Famine and exile: I brought the Spirit Spring to save the entire Marquis's mansion.

The old lady and Li Yuzhi whispered to each other.

"The fourth son's wife is quite capable. Seeing that the fourth son is becoming cheerful again, I wonder if she will want to stay."

"Mother, I think my fourth brother's wife treats him very well, but... I don't know if he'll ever recover..."

If things aren't going well, then keeping people here would be a bit unfair.

To put it bluntly, Sang Ning'er has never enjoyed the wealth and luxury of the Marquis's mansion. The fact that she is willing to risk her life to help is already an immense favor. To leave her behind to live a life of widowhood is extremely unkind!

Unlike her sisters-in-law, she didn't have children by her side.

The old lady understood what Li Yuzhi meant; this was precisely what she was most worried about.

But now that the fourth brother has finally come back to life, and seeing that he has feelings for Sang Ning'er, she worries that if Sang Ning'er leaves, the fourth brother will not be able to bear it.

“My poor youngest son, I didn’t discipline him much when he was little. I thought he would enjoy life the most and never suffer like his older brothers, but I never imagined that he would suffer the most…”

"If my health never improves and I'm then abandoned, I'd rather die now than suffer such inhuman torment!"

The old lady's voice was choked with suppressed sobs.

“I know what good girl would give herself to a useless man, but I only have this one son. If he’s gone, I’ll just go with him.”

“Mother, please stop. It hasn’t come to that yet. My sister-in-law doesn’t seem to dislike my fourth brother at all…” Li Yuzhi choked up as well.

Little Jintang, nestled in Li Yuzhi's arms, finally couldn't hold back any longer.

He would rather his mother beat him than see his grandmother and mother cry.

"Of course, Fourth Aunt doesn't dislike Fourth Uncle."

"Fourth Aunt even wipes Fourth Uncle's cow."

In a child's mind, that's where you pee, the dirtiest place.

So why would Fourth Aunt dislike Fourth Uncle?

The choked voice stopped.

Li Yuzhi thought her son was asleep when she discussed things with the old lady, but...

The night was so quiet and deep that Xiao Jintang thought she was about to get a beating.

He's not a gentleman; he saw things he shouldn't have.

Although it was his fourth uncle who made him do it.

But the slap I was waiting for never came.

The old lady asked quietly, "My dear grandson, do you see... your fourth uncle's ox moving?"

"Yes!"

Whose calf doesn't move? How can it pee if it doesn't move?

Grandmother's question is really strange.

He once overheard outside the outhouse that his fourth uncle and his uncle Ye were having a contest to see who could pee the highest. Uncle Ye couldn't beat him and yelled angrily, cursing his fourth uncle's ox for being so full that it jumped so high.

"Thank God, thank God..." the old lady murmured excitedly.

It's not useless!

Li Yuzhi patted her son's bottom, but it didn't hurt at all.

"You brat, go to sleep now, and don't look at things like that again!"

Mother's voice carried no anger; instead, it sounded somewhat amused.

Anyway, she and her grandmother stopped crying.

Huo Jintang fell asleep peacefully.

*

The next morning, the old lady told everyone to pack everything so they could get ready to travel soon.

Sang Ning was taken aback and found it very puzzling.

According to her, she might as well stay here, recover her health, and then disappear without a trace and die.

Why are you so stubborn?

"It's not that simple. Even if an exiled prisoner dies on the way, his body must be transported to Liangzhou for examination."

"You'll see, those constables will come back to find us."

Huo Chang'an said with a deep gaze.

The old lady added, "That's right, we still need to get to Liangzhou within the stipulated time, otherwise, I'm afraid the imperial court will take action against the Huo clan and their relatives by marriage."

Both Li Yuzhi and Xie Yurou showed expressions of fear.

Sang Ning cursed inwardly again.

The evil monarchical autocracy!

"Alright then, I'll pack some food. Let's eat quickly and wait for the constables to arrive."

"No rush, we still have food from yesterday, you take care of the fourth son first," the old lady said kindly, with a smile in her eyes.

Oh yes.

They couldn't bear to finish the food at once, and no amount of persuasion could persuade them.

Sang Ning'er helped Huo Chang'an use the toilet first.

Huo Chang'an was unconscious. Every morning, she would massage his abdomen to make him defecate, so that his body would remain clean throughout the day.

But the boy had a strong sense of pride, and he would feel ashamed every time he finished defecating, and wouldn't say a word for a long time.

Sang Ning looked at the carriage planks and came up with a better idea.

She took an arrow.

That was the arrow the bandits had shot at Xie Yurou, which she had casually grabbed.

"Wait a moment, it'll be ready soon."

After telling Huo Chang'an, she bent down and started fiddling with the wooden board.

"Okay." The voice was gentle, calm, and unhurried.

Sang Ning glanced at him in surprise.

The boy's eyes were clear and bright, no longer gloomy as before. When he saw Sang Ning looking over, he pursed his lips and lowered his eyelids.

A bit strange.

But that's a good thing.

This shows that he took yesterday's words to heart.

To become strong, complaining and wallowing in self-pity is utterly useless.

Sang Ning smiled at him and continued what she was doing.

Huo Chang'an felt he had figured it out.

The reason Sang Ning said their marriage was only in name and that she was thinking about leaving in the future must be because of his attitude.

He said many hurtful things at their wedding.

What do you mean you're only giving her the title and won't have any real marriage with her?

She's said to be wicked and shameless!

Anyway, I made them cry a lot.

You must have broken their hearts back then.

But she did have feelings for him.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone to such lengths to wipe his body...

Although he did not intend to drag people down and ruin their lives before he recovered from his illness.

But in terms of attitude, we should treat our benefactors better.

After clarifying his thoughts, Huo Chang'an's goal was to become stronger as quickly as possible.

She said that in a dog-eat-dog world, the stronger you are, the fairer it is.

"Jintang—" he called out.

However, Jintang acted as if she hadn't heard and followed Huo Jingya into the woods.

This brat!

Deaf!

Sang Ning used an arrow to cut out four corners on the board, then drew a line connecting the four corners down an inch, lifted his foot and stomped hard, creating a square hole in the middle of the board.

She found two relatively flat stones, placed the board on them, and left it suspended in the middle.

"That way you can make things convenient for yourself!"

Sang Ning clapped his hands, wiped his sweat, and smiled as he spoke to Huo Chang'an.

It's really convenient!

How did she come up with that?

He seems to know everything.

If you can say your cooking is good because you practiced before, but this...

Huo Chang'an was thrilled to have solved the problem of urination on his own for the first time, and he almost cried.

He's become a little more like a normal person again.

Huo Jingya pulled up a bunch of wild grass and asked Sang Ning to identify which ones were edible.

This area is located on the outskirts of the mountain, and the wild vegetables have already been picked clean, so there's not much left to eat.

"This is sorrel, it's poisonous."

"This is Japanese knotweed, which is slightly poisonous."

"This is bamboo spirit poison, which is poisonous, especially the roots."

"This Kochia scoparia is edible and makes a good soup."

Huo Jingya's mournful face finally brightened up, but unfortunately there were only two Kochia scoparia plants.

Sang Ning was very frustrated because she couldn't take out the food that was in her spatial storage.

The peanuts are ripe, the soybeans are ripe, and the corn is ripe.

We need to come up with a reason to do it.

"But we only have a little water left, so let's not make soup. If we use it all up, we'll be done for. With this scorching sun, we could die of thirst in a day."

Sang Ning smiled: "It's impossible to die of thirst. Don't worry about the water problem. There's plenty behind you."

"Huh?" Huo Jingya hurriedly went to look for it.

Li Yuzhi and Xie Yurou also started spinning around after hearing this.

But where is the water? It's even drier than other places; not even a single blade of grass has grown here!

"Stop spinning it, it's not real water."

Sang Ning found it amusing and decided to cut to the chase.

She had only just noticed that there were spindle bushes here!

The main problem is that the leaves on top are almost all bare, so I didn't recognize it at first. If I hadn't seen the little bit of root sticking out of the ground, I would have missed it!

The spindle tree is the Tyrannosaurus Rex of the plant kingdom. When it wants to drink water, no one can compete with it. If it grows too much, nothing can grow for miles around!

"This is the plant. Dig it up quickly. They are excellent at absorbing and storing water. Be careful not to damage the roots and stems."

As Sang Ning spoke, he demonstrated by digging with an arrow, and a root as thick as a radish was pulled out.