After the system ran, I took off with my family

Taohua knew that she shouldn't do this, but when she thought of Lin Shuyue's cold-blooded look when she killed someone last night, she felt inexplicably scared.

Here, Lin Shuyue silently returned to the mule cart and lay down. She knew in her heart that Taohua had intentionally avoided her hand just now, and she could guess the reason, but she did not blame Taohua.

"It seems that I am really not suitable to make friends with children." Lin Shuyue said self-deprecatingly.

There was no conversation that night. The next morning, after breakfast, the group hurriedly set off.

Their food would only last for one more day, so they had to reach the city before dark to buy food.

Lin Shuyue sat on the carriage and watched more and more refugees rushing towards the capital.

Because this official road passes through the city, if people fleeing famine want to continue moving forward, they have to pass through the entire city and exit from another city gate before they can continue moving forward.

After a day of hurried journey, they finally arrived at the city gate before dark.

Unexpectedly, what everyone saw was a closed city gate and a crowd of refugees on the open space at the city gate.

"Village Chief, what should we do? Why is the city gate closed?"

The villagers hurriedly looked for the village chief. They had not even had lunch in order to hurry on their way, and now the city gate was closed.

At this time, an old man came up to him and said, "The city gates have been closed at 3 p.m. these days, so we have to wait until tomorrow to enter the city."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this, as they had thought the city gate had not been opened.

Lin Shuyue was a little puzzled. She asked, "Grandpa, since the city gate is open during the day, why are there so many people at the city gate? Did they all arrive after 3 p.m. like us?"

The old man looked at Lin Shuyue and said in a heavy voice, "Because to enter the city, each person needs to pay one or two taels of silver. If you don't have that much silver, you can't enter the city. You can only wait at the city gate, just in case the prefect is kind-hearted one day."

"What? One tael of silver per person?"

The old man's words caused an uproar in the crowd. Not only the people in Yunhua Village, but also the rest of the refugees were shocked when they heard his words.

"Is there really no other way?"

The old man glanced at the person asking the question and said quietly: "Yes, if you cross this Cuiluan Mountain, you can bypass the city and return to the official road." Then he pointed to the mountain behind everyone.

Everyone looked back and saw Cuiluan Mountain, which was full of peaks and ridges, with the peaks shrouded in clouds and mist. The Yunhua Mountains behind their village were nothing compared to this. How could they get over it?

Everyone looked sad and was absent-minded during dinner.

Lin An discussed with the village chief and led Yunhua Village to retreat to the outermost edge of the crowd.

After a whole day's journey, even if one is worried, one can still fall asleep. Lin An's family still arranged a night watch.

There was a calm night, and the city gates opened on time at noon the next day.

Ten soldiers quickly divided into two rows and stood in line. There was a table in the middle of the city gate, with writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone on the table. A middle-aged man with an elegant appearance was sitting behind the table.

The refugees at the city gate crowded forward.

"Sir, please let us in. We are starving to death at the city gate."

"Sir, please be kind and let us in!"

"Mr. Guan..."

"Bang..." The sound of a gong quieted the refugees.

The middle-aged man held the gong and shouted loudly: "Fellow villagers, the prefect understands that you don't have much money. After thinking about it all night, he decided to reduce the entrance fee to ten coins per person. Everyone, please prepare your money and line up here to pay the money and you can enter!"

The refugees were extremely surprised and delighted when they heard this, and fearing to miss this opportunity, they rushed forward and formed a long line under the command of the soldiers guarding the city.

The people in Yunhua Village were also very happy. They had thought that there was no way out, but now there was a sudden turn of events.

Their team was at the outermost edge, so they were at the end of the line.

Lin Shuyue and the others looked at each other. They all knew the true face of this Prefect Hou, so they didn't believe that he could be so kind.

Lin Shuyuan stood on tiptoe and looked to the front, and found that after the refugees paid the money, the soldiers did not let them into the city immediately, but asked them to wait on the side and let them in after gathering twenty people.

Lin Shuyuan told Lin Shuyue and others about his discovery, and they all found it strange.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Lin Shuyue's mind. This prefect Hou might want to arrest someone!

This can explain why twenty people had to enter the city together. If too many people entered at once, it would be difficult to control them when arresting people, and it would easily make noise and scare away people outside the city.

Lin Shuyue hurriedly told Lin An her guess, saying that this city gate cannot be entered! Lin An was shocked when he heard his daughter's words, and quickly walked to the front of the Yunhua Village team, pulled the village chief aside, and told him his daughter's guess.

Lin Dayong looked at the city gate in disbelief, his voice trembling: "This is impossible? How can they arrest people for no reason?"

Lin An whispered to Lin Dayong the result of the interrogation of the man in black that night, and told him that the man in black was sent by the prefect.

Lin Dayong's breath caught in his throat. He held onto Lin An's hand tightly and tried to calm himself down.

After a while, Lin Dayong returned to the team and said to the villagers in a low and serious voice: "Everyone, please keep quiet and listen to my instructions. Everyone, take your things and return to where you were last night. We have something important to discuss."

Even though the villagers were extremely confused, they obediently pushed the carts back to where they rested last night.

Lin Dayong stood in the middle of the crowd and told everyone Lin An's guess in detail. When the villagers heard the news, it was like a bolt from the blue.

Some people also questioned: "Village head, are you overthinking it? Why did he arrest us?"

"Yes, there is no war now, why arrest people? Even if they are arrested, we still need to feed them with food. The prefect is definitely not that stupid."

When the others heard this, they thought it made sense and looked at the village chief, hoping that he would make the decision.

The village chief hesitated for a moment and said, "Let's not go into the city yet. Let's wait and see."

The people of Yunhua Village sat on the ground and saw the refugees lining up to enter the city. They felt more and more that the village chief and Lin An were overthinking.

Lin An's family squeezed into the carriage. After a discussion, they unanimously decided not to enter the city until the situation was clear.

An hour later, the teams that were originally in front of them had entered the city, and then many people came from the official road one after another, queuing up to pay and enter the city.

The middle-aged man at the city gate saw that the people from Yunhua Village were reluctant to enter the city, so he smiled kindly at them.

"Village chief, let's go into the city quickly. It's almost noon. My family ran out of food this morning. I need to buy some food."

"Village chief, we are out of food, please make a decision quickly!"

The villagers began to feel impatient, and seeing how anxious everyone was, Lin Dayong walked outside the crowd and asked Lin An for his opinion.

Lin An shook his head: "Uncle Village Chief, I still think we can't enter the city before we understand the situation, but this is just my personal opinion, you can decide for yourself."