At the start of the journey, Lu Youguang had already returned the handcart to the Liu family. In his words, “Any bit of effort saved is worth it.”
At the moment, Liu Qingyu was pushing the cart together with her mother, walking behind the women and children. Behind them trailed a group of men shackled with wooden cangues and iron fetters.
“Xiaoyu, are you tired? Why don’t you let Mother push for a while?” Tian Chunzhu took out a handkerchief and tenderly wiped the sweat rolling down Liu Qingyu’s face.
Liu Qingyu casually wiped her sweat with her sleeve.
“I’m fine, Mother. Your health isn’t good to begin with, and Father is wearing a cangue, so he can’t free up his hands. Besides, there isn’t much on the cart, so it’s not tiring.”
“Don’t force yourself. If you’re tired, tell me. It’s so hot—if you get heatstroke, that’ll be terrible. Sigh, I wonder when we’ll be able to stop and rest.” Tian Chunzhu instructed her worriedly.
It was early autumn, but the weather remained unbearably hot. They had already been walking for two hours, and these pampered young masters, young ladies, and noblewomen were utterly exhausted.
Perhaps the prayers in everyone’s hearts had finally moved the heavens. Walking at the front, Lu Youguang waved the flag in his hand, signaling the bailiffs to find a place to rest.
“Alright, everyone stop here! Find a place to rest and eat your midday meal!” one of the bailiffs shouted after seeing Lu Youguang’s signal.
The moment he finished speaking, everyone who had been standing plopped onto the ground. They no longer cared about the scorching sun and only wanted to rest.
Liu Qingyu looked around, spotted a tree with a fairly large patch of shade, and immediately pushed the cart toward it.
Luckily, she moved quickly. There were many trees, but even more people. If she waited for everyone else to react, it would be too late.
After parking the cart, she called her parents over.
“My daughter is amazing. You found such a cool spot so quickly.” Liu Hongyi walked over, drenched in sweat despite wearing the heavy cangue.
Tian Chunzhu tenderly wiped the sweat from his face and muttered,
“This is too much suffering for you. Do you have to wear this cangue until the end of exile?”
“It’s fine. It’s only inconvenient when I need to use my hands. My feet are still nimble! Look, I can even do that jump-rope dance our daughter does. Little rubber ball, cross your feet and kick, the Malan flowers bloom twenty-one…”
Seeing his wife worrying, Liu Hongyi immediately started hopping around and clowning to cheer her up.
Tian Chunzhu could only smile helplessly and pinch his waist.
“Behave yourself. The child is watching.”
“Father, sit down and rest for a while. We don’t know how long we’ll have to walk this afternoon. I still have some steamed buns here. We should fill our stomachs first and discuss what to do afterward.” Liu Qingyu suggested.
Liu Hongyi nodded and accepted the bun from her, only to realize that the distance between his hands and his mouth was too great because of the wooden cangue.
He could only stare at the bun in his hand, unable to eat it.
“I’ll feed you first. After you’ve eaten, I’ll eat.” Tian Chunzhu looked at her tall and sturdy husband and somehow saw grievance written all over his face.
Liu Hongyi shook his head.
“Wife, you eat first. I’m not in a hurry.”
Watching her parents push the bun back and forth between them, Liu Qingyu silently swallowed a large amount of “dog food”—the Chinese slang for witnessing an overly affectionate couple.
She hadn’t even eaten lunch yet, but somehow she already felt full.
Still, she needed to find a chance to remove her father’s cangue. Otherwise, it was simply too inconvenient.
The buns Qiuju had prepared were huge. Liu Qingyu felt full after eating just two.
She glanced at her still-busy parents, picked up a waterskin, and left the shade.
“Miss Liu, where are you going?” Lu Youguang had just finished eating and happened to be taking a walk to digest his meal.
Liu Qingyu held up the waterskin.
“I want to look for a water source and see if I can refill these. We’ve already finished the water that was brought before.”
“I already had someone scout the area. There’s a stream over there. Walk in the direction I’m pointing and you’ll see it soon enough. Fill your water quickly, though. We don’t know if there are any wild beasts around here.” Lu Youguang warned.
Liu Qingyu smiled and nodded, accepting his kindness before heading toward the stream.
The stream was indeed just as Lu Youguang had said—not far from their resting place.
Unfortunately, the water flow wasn’t very large.
When Liu Qingyu had transmigrated into the Liu household, everything had been too rushed. She had only had time to move supplies out of the storeroom and hadn’t had enough time to store water.
And on the road to exile, the very first disaster they would face was a drought.
Perhaps because there had been too much rain at the beginning of summer, there wasn’t a single drop of rain throughout late summer and autumn. The temperatures climbed higher and higher, and water sources dried up completely.
Many people had even died while searching for water.
At first, everyone thought they had simply suffered heatstroke, but they collapsed and never woke up again.
The people of this era might not understand, but Liu Qingyu, who came from modern times, knew very well what it was.
It was heatstroke—severe heatstroke. Their internal organs had practically been cooked by the heat.
So the most urgent matter right now was to store enough water for daily use.
Although her space contained spiritual spring water, her family currently wasn’t in a position to enjoy it.
The first few times someone drank the spring water, it caused an intense cleansing reaction. In a massive exile convoy like this, that was simply impossible.
For now, the spiritual spring water could only serve as an emergency backup.
On the surface, Liu Qingyu was staring at the crystal-clear stream.
In reality, she was selecting suitable containers for water storage inside her space.
Because she had been in such a hurry to store water, she hadn’t even properly examined the upgraded spiritual spring space before leaving.
She looked at the large wooden bucket in her hand and then at the stream.
If she had to scoop water one ladle at a time, not only would it require a huge amount of work, but it would also waste a lot of time.
[Host, after the space upgraded, it underwent major changes. You can now directly transfer items into containers inside the space through a medium.]
Liu Aotian noticed that his host had encountered a problem and took the initiative to remind her.
“You mean that if I place a small bottle into the stream, water will continuously flow into the wooden buckets inside my space?” Liu Qingyu asked happily.
[That’s right, Host. You can give it a try.]
Liu Qingyu nodded.
She opened her waterskins and filled two of them with water. As for the third, she connected it to her space with her consciousness.
On the surface, she appeared to be filling the waterskin.
In reality, she was transferring water into her space.
Inside, she had already picked out more than ten wooden buckets of various sizes, along with a large crock normally used for pickling vegetables, all prepared for storing water.
Splash…
One bucket after another was filled.
Only the large crock remained.
Liu Qingyu glanced at the system’s clock and realized she had been gone for quite some time.
She quickly severed the connection between the space and the waterskin, filled the last waterskin, and left the stream.
Soon, she returned near the exile convoy.
“Miss Liu, did you go fetch water? Is there a river nearby?” a gentle-looking woman asked when she saw the bulging waterskins in Liu Qingyu’s hands.
Liu Qingyu nodded and pointed in the direction of the stream.
“There’s a small stream nearby. Walk in this direction and you’ll see it.”
“Ah, thank you! I’ll go right away.” the woman said happily.
Not everyone could strike up a conversation with the bailiffs, so many people had no idea there was a water source nearby.
Earlier, everyone had been focused on resting and eating.
But now that they heard there was water to drink, no one remained seated. One after another, they stood up and hurried off to fill their containers.