“Ah! Ning’er, Yan’er, what happened?”
“Why are your injuries so serious?”
“What happened?”
“Weren’t you both fine last night?”
Wei Ning was awakened from her sleep by the noisy voices beside her. Her brows furrowed tightly.
Who was making so much noise so early in the morning and disturbing her sleep? How annoying.
Wei Ning struggled to open her heavy eyelids.
The first thing she saw was a circle of ancient-dressed people surrounding her, all looking at her anxiously.
She froze.
After taking a while to process everything, she finally remembered that she had transmigrated the previous night.
“She woke up! She woke up! Ning’er is awake!”
“Ning’er, how are you? How did you get hurt so badly?”
Wei Ning resigned herself to the situation and sat up.
She noticed that Wei Yan had just sat up beside her as well.
His face, which had looked relatively fine the previous night, was now badly swollen on one side, making him look like a pig’s head.
Wei Yan looked dazed.
After seeing Wei Ning with the white cloth wrapped around her forehead, he paused for a moment before his eyes gradually cleared.
“Yan’er, Ning’er, what happened? How did you get injured? What happened last night?”
The anxious voice belonged to a woman in her late twenties. She had a somewhat heroic appearance and looked somewhat similar to Wei Yan.
Wei Yan was just about to answer when a loud shout came from the temple entrance.
“Hurry up and pack everything! We’re leaving soon!”
Wei Ning looked over.
The burly escort officer was glaring at her and Wei Yan with a sinister expression.
There was a clear warning in his eyes.
Before Wei Yan could speak, Wei Ning calmly answered,
“I got up during the night and accidentally bumped into the corner of the wall. Wei Yan came over to help me but couldn’t see clearly and fell. We’re fine. Don’t worry.”
Wei Yan turned his head and exchanged a glance with Wei Ning.
He then said to the woman,
“Mother, it really was as Ning’er said. I’m fine.”
The woman was Yang Qing, the original owner’s mother.
Standing beside Yang Qing was the original owner’s father, Wei Qian.
Looking at the dried blood covering Wei Ning’s face and the bloodstains all over her prison clothes, as well as the deep abrasions covering half of Wei Yan’s face, Yang Qing knew something had happened.
Their explanations were obviously forced and unconvincing.
Her eyes lowered.
A moment later, she raised her head again with a smile and loudly asked the escort officer,
“Sir, we haven’t even had breakfast yet, have we?”
Throughout their journey into exile, each person had been given one wild-vegetable pancake or one black-flour steamed bun for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
If they wanted anything else or additional food, they had to pay several times the normal price to the escort officers in advance. Even then, the food might not arrive until the next meal or the following day.
At the beginning of their exile, several of the Wei family’s relatives had given them money.
But after nearly four months of traveling, almost all of it had been spent.
“What breakfast? We’re out of provisions. Hurry up and get moving. We can still reach Yinzhou before dark.”
The escort officer rudely snapped at them before turning and walking outside the temple.
“What? We’re completely out of food?”
“Didn’t they enter the city to buy supplies just two days ago? How could everything be gone today?”
Second Uncle Wei Chong was worried.
“We can probably endure going without food for a day, but what about San’er’s little girl?”
Wei Ning exchanged a glance with Wei Yan.
They both understood.
The escort officer was holding a grudge and deliberately making things difficult for them.
Wei Ning was so angry that her teeth practically itched.
Second Aunt Lin Qingyin was also extremely anxious.
Her youngest child was only six years old.
A gloomy atmosphere descended over everyone.
At that moment, Wei Ning’s grandmother spoke sternly.
“What are you panicking about? We’ve already made it through such a difficult journey. We’re almost at Yinzhou, and now you’re letting this defeat you?”
“It’s only one day. We won’t starve to death.”
“I still have one steamed bun left from yesterday’s lunch. Save it for Niu’er and Zhao’er.”
“Pack your things. We’re leaving.”
Grandmother had been born into a farming family.
She had learned a few characters from her father, who was a scholar, and had been Wei Zhang’s childhood sweetheart.
After Wei Zhang became the top scholar in the imperial examination, he rejected the offers made by powerful nobles in the capital and returned to his village to marry her.
Originally only in her early fifties and well-preserved for her age, Grandmother had aged dramatically after everything that had happened.
After enduring the hardships of exile, more than half of her hair had turned white, and she looked much older and more weathered.
Her words gave everyone a sense of reassurance.
The anxious and frustrated members of the family began packing their belongings.
In truth, there wasn’t much to pack.
They only had the shabby coats they had used as blankets the night before and their water pouches.
The two water pouches had been emptied the previous night.
Wei Yan picked them up and went to fetch water.
Wei Ning also stood and followed him.
She needed to wash the blood from her face and hopefully clear her dizzy head as well.
The Imperial Guards were nowhere to be seen in the temple.
No one mentioned them either.
They had probably left before the Wei family woke up.
By a small river, Wei Ning quickly washed her face.
Only then could she vaguely see the original owner’s reflection in the water.
She had a small, delicate face the size of a palm, a pair of bright, expressive doe-like eyes, a tall nose, and cherry-red lips.
Her appearance actually looked very similar to Wei Ning’s own appearance during middle school.
After filling the water pouches, Wei Yan called out,
“Ning’er, are you done? We need to hurry. Otherwise, that escort officer will make things difficult for everyone again.”
Only then did Wei Ning remember that throughout the journey, the escort officers had complained that the family was walking too slowly and had even beaten them with whips.
It had been her family members who had taken the whips for her.
Otherwise, with the original owner’s weak body, she would never have made it this far.
“I’m done. Let’s go.”
Wei Ning stood and followed Wei Yan quickly back toward the temple.
“Why didn’t you let me tell Father and Mother what happened last night?”
Wei Yan asked quietly.
“If we tell them, there’s nothing they can do. We’ll only make them worry for nothing. What’s the point?”
Wei Ning spoke calmly.
By the time they returned to the temple entrance, everyone else was already waiting there.
The Wei family members, who had originally been wearing hand and ankle shackles, now had wooden cangues around their necks.
Their hands could only be raised to shoulder height.
Only Wei Zhao, the six-year-old son of Second Uncle, and Wei Yuan, the two-year-old daughter of Third Uncle, were not fitted with wooden cangues.
Normally, condemned prisoners being exiled were supposed to wear wooden cangues.
However, to make traveling easier, they were usually given hand and ankle shackles instead.
The wooden cangues would only be put on once they were close to their destination, merely as a formality.
But they still had more than twenty li to travel.
Putting the cangues on now meant the children couldn’t be carried easily, which would slow down the journey.
“What are you standing there for, Miss Wei? Put it on!”
The burly escort officer looked at Wei Ning smugly, a malicious smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
He was taking revenge.
The Wei family had no way to resist.
Wei Ning and Wei Yan said nothing.
They simply walked over and allowed the younger escort officer to put the wooden cangue around them.
They hadn’t traveled very far before six-year-old Wei Zhao began struggling to keep up while holding onto two-year-old Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan was too young to walk any farther.
Seeing this, the burly escort officer sneered.
He pulled the leather whip from his waist and headed toward the back of the group.
Wei Ning, who was already walking near the rear, immediately became alert.
When the whip came down, she stepped in front of the two children and used her back to take the blow.
Wei Ning sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.
Her tightly pressed lips refused to let out even a sound.
Her back burned fiercely.
The whip had probably broken the skin.
The escort officer had used tremendous force.
If that whip had landed directly on Wei Yuan, the two-year-old girl might have died.
Scum.
Filth.
Wei Ning cursed inwardly.
Seeing this, every member of the Wei family clenched their fists.
They wanted nothing more than to rush forward and tear the bastard apart.
Father Wei Qian gave everyone a meaningful glance, signaling them to remain calm.
He immediately stepped forward to negotiate.
“Sir, the children are too young. An adult needs to carry them so we can travel faster. Why don’t you remove the cangues from the two children?”
“We’re almost at Yinzhou now. You’ve worked hard for nearly four months too. You want to finish your assignment and return home early as well.”
The burly escort officer raised his chin arrogantly.
“Lord Wei, it’s not that I don’t have compassion. Wearing the wooden cangue is the regulation. I’m simply enforcing the rules.”
“I understand, Sir. You’re only doing your duty. But for the sake of making good time, please show us a little consideration.”
Su Qian—rather, Wei Qian—struggled to take one tael of silver from the bundle on Wei Chong’s back and handed it to the escort officer.
“Please.”
The escort officer tossed the silver up and down in his hand.
Then he glanced sideways at Wei Ning, who was still facing away from him.
He sneered inwardly.
You little bitch. How dare you hurt me.
Just wait. I’ll make you pay.