You rascal, stop right there!

Bai Wan was shocked. She thought she had concealed it well enough, but the old lady still saw through it at a glance.

Old Lady Lin continued with a sigh, "I can't even give you six steamed buns. We still have some soup made from wild vines and cakes made from bran at home, but they don't seem to be enough. Do you want some stone powder soup?"

Stone powder soup is a soup made by grinding stones into powder and boiling them with tree bark.

This is generally what so-called famine is all about.

The more he listened, the more familiar it sounded, and the expression of the person on the other side became very bad.

"Tell me, why did you people from Linjia Village dig ditches privately and offend the Li family garden?"

Old Mrs. Lin sighed thoughtfully: "You are from the capital, and you probably just talk about love, eat, drink and have fun every day. But you don't know that most of Jiangzhou are refugees now."

Today's Jiangzhou...

In fact, the people who dug ditches and offended the gardens of Li Mansion were not deliberately looking for trouble. The land that Li Simeng bought was not originally that size, but was illegally expanded and annexed.

The Ministry of Revenue is one of the forces of Prime Minister Li, and it condones the powerful families and the people, making it impossible for them to resist.

The key point is that after the expansion and merger, there happened to be a place called "Bai Sheng Ju" on the land of the garden yard, which blocked the water source of a stream.

This Jiangzhou had little rain to begin with, and the stream was blocked, causing thousands of acres of fertile land in several villages near the Lin family to lack water and be unable to be irrigated. All the people were plunged into poverty and famine, with no hope of a good harvest.

Countless refugees began to appear in Jiangzhou, and everyone either fled or endured it...

The county magistrate sent at the beginning of the year originally inspected the situation and appealed to the court to dig a canal, but his request was rejected and he was even imprisoned and sentenced to death.

The Li family bluntly stated that "Bai Sheng Ju" was a great feng shui location for their family and must not be moved.

If they were not forced to do so, they would not have dug up the Li Mansion gardens to build water diversion ditches, and the people who dug the ditches privately died on the spot.

Lin Fan's father was beaten to death, and his uncles went to the capital to seek justice, and specially chose Li Simeng's birthday banquet. They hoped that this matter would become a big deal, anger the emperor, or other interested officials would help.

However, he did not expect that the treacherous prime minister would be so bold and reckless that the incompetent emperor would be left alone.

Except for the Minister of Rites Ling Shumo and several assistant ministers of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Works, no one dared to impeach...

……

When Bai Wan heard this, he felt scared.

Especially knowing everything behind this Jiangzhou case, I realized how similar it was to the suffering of the people six years ago.

But what can he, a small painter, do?

People are selfish and cannot always think of themselves as saints.

He didn't want to make the same mistake again.

The guards around him were unaware of his worries. They only saw Bai Wan's expression changing constantly but he was still sitting upright.

"There are three rooms, you guys sleep there. I'll sleep in the carriage!" the man said with a smile.

It was very clear what was said. The old couple had one room, and the boy and the five others were squeezed into the remaining two rooms.

Except for Ling Shumo, he is not the kind of boss who would easily let others see his thoughts, even if these guards are there to protect him.

The group ate some stone powder soup, and they didn't feel very good.

In Beijing, they could have a good meal, even if they didn’t have the luxury of fish and meat, but they could have a good combination of meat and vegetables, so they had never experienced such hardship. Not to mention that they had to squeeze several people into a thatched hut, which was really hard to sleep in.

Bai Wan didn't care. Compared with his begging as a child, his life as a ruffian, and his travels across the mountains and rivers, this was nothing.

Therefore, he just sat in the carriage, stroking the brush with the lotus mark on it, and staring at the starry sky in a daze.

Not long after, Lin Fan, who had gotten up for the night, couldn't help but ask, "Boss, they've all gone to bed. Why aren't you sleeping?"

Bai Wan smiled and said, "Little Lin, do you have a sweetheart?"

The person opposite blushed: "Of course there is. The little girl Xiaoqin at the head of the village and I have been engaged for a long time. But we fled away from the famine..."

"Oh, I didn't realize you actually have a fiancée!" White Pea teased with a smile, "I really underestimated a young bean sprout like you."

Seeing his unusual expression, Lin Fan asked, "Boss, were you thinking about your sweetheart just now?"

Bai Wan looked at the lotus brush in her hand, her eyes seemed to sweep across the elegant and flawless face, and she sighed and whispered:

"It's scary. I can actually remember every word he said to me..."

The more emotionally entangled you are, the more you cannot accept separation.

Even though he was the one who spoke most casually when he left, he was actually the one who was most reluctant to leave. He even felt a little regretful, wondering why he hadn't crossed the line a little more when he was in the carriage.

"Xiao Linzi, what would you choose between love and righteousness?" he asked suddenly.

That's right, six years ago, he chose righteousness.

now……

The people on the other side have always seen this man as a scoundrel. Although he has a good heart, he never tells the truth.

"Boss, aren't you a gangster? You should want everything. How can you have a day to make a choice?" Lin Fan's voice became louder.

Bai Wan seemed to have suddenly realized something, and the corners of his mouth curled up with some emotion: "Yes, I should have both..."

He took out the booklet he carried with him, bit open the brush, leaned forward, and sketched, and the human figure gradually emerged.

Lin Fan looked at the sample in his hand and was slightly shocked: "This is..."

Bai Wan was worried and put away the pen: "Everyone thinks that so-called painters are just craftsmen. Some people even think that they are just tools for talented men and beautiful women to talk about love and affection. But..."

"If a person can't even get enough food, what's the point of talking about love, poetry and painting?"

In fact, in ancient stories, most romantic characters are born in wealthy families.

Those who have no worries about food and clothing will rack their brains to indulge in greed and lust.

As for Bai Ding, the first thing he would think about is what to eat next!

Seeing this man speaking so cautiously, the person opposite him got goosebumps all over his body, as if he was facing a clay mannequin he had never seen before.

"Boss, I'm a little scared when you do this!"

Bai Wan laughed bitterly, put down the album, raised his hand and gave the man a walnut on the forehead.

Snapped--

"You kid, go back to sleep! Don't disturb me."

Lin Fan let out a long sigh, thinking that Bai Shizhao looked more normal like this.

Looking at the person entering the thatched hut, Bai Wan continued to draw the sketch in his hand.

Countless ragged people standing in a group...

There were people kneeling on the ground begging, people carrying tattered straw hats and eating with broken bowls, not to mention people carrying firewood, beating drums, and holding babies in their arms who were about to be sold.

His portraits are not actually as good as Luo Wenqi's, but the advantage is that he saw them with his own eyes, so his paintings are sincere and more moving.

"If the famine was a natural disaster, we would be powerless. But this is a man-made disaster..."

Bai Wan put down the pen with his left hand, and his lips trembled slightly.

He looked up and down at the small sketch of "Refugees" in his hand. Compared with the painting six years ago, this one was really just beginning.

Suddenly, I remembered the well that imprisoned me.

People are shaking as if from stress:

"I'd better not toss about it anymore..."