Chapter 35: Mother, the person behind us is suspicious

Seeing that the donkey looked quite steady, Hong Xiaoduo finally boarded the cart with peace of mind. "Tianshu, come up. A few dozen pounds won't make a difference. If you're worried about it, we'll give it better fodder in the future. Just take good care of it."

Hearing this, Tianshu obediently sat on the shaft of the cart.

Among the seven children, although Tianxuan was the same age as him—both eight years old—they didn't even know where their homes were or what their surnames were; naturally, they had no way of knowing their birth months or hours.

Thus, based on a comparison of height, Tianshu was a fist's width taller than Tianxuan, so he became the eldest brother.

But being the eldest brother wasn't easy; he had to protect his younger brothers and sisters as much as possible to shield them from the cruel beatings of wicked people.

He also had to find ways to secretly hide a bit of the food they scavenged from the outside to leave for whoever was denied food as punishment.

Competing to do everything himself had become a habit for Tianshu, and driving the cart was no exception.

When Hong Xiaoduo said she was the adult and would drive, Tianshu refused adamantly, insisting he could do it and asking to try first.

In truth, if Hong Xiaoduo really wanted to drive the cart, she had no choice; as long as she put on a stern face and gave him an order, he wouldn't dare disobey.

But she didn't do that, because she wasn't sure how long she could look after them. She didn't know if she would suddenly disappear, or if she could find a suitable place and reliable people to entrust them to before she vanished. Therefore, she could only harden her heart and let the children do what they could, training them in the ability to survive and care for themselves.

As soon as Hong Xiaoduo sat down in the carriage, Yaoguang leaned toward her.

"Tired?" Hong Xiaoduo asked softly.

Yaoguang's little head shook like a rattle. "Mother, I'm not tired. It's just my first time in a carriage, it's so comfortable."

"Little dummy, it's a donkey cart, a donkey cart," Tianquan interjected to correct her.

Yaoguang didn't feel embarrassed about being wrong. "Carriage or donkey cart, they're all pulled by four legs anyway. They all look more or less the same. Either way, we don't have to walk ourselves, and my brothers won't have to tire themselves out carrying me anymore."

Her words made everyone in the carriage laugh.

"Yaoguang, sheep and pigs also have four legs. Can they pull a cart too?" Tianxuan teased his little sister.

Hong Xiaoduo also tilted her head to look at Yaoguang, wanting to hear her response.

Instead, she saw Yaoguang glaring at her second brother with wide eyes. "I'm just younger than you, I'm not stupid. We've traveled so many places, when have we ever seen a cart pulled by sheep or pigs?"

Seeing Yaoguang's adorable, huffy expression, everyone laughed even harder.

"Mother, look, Second Brother is bullying me, and you're not doing anything about it." Yaoguang remembered to tattle.

Hong Xiaoduo nodded very seriously. "Alright, then next time we buy crispy sugar, we'll give him one less piece. Who told him to tease our little Yaoguang, hmm?"

Upon hearing this, Yaoguang nodded immediately. *Yes, this is good,* she thought, proudly putting her hands on her hips toward Tianxuan.

Tianxuan immediately cooperated, clasping his hands together in a gesture and expression that said, *Big brother was wrong, please forgive me.*

Looking at the children's current happiness and thinking back to when she first met them, if it hadn't been for her meddling, wouldn't they have been suffering continuously?

Even now, while staying by her side, the children were still cautious in everything they did, watching her expressions to guide their actions.

Yaoguang was the youngest, so she was somewhat better off.

"Mother?" At that moment, Tianshu, who was driving, suddenly called out.

He only called her "Mother" but didn't say what was wrong. Hong Xiaoduo thought for a moment, swapped places with Yuheng who was sitting in the front, and opened the small lattice window.

Hearing the voice, Tianshu leaned his head closer and whispered, "Those people... they've been behind us since shortly after we left the town. They're on horses, and they're still behind us."

Upon hearing this, Hong Xiaoduo lifted the side curtain and poked her head out to look back. Sure enough, at a distance of about two *li*, there were... one, two... she counted, six people—more accurately, six riders.

She couldn't see anything else clearly at this distance. She lowered the curtain and said to Tianshu, "Stop by the roadside for a moment to feed the donkey."

Tianshu complied and stopped. Hong Xiaoduo then asked the six on the cart if anyone needed to relieve themselves; if not, they were to stay on the cart and not get off.

The little ones initially wanted to say no, but Tianquan whispered a reminder to them: *Whether you need to or not, just go now, so we don't have to delay once we set off again.*

Thus, all six children got off the cart.

Following the rules set by Hong Xiaoduo—boys on the left, girls on the right—the boys went behind the bushes on the left, while she personally accompanied the two girls to the grass on the right.

When they finished and returned to the cart, Hong Xiaoduo had Tianxuan and the others help her pick up some stones.

There were still some in the cloth bag at her waist, but she wanted to pick up more just in case.

She was in no hurry to get back on the cart and continue the journey. The children searched for suitable stones near her, while she sat on a piece of deadwood, unbuckling the sword from her waist and laying it horizontally across her lap. She stared at the ancient patterns on the scabbard, occasionally casting seemingly unintentional glances toward the direction they had come from.

Logically, it was perfectly normal for people to be traveling on an official road.

But those people were on horseback; even if they didn't have urgent business requiring them to speed up, they shouldn't be traveling even slower than this donkey cart.

The reason Tianshu had told her must have been because he felt uneasy and sensed something abnormal.

Hong Xiaoduo did not think Tianshu was too young to be making wild guesses or unfounded suspicions. Therefore, she had the child stop the cart, claiming it was to feed the donkey, but in reality, she just wanted to stop here and see how that group would react.

She glanced again at the children and the donkey cart. This cart wasn't eye-catching; how many taels of silver would a donkey and cart even be worth? Was it worth such a large display?

Could it be for lust? She was decent-looking, but surely not to that extent?

Hong Xiaoduo felt that if they were truly after people, the possibility of them robbing her was perhaps lower than the possibility of them robbing these seven children.

After all, they were currently clean and their appearances were quite endearing.

Then again, if they tied up all seven children and one adult and sold them, they might actually fetch a very good price.

The group of people on horseback behind them looked at their master with great confusion, truly unable to understand what he was thinking.

Why send Sanjin to shadow the movements of a strange young woman traveling with seven children, only to follow her so sluggishly from behind?

The subordinates were full of doubt, but they didn't dare speak or ask. They felt even their mounts were becoming impatient.

At this speed, they were barely moving any faster than if they were marching in place.

"Master, they've stopped," Sanjin said, steeling his courage after receiving a hint from his companion.

"I'm not blind, I see it," Mu Zitao replied, his tone very unpleasant.

After a moment of thought, he realized that the owner of that donkey cart had stopped on purpose...