Bai Jinse’s bright black eyes looked toward the bundle the man was using as a pillow. That bundle still contained dried rations – food the man had prepared for his five or six-year-old son. The husband and wife rarely ate any themselves.

Through Bai Jinse’s observation, the couple had stopped eating the dried rations entirely, and had reduced their child’s daily two portions to just one… and even made that portion smaller, indicating their dried rations were nearly depleted.

Once the dried rations were finished, if they continued forward where there wasn’t even grass, it would be her turn.

But she couldn’t die!

If she died, how heartbroken her mother, eldest sister, and all her brothers and sisters would be.

Especially Fifth Brother – he would probably blame himself for life, since he was the one who brought her to the battlefield. If she died without even leaving behind remains, how could Fifth Brother bear it?

She had to live! She must live!

Even if not for herself, then for the Bai family and all the Bai family’s loved ones!

The Bai family had already lost too many people. Eldest Sister had said… the Bai family couldn’t afford to lose anyone else!

She calculated in her mind how far they had traveled from Yun Jing over these days, and wondered whether Great Zhou or Yan might have already taken Yun Jing by now.

She couldn’t travel any farther. Continuing this way would take her farther and farther from Yun Jing, and farther from the Great Zhou military camp.

Bai Jinse looked up and saw not far away a thin, weak boy who was bound as tightly as she was. He looked to be only seven or eight years old, and like her, the boy had also been starved for a long time.

Seeming to sense someone watching him, his pitch-black eyes reflected the flickering red light of the nearly extinguished fire. He silently emanated a fierce energy, as if ready to fight others to the death at any moment, his gaze filled with the deepest vigilance.

Bai Jinse looked away and inadvertently spotted a broken bowl half-hidden by straw in the temple’s straw pile. She checked the length of the rope binding her, moved toward the straw pile, turned around, and used her hands that could still move behind her back to feel for ceramic shards, cutting a small gash in her hand in the process.

Having found the broken ceramic bowl, she immediately began using it to cut the rope without delay. After many days without proper food, her whole body was weak and powerless. The hand holding the ceramic shard trembled, and before the rope was cut through, her wrists were already covered in wounds, slick with blood.

She held her breath and bit down hard on her teeth. With life and death at stake… Bai Jinse could endure any pain.

Perhaps because she had been hungry for so long without eating, even her pain sensitivity had diminished. As the ceramic shard scraped across the tender skin of her wrists again and again, she felt no pain.

Before long, though Bai Jinse hadn’t yet cut through the rope, she was already covered in cold sweat from weakness.

As she cut the rope, she calculated in her mind that it was now deep night, when people slept most soundly. If she could quietly escape now, even though her body was weak, at least she could save her life first!

During this time, Bai Jinse noticed that the child with wolf-cub-like eyes kept staring at her.

Thinking that the child was bound and probably also intended as food for these Xi Liang people, though she was in dire straits herself, she inappropriately felt compassion. She convinced herself… that child was awake, and if she escaped without taking him, he might cry out and she wouldn’t be able to escape either.

Feeling her wrists loosen, Bai Jinse knew she had succeeded. Without bothering to wipe the sweat from her face, she loosened the ropes binding her and made a “shush” gesture to the child. Her whole body weak and powerless, she supported herself against the wall to stand up, gripping the ceramic shard as she walked behind the boy.

The boy seemed to know Bai Jinse was going to rescue him and remained obediently silent.

Soon, Bai Jinse cut through the ropes binding the boy.

Though he had also been starved for so long, the boy moved with wolf-like agility as he darted out. Bai Jinse couldn’t even react in time.

The boy’s bright eyes fixed on the bundle of dried rations under the man’s head, carefully and gradually… pulling the bundle out bit by bit.

Watching the boy’s actions, Bai Jinse’s expression darkened, her heart involuntarily rising to her throat. She had already saved him, but instead of taking this opportunity to escape, he was stealing others’ dried rations. Such self-inflicted trouble was beyond help. Bai Jinse hesitated no longer and walked quietly toward the temple exit.

Just as she reached the temple entrance, the man who had been using the dried rations as a pillow suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed the boy’s thin wrist, glaring as he shouted: “What are you doing?”

This shout woke most of the people in the ruined temple.

Bai Jinse, who had already left the temple, leaned against the wall, gasping for breath. Since everyone was now awake, she couldn’t delay any longer and had to leave quickly…

Inside the temple, the boy clutched the bundle tightly and bit down hard on the man’s hand.

The man suddenly stood up, flung the boy aside, forcibly snatched the bundle containing the dried rations from the boy’s hands, and stomped hard on the boy’s thin body with his foot, grinding his heel into the boy’s chest. These dried rations were his son’s hope for survival – how could he let this little beast from who knows where take them away!

“There’s wheat flour rations in the bundle!”

A girl’s not-quite-standard Xi Liang dialect rang out in the ruined temple. The disheveled, sallow-faced Xi Liang people in the temple immediately fixed their eyes on the bundle in the boy’s arms.

In this ruined temple, how many people hadn’t seen wheat flour rations – they had to fight just to get a bite of decent tree bark. At this time, whoever still had dried rations was guilty of possessing treasure.

The man, stepping on the boy’s chest, panicked. His wife had already stood up holding their son and was hiding behind the man, her eyes full of terror: “His father…”

“Who’s making wild claims here? Our family has been traveling with everyone all along. Everyone saw us eating tree bark and chewing grass roots. If we had dried rations, why would we suffer like this?” the man shouted.

“Whether you do or not, open the bundle and let us see!”

“That’s right, if you don’t have dried rations, then open the bundle and let us see!”

As they spoke, the men in the ruined temple had all stood up and were closing in on the man. The man released his foot from the boy’s chest and desperately protected his bundle while pushing his wife and child backward, but with the wall behind them, there was nowhere left to retreat.

Suddenly, the boy mustered all his strength to lunge at the man’s bundle. The bundle was torn open, and the dried rations wrapped in cloth scattered across the ground…

“It’s dried rations!”

“Dried rations!”

“Grab them!”

The ruined temple immediately erupted into chaos. The disheveled Xi Liang people desperately fought for the dried rations on the ground. Some had already begun attacking the man, tearing at his family’s luggage and bundles. The man somehow produced a thick wooden club and swung it wildly, protecting his wife, child, and belongings.

Seeing the man’s stance, these Xi Liang people who had long been driven to desperation by hunger had already seen that they had dried rations. Combined with some people already grabbing rations, even those who had originally stood still without moving joined in…