Second Marriage

Chapter 5.1

Translator: tarararawr

Chapter 5 Part 1

It became dark not long after Xiao Youning and her party left the refugee groups.

The sunset’s red glow covered the entire sky. The soft and warm lights entered the carriage, like ripples in the water, one halo after another.

Yuan Guo raised the curtain and looked out a few times. There was smoke curling up in the distance. It should be a village with the amount of smoke there was. Apart from that, only a flock of weary birds were flying across the sky, and there weren’t any other signs of more people.

“Young Miss, it doesn’t look like there’s a relay station around here.” Yuan Guo retracted her head and turned to the side to talk to Xiao Youning.

Xiao Youning had been lost in her thoughts. She heard what her maid said and responded slower than usual. She opened her mouth and made an “oh” sound. She slowly reached out to lift the curtain to take a look and her heart sank.

It was not unusual to come across refugees on the road, and she had already mentally prepared herself for it.

But what Guard Xie said just now provoked her thoughts.

Rich people would give a copper coin to beggars when they were traveling through the city as an act to help the needy, but these refugees were not beggars. And it wasn’t one or two people that needed help, but a group of them.

Even if she could give these people money to temporarily help them, there wasn’t a village ahead or an inn behind1 in the area she traveled through for them to go to and spend the money. What’s more, these people were easily stirred up like when they saw the carriage coming and rushed up to it. It was very likely that something dangerous would happen in the middle of the chaos.

Previously, there were rumors in the capital that a wealthy and kind family had stopped their carriages to help the refugees. In the end, the refugees fought over the horses and ended up killing them.

She didn’t know whether the rumor was true or not, but one of the things her father said when she was a child still echoed in her ears.

It was after the war. Refugees were pouring in and the city’s food reserves were not enough. Her father was young and softhearted. He believed that all human lives mattered, so he took in more than a hundred refugees.

The food reserve situation had been explained when they were taken in. Before more supplies had arrived, soldiers would receive priority for food, and then the rest would be distributed to them. As a result, the refugees began to feel dissatisfied on the second day, and unexpectedly, they volunteered to take care of the wounded soldiers and killed all of the seriously injured ones. They did all of this just to get an extra bite of food.

Her father told her that it was the most regrettable thing he had ever done. Not all of the seriously injured soldiers were untreatable and they were once soldiers who protected the people. But in the end, they died by the hands of the people they protected.

She was only ten years old at that time. After listening to this story, her entire body had broken out into a cold sweat.

She was instinctively afraid then. She thought that these people were cruel, and when she thought about it after growing up, her blood ran cold. Her father warned her about the horrors of human nature, especially during extreme times.

She knew that they should not stop to help the refugees, but that Guard Xie came with such a remark and in an unclear tone. She was certain that he was not praising her sensibility, and that his tone was one of dissatisfaction and impatience.

It was as if she should have stopped to help the refugees.

To stop and help would very likely attract trouble, or it might cause them to be robbed because the refugee numbers would be too much for them to handle. They were in a hurry, and no one wanted to have an accident.

Xiao Youning’s eyes followed the carriage’s speed. She did not know whether she was suspicious or if it was something else. She felt uneasy about the guards’ unusual behavior. Besides that, there was also the fact that the attitude of the people she traveled with had become more and more neglectful these days.

“Yuan Guo…” Xiao Youning withdrew her eyes and wanted to say that they had to be on their guard.

“Young Master, we can only find a village to stay in tonight. This road does not have an inn or relay station to stay at, and we can’t make it to the nearest county town.”

They heard the guard’s voice coming from outside. Yuan Guo pushed the curtain aside and asked, “Is it the village that is up ahead? How far are we from the county town?”

“There is still a long way to go.”

The guard had answered lazily.

Yuan Guo frowned and turned around to comfort Xiao Youning. “Young Miss, farmers are honest people. If we use some money, they should be willing to provide lodging for us instead of sleeping in the wilderness…”

Xiao Youning suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm tightly. She pulled Yuan Guo to her, and whispered to her.

The party arrived at the entrance of the village very quickly. The guard said a few words to the robust man waiting there.

In the gap in the curtain, Xiao Youning saw the robust man glance at the direction of the carriage and slowly smiled. Then, he nodded to let them in and said, “Recently, there’s been a lot of refugees outside and we have been taking turns to keep watch.”