I wanted to embrace my master and return home

This was the fourth day of the food shortage, and the house was invaded by a group of newly arrived refugees. Gu Mou and the three had no choice but to leave and hide under the bridge hole to sleep.

The river water exudes a sour smell. The river water that used to be crystal clear is now extremely turbid. The dead fish and shrimp floating on it have long been picked up.

Gu Mou was so hungry that he had stomach cramps. He went out for a walk at night, but he couldn't find anything to eat. He found a thin light purple flower under a corner of the wall. It was probably too small, so it was not noticed by others. The weeds that grew well were pulled out and eaten by the hungry and dizzy.

Guanhua, commonly known as leprosy flower, is edible and mostly used for medicine.

Gu Mou didn't even think about it, so he plucked out the flowers, stuffed a handful full into his mouth, chewed and swallowed them, then fetched water from a nearby well, and poured it into his stomach, only then did he feel full. some.

In the middle of the night, Gu Mou's stomach ached so badly that he couldn't sleep. He knew in his heart that it was the stimulation of Guanhua to the stomach wall, so he endured it and didn't make a sound until morning.

When they woke up, they set off to find some wild vegetables in the mountains, but they passed a mansion engraved with the national emblem of the Yu family. The owner of the mansion should be a certain prince. Yang Chubao, who was so hungry that his eyes glowed green, twitched his nose and refused to leave up.

The door of the mansion was opened, and a servant came out leading a dog, followed by a child in gold and silver, followed by a nurse feeding the child.

"Little ancestor, don't run too far, it's dangerous outside." The wet nurse was helpless holding the bowl.

"But Ah Fu wants to go out to play." The child stroked the dog's head.

"The master will be spanking when he comes back. Come on, eat your food first, and then you will have the strength to play when you are full." The wet nurse scooped up a piece of meat and brought it to the child's mouth.

"Then Ah Fu has to eat enough to have the strength to play." The child held the piece of meat and threw it on the ground, and the stupid black dog ate the meat slowly.

This scene fell in the eyes of the three people, and they all lost their voices, not knowing what it was like in their hearts.

"Since their family is so rich, it's getting dark now, let's sneak into the kitchen and steal something to eat." Yang Chubao said suddenly.

In the evening, the three of them climbed over the wall and sneaked in. They hid outside the kitchen and waited for the servants to close the door and leave. They saw that the inside was still steaming, and they vaguely heard someone telling them:

"Don't forget, this stewed pigeon meat with gelatin will last for four full hours, remember to turn it over in the middle, Xiaoqin, don't oversleep tonight."

"Also, you have to start making this crispy Furuanzi when it is ugly, and it will be sticky and not sticky until early in the morning. Madam has a bad appetite recently, so I can only eat a few more mouthfuls of this dessert."

"My lord enters the palace to receive the reward, and he will return home the next day. Remember to remind the kitchen master to be careful. In the past, you only need to prepare ten dishes and two soups for each meal, and you will have a banquet the next day. The lord's table needs to be prepared at least forty. The dishes are the only ones, and each dish needs to be exquisite..."

The three of them listened to the corner of the wall outside, until the people in the kitchen left, Yu Shubai did not move, just lowered his head, his hands sank into the soil: "The people outside are displaced, even a full meal, a fresh vegetable leaf They can’t even eat it, but some people feed the dogs casually meat that the common people can’t even dream of eating.”

"The monthly disaster relief money was deducted and deducted again and again, and it was empty in the hands of the common people. In the end, the princes who took care of the matter were still able to enter the palace to receive the rewards. Obviously, the national disaster is imminent, and the roadsides are full of starving mayflies. However, the monthly rules of the palace are quite a bit." Yu Shubai gritted his teeth and said.

But he never thought that he was one of them in the past, he would complain that the breast chicken that had been stewed for several hours was not tender enough, he would dislike the new cook, and the dishes on the table for lunch were not delicious enough, and he would pay ten thousand taels of gold Yin bought a flower bottle and a bottle of fine wine, but never thought that in some corners of the world that he could not see, some people would not be able to eat a few mouthfuls of meat in their entire lives.

Yushu looked at Baihong and took a deep breath: "In this extraordinary period, if you hold a banquet, there are forty dishes for the main table. After the whole banquet, you don't know how much rice and meat will be wasted. You can only imagine how many dishes you will have on weekdays." It's extravagant, but I never thought about it before..."

Gu Mou licked his chapped lips, and his heart was becoming numb. When he went down to the world with his master, he had never seen the kind of refugees who fled from famine. The hardest look.

Never thought that one day, he would be able to live like this.

Gu Mou is different from Shi Minghua, he is indifferent by nature, and he is hard to be emotional. When he meets poor people in the lower world, he always leaves a copper coin and leaves. Even the embroidery on it, he will feel a little disgust in his heart.

In other words, in fact, he has never really paid attention to those people. What he thinks of suffering is fighting in the wind and blood, but he has never paid attention to those poor people who have nothing to rely on.

Only when I am here can I realize the powerlessness in it. Those regrets, shocks, and even disgust that once looked at the refugees have all turned into bitterness at this moment.

This night was the most satisfying meal they had eaten in a month, and it naturally brought the vigilance of the people in the next day. Hearing the angry curses inside, the three of them sneaked out of the house and continued on their way.

On the third day of the journey, Yang Chubao suddenly felt feverish all over his body and dizzy, and he cried out that he felt uncomfortable. Gu Mou looked at the red marks on his neck from being scratched, his heart tightened, and he tore off the skirt of his clothes.

I saw that the inside was densely covered with rashes, Yu Shubai's eyelashes trembled slightly, and he gently rolled up his trouser legs, exposing a denser patch of red sores, each with a yellow tip, full of pus.

"!"

"This..." Yu Shubai pursed his lips, gently lowered his trouser legs, and stepped back a few feet in disbelief.

Gu Mou quickly took out the herbal ointment in his pocket, wiped his hands clean, and put the ointment on, only then did he restrain Yang Chubao's hand that kept trying to scratch.

"He can't stay here anymore, otherwise..." Gu Mou looked at Yang Chubao and murmured.

"Otherwise, what if he will get the plague?" Yu Shubai said with trembling lips, he could barely hear his own voice, and his ears were buzzing.

"It can be saved in the early stage of the epidemic, but he must leave the environment of the evil rain, otherwise it is only a matter of time before it deteriorates."

"Leave...leave the rain? Within the barrier, where is there no rain?" Yu Shubai felt that the sky was about to fall, and stared blankly at Yang Chubao who was lying on the ground. It's the rain."

"What kind of prince did you talk about last time? Did you bribe the people of the Liu Kingdom, and even the fairy gate in charge of the enchantment on the border of Qishi?"

"But we... have no money." Yu Shubai's eyes slowly turned red, "We don't have the money to bribe the envoy, so we can't even survive..."

That night, the atmosphere was terribly silent. When the sky was just dawn, Yang Chubao was burnt drowsy by the heat poison, but finally he was awakened by the sharp pain from his legs. He opened his eyelids and saw a skinny vulture. Standing on his lap, pecking at the flesh on his leg.

"Ah!!!" He screamed, and the vulture was frightened half to death, flapping its wings and flying away.

The other two were also awakened by his cries, and they saw Yang Chubao crying heartbreakingly. One calf was bloody and a small piece of flesh had been pecked off.

Vultures pecking corpses was a common sight on the street. At this moment, they suddenly realized that maybe one day, they would also die silently under this bridge hole, surrounded by several predatory birds.

It turned out that when they were sleeping in the mud just now, they were no different from corpses.

Looking at the weeping Yang Chubao, a string in Gu Mou's heart suddenly twitched, and he suddenly remembered a long-forgotten thing: "Yu Shubai, do you still remember the time when Prime Minister Ye passed away? A pen and two silver?"

Yu Shubai hadn't picked up the strings in his mind yet, he was a little confused: "... silver taels?"

"The money back then was not a small amount, it existed in my name... the Yunxi Bank in the west of the city."

When he received the money, Qi Shi's Tongbao Bank was only newly established, and there was only a long-established Yunxi Bank in Bianjing, which was very large because of its connection with neighboring countries.

"At that time, I exchanged all the treasures that Prime Minister Ye left behind into silver taels, and there were three 10,000+, and if the land deed of your house was pawned at this time, it would also be worth tens of thousands." Gu Mou thought, his eyes were astonishingly bright.

"Yes... yes, why did I forget!" Yu Shubai slapped his head hard, and suddenly woke up, "If you can gather up 40 taels of silver, it will be enough to send Chubao out of the city. If you can let him summon Yuanhua Immortal Venerable with a signal talisman, didn’t you say that he can cure the epidemic?”

The two seemed to be floating up and down at the bottom of the dark water, when a ray of sunlight suddenly shot from above their heads, and they swam desperately in the direction of the sunlight.

After several inquiries, they were pleasantly surprised to find that Yunxi Bank, like Tongbao Bank, had not collapsed, and some people went to the bank to withdraw money a few days ago.

"God help us not perish, thank you, Prime Minister Ye!" Gu Mou found a cup of coarse tea from nowhere and poured it on the ground.

"Father, thank you." Yu Shubai didn't speak, but smiled slightly, and said silently in his heart.

After two days of rest, Gu Mou walked far ahead with Yang Chubao on his back, followed by Yu Shubai, towards the Yunxi Bank in the west of the city.

After walking for a whole morning, sweating profusely, I finally arrived at Yunxi Bank, but the gate was closed.

Yu Shubai's face turned pale: "Didn't it mean that the stove was not dumped? Could it be that the person who inquired about the news made a mistake?"

"No, look at this door lock, it's so clean that there is no dust. It's obvious that someone cleans it every day." Gu Mou said.

Yu Shubai stepped forward hesitantly, the more he walked, the more he felt a familiar smell in his nose, he suppressed the uneasiness in his heart, pushed the door lightly, unexpectedly... pushed it open.

The scene inside the door is shocking, the corpses lying on the ground in disorder, blood splashed all over the wall, the corpse lying on its back under the threshold, dead, still warm, wearing a copper coin bija, is the shopkeeper of the shop.

But in this room full of dead people, there was a living person standing in a pool of blood with his back to them. The sword, if it wasn't for such a scene around it, it could also be said to have an excellent bearing.

Yu Shubai shook his head in disbelief, backed away trembling all over, his teeth creaking, as if the last straw was thrown into the fire, and even the strength to stand disappeared.

The man with the sword finally turned around slowly, his face could be called elegant, the curves of his eyes and brows were as warm as moonlight, he smiled slightly, and said like a family: "Fortunately, I came in time, come in to shelter from the rain."