Chapter 207: The Journey Home

He Yuzhu drove back, the road becoming increasingly difficult to travel.

It was not that the road conditions themselves were so terrible, but rather that the road was filled with refugees fleeing disaster, and from time to time, someone would kneel in front of the car, begging for a bite to eat.

More refugees had already turned into stiff corpses; every time he saw such a sight, He Yuzhu would always stop the car, move the bodies to the side of the road, and bury them if he could.

Seeing the old, weak, sick, and disabled begging for food, he would also toss a bag of cornmeal or a bag of Xiaomi out of the car window.

Although he knew it was a drop in the bucket, he helped one whenever he could.

This was not out of some saintly heart, but because he had food in his space, and if he didn't save people, he simply couldn't get past that hurdle in his heart.

He was not afraid of those who wanted to harbor crooked thoughts just for a bite to eat; relying on his own combat prowess and his space, he feared no one in this world.

The further he traveled, the more refugees there were, and the air was filled with an atmosphere of despair.

Just at a bend in the mountain road, he suddenly saw a little girl kneeling by the roadside, about seven or eight years old, her body so thin only bones remained.

She was by the roadside, using charcoal to write the four crooked characters "Selling self to save mother" on a board.

Lying beside the girl was a woman, her complexion pale and blue, not knowing if she was dead or alive.

Seeing a car approaching, the little girl actually stood up directly and stumbled to the middle of the road to kneel down.

He Yuzhu hurriedly braked, the tires leaving a mark on the dirt road.

He jumped out of the car and cursed, "Are you looking for death? If I wasn't careful, I would have either hit you to death or driven off the mountain ravine myself!"

"Kind person, save my mother!" The little girl's forehead had already been knocked bloody.

"Stop kowtowing, get up, what's wrong with your mother?" He Yuzhu asked.

"My mother... my mother is about to starve to death." The little girl burst into tears, "She hasn't eaten anything for three days..."

He Yuzhu felt a sting in his nose and waved his hand, "Get up!"

He walked to the woman, checked her breath, and found she was still alive.

He Yuzhu took out a flatbread given by He Daqing from the driver's cab and handed one to the little girl.

The little girl took the flatbread and tried to feed it to the woman, but the woman could no longer chew anything.

He Yuzhu shook his head, took a canned fruit from the car, opened the lid, and handed it to the little girl.

Seeing the sweet canned peaches, the little girl swallowed her saliva involuntarily, but she still took the spoon from He Yuzhu's hand and carefully fed the sugar water to the woman one spoonful at a time.

After the sugar water went down, a few minutes later, the woman slowly opened her eyes.

She glanced at He Yuzhu, her lips moving, and said in a hoarse voice, "Don't worry about me... take her away..."

The little girl understood her mother's meaning and burst into loud sobs.

Looking at this girl who was a little older than his own sister, He Yuzhu couldn't bear it and said, "You two eat something first, we'll talk about other things later!"

Feeling a bit hungry himself, he parked the truck next to a small grove, took out a pot, picked up some firewood nearby, and started a fire to cook porridge.

Wisps of cooking smoke rose on the desolate roadside, and before long, a pot of Xiaomi porridge was ready; he then tore the flatbread into pieces and put them into the porridge.

The little girl watched the pot longingly, her stomach rumbling.

He Yuzhu took three large bowls from the car: "Don't just stand there blankly, are you waiting for me to serve you? Serve it yourself, and serve a bowl for your mother too."

Only then did the little girl start serving the porridge.

After drinking the sugar water, the woman was able to sit up. She held a bowl of porridge, shedding tears as she drank.

After finishing one bowl, the little girl looked longingly at what was left in the pot again.

"Don't eat too much, be careful you can't digest it," He Yuzhu reminded her.

"I want to eat one more small bowl!" the little girl pleaded.

"Don't make yourself sick, just eat it!"

He Yuzhu packed up his things and prepared to leave, when the woman suddenly knelt on the ground: "Kind person, please take Ding Li away! Otherwise, she won't survive."

He Yuzhu shook his head and said, "Don't worry, I'll leave you some Xiaomi."

The woman said in a weak, low voice, "Kind person... even if you give us food, we can't keep it. We had dry rations when we fled, but along the way... they were all snatched away by others."

"When you came out, there must have been relatives you were planning to rely on, right?"

The woman caught her breath and said, "We have no home left. The child's father was press-ganged by the Bald Party, and the village was looted by refugees; everything was snatched away... We just wanted to reach a larger town and find a wealthy family to work as a servant girl... Kind person, please have mercy and let her be a servant in your house?"

He Yuzhu looked at the mother and daughter and thought to himself: If he took them back to Si Jiu Cheng, how would he settle them? On second thought, if he took them, he took them; anyway, he still had plenty of silver dollars in his space. If he didn't spend them, they would be useless eventually, so he would go back and sponsor Lao Zhou to open more grocery stores.

"Following me involves a journey of over a thousand miles; on the road, there's no telling what might happen!"

"I am willing to follow you." The little girl nodded repeatedly, "As long as you can save my mother, I'll do anything, even work like an ox or a horse!"

He Yuzhu felt helpless and immediately carried the two of them onto the car.

After eating something, although the woman was still very weak, she was already able to sit steadily.

Seeing the bags of grain piled at her feet, the little girl asked curiously, "Big brother, what is this grain for?"

"When I see poor people by the roadside, I throw a bag out. Later, you can do this job."

Seeing He Yuzhu do this, the woman wept and said, "You are a good person, a god descended to earth to save us miserable people."

He Yuzhu said indifferently, "I'm not that good; this food was also snatched by me."

"Are you a bandit?" The little girl looked at him in surprise.

He Yuzhu was amused by her words, "Have you ever seen a bandit who shares food with passersby?"

The little girl shook her head.

"What's your name?" He Yuzhu asked.

"My name is Ding Li. What's your name, brother?"

"You can just call me Brother Zhuzi!"

Along the way, Ding Li kept throwing food to those she deemed pitiful.

Of course, there were many who wanted to snatch it by force, but unfortunately, they didn't succeed and all turned into corpses.

Just as they approached a mountain pass, a bearded man suddenly jumped out from the side of the road, holding a large axe, and blocked the middle of the road.

Ding Li shouted loudly: "The bandits are here again!"

He Yuzhu gently patted her head: "Stay quiet."

He Yuzhu got out of the car, flipped his wrist, and a gun appeared in his hand.

A burly man with a curly beard saw the gun in He Yuzhu's hand, hurriedly threw his big axe to the ground, and knelt down with a thud: "Hero, you've misunderstood, I wasn't trying to rob you!"

He Yuzhu laughed upon hearing this: "You are quite interesting. If I didn't have this gun, would you have already hacked at me with your axe?"

"Hero, please listen to my explanation. I am a traveling performer. Seeing so many refugees on this road who are truly pitiful, my daughter and I gathered everyone together to travel as a group. But this mountain road is long, and we simply cannot beg for any food. I was truly at the end of my rope."

"If there is a single lie in what you say, I will finish you off right here," He Yuzhu threatened.

"Hero, if you come with me for a trip, you will know!"

He Yuzhu pondered for a moment: "You lead the way, I will go and see."

The burly man with a curly beard said as he walked: "My name is Yang Xiuqing. What should I call you, little brother?"

"Why aren't you named Shi Dakai?" He Yuzhu joked.

The burly man with a curly beard was stunned: "My father didn't have much education. The character 'Xiu' is my generation rank, and I was born on the day of Qingming, so he chose this character."

He Yuzhu couldn't hold it in and laughed as he said: "My name is He Yuzhu."

Ding Li looked at Yang Xiuqing vigilantly and whispered: "Brother, if he really is a mountain bandit, what should we do?"

"We'll deal with it when the time comes!" He Yuzhu laughed.

Ding Li stopped talking immediately, only clutching her mother's hem tightly.