Chapter 211

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

"Mother let them choose for themselves, aren't you afraid you'll worry in your heart if something happens in the future?"

Zhou Shi entered the residence, and as a daughter Shen Yao could not fail to go and offer words of concern.

As a result, after Zhou Shi laid out the family's situation completely, Shen Yao, more than concern, couldn't help but want to probe.

Against this natural disaster background, one careless move could lead to disaster and death.

Zhou Shi sighed, "What can worry do? Now hearts are no longer in one place; forcibly keeping them only adds resentment."

It's no wonder Zhou Shi is so disheartened at this time; some people can share hardship, but cannot share wealth and honor.

Originally a lively family in Qinghe Town ultimately also scattered in different directions because of the calamity of money.

Shen Yao: ……

Shen Yao could only persuade Zhou Shi to be more open-minded; furthermore, having silver in hand makes one stronger than ordinary people, and even fleeing disaster one has a carriage and is more comfortable.

"Hmph, I'm not sad, just feel those two are a bit… forget it, forget it, won't mention them," Zhou Shi simply waved her hand, turning the topic back to the imminent departure, "You must speak more soothing words to the Prince there; the child is still young, he must never be separated from his birth parents."

The implication: she must bind the Prince to them; he is their backing for a very long time to come.

"Mother, I have a clear idea in my heart; the Prince has always treated us mother and son extremely well.

As for the family, you and Father taking Eldest Young Master and leaving — the matter of silver money also needs more consideration."

At least one must not show too much bias; Shen Yao doesn't mind the Shen Family taking advantage of her; after all, Wei Cheng's several children lived in the Shen Family for several years and received kindness.

Zhou Shi hummed twice, "Your father and I both understand; Second Brother and Fourth Brother each have their own petty thoughts. We just say they are young and don't understand." If they can meet again in the future, she only hopes they won't regret this.

How could they not regret? Shen Er You and Shen Si Yu who chose to stay regret it terribly.

It's just a pity some things are already a done deal; they have regret in vain, yet cannot change anything.

But these are all future talk; right now hasn't reached that time yet.

Because of the Shen Family matters, Zhou Shi's visits to the Prince's Residence became no longer frequent.

Shen Yao lost a chat partner, so she set her sights on the several children and Qi Chen.

Wei Cheng's older ones are busy studying and training daily with little leisure; Qi Haochen the little one only knows to babble; it was Qi Chen who felt heartache for Shen Yao and simply handed over some of the residence's procurement matters to her.

Shen Yao: …… didn't really want this kind of heartache

But since it was given, then arrange it according to formal fleeing-disaster standards.

The steward busy with front courtyard affairs suddenly received a massive order from the back courtyard.

Regarding clothing, food, housing, and travel, if Qi Chen is the normal standard, then Shen Yao is the double standard.

Steward: ……

The steward held a thick stack of orders, utterly unable to understand what Shen Yao wanted to do; their Prince's Residence travels with many people and great momentum, but they don't need to be thorough to this extent.

The steward turned and went to see the Prince, stated Shen Yao's unreasonable points, and only got Qi Chen's one sentence: prepare according to the above; it counts as being prepared against any contingency.

Steward: ……

The steward was truly speechless, cursing inwardly, but dispatching people to handle it verbally.

Originally half a month's preparations, forcibly dragged out to a full month; and their departure time was also moved from the original early second month to mid-second month.

Squeak squeak——

The carriage's wheel sounds were not obvious, especially sitting inside the spacious carriage interior.

In Shen Yao's arms was Qi Haochen, nearly one year old; at this moment she was leaning against the soft couch behind her, humming an unknown little tune, and further forward was Qi Chen lowering his head doing official business.

A family of three sat on a carriage pulled by five tall, fine horses; the carriage interior's size couldn't compare to the Prince's Residence back courtyard where Shen Yao lived, but compared to descriptions in those fleeing-disaster novels, it was still worlds apart.

The vast, mighty caravan stretched continuously all the way, unknown in length; this was Qi Chen's entire life's accumulation built over several decades.

Every step must be considered again and again, because Qi Chen lacks the heroic spirit to start over from scratch.

After reading accounts for a long time, they were closed again; Qi stretched his hand to rub his somewhat stiff neck, and before he could move, a pair of soft hands covered his.

It was Shen Yao; after coaxing little Qi Haochen to sleep, she came to Qi Chen's side and sat down.

"What's wrong, my Lord?" Shen Yao gently cared for the man before her, her eyes seeming able to seep water.

Qi Chen pulled Shen Yao's wrist and patted it lightly, "Just feel a bit sorry for you and Chen'er; time is too tight; if only we could wait for Chen'er's first birthday"

Words not yet finished, only heard a boom sound; the originally steady carriage suddenly jolted violently.

Qi Chen instinctively pulled Shen Yao into his embrace; the two held each other motionless; the account books and teacups on the tea table all fell down.

"My Lord, Chen'er, Chen'er"

Shen Yao shouted the child was still on the bed; the two hurriedly stood up from the ground, ignoring the body's left-right swaying, and lunged toward the child.

Hand just touched the swaddling clothes, Shen Yao looked up and saw Qi Haochen, who should have been asleep, staring wide-eyed, neither crying nor fussing.

Laughing and crying, she patted the swaddling clothes, "This child, actually not afraid."

Qi Chen continued, "But at such a young age, already has a steady bearing; thanks to Yao'er's upbringing."

Making a not-too-heavy-not-too-light little joke, Qi Chen turned his head and shouted outside.

The commotion just now was the not-so-common Di Long Shen Shen.

Qi Chen, Shen Yao, and Qi Haochen were safe and sound, but the situation outside was unknown.

"Reporting to my Lord, except some horses were startled and accidentally trampled goods, everything else is fine."

The steward simply finished tallying the entire caravan's issues, turned and reported everything to Qi Chen in one go.

Qi Chen touched his chin, analyzed in his heart, and finally nodded, "Rest and reorganize on the spot; wait for stability before speaking further."

Di Long Shen Shen isn't over in one go; rather, during this period there will be intermittent tremors of varying sizes; in modern terms, aftershocks.

"This King remembers, the last time the earth dragon turned over was when we were in Jingcheng."

It was very severe, directly crushing a third of the houses and buildings in the entire Jingcheng, including the palaces in the palace.

Qi Chen, because he returned to Jingcheng to celebrate the Empress Dowager's birthday, was also hit on the head by falling bricks and tiles; listening to the Imperial Physician's words, he lay in the Wang Fu in Jingcheng resting for nearly a month before he dared to get up and move about.

Regarding that incident, Qi Chen's memory was still fresh; he hadn't expected that after several years had passed, the memories stored in his brain were about to become blurry and unclear, yet now this one tremor actually brought them back to mind.

Sighing with emotion a couple of sentences, Qi Chen spoke to Shen Yao about the attitude of certain people in Jingcheng toward the frequent natural disasters these past few years.

The more Shen Yao listened, the more bewildered she became; unlike the imagination where the Emperor would generally issue a self-blaming edict, Qi State's Emperor was actually quite respectful of objective facts — the Qintianjian wasn't there to do metaphysics, but to divine natural disaster conditions and broadcast them in real time.

Like now, whether droughts or floods or blizzards occur in various places, there would be advance warnings from Jingcheng, though this refers to situations that can be calculated.

As for unexpected events like the one before our eyes, they cannot be predicted; after all, the Qintianjian isn't omniscient and omnipotent.

Shen Yao blinked her eyes, not understanding how Qi Chen could be so calm.

A natural disaster background, ah — the whole of Qi State (including other small countries outside Qi State) blooming everywhere, yet these vested interest holders can actually remain so steady.

"Matters that cannot be changed, one can only do one's best to adapt," survival of the fittest.

Precisely because they are vested interest holders, positioned at the top of the entire country, they learn more insider information in advance and can make more thorough preparations.

Shen Yao touched her temple hair, lamenting to the system that the protagonists of those refugee novels she had read before were all too miserable, 'Transmigrated to the bottom class, even news is known last; no wonder they encounter so many hardships on the road.'

Compared to those novel protagonists, Shen Yao's flight from disaster could be called a countryside outing for relaxation; three meals a day had dedicated personnel responsible, aside from sleeping on the carriage being a bit unaccustomed, every other aspect was no worse than when in the Wang Fu.

'Host, this journey will probably not be too peaceful,' the system reminded.

'That's still stronger than ordinary people,' leaning on Qi Chen's back, no worries about food and drink.

The car fleet rested in place; because they specially chose a location with open visibility, when the earth dragon turned over once again that night, the entire camp's losses were smaller.

"Here is not far from Jingcheng, also don't know how the situation around Jingcheng is," Qi Chen embraced Shen Yao in his arms, with the treasure of a big son Qi Haochen placed between them.

"Jingcheng has the Emperor sitting in command, and heavy troops guarding, there won't be any trouble."

Shen Yao felt that based on this tremor sensation and depth, it wouldn't achieve the effect in Qi Chen's memory.

However, because of this damage, Qi Chen's newly let-go Luo Zhou Fu will probably have a hard time; originally plucking one hair, this time it might be a handful.

Shen Yao could think of it, and Qi Chen naturally could think of it too; his voice low, he laughed, "Those people, when leaving, were reluctant to part with this and couldn't put down that; now they also don't need to be caught in a dilemma," because everything will be pulled over to fill the Guo Ku.

Such an operation — the one sitting on the Dragon Throne doesn't know how many times he's done it; he's long since been familiar with the routine.

Shen Yao felt Qi Chen was gloating; back when leaving Luo Zhou Fu, those rich households spoke more beautifully than singing; when it truly came time to show real commitment, they played more mind games than anyone.

On the surface Qi Chen didn't suffer any loss, but privately he complained to Shen Yao who knows how many times; her ears were about to grow cocoons from listening.

The two people embraced together; the whole car fleet stayed for a little three days before setting off on departure. Continuing all the way north, their party's journey speed once again slowed down.

Couldn't not be slow; the earthquake caused road surface problems; carriages and such lightly equipped ones were fine, but the teams at the rear relying on manpower to push needed to spend time to catch up.

Regardless of whether it was because of Qi Chen's reputation or whatever choosing to go to Changzhou Fu, since they chose to follow, Qi Chen could not actively leave these people behind.

Front, back, left, and right all had Wang Fu's bodyguards protecting, used to deter some petty villains on the road.

Not every day can they find a place to settle; most of the time they can only rest in the carriage.

Especially after the earth dragon turned over, a late spring cold snap came again; the winter clothes taken off not only had to be picked up again, but also had to cope with piece after piece of snowflakes drifting down from above their heads.