The edge of the village.
The place was packed with people coming to say farewell.
Lu Chang'sheng found Wang Heihou, Niu Dazhuang, and Li Nangua.
Their eyes were all red and swollen; as they looked at their families in the distance, their faces were full of reluctance to part.
Li Nangua's expression was a bit calmer, but her eyes spoke more about her fear of the future.
Lu Chang'sheng understood her family situation—her parents didn't really care about her much. Almost all their attention was on her brother.
This time, her brother was actually the better choice to go to Black Mountain Prefecture, but her parents still picked her.
If they had waited a few more years, maybe she wouldn't be leaving like this, but would be sold directly to a wealthy family instead.
Not far away, Zhao Deshui watched the scene in front of him, his expression complicated, with a bit of regret growing in his heart.
But now, there was definitely no turning back.
Besides, as long as this thing was handled right, there shouldn't be too many problems—just a waste of some effort and money at most.
"Don't blame me!"
When the time came, a few of the Zhao Family's young men came out, pushing wheelbarrows and holding crude weapons.
"Let's go!"
The leading Zhao man barked out an order, and the group instantly started heading out of the village.
"Dogzi, make sure you study hard!"
"Take care of yourself! Chongzi!"
"Big Dog, you damn well better come back able to read a few words!"
······
Looking at all this, Lu Chang'sheng felt a slight sadness. As he turned his head, he suddenly saw a familiar face looking his way.
"Old Man?"
Zhang Village walked over with a limp, snorting coldly: "What are you staring at? You brats get to go, but I can't? Don't come crying to me when you run into trouble!"
He shot Lu Chang'sheng a glare, only feeling like the cooked duck in his hand had just flown away.
"Old Man, out there on the road, more friends means more options. No need to be so harsh, right?"
"Heh, I've mixed around Black Mountain Prefecture for over twenty years—no way you little chicks can compare."
Seeing that Zhang Village didn't want to talk anymore, Lu Chang'sheng just left him alone.
The group traveled for half a day and reached Hu Kou Town, where a few people from the Zhao Family pushed their carts and left the group.
Hu Kou Town is the only small town for dozens of miles around, a trading post for nearby villages. Still, most of the people passing through are locals or small-time traveling merchants, and with nothing special produced in the area, no big wealthy families came from here.
Even if there were any, they'd already moved to Black Mountain Prefecture.
Those Zhao Family folks were just there to buy some grain.
The group didn't stay long, and kept moving on. After about a day, they reached the official road to Black Mountain Prefecture.
By then, all the Zhao Family carts had been stopped in villages along the way.
Zhao Family Village was off the beaten path. To get to Black Mountain Prefecture, you had to walk dozens of miles of muddy roads, then even more once you hit the main road.
For dozens of miles around, there weren't any rich villages, so bandits and robbers didn't often show up.
It's like—wherever there are mice, there must be food nearby.
Bandits and thieves need to fill their stomachs, so they don't bother with tiny places like this.
Otherwise, what's the point of hiking dozens of miles to rob someone?
But once you hit the main road, it's a different story.
Sure enough, that evening, while everyone was resting in the wild, a crowd of shadowy figures suddenly crept up.
Soon after, a wave of shouting and killing broke out.
Lu Chang'sheng woke up from a deep sleep to find shadows moving everywhere in the dark.
It looked like two groups were fighting.
Before he could react, the fighting was already winding down.
A voice rang out, making everyone tense up.
"Boss, should we kill them?"
Another voice spoke up.
"Shut up! All you ever think about is killing! Anyone can tell these folks are just villagers headed for the prefecture city, looking for a way to survive. How much could they possibly have? Besides, all of us are doing this out of desperation, not for the fun of killing!"
A torch flared up in front, and a big man with a square face swept a tiger-like glare over the crowd.
"The name's Li Long, third boss of Black Tiger Mountain. If any of you ever run out of options, you can come find me up there. I may not have much skill, but I promise—if I have food, you won't go hungry!"
With that, he doused the torch and led his people away.
"Come on, move it!"
Once they'd gone a distance, Zhao Deshui and the other Zhao young men hurried everyone back on the road.
After going through something like that, nobody felt like resting anymore—they trekked through the night, and after another day and change, finally reached their destination—Black Mountain Prefecture.
"Wait here for a bit! I'll be back soon!"
Zhao Deshui told Lu Chang'sheng and the others to wait outside the city walls while he went into the traveler's inn.
Black Mountain Prefecture City had four gates—east, south, west, and north—people came and went in droves. Some couldn't even get inside, so they stayed outside, and eventually, traveler's inns popped up for them.
Those low on cash mostly didn't go into the city, just stayed out here to rest.
Soon, Zhao Deshui came back out, another man beside him.
"This is Liang Hu. Teacher told him to handle things for you from here on out. Whether you become the teacher's students is up to this gentleman!"
The man swept his eyes across everyone. "That's not quite right."
Zhao Deshui's face changed and he tried to tug on the man's sleeve, but then the man went on: "Ha, I'm just a helper here. Whether you end up students depends on Teacher's students, not me!"
Zhao Deshui let out a silent sigh of relief.
After that, Liang Hu took over and began arranging things.
He led the group away from the inn. Everyone was excited, thinking they were going into the city, but at a fork in the road, he turned down a different path.
It was nearly dark when they finally stopped in front of a courtyard.
"This will be the place where you learn to read and write."
Liang Hu said.
"But where's the teacher?"
A young boy couldn't help but ask.
"Teacher? The teacher's not gonna come out here in person! Besides, this was once where the teacher studied. After he earned the rank of Child Scholar and moved into the city, it was left empty. There's too many of you, so you'll have to make do with this place for now!"
He grinned, sizing up the group.
"And just so you know, teacher doesn't take just anyone. If you want to be one of his students, you gotta have some talent for reading, understand? In the next few days, Teacher's students will be testing you!"
With that, he pointed at some worn-out buildings around the yard.
"Pick for yourself. One spot per person!"
Liang Hu said, walking out of the courtyard. Just as half his foot crossed the threshold, he seemed to remember something and turned back, sitting down on a chair for a nap.
"Pretty damn basic!"
Lu Chang'sheng pushed open the door and looked at all the straw mats on the ground, not thinking too much about it.
With so many people, there's no way all of them would become the teacher's students.
This was probably just an entrance test!