During my escape from famine, I survived by eavesdropping on the whispers of food.

"Thank you." Lu Jun accepted the grilled fish from Qin Shuangshuang and nodded his thanks.

He took a small bite and found the fish to be quite delicious, and praised Qin Shuangshuang's cooking skills a few more times.

Uncle Li listened with amusement, then wiped away a tear and said, "Qin Shuangshuang is a lucky star. If it weren't for Qin Shuangshuang, we refugees would all have starved to death on the road. Let's see who dares to say that Qin Shuangshuang is stupid now."

They admired Qin Shuangshuang. On this journey of fleeing famine, it was difficult to even find wild vegetables, but they were able to eat meat because of Qin Shuangshuang.

Qin Shuangshuang smiled slightly, distributed all the roasted meat to them, and then whispered, "Uncle Li, if we keep talking, the meat will be eaten up."

The large wild boar was cut into only a few small pieces by them. Uncle Li stopped nagging, clapped his hands, and hurried over to eat the meat.

Seeing them wolfing down their food, Qin Shuangshuang picked up the remaining fish and made fish soup.

After finishing the meat, a bowl of perfectly salted fish soup left them feeling satisfied. They put down their bowls, smacked their lips, and gave Qin Shuangshuang a thumbs up. "Your cooking is so delicious! Your grandma is blind. If she hadn't done that filthy thing, she could be enjoying a life of luxury with you."

Qin Shuangshuang served her another bowl of fish soup, clicked her tongue and said, "I don't have a grandma. She can't possibly eat the food I'm holding."

They had food in their hands, and Old Lady Qin would only arrogantly demand that they give her the food, without regretting leaving them.

Holding the fish soup, Zhou felt terrible. If she hadn't been so weak, her family wouldn't have been tormented by Old Madam Qin.

As she thought about it, Zhou's tears dripped into the bowl.

Perhaps it was a telepathic connection, but when Zhou cried, Qin Shuangshuang felt a pang of pain in her heart. She came over and wiped away Zhou's tears. "Mother, drink the fish soup quickly. I'll show you something later."

"Okay." Zhou finished the fish soup in a few gulps, put down the bowl, and said, "Daughter, what were you going to show your mother again?"

Qin Shuangshuang glanced at the people happily eating meat and drinking soup, then mysteriously pulled Zhou away.

Reaching a secluded corner, Qin Shuangshuang concealed herself with her sleeve and took out the ginseng from her spatial storage. "Mother, I dug this up on the road today."

She couldn't figure out what to do, so she showed it to her.

Ginseng is very valuable. When Zhou saw it in Qin Shuangshuang's hands, she quickly covered Qin Shuangshuang's hands and said, "You should keep it safe. Don't let anyone see it. If people find out that you found ginseng, it will definitely cause a lot of trouble for our family."

"Hmm." Qin Shuangshuang nodded and put the ginseng into the cloth bag she had come up with. She didn't forget to ask, "Should we keep it, or sell it?"

Zhou hesitated, clutching her hands, pondering Qin Shuangshuang's question. When someone called them, she said to Qin Shuangshuang, "Keep it. It's a good thing, hard to buy even with money. But remember, don't let anyone see it."

If people find out, they'll definitely be scrambled for, and then they'll be in trouble.

Qin Shuangshuang nodded, and after returning to the group with Zhou, she put the cloth bag back into her spatial storage.

"I called you for ages and no one answered. I thought you'd gone up the mountain to find food again," Lu Jun said jokingly as he walked up to Qin Shuangshuang.

Taking advantage of the darkness, Qin Shuangshuang rolled her eyes at him and walked past him toward the refugees.

“It’s dangerous in these mountains. We heard wild animals howling when we came back. Everyone, don’t sleep too soundly. Also, make sure someone stays on watch at night. If there’s any noise, wake everyone up so we can run away sooner.”

When he returned in the afternoon, he heard the roar of wild beasts. Qin Hao was already terrified and drank several mouthfuls of fish soup before he dared to speak. When he heard Qin Shuangshuang mention wild beasts, he trembled and walked behind Lu Jun, saying, "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

Lu Jun gave him a strange look. "Okay."

After arranging the people on night watch, they found a comfortable place to sleep.

The people on their side were asleep, while the person watching them was still squatting in the haystack.

One of the men, whose legs were numb from squatting, rubbed his legs, which he could barely stand up, and said, "Boss, they're all practically sleeping like logs. Can the brothers get to work now?"

The man called "boss" punched him on the head. "Are you stupid? They have night watchmen there. They'll wake everyone up as soon as we get there. Do you think we can fight back?"

They were ruthless bandits from the mountains, who would rob refugees traveling along the mountainside every day. Today, while searching for refugees, they were attracted by the aroma of food.

If they were ordinary refugees, the bandit leader would have already led them to rob food.

Qin Shuangshuang's group was large. The men in the group were not very strong, but they all looked very elite. There were only a few bandits. If they really went to rob, they might not be able to get the food. So they waited here for the enemy to come to them.

They're asleep now, but even if they can't steal food, they still have to do something.

The ruthless bandit leader rummaged through his pockets, pulled out some incense he had stolen from someone, and tossed it to his underling. "Go, light this for me, and try to throw it near them. See if you can knock them out."

They had grabbed too many incense sticks and couldn't tell which ones were the sleeping incense, so they just grabbed one at random and tossed it over to check.

The younger brother rubbed his hands together with excitement at the thought of eating meat. After throwing the incense sticks over, he waited quietly for them to be drugged.

But even after sitting in the haystack for half a day, the watchman remained standing there, unmoved.

He scratched his head. "Boss, we must have picked up the wrong one. The one we threw over wasn't the sleeping incense."

"I'm not blind. They're not dizzy, so how could I not see them?" The ruthless bandit leader, in a bad mood, kicked him in the butt and led them further away.

Their wicked scheme failed, and the sleeping refugees had a peaceful night.

Qin Shuangshuang was just about to cook something after waking up in the morning when she suddenly heard a scream.

"Help! You mustn't touch our food!"

At that shout, everyone who hadn't yet opened their eyes opened, looking around nervously. "Is everyone alright? Is someone trying to steal our food?"

Qin Shuangshuang shook her head at them, "The sound came from elsewhere. Let's not stay here any longer. Let's get up and eat something, and hurry on our way so we don't run into robbers."

After they started rubbing against each other, Qin Shuangshuang looked around.

She saw a damp incense stick at her feet, only half-burned, and picked it up. "Who left this here?"

Everyone shook their heads in confusion.

"If we can't even afford to eat, who would bother with incense? It probably doesn't belong to us."

Unable to find anything strange, Qin Shuangshuang was about to throw away the incense when the night watchman paused, pointed to the damp incense, and said, "Last night, during my hour of watch, I smelled a very strong fragrance. At the time, I thought my nose had gone malfunctioned, but now I see that I wasn't mistaken yesterday."

So, it appeared last night.

Qin Shuangshuang frowned and asked, "Were any suspicious people present during yesterday's night watch?"