Since Jiang Zhi refused to leave, Xu Errui, being a filial son, couldn’t insist on going. He was afraid his mother would lose her temper again.
Nie Fantian’s lips, frozen to the color of liver, moved slightly. Risking another scolding, he said, “Aunt, the Village Chief is gathering everyone to leave together. Nothing will go wrong. We should still go with the others!”
Before he could say more, Jiang Zhi waved her hands repeatedly. “No, I’m not leaving. I’d rather die here than go.”
Just then, someone hurried in—the Village Chief of this small village.
Seeing the chaos in the yard and the belongings still not packed, he flew into a rage. “Old Lady Jiang, you’re usually unreasonable, but now you’re even less sensible than the children. We’re fleeing for our lives, understand? Fleeing for our lives!”
He had been furious all day. He had already agreed with the villagers to leave together, but there were always stubborn troublemakers.
Several families still sat idle, waiting for the authorities to send someone to fetch them, even asking whether they’d be provided food and shelter.
Wait! They’d understand once their heads rolled!
Jiang Zhi shook her head again. She definitely wouldn’t leave—there were too many dangers on the road ahead.
The Village Chief grew anxious. Since this old woman had always been unsociable, she deserved to die. “If you want to die, die alone. Don’t drag the children down. Let them come with me.”
By “the children,” he meant Nie Fantian.
Everyone had witnessed how Old Lady Jiang abused and mistreated this child, but since every household had its own dirty laundry, they turned a blind eye as long as no one died.
But now, with refugees and rogue soldiers approaching, it was unacceptable for Old Lady Jiang to stay and drag this child down with her.
Hearing the Village Chief’s intention to take Nie Fantian away, Jiang Zhi immediately said, “Then I’ll trouble you, Elder Brother-in-Law, to take care of him. This child is obedient—I’ll give him to you for free to pull the cart.”
To send the male protagonist away like this was truly a dream come true!
Nie Fantian’s eyes flashed with a sharp gleam. He had long wanted to escape.
But without food, money, or travel permits, he couldn’t take a single step. If given the chance, he would leave immediately.
However, he dared not reveal his intentions. “Aunt, how could I abandon you and leave alone?”
“Errui, go pack your cousin’s things. Let him leave with the Village Chief and the others!”
Jiang Zhi had made up her mind. She would send this jinx away now.
If she had transmigrated into a female-oriented novel, she would definitely seek out the female protagonist. Those clever and benevolent heroines would shine with blessings and save all beings.
But in a male-oriented novel, she had to stay as far away from the male protagonist as possible. They were all children of fate, destined to bring calamity.
Wherever they went, death followed. Wherever they stayed, villages perished. Even their closest brothers met terrible ends. Misfortune always struck wherever the male protagonist appeared.
Now that the Village Chief had come to fetch him, she would seize the chance to send him away. From now on, he could walk his own path, and she would walk hers. Better that than dying with regrets.
In truth, it wasn’t entirely the original host’s fault for disliking and mistreating Nie Fantian.
In the novel, the Xu family’s younger sister, who worked as a wet nurse in the county town, suddenly sent back a child, claiming it was her own secretly born son. She left some silver behind and never returned.
When the Xu family went to the city to look for her, her husband’s family said she had left with a wealthy household. They didn’t know her whereabouts or anything about a child, so naturally, they wouldn’t take responsibility.
To make matters worse, the original host’s husband met with an accident while out gathering information. Mistaken for a kidnapper, he was beaten and left with lingering health issues. He remained sickly until he passed away the year before last.
It was originally an ordinary farming family, and with an extra boy appearing out of nowhere, the man had fallen ill and needed medicine, which undoubtedly became a heavy burden.
Whenever the original host grew weary from work, she would take her frustrations out on Nie Fantian.
Whether in public or private, she never held back on abuse—daily beatings and curses—and over more than a decade, an irreconcilable hatred had long since taken root.
Now, the abused child had grown up and was about to commit murder. It was too late to mend their relationship, and all Jiang Zhi could do was let him go his own way.
Xu Errui was obedient. Seeing his mother determined to “send away” Xiao Tian, he had no choice but to pack his cousin’s belongings and prepare provisions for the journey.
Over the years at the Xu family, Nie Fantian had been driven out too many times to count. This time, however, he didn’t kneel and beg for mercy as he usually did.
He keenly sensed that his aunt was different today.
In the past, his aunt would scold him whenever she saw him eating, but today she had generously told his cousin to pack more food so he could travel farther.
The resentment in Nie Fantian’s heart eased slightly, but he had no time to dwell on it.
A true man’s ambitions lie far and wide. Zhou Wang’s troops were advancing toward the capital, and he intended to join the righteous army.
He had originally planned to slip away secretly along the way, but now he could leave openly with the Village Chief.
With both sides in agreement, the whole process went smoothly.
Jiang Zhi, fearing he might return to seek revenge, not only gave him provisions but even packed an extra cotton-padded coat.
Soon, the Village Chief led Nie Fantian and a large crowd of villagers, along with dogs, sheep, carts, and shoulder poles, as they left Xu Family Village in a bustling procession.
After sending Nie Fantian away, Jiang Zhi also needed to prepare to flee.
Earlier, she had told Nie Fantian she wasn’t leaving, but that meant she wasn’t joining the mass exodus—not that she intended to stay and wait for death.
The battlefield might be far from ordinary people, but defeated soldiers and refugees were dangerously close. The so-called scourge of war often came from the ever-growing hordes of refugees, like a snowball rolling downhill.
Starving refugees and deserters were incredibly destructive.
Jiang Zhi hadn’t forgotten that this was a world from a male-oriented novel, set in a time of war where social order had collapsed. Once people lost their humanity, they would stop at nothing—burning, killing, looting, and committing every imaginable atrocity.
The only silver lining was perhaps the absence of troublesome relatives, because in this case, the troublesome relative was the original host herself.
With his cousin suddenly gone during this time of flight, Xu Errui was left as the only male in the family, and he felt deeply upset: his cousin had grown up in their home, yet at the first sign of trouble, he left without hesitation—just as his mother had said, it was worse than raising a dog.
Jiang Zhi had no time to worry about Xu Errui’s feelings. She shouted, “Hey, kid, what are you standing around for? Hurry up and pack!”
As for suddenly becoming a mother-in-law and having such a grown son, Jiang Zhi couldn’t immediately adjust to the role.
Xu Errui snapped back to reality. “Mother, are we leaving too?”
“Who said we weren’t leaving? Do you want to stay here and wait to be beheaded?”
Jiang Zhi dusted off her hands, watching her son still standing there dumbfounded, and couldn’t help but complain inwardly: He really isn’t sharp!
“Oh, right! Okay, I’ll pack right away, right away!” Xu Errui didn’t understand why his mother had said earlier that they weren’t leaving but now insisted they must. But the thought that the Village Chief and the others hadn’t gone far and that he could catch up if he hurried made him scramble to pack in a flurry.
Actually, Xiao Tian had already packed the family’s grain and clothes earlier. It was only because his mother couldn’t bear to leave their few rooms that she had refused to go.
For farming families, their most valuable possessions were their small plot of land and their house.
But land couldn’t be taken with them.
It was the spring famine, and aside from some overwintering crops in the fields, there was nothing to harvest.
The house couldn’t be moved either.
The Xu family had two main rooms, two side rooms, plus a woodshed and kitchen. Though all were thatched huts, they had been well maintained by the original owner.
The mud walls were solid, the thatched roofs thick—enough to shelter from wind and rain. It was truly hard to abandon them.
When fleeing famine and leaving home, the only things one could take were food and clothing.
The family’s grain reserves were nearly exhausted after a winter of consumption. What remained now were seed grains and a few dozen catties of sweet potatoes stored in the cellar.
Additionally, there were a few old laying hens, kept for the pregnant daughter-in-law, Qiaoyun.
Jiang Zhi looked at the fully loaded carrying pole, the two back baskets, and the chickens with their feet tied, and couldn’t help but rub her forehead.
In this family of three, only Xu Errui was a strong laborer.
If she fled like this, even without Nie Fantian taking action, the outcome would be nothing but death.
Without a cart or livestock, she and her pregnant daughter-in-law couldn’t carry such heavy loads far. Even if they followed other villagers, they wouldn’t escape the fate of falling behind.
If they encountered other refugees trying to rob them, they’d have no way to defend themselves.
Her daughter-in-law, Qiaoyun, looked pale as she stared at the back baskets. The thought of carrying such a load while traveling made her stomach tighten.
She feared the chaos of soldiers, but she also felt her mother-in-law had a point in not wanting to leave.
Everyone was human—surely those refugees wouldn’t actually resort to cannibalism, would they?
“Let’s go to the mountain where your father used to make charcoal! We’ll hide there until this wave of chaos and refugees passes!” Jiang Zhi said.
She had found a good location in the original owner’s memories.
“But… that place isn’t fit for living!” Xu Errui hesitated.
Xu Family Village was a small settlement with just over twenty households and a population of around two hundred.
Though it was said to rely on the mountains for sustenance, Xu Family Village couldn’t truly thrive from them.
The mountains here were tall and rugged, with thin soil and abundant rocks. Aside from towering Qinggang trees and some miscellaneous woods, there was little else of value.
The villagers usually cut firewood from the miscellaneous trees in the forest. Additionally, each winter, they would fire two kilns of Qinggang charcoal to sell in the city, earning some extra money for the New Year.
High-quality Qinggang charcoal fetched a good price, providing a source of income for every household in the village.
For convenience in charcoal-making, each family would set up temporary sheds and charcoal piles in their accustomed areas of the forest.
Though the mountains were secluded, they had been largely abandoned, mainly because food was scarce there.
One could hide there for ten days or half a month, but not for a year or more.
“Qiaoyun’s belly is so big—she can hardly walk. Do you not want your wife anymore?” Jiang Zhi snapped irritably.
Nie Fantian was urging them to flee the famine to seek his own way out, but this foolish son of hers hadn’t considered the hardships involved.
It was precisely because the original owner had exhausted herself on the journey, tormenting the male lead along the way, that she had lost her life.
Xu Errui glanced at his wife’s belly, then at his mother, who was unusually calm. Just as he was about to say something, a sudden commotion erupted outside the courtyard, followed by loud banging on the gate.