Chapter 5: Conflict

At the critical moment, Xin Ruoyu lunged forward and hugged Madam Yu from behind, taking the whip strike on her own back.

"Third girl!" The old lady was shocked, instinctively reaching out to support the young girl as she slumped down.

"Third Sister!" Xin Mengxue stared at the bloody whip mark on Xin Ruoyu’s back, her small face turning deathly pale as tears rolled down uncontrollably.

Xie Ninglan opened her mouth, unable to react for a moment.

How could they just lash out like that? This damned feudal dynasty really was a hellhole where there was nowhere to reason.

"Mother!" The third master, Xin Wen'an, roared with a flushed face, struggling to turn around while dragging his shackles.

Xin Wenyuan, worried about his wife and daughter, quickly followed suit in a panic.

In an instant, the members of the Xin household gathered around one after another, creating an invisible pressure on the guards.

The guards immediately grew alert, cracking their whips in the air and shouting in angry embarrassment, "What are you all doing? Trying to incite a rebellion before we’ve even left the capital?"

"What, do you still think you’re high-ranking imperial relatives, masters, mistresses, and young ladies?" The bearded guard crossed his arms, mocking them without restraint.

"Let me tell you, once you’re on the road, you’re all just exiled criminals! You’d better be obedient and follow the rules!"

Xin Ruoyu, her face pale, gritted her teeth to endure the pain. "I-I am fine, Grandmother."

The old lady’s eyes turned red with heartache. She bowed to the bearded guard, "Officer, please calm your anger. This old woman will do her best to keep up; we dare not slow down the journey."

The bearded man was relentless. "Dead old hag, remember what you said, or this whip in my hand won't show any mercy!"

As he spoke, he raised his whip and cracked it through the air.

However, the move didn't stay cool for more than three seconds. The tip of the whip inexplicably rebounded, landing with a heavy "thwack" right across his own smug face.

The strike was so sudden that half his face began to bleed immediately. The bearded man let out a howl and hurriedly covered his face with his hands.

Fresh blood dripped through his fingers, creating a hair-raising sight.

Xie Ninglan quietly glanced at her young daughter, who wore an expression of pure innocence.

With her large, clear eyes wide open, she mimicked the expressions of the people around her, looking just as astonished as everyone else.

"What’s going on? What’s all this noise? Can we still get on the road properly?"

"Chief Liang."

"Chief Liang." Several guards shrank their necks as the head guard approached in a rage.

Liang Guang had a broad, square face, a short stature, and a sturdy build. Standing there, he looked like half a section of an iron tower.

Behind him followed an old guard over fifty, his face tanned dark by the wind and sun, with a beard that connected to his sideburns.

"Yo, what happened to Bearded? Why is your face covered in blood?" The old guard walked up with a chuckle, reached out to push the wailing, face-covering man, and turned to look at the young guard standing to the side.

"Xiao Jia, you tell me."

The young guard scratched the back of his head. "I don't know what happened. Everything was fine just a moment ago, but when Brother Mao swung his whip, it suddenly bounced back onto his own face."

The old guard made no effort to hide the schadenfreude in his eyes and laughed heartily, "You kid must be seeing things! How could Bearded be so stupid as to not even know how to swing a whip? Ha, ha, ha!"

Xiao Jia’s face flushed red as he argued, "How could I, Uncle Zhang? Please don't mock me; my eyesight is actually quite good."

The old guard patted Xiao Jia’s shoulder heavily and turned to look at the bearded man. "Is your face alright?"

The bearded man grimaced, clutching his whip. "Do I look alright? It was clearly these women who caused trouble..."

"Eh, eh. Xiao Jia just said it was your own carelessness that caused you to whip yourself; what does that have to do with the women?" The old guard blocked his whip with a hand and glanced meaningfully at Xie Ninglan and Xin Nian. "Xiao Jia, why haven't you helped your Brother Mao away yet?"

"Alright, alright. Since this has nothing to do with you, get on the road and don't cause any more trouble." The old guard gave a fake smile and nodded at Madam Yu and the others.

Liang Guang kept a stern face and walked away with his hands behind his back.

Xie Ninglan leaned close to her daughter and whispered, "These people don't look like good folks. Why did they just let us go like that?"

Xin Nian was also a bit puzzled. She had used a tiny bit of spatial power to distort the space and teach the bearded man a lesson, never expecting the matter to end so easily.

But she hadn't expected the old guard to step in and resolve it.

Unable to figure it out, Xin Nian comforted her mother

"In ancient times, there are rules for escorting exiles. We haven't even left the capital yet; if they abuse us and cause a large number of prisoners to die unnaturally, these guards would likely be in big trouble."

"That's true." Xie Ninglan nodded.

As they spoke, Nanny Lu ran over carrying a little girl on her back, her face full of anxiety. "Old Madam, are you alright?"

Madam Yu looked at her old friend's weathered face and felt bitter. "I'm fine. It’s just my Ruoyu who suffered; she took a whip strike for nothing."

"Should this old servant carry the Third Miss for a while?"

"No need. Nanny, you still have to look after the eldest and second daughter-in-law's children. I'm fine." Xin Ruoyu gritted her teeth and waved her hand, beads of sweat rolling down her face.

Five-year-old Xin Man'er, perched on the old nanny's back, lifted her head like a little adult. "Great-grandmother, don't cry."

Madam Yu managed a weak smile. "Great-grandmother is fine."

She squeezed Nanny Lu's hand. "Cuihua, just take good care of the eldest and second daughter-in-law and the two children. Don't worry about us."

"But Old Madam, the Third Miss's back injury... it can't be delayed..."

"Try this golden sore medicine." Xin Nian pulled a bottle of hemostatic powder from her bundle.

Xie Ninglan hurriedly reached out to take it. "I'll do it, I'll do it."

Xin Ruoyu gritted her teeth against the pain of the whip. "Thank you, Fourth Aunt."

Xie Ninglan sighed. "We're all family, why talk about thanks?"

With that, she pulled out the stopper and poured half the bottle of powder onto the whip wound.

Logically, the wound should have been cleaned before applying medicine, but there were no such conditions now.

The front of the procession had already started moving, so Xie Ninglan had to quickly apply the medicine and tidy up the young girl's clothes.

"This hemostatic powder isn't working well." Xie Ninglan walked behind her daughter, lowering her voice. "I poured half the bottle, and the blood is still seeping out. The poor girl is going to suffer."

Xin Nian frowned. "The medicine didn't smell like there was anything wrong with it; maybe it's just slow-acting. There's no help for it; this is the medical standard of a feudal dynasty."

"I hope we can find some useful herbs along the way. My brother's fever hasn't gone down either; we need to think of another way."

The procession moved at a steady pace. Dragging heavy shackles and chains under the urging and scolding of the guards, they finally rushed to Shili Slope on the outskirts of the capital before noon.

As soon as the guards announced a rest, many of the exiles collapsed to the ground with a "thud," wailing and complaining.

Everyone felt like a deflated ball, lying there with no desire to move.