The girl traveled through another world and forced the prince to take the imperial examination

Mu Qingcheng also understood that the two of them were already in a precarious situation, so there was no need to create unnecessary complications.

"Miss, I'm sorry! My brother didn't mean it just now. Are you okay?"

Yun Qing was surprised when she called him "Brother". He turned his head to look at her, and a smile unconsciously appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"We're not here to arrest you. We're just passing through. If you're okay, we'll leave."

Mu Qingcheng dragged Yun Qing away. The girl struggled to her feet, then knelt down before Mu Qingcheng and said, "Miss, please save me! I haven't eaten for two days, and I can't run anymore... I beg you."

Mu Qingcheng felt that this girl was really pitiful and felt pity for her.

"What's wrong with you? Why should we save you?" They are in a difficult situation themselves.

The girl knelt on the ground and cried miserably, "I'm from Dahe Village. My mother died giving birth to me. My father later remarried, and my stepmother gave birth to three sons for him. I've always eaten the least and worked the most, but they still despised me and sold me to the Jiang family in Dongwang Village as a child bride."

Mu Qingcheng frowned and looked at Yun Qing. She didn't know if what the girl said was true. When she looked at her, Yun Qing seemed to have sensed something, shook her head at her, and wrote a few words on her palm.

Mu Qingcheng nodded in understanding and then asked, "Girl, since your father and stepmother abused you, why are you running away now that you've escaped from the hell?"

The girl sobbed even more miserably, "I was sold to the Jiang family as a child bride. I never expected that the Jiang family's son is such a fool. He's already twelve and still needs to be fed. He doesn't even know how to poop or pee. He only knows how to beat people... and beats them to death..."

The girl rolled up her tattered sleeves, revealing her skinny arms, which were covered with bloody teeth marks and countless bruises.

Mu Qingcheng had seen the wound on Yun Qing's arm, which was already shocking. She had never expected that an even more horrific injury would appear on a little girl. How heartless!

Yun Qing could sense that Mu Qingcheng's hands were shaking badly, so he tightened his grip and asked her, "What's wrong?"

Mu Qingcheng described the girl's injury to Yun Qing, and Yun Qing fell silent.

"The idiot hit me, and many people stood by and watched, cheering for him. The more people cheered, the more excited he became."

The more Mu Qingcheng listened, the angrier she became. Her heart began to ache. These people were no longer worthy of being human beings.

"Ever since I arrived at the Jiang family, they haven't given me a single bite to eat. They only let me drink the water I use to wash the pots. Every day, there's endless work to do, and if I'm a little slow, I get beaten... I... I really can't take it anymore. I fainted twice yesterday. If this continues, I'm going to die... So, I took advantage of the night when they were asleep and escaped over the wall... But I really can't run anymore."

Mu Qingcheng stamped her feet in anger and rummaged through the food in her pockets. Besides the chocolate, there were only two compressed biscuits left. There were also some roasted chestnuts and wild fruits in the basket. She tore open the packaging and handed the biscuits to the girl.

"Eat! Fill your stomach first. We don't have much to eat."

The girl had been hungry for so long that she swallowed the compressed biscuits in one bite and kept licking her fingers with her tongue. Her fingers were so dirty that you couldn't see their skin color.

Mu Qingcheng felt a little nauseous and couldn't bear to watch it any longer, so she gave her another cookie. The girl held it with both hands, afraid to miss a single crumb.

Mu Qingcheng took out the plastic bowl holder used to feed Xiao Hei water and poured some water from the water bag for the girl to drink.

Mu Qingcheng can use the same water bag with Yun Qing, but not with anyone else. This may be a bit of a double standard, but for Mu Qingcheng, it's just that she has obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Perhaps it was because it was dark, and the girl was thirsty and hungry, so she didn't pay attention to why the bowl of water was so soft and strange. She just held it carefully in her hands and drank it in one gulp.

The girl drank five or six bowls of water before she stopped embarrassedly and kowtowed to Mu Qingcheng repeatedly to express her gratitude.

Mu Qingcheng asked, "Where are you going?"

The girl quickly replied, "I'm going to Xiaxi Village. My uncle's home is there. When I was a child, my grandfather felt sorry for me and often asked my uncle to take me to live with him."

Before she finished speaking, she lowered her head and silently wiped her tears and said with a sob: "My grandpa passed away three years ago..."

Misfortunes in life always come one after another, and misfortunes never come alone.

Mu Qingcheng was ready to give the girl a ride. Since meeting was fate, he couldn't just stand by and watch her die!

Yun Qing did not object, but he did not agree in his heart. This girl was plagued by bad luck, and no one who helped her would end up well. He was afraid that things were not as simple as just giving her a ride.

Yun Qing drove the ox cart on the road again, this time with a destination - Xiaxixi Village.

Xiaxixi Village is still twenty miles ahead. Yun Qing estimated the distance and thought that they would reach Xiaxixi Village before dawn.

Mu Qingcheng moved Xiao Hei to the side and let the girl sit next to him. Fortunately, the ox cart was big enough. The girl curled up in a corner of the cart, hugging her knees for fear of touching Xiao Hei.

Mu Qingcheng said, "This is my cousin Xiao Hei. We encountered bandits some time ago and he was seriously injured. We were going to take him to the county town to find a doctor, so we hurried on this journey overnight."

The girl was also frightened by the wound on Xiao Hei's face. She said timidly, "Young Master, are you going to the county town? Why don't you take the official road? This way is too long."

"Really?" Mu Qingcheng pretended to be panicked and said, "We came here from Yunzhou to visit relatives. This is our first time here, and we encountered robbers. We ended up here in a panic. What kind of place is this?"

The girl hurriedly said, "This is the territory of Daxing Town, Yongkang County, Changle Prefecture. I wonder if the place you are going to is Yongkang County. This road is a long way to go."

Yun Qing turned his back to them, listening carefully to their conversation, and was startled. "So they took him to Jiangzhou, the southernmost part of Qi State, and the place with the most mines. He should have thought of this earlier."

Mu Qingcheng seemed to be very regretful and asked, "How far is it from here to Daxing Town?"

The girl said with an embarrassed look on her face, "I... have never been there. I heard that it takes more than an hour to get to the town by ox cart from our village."

Mu Qingcheng nodded. One hour is two hours. It would probably take five or six hours to get to the county town! It's quite far. If we take the ox cart so wobbly, it will fall apart by the time we get to the county town.

Mu Qingcheng suddenly thought of something and leaned over to Yun Qing and whispered, "Yun Qing, I think the Jiang family this girl was sold to is the same Jiang family that Lai Pi Si wanted to sell me to? They all have the surname Jiang, and they all have a stupid son in their family."

Yun Qing nodded grimly. The Jiang family was not a good family either. Fortunately, she escaped, otherwise... the consequences might be even worse than this girl's.

Mu Qingcheng grabbed a handful of roasted chestnuts from the basket and gave them to the girl, who thanked her again and again.

Mu Qingcheng asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is Xiaocao, my grandpa gave me that name. My dad calls me Daya at home, and my stepmother calls me a money-loser. But I like the name Xiaocao."

Mu Qingcheng nodded and smiled, "Who taught you etiquette? It looks like you've learned it before?"

"Miss, there's a little sister in our village who's the same age as me named Shanxing. She was sold to a wealthy family in the county as a maid a few years ago. She came back to visit her family two years ago and she taught me secretly."

Mu Qingcheng asked curiously, "You also want to be a maid? Why?"

Xiao Cao nodded shyly and said, "I...all the girls in our village want to be maids...Being a maid means having enough food to eat, wearing nice clothes, and having the chance to marry a servant in the mansion in the future. It's definitely better than marrying a poor man in the village."

Mu Qingcheng was so shocked. It turned out that here, girls from poor families were not even as good as the slaves of the nobles.