The carriage was driving on the road, and before I knew it, it was approaching dusk. Because they were in the middle of nowhere, they did not intend to continue their journey, but found a nearby village to rest.

Just as they got out of the carriage, the people who had been watching at the entrance of the village dispersed, as if they were afraid of something.

At this time, a harsh wind blew, and the sand and gravel were mixed in the wind, and the face was painful. Song Qian tightened the cloak on his body and said to the others, "We should go to the village chief now, and we can stay only after asking." Otherwise, it is easy to disturb the people by entering the village to rest.

The others chimed in, so they entered the village, grabbed a child and asked, "Where is the village chief's house?"

"Over there, the biggest room." The little boy pointed with a finger and ran away, soon disappearing.

A few people didn't think much about it, because children are not very old, and they like to have fun and be lively by nature.

The group then followed the boy's point to the outside of what appeared to be the largest house in the village.

Along the way, Song Qian noticed that the houses here, no matter how big or small, were surrounded by fences, the ground under his feet had dried up, and there were no livestock or plants in the yard.

This made Song Qian frown, thinking that the drought here is so serious, why hasn't anyone mentioned it? ap.

Although the people had been hiding from them for a long time, they had not seen outsiders for a long time, so they followed them curiously, and soon surrounded them and whispered.

"Is anyone home, please?" Song Qian stepped forward and shouted loudly against the fence.

The man in the room heard the noise outside, got up and pushed open the creaky wooden door and walked out, and when he saw Song Qian, his eyes flashed with surprise, but more in disbelief.

He opened the bolt that held the door to the fence and asked, "Who are you?" Is there anything you can do in my village?"

I usually don't have passers-by to stop, and it's hard not to let men suspect that Song Qian's purpose is not pure, so he is very vigilant.

After sensing that their identities were being questioned, Ji Changye hurriedly explained, "Are you the village chief? We are passers-by, and we have to travel a long way. Because I was afraid that something would happen to me when I was getting late, I wanted to rest in your village for one night, so I came to ask you."

The man looked them up and down in anxious eyes, and replied, "How many of you are from Dijing, right? The dress and accent are different from those of us here, but they look like the people of Dijing."

"Exactly." Ji Changye admitted directly.

Seeing that what the two people said was getting more and more deviated, He Yujin hurriedly pulled away Ji Changye, faced the man and said, "Village Chief, do you think there is a place for us to stay?" Of course, we won't live in vain, can you make an offer?"

In any case, it was most important to find a place to settle first, otherwise he would be vulnerable to wild beasts if he lived in a carriage at night, and he would be vulnerable to wild beasts.

After pondering for a moment, the man seemed a little tempted, but still refused: "We were friends in the past, what are we talking about? This village is more than enough for a few of you, if you don't dislike it, live in my house. It just so happens that I'm bored alone, and you can still be a little angry."

Unexpectedly, he agreed so simply, and several people were very happy.

Finding that the people were still surrounding here, the man waved his hand and drove away, "What are you doing here? Why don't you go home and cook?"

When this was said, the people were reluctant to disperse.

At this time, Song Qian found that the people here were as skinny as wood, and there were thin bodies hidden under the thick and tattered winter clothes, and they really looked lifeless, which was also the strange place in this village.

What is it that makes them like this?

Before Song Qian could think about it, he was pulled into the yard.

After settling the carriage, they came to the house that the man had cleaned up for them.

"Can this live?" He Yujin looked at the surrounding walls that had been cracked for a long time because they were mud houses, and couldn't help but worry, fearing that it would collapse in the middle of the night and crush them underneath.

Maybe

Seeing through or hearing He Yujin's words, the man suddenly appeared from outside the door and said, "This house has been occupied for many years, although no one usually lives in it, but I can guarantee that it will not collapse."

Since he has already said so, several people can only choose to believe it. Soon they packed their things and settled down.

At this moment, He Yujin said leisurely: "Song Niangzi, I'm hungry, what about you."

After a day's journey, a few people who basically didn't eat were also a little hungry, but the dry food brought by Song Qian was not enough to eat, so she could only apologize for making them hungry, and suddenly the man appeared and said, "The meal is ready, come and eat."

I didn't expect him to be so thoughtful.

Don't allow them to think about it, and Yujin has already gone out, and several people look at each other helplessly and smile, and they also follow.

However, when they came outside, they realized that the meal they had made was nothing more than a coarse steamed bun and a bowl of wild vegetable soup without oil and water.

When the man saw them coming, he said, "These wild vegetables are freshly picked by the people, and the people in the village love to eat them, but there are too few of them. Try it, I don't know if you eat it or not."

Listening to these words, Song Qian sat down nervously, it was like sitting on pins and needles, especially when he thought that when they were in Dijing and Sulou Town, they were big fish and meat every day, and they had never heard or understood the story behind this, so they were very surprised and pitied.

Several people looked at each other and finally picked up the bowl of wild vegetable soup, although there was a strange smell that was very unpleasant, but several people drank the soup in order to live up to the hard work of the men and the people.

As soon as Song Qian put down the bowl, he noticed the boy peeking outside, Song Qian thought he had something, so he beckoned him to come in and wanted to ask clearly. After the boy got the consent, he came to Song Qian's side, and the other party was about to speak, when he saw him quickly pick up a steamed bun, carry it in his arms and run away.

Several people didn't expect it to be such a thing, and they all felt unbelievable. And the man was very angry when he saw this, and grabbed the branch on the ground and was about to catch up, but Changfeng hurriedly stopped him.

"It's just a child, out of the way."

Unexpectedly, when the man heard these words, his expression suddenly became serious, and he pointed to a few black steamed buns and said, "These steamed buns are made up by various families, and it is not enough for you to eat, and now he will rob one of them, what do you eat?"

Listening to the man's words, several people blamed themselves in place.

At this time, Song Qian took advantage of the situation and asked this question: "Village chief, it doesn't rain here all year round, so what should the center of the earth do?

"This natural and man-made disaster, we have no way to stop her, for so many years, I have done everything to pray for blessings, but it is useless." The man's face was full of sadness, he didn't want the wind and rain to be smooth, but God just didn't get his wish, what could he do.

Song Qian looked at Ji Changye and asked strangely, "Why is the drought here so severe, but I have never heard of it in the imperial capital?" Is there something else going on, or is there someone behind it?"

Ji Changye and Song Qian thought of going together. He replied, "The court wanted to send special people to help with such a drought, but they didn't see it, so it can be seen that someone is indeed making trouble behind it."

The man listened to the conversation between the two people and was very curious about the identities of the two people, and felt that the two people were definitely not ordinary people, so he looked at them cautiously, trying to find clues.

Meanwhile. He Yujin swallowed the steamed bun in his mouth with difficulty, and said, "It's useless to find the officials here, otherwise the drought here would have been cured a long time ago. I heard that the official here has been promoted for a long time, and there are still the methods of the Xiao family, so I suspect that this matter has something to do with him." When he said the back, He Yujin looked at the man vigilantly, and it was not until the other party was uncomfortable that he made an excuse to leave these few miles before he was relieved to say it.

As soon as they heard that it was related to the crown prince, Ji Changye and Song Qian probably understood what was going on. After all, this Xiao family is Ji Qirui's maternal grandfather and grandmother's family, and at first when they just rose, they were also regent like the original Zhao family, thinking of relying on a reliable prince, but they didn't expect that Ji Qirui, who was carefully cultivated, was actually as big as they thought

is different, he doesn't have his father's majesty and ability at all, but he also has a lot of power to do these things unscrupulously now.

Song Qian said angrily, "How can they not know about these drought-stricken places? It's just that I want to be out of business. Do they enjoy it so well?" Thinking that the people of the whole village lived on meager wild vegetables and coarse steamed buns that he was reluctant to eat every day, Song Qian felt that these selfish villains should really give it a try.

Ji Changye comforted her and said, "It's useless to say these things now, presumably this Xiao family is not like this for a day or two now. We don't want to write to Your Majesty and ask him to come forward to rectify it, otherwise the purpose of our trip will be exposed." The top priority is to visit Ji Qimu and find a way to get him out of this place.

So this matter, although Ji Changye was also angry, but if he wanted to help them, he couldn't do anything, the only thing he could do was to send them some food, but he couldn't cure it.

The man in the distance saw the serious expressions of the two, and thought that he had said the wrong thing, and just wanted to go up and tell them not to go to their hearts, Song Qian handed over the plate of steamed buns and said, "Village chief, we can't eat this steamed bun, it's too much. Do you think it is better to give some to the people, or what?"

"They have all been borrowed from every household, so let them return to their rightful owners." Men don't have the heart to be cheap, tell the truth.

At this time, He Yujin felt guilty for eating a steamed bun just now, and in order to express his apology, he took off the bracelet on his body and said, "This is worth a lot of money, and if you have it, you will pawn him and exchange it for a lot of food."

"It's too expensive for us to take it. It's just a steamed bun, how can I afford this?" The man refused without even thinking about it. I thought that no matter what, I couldn't take advantage of it.

Song Qian watched the two people shirk and shirk, and it was not a solution, so he said to the two people, "This bracelet is kept. The village chief had no place to exchange silver, but scrap copper and rotten iron. Why don't we get back and send some food to make it a good deal, right?"

He Yujin thought for a few seconds and immediately agreed.

The man who wanted to refuse saw that he had no chance, so he could only take it over, and kept thanking them.

Ji Changye looked at his appearance, and couldn't help but regret what he said just now, the other party treated him so sincerely, but he was afraid of being punished for exposing his whereabouts, so he said, "I will pay more attention to this matter." The implication is that he will talk about it like the emperor.