The journey for Chen Huihong and her group was extremely monotonous.
At least that's what Qin Huai thought.
Travel by day, rest by night, drink from streams they passed, ask for directions from people they met, beg for food from rich travelers. Possibly due to their proximity to Beiping, Granny Zhang only begged from obviously wealthy caravans, avoiding any attempts to sell people.
On a good day, they might get a few cakes; on a bad day, they might get whipped.
When they were just a day and a half away from Beiping, the weakest child in the group collapsed.
Granny Zhang tried to pry open his mouth and feed him a bean cake, but seeing he no longer even had the strength to chew, she took the cake back and ate it herself, all the while saying regretfully, "He can't even eat something this good, it seems he's really going to die."
"Such is his misfortune; we're almost there, and he's just wasted my food all along the way."
