
Su Yanxi had also had a daughter in her previous life.
When her daughter was born, the world was still in turmoil.
While accompanying Xiao Lingyou on military campaigns, it was inconvenient for her to care for the child herself, so she entrusted the baby to a wet nurse.
But when she returned, the wet nurse and the servants attending to them had all been slaughtered.
Her poor little daughter, not yet two years old, had been hidden in a cabinet and starved to death.
At the time, she thought it was the work of some rebel faction. Though heartbroken, she quickly pulled herself together.
She helped Xiao Lingyou gather military provisions and continued to fight in the war.
It was only after she became a human pig that she learned the atrocity was not committed by rebel enemies at all.
It was a play orchestrated by Xiao Lingyou himself.
His goal was to exploit her hatred, so she would fight even more desperately for him.
As Su Yanxi was lost in thought, someone pressed a piece of candy into her hand.
“Xi Xi, the flatbread doesn’t taste good. Have a piece of candy to sweeten your mouth.”
Looking around, she realized that besides her, only the three children had received candy.
Moreover, Su Yi very sensibly handed his piece of candy to the Marquise, saying, “Grandmother, Yi’er is a man. I don’t need candy.
You, Aunt, and my sisters should have it!”
Su Yanxi hadn’t expected the Marquise to give her candy.
Perhaps it was because in her previous life at Shen Jia, she was always the last to receive anything good.
So this feeling of being prioritized made her somewhat uncomfortable.
She froze for a moment before snapping back to reality and politely declining, “Mother, I don’t need it either. Save the candy for the children.”
The Marquise looked at her, her eyes filled with heartache.
They say children from poor families grow up fast. Her daughter must have suffered greatly at Shen Jia to be so sensible at such a young age.
Her eyes reddened as she insisted on pressing the candy into Su Yanxi’s hand, “You have it. You’re still a child too.”
Hearing this, Su Yanxi’s heart inexplicably tightened.
In the end, she accepted the candy and said to the Marquise, “Thank you.”
A flicker of disappointment passed through the Marquise’s eyes.
Although her daughter was willing to call them Father and Mother, there still remained a barrier between them.
Su Yanxi’s gaze shifted to Su Xuan’er and Su Rui’er.
The two little girls were very pretty, fair and clean, looking utterly adorable.
Whether it was a trick of the mind or not, Su Yanxi felt they bore some resemblance to her daughter from her previous life.
Seeing the two little girls so listless, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of heartache.
She untied the waterskin from her waist and handed it to Su Qinghe, saying, “Elder Brother, use my water to soak the flatbread for Xuan’er and Rui’er.
I’ve soaked osmanthus candy in my water—it’ll taste better.”
The water in her waterskin was Spirit Spring Water from her Space.
Her Space was not just a storage warehouse; it also contained a Spirit Spring and over ten acres of land for growing crops.
In her previous life, she had discovered that her Spirit Spring Water not only strengthened the body but could also cure minor ailments.
With prolonged consumption, it could even prolong life.
For minor issues like heatstroke, drinking the Spirit Spring Water two or three times would cure it.
Su Qinghe looked deeply at Su Yanxi, a glimmer of light shining in his eyes.
His biological sister was truly different from that impostor, Shen Qingyan.
In the past, if Xuan’er and Rui’er fell ill and cried fussily in front of Shen Qingyan, she would grow extremely impatient with their noise disturbing her.
“Thank you,” Su Qinghe said to Su Yanxi.
The sky had already darkened. Su Yanxi sat leaning against the wall, eyes closed to rest, and replied, “No need.”
She was actually intently sensing her Space.
She had previously detected living creatures inside the Space, but currently she couldn’t enter to investigate.
She could only use her mental perception to scan the interior.
Finally, her focus settled on a particular chest.
However, she possessed neither the ability to see through objects in the Space nor the power to open the chest mentally for inspection, leaving her unable to determine what exactly the living creature inside was.
It seemed she would have to wait until later to slip away and check.
“Get inside, quickly!”
Just then, commotion arose again at the rundown temple’s entrance.
The crack of a whip echoed, accompanied by harsh shouting.
Another group of exiled prisoners had been brought here to spend the night.
“Officer, are we really staying here tonight? This place is so dilapidated—how can anyone live here?”
A delicate, coquettish voice complained disdainfully.
Hearing this voice, Su Yanxi’s lips curved into a slight smile.
To think they’d arrived so soon!