The Crybaby Prince is Reborn, Where is the Prince Going?

In the third year of the Yuanxi reign, a severe drought destroyed all crops. The emperor ordered the opening of granaries to alleviate the drought. However, the drought unexpectedly lasted for three years. Rivers dried up, the ground cracked, and not a blade of grass grew. During these three years, the land was ravaged by starvation and refugees abounded. Some led refugees in uprisings, others took to the mountains to become bandits, robbing the rich and giving to the poor, and some sold their children for food... The people's miserable lives were a living hell. Amidst the national turmoil, foreign enemies watched covetously, but due to the constant natural disasters, they waited and watched at the border. In the sixth year of the Yuanxi reign, amidst this turmoil, a baby boy was born in a remote town, accompanied by the sorrow of his entire family. This child was none other than Liu Chunsheng...

--wedge

It was April, the spring of the year, but the scene in the small town was not very beautiful. The two rows of trees beside the street no longer had the tall and strong posture they used to have. They were bare without a trace of spring.

At the entrance of East Street, after turning two alleys, you can see a house with its door closed. If you listen carefully, you can hear several men whispering in the yard, and the moans of a woman giving birth from time to time.

"Miss, try harder! The child has already shown his head. Try harder!"

Old Mrs. Liu was so anxious that her forehead was covered in sweat, and the small basin of hot water at her hand had already been soaked with blood.

When the chaos came, most of the people in the town fled, and even the doctor on duty disappeared early. Fortunately, Old Mrs. Liu was a mother and knew how to deliver a baby.

But unfortunately, the world was in a bad state and there was a severe drought for three years. Zhao Duanyi didn't have anything good to eat when she was pregnant, so the delivery was so difficult.

Seeing that Zhao Duanyi seemed to have lost her strength and was about to die, she was filled with grief and cried, "If the eldest lady dies, even if I become a ghost, the master and the mistress will not let me go. Miss, do you still remember what the mistress said, that if this chaotic world is settled, you must go home and burn incense for her..."

"Mother..." The unconscious little woman regained some spirit when she heard the familiar words. She pulled the blood-soaked quilt, gritted her teeth and gave birth to the child with her last breath.

After the child was born, he cried briefly, just like a kitten's meow, but it was only a short cry and then there was no sound.

Old Mrs. Liu placed her fingers on the child's mouth and nose with trembling hands, and was completely relieved when she felt a slight air flow.

When she held the swaddling clothes and showed them to Zhao Duanyi with a happy face, she saw that the layers of quilts were soaked with blood, and the blood was dripping onto the ground.

At this moment, Zhao Duanyi closed his eyes tightly, with a relieved smile on his lips...

"Miss!!!"

The old woman's shrill screams alarmed the three men outside the yard.

Liu Kaishan stood up from the wall, and without caring about the blood in the room, he rushed into the house.

Seeing his mother kneeling beside Zhao Duanyi holding the child and crying heart-wrenchingly, he felt like he was struck by lightning.

After shaking his body, Liu Kaishan wanted to take a step forward to see the lifeless person on the bed, but this step seemed to weigh tens of millions of pounds and he couldn't take it.

He didn't know how he moved to the bedside. He just grabbed the hand that was still warm and knelt down beside the bed.

The usually strong man was now crying like a child.

"It's my Liu family who is sorry for you...Yiniang...Why didn't you make it? If the master and the mistress knew about this, how would I explain to them...Yiniang, Yiniang, please wait for me. When the child grows up, I will go to accompany you..." Liu Kaishan couldn't stop crying, and old lady Liu almost fainted from crying.

Only the little baby was lying there quietly, blinking its gray eyes, without making a sound.

Outside the house, Old Man Liu knocked on his tobacco-free pipe, his face full of worry.

She said to her youngest son Liu Zhanhai who was standing at the door in a dilemma, "Go and make a bowl of rice soup. Child can't go without food. Mom is gone, and she can't go without food again..." As she spoke, tears as big as beans fell to the ground.

The courtyard and the house were filled with an atmosphere of sadness. Several people cried for a long time. Kaishan wiped away his tears, and with red eyes, he spoke like a thunderclap: "Mom, let's burn Yi Niang!"

"What? Cough cough..." Old lady Liu's voice, which was hoarse from crying, rose several octaves. She coughed in pain, but she did not forget to curse Liu Kaishan.

"You damned bastard! The eldest lady is gone, and you didn't even leave her a complete corpse! Our Liu family has let the eldest lady down, and we've also let the master and his wife down. Ultimately, it's our family's fault! But a bastard like you can actually say such nonsense? The eldest lady is also your wife! Cough cough cough..."

The old lady was emotionally unstable. She stood up, walked to Liu Kaishan and slapped him twice.

"You've lived so many years in vain! Everyone knows that a good grave is the best place to rest in peace, but you... it's hard enough for the young lady not to be able to return to her family's ancestral grave after her death..."

Liu Kaishan's eyes were red, and he listened to his mother's scolding with his neck stiff. How could he not know this truth?

But now is a time of turmoil, with so many people starving, who knows if a newly buried corpse will be dug up and eaten...

Liu Kaishan didn't dare to think about this scene. He really didn't want the glorious eldest daughter of the Zhao family to become "food" in the mouths of refugees after her death.

So he waited until Old Lady Liu had finished venting her anger before speaking sullenly, "Mother, I can't bear to leave either... but you know, at this age, there's not even tree bark or grass roots left outside. There's nothing to eat anymore, and people are eating their own children. Don't tell me you want to watch Yi Niang die and become what they call..."

"Shut up!!!" Old Mrs. Liu covered her face with one hand, tears streaming down her face like a floodgate opened. "How could I not know? How could I not know?"

The mother and son, one was crying miserably, while the other was silent with red eyes like a mute.

Old man Liu squatted against the wall and sighed. He could hear every word the people in the room said clearly. This is how troubled times are. There is nothing you can do. You have to survive...

"Well, old woman, just listen to Kaishan. Death is like the extinguishing of a light. If it really doesn't work out, I'll go to the underworld a hundred years later to make amends to the master, mistress, and the eldest lady."

Old Man Liu smacked his lips, put the tobacco-free pipe into his mouth and smacked it twice, then sighed heavily, "Old woman, Zhan Hai has made some rice soup for Chun Sheng. Feed him some quickly. After we take care of the young lady's funeral, it's time for us to leave."

There was no sound in the house. After a moment, Liu Kaishan opened the door and walked out first: "Dad, I'm going to pack my things. Yi Niang is gone, but the child still needs to live. We still have to go south to the border town. The drought is about to pass, and this chaotic world will also end."

Old man Liu knocked his pipe on the ground, nodded, and then put the pipe in his mouth and took two puffs.

Since the advent of the chaotic world, food has become scarce, let alone tobacco, which initially fetched exorbitant prices. The family had been fleeing for their lives, and their money was barely enough to survive, so how could they afford to buy tobacco? So Old Man Liu gave up smoking, only occasionally puffing on his pipe to satisfy his craving.

Zhan Hai handed a small bowl of rice soup to Old Lady Liu and said, "Mom, my eldest brother wants to burn my sister-in-law to death. We don't have any firewood at home. How can we do that?"

Old Mrs. Liu's hand holding the bowl shook a little, and the hot rice soup almost spilled on Chunsheng. Fortunately, she calmed herself down, scooped a spoonful of the rice soup, let it cool down, and then slowly fed it to Chunsheng's mouth.

"Little one."

"Hey, mom, go ahead." Zhan Hai is only eighteen years old this year, but he is tall and strong, and his voice is deep and deep, not like a teenager.

"After Chunsheng has eaten his fill, I'll carry him to see the young lady... If there's no firewood, I'll give this yard to the young lady. Our young lady also has her own house down there. She was the young lady before, and she'll always be the young lady in the future..." The old lady fed Chunsheng another spoonful of rice soup: "Isn't that right, little Chunsheng?"

It was just getting dark when Kaishan and Zhanhai stood outside the door, each holding a torch.

Then he threw the torch in.

The weather was dry and the fire spread very quickly. It soon spread from the house to the woodshed, spreading piece by piece, with flames shooting up into the sky.

The old lady held the swaddling clothes and muttered, "Chunsheng... the one inside is your mother, the eldest daughter of the Zhao family in Luoyang... If it weren't for these traitors, how could the eldest daughter have fled to a place like this with me..."

The firelight made their faces red and dried the tears falling from the corners of their eyes.

"Let's go, mother..."

"Okay! Let's go!"

The fire burned half the sky red, and four people and a baby moved forward with the flames on their backs.

In this April in the human world, wandering between death and rebirth, the birth of spring means life, and means that there is hope even though the road ahead is long!

Chunsheng——Liu Chunsheng!

Two months later, the five Lius followed the large group of refugees to the first city on the southern border—Qinyang City. But what they saw was not what they had imagined.

The dilapidated city walls, the broken walls, the open city gates with no guards, no bustling hustle and bustle, the whole city was dead and seemed to be deserted...

"This... isn't this Qinyang City? How could this happen?" The crowd was silent for a long time, and no one knew who was the first to ask the question.

This sentence was like pouring boiling water into a boiling oil pan, causing an uproar in an instant.

"Why is there no one?"

"How can this city be called 'prosperous' when it's in such a dilapidated state? Who said that everything will be fine once we arrive in Qinyang City? Who was it?" As soon as these words were spoken, they were agreed by even more people. Everyone was talking about it, but no one was willing to step into the city.

"Mother, this..." Zhan Hai started hesitantly, wanting to say something, but when he saw what seemed to be figures moving in the city, he suddenly shouted "Someone!"

The quarreling refugees suddenly quieted down, and when they saw that there were indeed people in the city, they all raised their arms and cheered, and some even cried out loudly for joy.

Li Xiushan, carrying the newly delivered imperial documents, was leading the city's officials and common people toward the city gate. Seeing such a group of refugees coming out of nowhere, he felt a headache and asked casually, "Is Song Zhongqing here?"

Someone behind him whispered back: "Master Li, Master Song is gone..."

Li Xiushan was distracted for a moment, then shook his head and smiled bitterly, "Forget it, it's you!" He pointed at the minor official who had replied and said, "From today on, you will take over Lord Song's position. From now on, you will be responsible for all the refugees in the city. Prepare some food for them later. Go ahead."

The minor official nodded repeatedly in agreement.

Li Xiushan's voice was loud, and the officials around him could clearly hear this casual appointment. Although the appointment was extremely arbitrary, this official had indeed been with Lord Song the longest and was the most likely to succeed him. Therefore, the appointment was not without reason. Then they whispered congratulations to the official, after all, Lord Song's rank was only below Li Xiushan's.

The little official, who was being congratulated by everyone, had a more joyful expression on his face, and his bent back straightened even more...

……

Li Xiushan took two steps at a time and quickly walked to the city gate. There, a group of people dressed as yamen runners, holding swords, automatically divided the newly arrived refugees into two rows, and then waited for orders without saying a word.

Seeing the group of officials in official robes coming out of the city gate, someone immediately shouted: "Sir! Please take me in!" Then the man was the first to kneel on the ground, kowtowed violently, and shouted again: "Please take me in!"

His kneeling also prompted all the refugees to kneel down together, shouting "Please, sir, take us in."

Xiao Chunsheng stood in the crowd. Even standing still, he was still not as tall as the others kneeling down. He blinked, pursed his lips, and murmured, "bababa, collect the cattle!"

Kaishan's heart softened when he heard the little girl's soft voice. He thought of his previous misbehavior and felt a surge of guilt. He decided to do his best to raise Xiao Chunsheng and do his best to honor Yi Niang's spirit.