No matter how unscrupulous the Shen family members were, they had once been wealthy and received some education.
Hearing the man’s words, Shen Pengcheng was the first to retch.
Shen Pengxing glared angrily at the man and raised his fist, “Get lost! Who wants to swap food with you? If you don’t leave now, I’ll beat you to death!”
By now, Shen Shiming also understood what kind of meat that was.
He didn’t dare to cause any more trouble.
Afraid that if he continued, he might end up becoming meat himself.
Seeing Shen Pengxing’s reaction, the man looked somewhat disappointed.
His daughter was too thin and bony; he hadn’t been able to trade her away.
Originally, he had noticed that this group was passing through on their exile journey and thought they might not know the current situation.
He also took a liking to their fair and plump girls, thinking he could get a good deal.
Unexpectedly, these people were so stubborn.
He just muttered, “Fine, if you don’t want to swap, I’ll find someone else.”
With that, he pushed the little girl and walked away.
Su Yanxi’s gaze fell on the little girl, and she felt a faint ache in her heart.
She admitted she wasn’t a particularly kind person.
In her previous life, to help Xiao Lingyou secure the throne, she had schemed and manipulated, showing no mercy to anyone who opposed him.
Countless people had died by her hand.
But at this moment, looking at the little girl’s disproportionately large eyes made more prominent by her thinness, she couldn’t bear it.
Finally, she called out to the man, “Is this little girl of yours for sale?”
The man was momentarily stunned by the word “sell.”
Because along this journey, no one bought or sold children anymore—they only exchanged them.
After collecting himself, he nodded vigorously, “Sell! Sell!
Miss, do you want to buy my daughter?
Let me tell you, this girl of mine…”
“How much?” Su Yanxi had no patience to listen to the man’s introduction and cut straight to the point.
The man cautiously looked around and, seeing that no one was paying attention to them anymore, moved closer to Su Yanxi to discuss the price.
But as soon as he approached, Su Qinghuai stepped forward, blocking the man and saying, “You can discuss it with me.”
The man smiled awkwardly and held up one finger, “If you really want this girl, just give me ten pounds of coarse rice.”
Worried that the price might be too high and they would change their minds, he added, “The price isn’t expensive. If you don’t have that much coarse rice, other grains or the hardtack the officials gave you will do.”
Both he and his daughter hadn’t eaten for three days.
The girl was on the verge of starvation, and he couldn’t find anyone to trade her with.
If she starved to death, she would be even harder to trade, and since she was his own flesh and blood, he couldn’t bring himself to eat her.
In that case, she would just go to waste.
While Su Qinghuai was negotiating with the man, the Su family had already conscientiously gathered all the food from their bundles.
In the end, they only managed to collect seven or eight black hardtacks as hard as stones and three large steamed buns that the commoners had given them when they left the capital.
Su Qinghuai presented the gathered food to the man, “This is all the food we have. Will you sell?”
The moment the man saw the hardtacks and steamed buns, he began nodding repeatedly, “Sell! Sell!”
With these hardtacks and steamed buns, even half a piece a day would be enough to keep him alive for twenty or thirty days.
In twenty or thirty days, he should be able to reach the capital and find a way to survive!
Su Qinghuai handed the bundle containing the black hardtacks and steamed buns to the man.
The man took the bundle and pushed the little girl toward them, saying cheerfully, “Here’s the child for you. Do whatever you want with her—eat her if you wish.”
The little girl stumbled from the push and fell to the ground.
Su Qinghuai hurried to help her up.
But the girl, delirious with hunger and driven by survival instinct, instinctively curled into a ball, weeping softly as she pleaded, “Please don’t eat me, don’t eat me…”
The Su family watched with hearts aching at the sight.
At that moment, Shen Qingyan sneered coldly, “Truly a bunch of hypocrites pretending to be virtuous. You’re no better than beasts, buying people to eat. I wonder if those foolish commoners in the capital would still worship your Su family as guardian deities if they knew about this?”
None of the Su family members, including Su Yanxi, bothered to respond to Shen Qingyan.
Meanwhile, the Shen family, hearing Shen Qingyan’s words, stared at the little girl with greedy eyes. Shen Hongxing, Yang Shi, Shen Pengxing, and Shen Pengqiang even began swallowing saliva.
The thought of eating human flesh would have made them vomit before. But now, with only one black steamed bun per day and dozens of miles to trek under the scorching sun, they were desperately hungry and craving meat. If even the Champion Marquis Family resorted to cannibalism, why couldn’t they, mere merchants?
The little girl, likely too weak, fainted after her faint, mosquito-like pleas.
Su Yanxi quickly asked Su Qinghuai to help carry the child. She took out her waterskin and fed the girl some water. With no food left, she could only offer Spirit Spring Water to keep the girl alive.
After Su Yanxi gave the girl water, Su Qinghuai volunteered, “Sister, let me carry this child.”
Su Yanxi nodded, not arguing over the task. Though the Su family had eaten little recently, they had been drinking the Spirit Spring Water she provided, so their physical stamina remained decent.
Shen Qingyan and the Shen family, who had been waiting to see the Su family eat the girl, curled their lips in disdain at the scene.
Shen Qingyan rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Playing the good Samaritan even when you’re starving to death—who are you trying to impress?”
When they first left the capital, the guards could still find abandoned temples or dilapidated houses for shelter. These days, such places were gone, and they had to camp in graveyards. Even graves were scarce now, with no new burials—a fact made clear by the refugees on the road who had begun exchanging children to eat.
That evening, the guards led them to another graveyard as usual. As soon as they settled down, everyone started gulping water. The weather was unbearably hot, the sun blazing overhead all day, peeling layer after layer of skin from their bodies. Fortunately, the guards knew where to find water along this stretch, so they hadn’t run out.
After drinking, Su Qingyu shook his waterskin. “I’m out of water.”
Su Qinghuai added, “Me too.”
He stood up and politely asked the guards, “Officers, where can we fetch water today?”
The guards were also out of water.
Liu Bantou rose and said, “Alright, send someone with me to get water.”
As soon as Liu Bantou finished speaking, Du Qiang’s lecherous gaze swept over Su Yanxi and Shen Qingyan. He stopped Liu Bantou and suggested, “Bantou, how about I take them to fetch water today?”
Having walked all day, Liu Bantou had no desire to move either.
He sat back down again. “Fine, you take them.”
Meanwhile, Su Qingyu had already slung all the Su Family’s waterskins over his shoulder.
Over at the Shen Jia side, everyone had handed their waterskins to Li Wanzhi.
Crack!
The moment Su Qingyu took a step forward with Du Qiang,
Du Qiang suddenly whipped out his lash and struck Su Qingyu.
“Who said you could fetch water? She goes!”
His whip was pointing at Su Yanxi.