Fu Chang had not heard the news. At this moment, he was hiding deep in the mountains with his two sons, accompanied by thirty-nine other households—a total of one hundred and eight people.

However, they had initially numbered over eight hundred. During their flight as refugees to this place, just as they were getting closer to Luoyang, news arrived that Prince Donghai’s force of over two hundred thousand had been annihilated. Before they could even recover from their grief, they encountered the Xiongnu army.

Judging by their direction, the Xiongnu were heading to attack Luoyang. With Prince Donghai having taken away so many people, Luoyang’s defenses were depleted—how could it possibly hold?

Fu Chang dared not continue toward Luoyang and immediately fled into the mountains with his two sons.

During the escape, many refugees had come to know that Fu Chang possessed some capabilities. Seeing him run into the mountains, they followed.

Xiongnu soldiers pursued them into the forest with drawn swords. Under the shadow of death, their group ran for a very long time. When they finally stopped, unable to run anymore, they found themselves deep in the mountains with no idea how to get out.

Not counting those who had scattered along the way, Fu Chang’s final count showed ninety-two people who had made it together.

They temporarily dared not venture out. The Xiongnu were rampaging—who knew what had become of Luoyang or His Majesty?

Fu Chang’s heart was filled with worry, but he quickly suppressed such grand concerns. The most pressing matter was the survival of their group.

The mountains harbored fierce beasts, venomous insects, and poisonous snakes—quite dangerous indeed. However, compared to the brutal Xiongnu outside, the refugees unanimously decided to settle in the mountains.

They selected two elders to speak with Fu Chang: “I see this area has relatively flat terrain, and we can hear the sound of water, clearly indicating a water source nearby. Why not temporarily settle here and leave once the fighting outside has ended?”

That was what they said, but who knew when the warfare would cease?

Fu Chang looked back at the path they had taken. Unable to determine their direction for the moment, he nodded in agreement.

So they followed the sound of water deeper in. The initially flat terrain sloped slightly upward, then downward. The trees grew densely, making it unsuitable for habitation.

After walking for another quarter-hour, the dim light blocked by the tall forest suddenly brightened, and everyone’s view opened up expansively.

This was a mountain hollow surrounded by three peaks. In the distance, water cascaded down from a mountain ravine, forming a large pool below. The overflow from the pool created a stream.

The stream divided this flat land into two sides. The side where they stood occupied roughly two-thirds of the hollow. Fu Chang’s gaze followed the stream downward, and he saw it seemingly rush into the mountain on the right side and disappear from view.

Fu Chang decided to settle here. He led people in constructing thatched cottages and reclaiming considerable farmland on both banks of the stream. They carried very few farming tools with them—basically just what the refugees used for self-defense.

They also had some grain and seeds.

Seeds were essential for refugees on the run. Apart from those who fled suddenly, anyone who left their homeland after careful consideration would carry various seeds with them. These seeds represented their capital for starting anew.

Fu Chang gathered all the seeds together and discovered they had the most vegetable seeds, a fair amount of hemp seeds, and the least grain seeds. In fact, after fleeing this long, few households still distinguished between seed grain and food grain.

Most people had already started eating their seed grain.

So he could only try to pick out some from their food supplies to use as seed grain.

The mountains offered abundant resources. Though life was hard and they often went hungry, occasionally someone would be bitten by venomous insects or poisonous snakes. Fortunately, Fu Chang knew some medical skills and recognized medicinal herbs, so no one had died from venomous bites so far.

As for fierce beasts, the able-bodied men would hunt in groups. With their numbers and fire, they could defend themselves.

Their group settled in this way. Over three years, they lost some people but also gained some—this small village called “Fortune Village” began to have newborns.

Living in the mountains and building everything from nothing, time flew by imperceptibly, making it difficult to sense the passage of days.

Fortunately, Fu Chang never forgot to track the time outside. When they decided to stay, he had his eldest son Fu Yong keep records. When their paper ran out, they carved on rock faces to avoid losing track of what day it was.

Fu Yong carved “Fifth Year of Yongjia, Seventh Month, Eighth Day, Clear Weather” on the rock face, then placed the stone fragment in a fist-sized hollow in the rock before turning to find his father.

Fu Chang was in the field cutting soybeans. Many villagers were working in the fields. An elder approached happily, holding his sickle: “County Magistrate, this year is another good harvest. I think we can reclaim that plot at the mountain’s foot too.”

Since they had hidden in the mountains, the harvests had been consistently good. Oh, last year there was less rain, and even the water flowing down the mountain ravine had diminished considerably. Normally it cascaded down like an endless curtain, but last year’s water flow was like water poured from a kettle—just two thin streams. It had even stopped completely for over ten days, which terrified them.

Fortunately, the deep pool beneath the ravine had sufficient reserves, and with the mountains’ abundant moisture, they still managed a good harvest in the end. However, many wild beasts had come down last year. To drive them away, three people had died. Finally, Fu Chang had them yield and give the downstream farmland to the mountain beasts. They set traps in the middle stream to prevent the beasts from approaching, and their houses, built from the start, were mostly constructed on the upstream side near the mountain.

After seeing the abnormal conditions with the mountain ravine and the wild beasts, Fu Chang knew something had gone wrong outside the mountains. He told his two sons: “Outside must be suffering severe drought. Who knows what the warfare is like? Encountering such natural disaster on top of that, achieving stability will be even harder. Let’s continue living here and leave the mountains when the time is right.”

Originally, he had determined their direction. Over the past year of hunting and gathering, they had roughly found the way out. He had planned to leave after the autumn harvest this year, but now…

They decided to stay another year.

This year, the ravine’s water flow finally returned to normal, and the wild beasts coming to drink decreased as well. They knew the drought must have passed.

But they still didn’t know the situation outside.

Fu Chang had wanted to leave anyway. Hearing the elder mention continuing to reclaim land made him even more tempted. He said: “Our farming tools are severely worn. Since we want to reclaim land, why not send people out after the autumn harvest to buy some farming tools?”

They had brought in few farming tools to begin with. With wear and tear, they had even fewer now.

The elder didn’t want to go out. The outside world was chaotic—how could it compare to the pleasant life in the mountains?

With Fu Chang here, there was no rent collection, no tax collection. Each person only had to contribute some grain annually, which he used entirely to support the elderly without family and raise orphans. The soil in this mountain hollow was fertile with excellent harvests.

In just three years, they could eat their fill. Though their meals were mostly bean rice, they were very happy.

So he said: “We can fashion farming tools from stone and wood. Haven’t we made many stone hoes and stone axes before?”

“But stone is heavy and never as useful as iron implements,” Fu Chang said. “Besides, we’ve long since run out of paper, and the medicinal herbs in the mountains aren’t complete, so we still need to go out and obtain supplies.”

He knew they had adapted to mountain life and were now very resistant to leaving, so he didn’t express his intention to go out and find the court.