Chapter 3
Entering the City
Bai Wutong came out of the pawnshop and quickly entered an alley. She put her silver taels and golden hairpin into the space and took out cosmetics from her bag. In a moment, the extremely ugly woman disappeared and was replaced by a young and ordinary girl.
The shopkeeper struggled to get up from the ground and immediately covered his bleeding neck with a handkerchief. He shouted at the magistrate officer on the street, “An ugly woman with a blind left eye robbed my shop of 150 taels of silver and a golden hairpin. Send someone to capture her immediately!”
“Yes!” The magistrate officer actually spoke respectfully to the pawnbroker.
Bai Wutong saw this from the shadows and shook her head secretly. The roots of the Yan Kingdom were completely rotten.
Bai Wutong walked into an inn and asked the waiter, “Are there any more rooms?”
The waiter said indifferently, “There’s still the high-class, low-class rooms, and the common beds. Where do you want to stay?”
Bai Wutong said, “I want a high-class room.”
The waiter sized her up. “Five taels of silver a night for a high-class room.”
Bai Wutong nodded. “I’m taking the high-class room.”
The waiter immediately beamed with joy. “Ma’am, this way please. You can check in after registering.”
Bai Wutong thought that she could check in after paying and recording her name. Who knew that she had to register with her household records?
Seeing her hesitation, the waiter deliberately said, “It’s chaotic outside. If you don’t have a household register, you can’t stay anywhere. It’s best for you to apply for a new household register.”
Bai Wutong thought for a moment, took out a tael of silver, and stuffed it into the waiter’s hand. “Where can I apply for a household register?”
The person who was making the household register could definitely create a fake one.
The waiter was obviously adept at this business.
Sure enough, the waiter beamed like a blooming flower when he received the money. He said happily, “Ma’am, please wait a moment. I’ll take you there immediately. It’s just that it’s not easy to apply for a household register. You might have to spend more effort.”
Bai Wutong understood and took out another tael of silver. “Then I’ll have to trouble you to spend more effort.”
After receiving another tael of silver, the waiter was so happy that wrinkles appeared on his face. He brought Bai Wutong to the government office and muttered to the magistrate officers he knew. After spending 20 taels of silver, she was casually registered under a village in the Yan Kingdom.
Holding the freshly printed household register, Bai Wutong heaved a sigh of relief. She was now a person with an identity in this world.
There was a long queue at the door of the food rations store. The food rations were frighteningly expensive.
One tael of silver could only buy 10 catties of fine rice. In other words, 2,000 yuan could only buy 10 catties of high-quality rice.
Even if the coarse rice was cheaper, one tael of silver could only buy 100 catties of it. It was twice as expensive as before.
Now that the famine was becoming severe, food would only become more and more expensive. The refugees would do anything for a bite of food on their journey.
No one was dumb. They would buy as much as they could.
With silver in hand, Bai Wutong did not hold back. She asked for 100 catties of fine rice, 300 catties of coarse rice, 10 catties of white sugar, 10 catties of salt, 50 catties of oil, and 10 catties of soy sauce. She spent 30 taels of silver in one go.
Afraid that it would arouse suspicion, Bai Wutong directly lied that she was a maidservant buying on behalf of her owner’s family. After paying, she asked them to send the items directly to the inn.
100 catties of rice was enough for her to eat for 300 days. Now that there were 400 catties of rice, it was definitely enough for her to find a place to stay for long.
Apart from food, Bai Wutong still lacked a lot of things. She went to the textile shop to buy some ready-made clothes and a few bolts of durable cloth.
The weather was hot. By the time she reached Ling Kingdom, it would probably be winter.
Bai Wutong took advantage of the cheap cotton clothes and bought a few more sets.
Although she had very warm cotton clothes in the RV space, they were definitely not suitable in this world and would easily attract attention.
As long as it was something she needed daily, she would buy everything as the ones in her RV space were not suitable.
She carried her things and went out. Soon, she entered another medicinal store empty-handed.
Her experience in the post-apocalyptic world informed her that food, medicine, and weapons were the three main elements of survival.
Especially after the famine, it was easy for an epidemic to break out.
The medicine in her RV space was potent, but not much.
When the apocalypse arrived, the pharmaceutical factories had already stopped production.
The medicinal store was packed. Bai Wutong queued for a while before it was her turn.
She knew many recipes for daily ailments that were more economical and effective than those prescribed by doctors.
She directly asked one of the young staff to take out a lot of medicinal herbs for colds, fevers, diarrhea, headaches, pain relief, and prevention of plague. She also took a few bottles of medicine for external injuries and bleeding.
With these many herbs, it cost her 50 taels.
Seeing that she had bought so many kinds of herbs, the doctor frowned and said, “Aren’t you going to see a doctor?”
Bai Wutong thought of the bump on the back of her head and said, “I hit my head. I can’t remember some things.”
The doctor took her pulse and nagged for a long time because he wanted to prescribe her expensive herbs.
Bai Wutong was a little disappointed and waved her hand. “I’m here to get the medicine for my master.”
The doctor’s enthusiasm vanished. He didn’t even bother to look at her afterwards.
The horizon was already red when she left the medicinal store.
Bai Wutong wanted to hitch a ride from the escort agency.
After asking around all the way to the escort agency, she explained her intentions to the escort. However, the escort waved his hand and said, “Go, go, go.”
Logically speaking, now was a good time for the escort agency to earn money. There must be a big problem if they were unwilling to take the escort.
Bai Wutong produced a five- tael silver ingot and placed it in the arms of the escort, who frowned and was about to refuse.
Bai Wutong said, “Big Brother, I’m really afraid to travel alone. I just want to find out some things. If the road ahead is too difficult, I won’t look for my family.”
The escort’s expression softened a little as he tucked the silver ingot into his jacket. “Ask away.”
Bai Wutong got some more information.
She still had to pass through Beiyun City, Jiangyuan City, and Fengming City to reach Ling Kingdom.
In these three cities, not only were bandits rampant, but the groups of refugees were even more ferocious. Even if the goods from the escort agency were spared from the bandits, they could not resist the waves of desperate refugees.
Moreover, the closer they got to the Ling Kingdom, the more sensitive the authorities were. If the refugees seemed any suspicious, they would be treated as spies and killed.
Lin’an City was probably the last city they could enter.
After receiving the silver, the escort advised her, “You should think of a way to stay in Lin’an City alone.”
Bai Wutong nodded. “Thank you, Big Brother. I understand.”
It wouldn’t take long for Lin’an City to become chaotic. Without the escort agency, she would still have to set off as soon as possible.
Bai Wutong returned to the inn and packed all the food that had been sent to her room into her space. She decided to set off the next morning.
After drawing water and washing up, she turned off the lights and lay down on the bed to rest.
As she was in a daze, she heard a slight sound outside the door.
Bai Wutong snapped awake and hid in the corner of the bed, gripping her axe.
Someone picked the lock and two men in black crept in.
They were holding two large shiny knives in their hands. They went straight to the head of the bed and slashed at the soft blanket.
In the moment of shock, Bai Wutong appeared from behind. Once and twice, they were hit. The two of them fell to the ground almost at the same time, their eyes still wide with fear.
They did not seem to expect this outcome.
Bai Wutong did not intend to kill anyone, but if others wanted her life, she would never show mercy.
She pulled off the face masks on two of them. They were the waiter and the magistrate officer who had helped her with the household register.