Quick travel: the life of smuggling is so exciting

Lin Xia followed the two people to the river.

At first, all three of them were silent, but in the end, the young man couldn't hold back and spoke.

"Girl, why do you want to go to the other side of the river? It's not safe there."

Lin Xia's heart skipped a beat.

He asked calmly, "I was just going there to stay with my relatives. What happened? Why do you say that?"

"do not you know?"

"That's right. From your accent, I can tell you're not from our area. You might not know much about it."

"Do you know about the plague outbreak in Quzhou last year?" asked the young man.

Lin Xia nodded, "I know this. It seems to have happened in September or October last year."

In fact, she didn't know when the plague broke out completely, nor did she know whether it had been cured. Judging from the man's unconcerned look, he must have been cured.

He asked tentatively, "Don't we already have medicine? What does the plague have to do with the other side's insecurity?"

“Oh, it was that month-long torrential rain that brought the plague directly into Xiangzhou, and the plague broke out in Xiangzhou as well.

We are all scared.

Suddenly, a miracle doctor arrived in Lingzhou and cured me in just a few strokes. My mother also had the plague, and it was this miracle doctor who cured her. His merits are truly immeasurable.” The young man said this and bowed towards the south.

The old man next to him also agreed when he heard this, and they bowed towards the south together.

The young man then continued, "I later learned that the miracle doctor was sent by Lord Xu, the governor of Lingzhou. At the time, not only was there a plague raging, but many refugees were also causing chaos. However, they were all pitiful people, so Lord Xu sent people to take in the refugees. He not only opened warehouses to provide relief, but also distributed land to the refugees so that they could settle down."

The other person suddenly became envious as he spoke: "If our family hadn't lived here for generations, I would also like to move there."

Hearing this, Lin Xia also envied him.

Can I still get land to settle down if I move there now?

On second thought, things are not that simple.

"Isn't this a good thing? What happened next?"

"After Lord Xu accepted the first batch of refugees, word spread quickly, and many, many people headed for Lingzhou.

Many people from our county who could not survive followed us there. As soon as we reached Lihe, the big river in front of Lingzhou and the border with Xiangzhou, Xiangzhou sent troops to guard it and refused to let us cross.

When the snow started to fall, many people rose up in rebellion, and they took down several cities. It was terrifying. I heard that rivers of blood flowed, especially among the wealthy families, whose entire families were killed. Tsk tsk.”

The young men's voices, originally filled with fear because of the uprising, were now filled with gloating as they spoke of the rich being robbed.

Hearing this, Lin Xia's thoughts began to drift away. The reason why Xiangzhou officials did not allow people to cross the border was probably because of serious population loss, and they used the most brutal method to preserve the population.

However, it is also possible that he is an enemy of Lord Xu of Lingzhou and is deliberately opposing him.

When gods fight, innocent people are affected. She wants to go to Lingzhou.

The young man didn't notice Lin Xia's expression and continued talking to himself.

"But that happened several months ago, on the other side of the river. Our river is long, so as long as we don't cross it, we'll be safe. Besides, with the heavy snow this time, there's no firewood to burn. Several boats in the village have been chopped up for firewood. I'm sure the number of boats in other villages has also decreased, making it even more difficult to cross the river."

He said with some regret, "A boat is so expensive. It's a waste to use it as firewood. We are the only family in the village that has a boat."

Lin Xia came back to her senses and continued, "Have you heard anything about the city being broken recently?"

“I haven’t heard of that. The weather was so cold before that everyone stayed at home.

"It's true we've never had such heavy snow here before. Many people froze to death, over a hundred in our village. Luckily, my family is alright." The young man scratched his head with a look of relief.

"Then you are really lucky. My family came here to live with relatives, and I was the only one who died on the way." Lin Xia talked nonsense and felt sad inwardly.

"Alas...my condolences." The other person came closer and wanted to comfort her but didn't know where to start.

Lin Xia's nose twitched slightly, and she changed the subject, "It's all in the past. I'll be fine once I get to see my relatives. But I'm out of food. I see your village is still farming. Do you have any surplus grain you could sell me a pound of?"

The young man immediately refused when he heard it.

"We have no food to sell in our village. Last year the weather was bad and the harvest was poor. When we were about to harvest the autumn rice, a heavy rain destroyed everything."

Just then, the old man leading the way stopped and said to her, "Girl, wait here for a moment, I'll go row the boat out." Then he went into the reed marsh.

The remaining two people were silent, and the other person casually said, "Girl, I don't think you look like a vicious person, why are you carrying a big knife?"

"I encountered some bandits before and stole it from them."

"Haha... I thought you bought it for self-defense, but I didn't expect you to have robbed it. You're quite capable." The other party was a little embarrassed, and then quietly moved away.

"Yes, at that time, everyone in my family was dead and there was nothing to eat. I thought that those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes, so I got mad and grabbed a big knife and killed the three robbers. They were all bandits anyway and deserved to die." Lin Xia said this with a ferocious look on his face.

The other person saw the expression on Lin Xia's face, swallowed, and moved away.

Just then, the old man came out with a boat and invited the two of them to get on board.

They successfully crossed the river smoothly and quietly. Watching the fishing boat return, Lin Xia put his mind at ease and walked forward.

On the other side of the boat.

"Xiao San, why did you stop me from taking action just now?" the old man asked.

"Dad, that's not a good person. I saw it with my own eyes. She really did kill someone. The look in her eyes is the same as Zhang the Butcher's."

"Hey, you... your second aunt will definitely tell you when we go back. She fought so hard for us to get this."

"Dad, it's not worth it. We don't lack food for the time being anyway, and it won't last if the weather gets hot."

"Yeah, looking at the weather, we just have to wait until this crop is harvested." The old man sighed. He didn't want to do that either.

The boat slowly rowed back...

Lin Xia was walking on the road and reviewing what had just happened. At the beginning, the villagers were really normal, and all their reactions were the same as normal people. They were nervous and repulsed when they saw her holding a big knife, and they did not surround her when people gathered.

She had a knife, and the boatman was worried about passengers getting hurt. She also understood that they were going in pairs, so she didn't doubt it at all.

It was not until she was chatting with the young man and got closer that she smelled a faint smell of meat. It must be just after noon and the smell had not yet dissipated.

Thinking back, they were not looking at her knife, but assessing her strength and her body. Perhaps because she was a woman, even though she was holding a big knife, they did not take her seriously, so they did not attack her directly.

She knew she had made a mistake, and she became even more alert.

In order to confirm whether her guess was true, she went directly to the other party to buy food. The other party said without hesitation that he had none.

People's subconscious reactions are 99% true, so she believed that there was no food. The heavy rain came suddenly and it was just before the rice harvest.

How did their village survive the long four months without food? I guess the bodies of those who froze to death were reused, or there were also some lone people passing by.

So Lin Xia later revealed that she had killed someone because she had to increase her deterrent power.

The two men didn't seem to have high fighting power, and their original plan might have been to push her into the river and drown her.

But she still boarded the boat even though she knew there was a problem, because she wanted to take a gamble. If she won, everyone would cross the river smoothly. If she lost, two of them would feed the fish and only one person would cross the river.

If you are followed by two burly men, there is no need to say anything, just turn around and run as fast as you can.

Finally, when she was on the boat, she really caught a glimpse of the two people arguing out of the corner of her eye. Fortunately, the young man was really sincere and did nothing, otherwise he would have fallen into the river and drowned after a fight on the boat. Although she might not have drowned if she had put a piece of wood in the space.