Traveling through time and space and becoming a deposed prince, he just wants to survive!

The older one is the daughter. She is collecting firewood in the nearby wilderness and is constantly fiddling with the dead grass, trying to find new sprouts of grass roots.

The whole family had run out of food and could only boil some half-dried grass roots and swallow them with water to fill their stomachs.

If you are lucky, you can dig up fresh roots and sprouts, and your family can have a delicious meal with them.

The girl rummaged in the grass for a long time, obviously quite disappointed. When she looked up, she saw Zhao Sheng staring at her, and she was so scared that she screamed.

Her father rushed over upon hearing the noise and saw a strange man. He shouted, "Who are you?"

Although he seems to be a bit aggressive, it cannot hide his weakness as a scholar.

Zhao Sheng smiled and bowed, saying, "I was just passing by here. I didn't see any water along the way, and when I saw the smoke coming from a cooking stove, I came to ask where the water source was."

The middle-aged man saw that Zhao Sheng had a handsome face and did not look like a bad person. He pointed to a deep depression in the mountain and said:

"There's a pond over there. I estimate that after waiting for an hour or so, a pot of water will seep out. Go look over there."

In this day and age, a mouthful of water may be the hope of survival. This family hiding here obviously does not want to share the water with others.

Why did he tell him? Could it be? Thinking of this, Zhao Sheng couldn't help but become more vigilant. After saying goodbye, he walked straight towards the direction pointed by the middle-aged man.

After walking about a mile, we saw a dry rock pond. The grass roots around it had been pulled out. A puddle of water was vaguely visible, only the size and depth of a fist.

He had no tools to get water, so it was difficult to put water into the leather bag.

Just as he was thinking about how to get water, he heard footsteps in the distance. Zhao Sheng's heart tightened and he thought to himself, this person really has bad intentions.

In an instant, he took out a short blade from his arms, hid it in his sleeve, and quickly jumped out of the rocky ditch.

"Hey! Young man, I forgot to tell you just now that there is no ladle in this place, and it is difficult to get water. I specially brought you a wooden spoon."

As he spoke, the man handed over the wooden spoon in his hand.

Although Zhao Sheng knew that he had misunderstood the other party, the vigilance he had just experienced after escaping from the palace still made him careful at all times.

He did not step forward to take the wooden spoon, but instead asked cautiously: "Excuse me, what is your name, and where are you from?"

"My surname is Zhao, my name is Shicheng, my courtesy name is Bolin, and I am from Yuzhou."

In ancient times, those with surnames and names were basically all scholars, and could be considered Confucian scholars. It seems that his appearance must have been caused by misfortune in his family.

"My name is Zhao Sheng, with no given name. I am from the capital and am traveling to Hejian to stay with my relatives."

The place Zhao Sheng mentioned was Li Fu's hometown, located east of Dingzhou. Although his family was poor, it was safe.

"Oh, so we are from the same clan!" Zhao Shicheng became enthusiastic when he saw that the young man was from the same clan.

In ancient times, people relied on family trees to trace their ancestry. If they met someone with the same surname in a foreign land, they would recite the family tree.

When Zhao Sheng saw that Zhao Shicheng had some thoughts about the family tree, he immediately replied, "Mr. Zhao, there is no need to memorize the tree. I am a royal relative."

"Royal relative?" Zhao Shicheng was not frightened by this identity. Instead, he became interested in Zhao Sheng: "Come, come, I'll get you some water."

As he spoke, he took Zhao Sheng's leather bag, leaned over the rocky slope, and poured water into the bag spoonful by spoonful.

"My ancestors and the current emperor were from the same clan for five generations." Zhao Shicheng suddenly said, "My branch is considered unsuccessful. I failed the imperial examinations several times."

Then he sighed, "Because of my imperial examinations, our family business has gradually declined. Years of natural disasters have also caused my mother to become ill. I borrowed money for her medical treatment, but she died and I'm left with debts. I have no choice but to sell my land to pay it off."

Zhao Shicheng talked incessantly. Perhaps his clansmen saw that he had accomplished nothing and treated him like the plague. Then, they encountered a natural disaster, so he had to flee with his family.

"So where are you going?" Zhao Sheng asked curiously.

"There is a severe drought in the south. We plan to head towards the northeast. Perhaps we can find a way to survive there." Zhao Shicheng, probably because he met his relative, did not hide anything from Zhao Sheng.

Zhao Sheng smiled bitterly, thinking to himself, "Who isn't a refugee? I need to conceal my identity on this trip."

Just as I was thinking about it, I heard a rustling sound again...

No, based on Zhao Sheng's experience in jungle combat in his previous life, this was the sound of a giant python. Perhaps the water source here was the python's territory in the past.

Just at this time, Zhao Shicheng's daughter Zhao Zhen also walked towards this direction.

Pythons generally have poor eyesight and rely on smell and hearing to identify the direction of their prey. Zhao Zhen walked in this direction, clearly giving the python an attack signal.

At that moment, Zhao Zhen was attacked by a python and bitten on the ankle. The girl let out a miserable scream.

Zhao Sheng rushed over after hearing the sound, only to see a three-meter-long king cobra. After biting a person, it probably realized that the human was too big, so it gave up its target and planned to slip away!

The king rat snake, also known as the cauliflower snake, is not very venomous but is a delicacy.

It was a blessing for Zhao Sheng to encounter such a big snake in such a dry weather.

He hit the snake on the head with a stick, and the king snake immediately curled up, trying to wrap up its target.

How could Zhao Sheng let go of the opportunity to kill the delicious food in front of him so easily? He hit her repeatedly until she was unable to move. Then he turned around and found that Zhao Zhen was so scared that she couldn't speak.

"Little sister, are you okay?" Zhao Sheng didn't know that Zhao Zhen had been bitten by a snake, so he just greeted her out of habit.

Zhao Shicheng heard the noise and came up with some water. He saw Zhao Zhen standing there in a daze with two obvious bloody holes on his legs.

"Jane, were you bitten?"

When Zhao Sheng heard Zhao Shicheng's anxious shouts, he hurried over to check. Sure enough, there were two snake bite marks on the girl's ankle.

Although Zhao Sheng knew that the king cobra was not very poisonous, it was a child after all, and he felt uneasy if he didn't deal with it.

Zhao Shicheng didn't understand all this. In the eyes of a Confucian scholar like him, snakes were poisonous creatures and being bitten by them meant death.

In an instant, he sat limply on the ground, looking at the dead king cobra, and burst into tears for a long time.

Zhao Zhen also realized the pain in her ankle belatedly. Seeing her father lose his composure like this, while she kept her head down and remained silent, she probably guessed that she would not live long.

Due to this natural disaster, all the grass withered. Even if there were herbs nearby, no one could identify them.

The only way now is to bleed the victim to remove toxins, which can at least give the injured person some psychological comfort.

(In fact, if you don't treat it, you won't die. At most, you will feel uncomfortable for a few days.)

"Little sister, don't be nervous. I'll bleed you to remove the toxins. You'll be fine soon." Zhao Sheng whispered to comfort her, "I know a little bit of medicine. You'll be fine."

Zhao Sheng tore off a piece of cloth and tied Zhao Zhen's legs. He used a dagger to cut a wound where the snake had bitten him, allowing some blood to flow out of the slightly swollen wound.

"Brother Zhao, bring the leather bag over and rinse the child's wound."

Zhao Shicheng is still immersed in grief, and even when Zhao Sheng calls him, he does not respond for a long time.

"Dad, pass me the water." Zhao Zhen called softly.

Seeing that Zhao Shicheng still didn't react, Zhao Sheng walked over and took the leather bag, returned to Zhao Zhen's side and said with a smile: "Don't worry, let me wash you first, and you will be fine in a while."

"Well, I believe you." At this time, Zhao Zhen had an inexplicable trust in Zhao Sheng.

After everything was done, Zhao Sheng didn't let Zhao Zhen go. Instead, he said to Zhao Shicheng, "Take the skin bag and the python on the ground. You'll have snake soup to eat today."

After saying that, he held fourteen-year-old Zhao Zhen in his arms and walked towards her mother.

Poor Zhao Shicheng felt both hatred and fear when he saw the giant python, but considering that it was a delicious meal, he still plucked up the courage to carry the snake back with a wooden stick.