Zhang Dahu finished speaking, then pointed to the old man and two children sitting alone by the roadside with great pity. "Kid, try to stay with that old man and the two children. They are good people."
Qi He glanced at the elder and two children with their backs to them, and silently nodded in agreement with Uncle Zhang.
"Alright, kid, go with them. You'll face hardships and sleep outdoors along the way, so take good care of yourself and don't get sick. When you reach Liaodong, have your father send me a message that you've arrived safely, and then I can rest easy."
"Mm. Uncle Zhang, you go back. I'll definitely have my father send you a message when I reach Liaodong."
"Aye, good child." Zhang Dahu finished speaking, then smiled and patted Qi He's small shoulder before turning his horse and heading back.
With Qi He's addition, the escort team became much livelier. Especially Meng Qingping and his two grandchildren, who received a lot of help from Qi He. Fu Xinyu especially liked Brother Qi, because whenever he couldn't walk anymore, his grandfather and Brother Qi would take turns carrying him.
The journey was relatively peaceful. Although the old man and his grandchildren didn't have enough to eat, they were still much better off than those Meng clansmen.
However, this year, the north encountered a severe drought, the worst in ten years. The further north they went, the worse the drought became.
As it happened, they were in a place where there were no villages or shops for miles. Everyone's throat was parched, and they hadn't found any drinkable water.
Taking advantage of the intense midday heat, the escort team stopped by the roadside in a shaded area to rest, planning to continue their journey when the sun was less fierce.
Xiao Xin Ci saw that her younger brother's lips were cracked from thirst and that he was secretly wiping away tears. She secretly crept out, hoping to find some wild vegetables.
She remembered that when she went to the fields with her grandparents, her grandmother would occasionally pick a sour wild vegetable for her to eat, a taste that now made her mouth water.
She swallowed her saliva carefully and walked towards the nearby wild field. However, in this desolate wilderness, she didn't dare to go too far, so she could only search along the ditches and ravines by the official road.
But it hadn't rained in the north for several months, and the weather was hotter than in previous years. The wild grass by the roadside lay listlessly on the ground, exhausted.
Xiao Xin Ci searched in the wild field for a long time. The scorching sun overhead made her dizzy and disoriented. Finally, in the shade of a large rock, she found a stalk of that sour wild vegetable.
The wild vegetable was wilted due to severe water shortage. Xiao Xin Ci was still very happy to pull it out. She couldn't bear to eat a single leaf herself, and ran back.
Perhaps it was the hot weather, or perhaps she was both thirsty and hungry, but when Xiao Xin Ci ran back to the resting place, she collapsed to the ground and fainted.
When she woke up again, her soul had been replaced by one from the apocalypse.
Fu Xin Ci tidied up all of Xiao Xin Ci's memories and silently prayed for the poor little girl, "Rest in peace. I will take care of your grandfather and brother for you."
...
In a daze, Fu Xin Ci seemed to hear an old sigh, filled with endless longing, pulling the little girl away without looking back.
Thinking of that voice, Fu Xin Ci couldn't help but feel a shiver. But she thought that she had already died once and had fought monsters in the apocalypse for so long, what else was there to be afraid of?
After building up her mental fortitude, her mindset also calmed down. She always felt that something was not right, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.
Since she couldn't figure it out, she decided not to think about it. She didn't have any extra time to indulge in melancholy now.
With a long sigh, Fu Xin Ci gladly accepted the fact that she had transmigrated and also accepted her new identity.
In her opinion, the journey to Liaodong, though arduous and stretching for thousands of miles, was a hundred times better than facing monsters every day in the apocalypse.
Moreover, there was the most important point: it was good to be alive.
After a secret chuckle, she vaguely felt that this Great Ming Dynasty was different from the Ming Dynasty she had seen in history books.
For this, she thought of a word: parallel worlds. Since she could transmigrate, parallel worlds were not impossible.
Having understood her current situation, the only thing she needed to do now was to reach Liaodong alive with her grandfather and brother, which would be the best outcome.
Thinking of this frail little body, how easy could it be to reach Liaodong?
Fu Xin Ci sighed silently again and looked up at the night sky, where a few stars twinkled with faint, hazy light.
She should get a good night's sleep now and conserve her strength. The exile convoy was scheduled to depart before dawn. Grandfather Jiang had mentioned before that no matter what, they had to reach the next post station tomorrow, otherwise, there would surely be some among the old, weak, women, and children in the exile convoy who would become lonely souls by the roadside.
Fu Xin Ci silently closed her eyes and was about to force herself to sleep and recover some strength when she heard her stomach growl.
This rumbling was from hunger. It was only then that she remembered that this small body was both thirsty and hungry.
She reached out and touched her shrunken, empty stomach, which was almost pressed against her back. She deeply missed her huge space, which was filled with supplies, and food and clean water occupied a large proportion of it.
However...
The more Fu Xin Ci thought about it, the hungrier she became, and her stomach seemed to rumble even louder. To distract herself, she began to slowly hypnotize herself, "Space, my dear space, your little Xin is now suffering from both thirst and hunger and is about to die of thirst. If you don't come and save me, your little Xin will be completely finished this time."
Fu Xin Ci closed her eyes and muttered softly. Suddenly, she stopped. She knew that after more than a year since the apocalypse began, all her senses had become very acute.
Just now, she clearly felt that the place she was in seemed to have suddenly changed.
First, the temperature was different.
When she quietly opened her eyes to see if there was any danger around, she was surprised to find herself in her space.
"Oh my god."
With a gasp, Fu Xin Ci, ignoring the fact that she was about to be squeezed flat, directly grabbed a bottle of purified water from beside her. With some unknown strength, she twisted open the cap and drank it down in large gulps.
Half a bottle of water was gone in an instant. Like a stranded fish, she leaned against the neatly stacked supplies, gasping for breath.
She realized then that thirst was even more unbearable than hunger. After drinking her fill, Fu Xin Ci moved her limbs and quickly moved towards the steamer filled with large meat buns.
However, when her small hand touched the steamer, she stopped.
The meat buns had a fragrant aroma. If she went out smelling of meat buns, she wondered if she would be mistaken for a meat bun by those wolf-like Meng clansmen.
Considering the terrifying consequences, Fu Xin Ci resolutely turned and reached for the salted egg yolk biscuits piled beside them.