In the third year of Yongxi's reign, just after the Waking of Insects, there was still unmelted snow on the official road in Runan County, Yuzhou. A rickety bullock cart ran over the frozen soil. Among the hay bundled on the cart board, when Gao Daye suddenly opened his eyes, there were still ice particles hanging on his eyelashes.
"Cough... Cough..." Her throat felt like it had been rubbed by sandpaper. She struggled to sit up, but was strangled by the burlap shirt with seven or eight patches on her body. The driver's scolding came from outside the car. It was in a dialect she had never heard before, but she could strangely understand most of it - it was like a dictionary was forced into her head.
"Don't pretend to be dead when you wake up! When you get to Pingyu County, whether you can change your stutter depends on whether the county captain shows mercy or not!"
Only then did Gao Daye see clearly that he was crowded in the same bullock cart with a dozen sallow-looking people. Everyone had their arms tied with hemp rope, like... Prisoners? She subconsciously reached for her pocket, where the quarterly bonus envelope she had just received should have been, but it was empty at the moment, with only the sticky soil on her palms, smelling like rust.
