The city was suddenly filled with noise and chaos.
All shops quickly closed their doors upon hearing the news.
"Little Miss Luo, shouldn't you quickly close your shop and take cover? Those people have broken into the city and are likely to smash, loot, and burn. I estimate they'll reach our street soon. Although you have a few strong servants protecting you, they have weapons, and your servants definitely can't defeat them. I advise you to find a place to hide quickly," the kind owner of the neighboring shop advised.
"Yes, I understand. Thank you, Master Wang. Please take these food items for emergencies." Luo Yunshi packed a small bundle of food and, unseen by others, handed it to Master Wang.
Master Wang understood that the bundle contained food and without hesitation took it into his own shop. He soon emerged with a large package.
"Please don't mind the things from my shop, Little Miss."
"Thank you. Master Wang, if you are leaving, you can head north," Luo Yunshi said, taking the package and kindly offering a direction.
Master Wang clasped his hands in thanks and quickly departed.
After Master Wang left, customers soon came to buy food with a long shelf life.
Luo Yunshi used her spiritual sense to scan the surroundings and closed her shop door at the last moment before people arrived on the street.
All the tables, chairs, and decorations in the shop were collected into storage by Xing Yi and the others.
Luo Yunshi put all the remaining robots into storage, and along with Xing Yi, Da Li, and Nanny Xing San, she slipped away through the back door.
Two forces were fighting each other in the city streets. Although some people kindly shouted for citizens to hurry home and hide, many shops were still damaged during the battle, and citizens who had not managed to return home were also caught in the crossfire.
Luo Yunshi and her companions found a way to quickly leave the city and head towards the temporary shelter of Luo's parents.
...
Deep within a mountain, Luo's parents were cooking with the villagers of Qingshan Village. The guards they had sent out to scout soon returned with news from outside.
"What? It's really as chaotic as Landlord Liu said? Why isn't King Kang staying in his own fiefdom and coming to attack King Qi in his fiefdom? So annoying."
"What does their fighting have to do with us common people? These scoundrels, they really give us commoners no way to live."
"What does it have to do with us if they fight?"
"Ignorant. King Qi is being attacked by King Kang. King Qi has lost a lot of face, can't he fight back? Where will the money, food, and manpower come from? It will definitely come from us common people."
"That's right. Young Master Cheng'an from the Liu family also explained it to us. Let's wait here for now. If there are any signs of trouble, we can be among the first to flee, right?"
"I don't understand, but I know that following the Liu family, following Young Master Cheng'an, is definitely the right choice."
"Yes, yes."
The villagers spoke one after another. They were initially a little flustered, but seeing the group from the Liu family, their hearts settled again.
...
By noon the next day, Luo Yunshi and her companions, traveling in a carriage, finally had a chance encounter with Luo's parents and the others on the mountain, successfully reuniting.
Since its opening, "Have a Taste" restaurant had been extremely popular. After Luo's father regained his senses, he displayed his intelligence and talent in both civil and military matters. Luo's mother also followed suit, learning and demonstrating her own abilities.
As a result, the villagers often said, "Wang Xiu'er is a capable girl. She just didn't have the opportunity to learn before."
At the same time, the villagers gradually realized the importance of education. Even for girls in the family, as long as they possessed a fraction of the skills of Wang Xiu'er or Little Miss Luo, they could support themselves and earn money. Not only would they have a good life in their husband's home, but they could also bring honor to their maiden family.
The couple rose like a cheat code, leading the Liu family and Qingshan Village to prosperity. With the Liu family's good relationship with Luo Yunshi as an excuse, they researched methods for making noodles and started producing dried tofu and bean curd, and the village's education and literacy flourished.
The couple would also occasionally brainwash the villagers of Qingshan Village.
As a result, most villagers were completely subdued by Luo's parents, to the point where they would do exactly as instructed.
As for Luo Yunshi, she often visited the village under the guise of seeing the Liu couple, becoming quite familiar with the villagers. Sometimes, if the shop had a new product, she would visit the village and chat with the villagers, understanding their thoughts, which would spark new ideas. Products like mixed grain compressed biscuits, sweet potato flavored compressed biscuits, and vegetable cans came about in this way.
"Heavens, even a figure like Little Miss Luo is fleeing with her servants?"
The villagers asked Luo Yunshi about the situation in the city. After Luo Yunshi described the current state of the city, everyone's admiration for Luo's parents' foresight grew even stronger.
Seeing that some villagers had stubborn relatives who refused to leave with the Liu family to escape the famine, they hurriedly descended the mountain again to try and persuade those stubborn relatives to leave with them.
On this trip down the mountain, the villagers not only brought back a group of relatives but also news of conscription and requisition of grain. At the same time, sparse numbers of people carrying bundles, pushing carts, and riding ox carts could be seen fleeing the famine at the foot of the mountain.
Luo's father immediately informed everyone to set off early the next morning.
...
In the early morning, everyone packed their luggage and belongings, and led by the Liu family, they set off in haste.
Luo Yunshi sat in a carriage at the very front, followed by the entire family of Landlord Liu.
Among the guards hired by the Liu family, some stayed to protect the Liu family, while others were assigned to accompany the strong men from the village to protect the villagers. The old, the weak, women, and children were in the middle. Hundreds of people moved southward in a vast procession.
Along the way, the fleeing commoners and these hundreds of people deliberately avoided each other, not daring to approach.
After several days of traveling with stops and starts, everyone noticed that more and more people were fleeing. Some carried only a small bundle, clearly having fled in such haste that they couldn't bring more belongings.
Luo Yunshi went into Luo's mother's carriage to inquire about the situation.
"Our escape this time is a few days earlier than in our past lives. The villagers are well-prepared, and with your shop's influence, changes are inevitable. Look at those fleeing, many of them are carrying compressed biscuits, so they don't need to cook and can travel faster than your father and I imagined."
...
After more than ten days of fleeing, the escape group of over two hundred people from Qingshan Village remained at the forefront of the fleeing masses. Therefore, they did not encounter any instances of grain or money being robbed, nor were there any instances of begging or selling children.
However, just as everyone was about to relax, the sound of horses' hooves was heard from ahead.
Luo Yunshi's spiritual sense detected seventy to eighty strong men on horseback, wielding swords, charging towards them from the front.
The sabers in their hands whistled through the air as they swung, felling many trees in their path.
Seeing this, Luo Yunshi immediately planned to notify Luo's parents.
However, one must admit, your parents are ultimately your parents.
Luo's parents had long ago instructed the system to scout the road ahead, so their discovery was not any later than hers.
"Alert." Luo's parents immediately ordered all villagers to prepare.
The villagers, who had become somewhat lax, became serious upon hearing the command, each gripping a shovel, hoe, or club, their eyes fixed intently on the road ahead.
Soon, the seventy to eighty men charging from the front appeared.
"Haha, boss, we've found some fat sheep. Looking at them, they must have brought out quite a lot of things!"
A burly man, holding a curved saber protruding from his back, said to a man beside him, "Boss, look, they even have carriages. Hehe, if we can take it all, we'll be rich from this trip."
The other dozens of men also burst into laughter, all looking at the man in charge, awaiting his orders.