From Hoarding to Time-Travel: My Supplies Saved Him-Chapter 53 - 54: To Flee or Not to Flee

After speaking, Hong Daya paid Gu Yuanlei no mind and hurried outside after Gu Yuanjin. Gu Yuantu, Xie Ruyi, and the others followed close behind.

The moment they stepped onto the main road, they saw government officials pointing broadswords at them. They quickly raised their hands. "Brother Chai, we were pushed in by the crowd! We really mean no harm. We’re willing to leave the city immediately."

Gu Yuanjin’s approach seemed to work. The officials nodded in satisfaction. "You’ve got some sense, at least. We’ll have someone escort you all out in a bit. Don’t try to pull any tricks."

"We won’t, we won’t," the group said in unison, shaking their heads.

As they followed the government officials, more familiar faces slowly joined their group. These were all people who still had family outside the city. With every household now behind tightly barred doors, there was nowhere to hide. Left with no other choice, they could only grit their teeth and come out into the open.

When they reached the city gate, Gu Yuanjin did a careful headcount of his family. Besides Gu Yuanlei, who had refused to leave with them, the families of the second and seventh brothers were missing, along with his own two sons.

"The eldest and the third still haven’t been found. Are we just going to leave them?" Xie Ruyi was so anxious she was on the verge of tears. "Those two don’t have a single copper coin on them! Where could they possibly have gone?"

Gu Yuanjin’s heart clenched, and he could only try to console her, and himself. "Maybe they’re with Second Brother’s family. You know our boys get along well with Le Huan and Le Xi from the Le Family. They might have stuck together."

Gu Yuanhuo, however, wouldn’t stop blaming Li Xiaohua. "It’s all your fault, woman! If you had taken the two kids with you to line up for water, we might have been on the main road by now instead of having to go back out there and suffer."

"How was I supposed to know?" Li Xiaohua felt deeply wronged. ’She didn’t know if there would ever be another chance like this. If there was, she would be sure to keep her children by her side.’

＆

Freshly cleaned up, Ancient Wen Heng and Jin Qianqian reappeared on the mountain path, both unable to resist taking a deep breath of the crisp, clean air.

"Finally, so refreshing," Jin Qianqian said, looking at Ancient Wen Heng’s now fairer face. "You’re looking more and more like the upperclassman I remember."

If before there was only a fifty percent resemblance, after this period of adaptation and with some of Ancient Wen Heng’s old mannerisms returning, the similarity was now up to eighty percent. The remaining twenty percent difference was only because he was still a bit too thin.

Ancient Wen Heng, however, gently stroked Jin Qianqian’s still-damp hair, his heart aching. "I wonder when your hair will get its health back. It’s looking a bit discolored."

"Whenever you can, remember to get some extra nutrients. Look how thin your little face is—you’re almost skin and bones."

Jin Qianqian touched her sharp chin. "I’ve been diligently drinking milk, but it seems like aside from my complexion getting a little fairer, I haven’t put on any weight at all."

"Just drinking milk isn’t nearly enough," Ancient Wen Heng said, carefully leading Jin Qianqian by the hand along the rugged path. "Your body must have been severely malnourished before. If you have any nutritional supplements from before, take them all out and use them freely. If it’s not enough, I’ll buy you more. I promise I’ll fatten you up."

"So, you like chubby girls, Wenheng?" Jin Qianqian asked casually.

Ancient Wen Heng replied, "I like *you* chubby."

Jin Qianqian, "..."

"Hold on," Ancient Wen Heng said, stopping abruptly. "Hand me those binoculars again."

Though puzzled, Jin Qianqian quickly handed them over.

"That mountain range ahead... I think if we cross it, we’ll reach that stretch of green we saw earlier." At first, Ancient Wen Heng only thought the shape of the mountains looked familiar, but on closer inspection, he realized that the large trees they had spotted before were in the exact same positions.

Jin Qianqian looked for a moment, then broke into a wide grin. "It looks like fate is on our side after all. To think that after wandering all over, we’d have such a lucky break."

"There’s just one problem," Ancient Wen Heng said, not nearly as optimistic. "That whole area is dense, primeval forest. Crossing it on our own is going to be a real challenge. We can see that green land, but it’s still a long way from the mountain we climbed earlier."

Even if they could travel in a straight line, it would probably take them two days. With no path at all, the difficulty was unimaginable.

"Let’s check out the village ahead first," Jin Qianqian suggested. "They might be more familiar with the mountain paths around here. If we offer a few Silver Taels, I’m sure we can find someone willing to guide us."

＆

Gu Yuanjin and his group hurried on. About halfway, they spotted the rest of their family—the old and the young—struggling at the back of the procession, dragging their meager belongings.

When they saw Gu Dashishi’s arm bleeding, yet he was still pushing onward, the brothers broke into a run.

"They’re back!" Gu Sanbu, who was driving an ox-cart at the front, exclaimed in delight. Everyone stopped, craning their necks to see if their own family members were among the returning group.

Seeing that they were all people from Bainiao, the constantly tense Gu Sanbu finally remembered to chide them. "What took you so long to get back?"

"Father," Gu Shulin said, hurrying over to support him. "There were too many people. It was impossible for everyone to get water. Someone led a charge to rush inside, and everyone else, hoping to find water in the city, got swept up in the momentum and ran in too. But once we were inside, soldiers and household guards were rounding people up all over the streets. Every door was barred, so we had nowhere to run and no way to get back out. Our only choice was to walk onto the main road and wait for the officials to pass judgment. Luckily we did. The people who kept running wild, trying to push deeper into the city, were either cut down or killed on the spot."

What many were unwilling to admit was that they only forced themselves out into the open, swallowing their fear, after seeing body after body being tossed onto the streets.

"No wonder some of the people who came out earlier were leaning on each other for support. So that was why," Gu Datian said. Seeing that his own four children had returned, he breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Li Cuicui searched through the group several times before grabbing Gu Yuanjin. "Yuanjin, where are the others? Are they still behind?"

Gu Yuanjin hadn’t seen them in their family’s contingent either, and his heart sank. "They’re not back yet? We thought they had either left the city before us or had taken a different route."

He didn’t dare let himself think about what he’d heard from people on his way out of the city—that cavalry had been dispatched to the main road leading to Shangjing. If his family had run into them, even if they didn’t lose their lives, they would have undoubtedly suffered a brutal beating.

"Weren’t you brothers all together? How did you get separated?" Gu Dashishi’s face fell when he didn’t see his youngest son and eldest grandson.

"The youngest didn’t get separated from us, but he and that girl from the Lan Family refused to come out," Gu Yuanjin explained without hiding anything, briefly recounting his conversation with Gu Yuanlei.