Chapter 2 The city is broken
Outside the house, insects chirped one after another. The moon hung high in the sky, and the bright moonlight shone through the gaps between the leaves onto the ground, like a string of silver chains. The stars twinkled, like countless pairs of eyes watching the world.
Inside the house, some people were holding palm-leaf fans, waving them gently to drive away the heat; some were whispering; some had already fallen into a deep sleep.
Li Ai lay on the big bunk bed, staring at the ceiling with her eyes open. In the room, there were sounds of grinding teeth, snoring, occasional talking in sleep, insects chirping outside, and mice running around on the beams.
Summer nights are so lively.
In the room where a dozen servants lived, the smell in the hot summer was quite rich...
Sister Qiuju, who had come back from the trip, slept in another room in the yard. There were two rooms in this yard, both with large bunk beds. The whole yard was inhabited by servants and old women. With so many servants, this family must be a wealthy family.
Alas, I really don't know whether it is a blessing or a curse to be transported here. What should I do in the future? Be a maid for the rest of my life?
Run away? With those tiny arms and legs, this body is probably only 7 or 8 years old.
My brother is now a thin little body, the two of us are young and slaves, we are unfamiliar with the place, where can we run to!
My brother said the city is about to fall? Is his soul still in the war era? God, I am so tired!
How could my brother's soul travel through time? He traveled through time before her! Did she die in a car accident? She must have died... I remember the RV fell off the mountain at the end.
Are mom and dad okay? It’s not a good thing for an old person to send off a young one…
Li Ai tossed and turned, unable to sleep, her mind in a mess, with all sorts of thoughts running through her mind.
"The fire is coming!!!"
“Bang bang bang… Boom… Boom!!”
"Get up quickly!!!"
The wooden door of the room was slammed loudly, and there was a sudden noise and chaos outside, breaking the tranquility of the night.
"Get up! Get up! Get up!!"
"Ahhhh!!!"
"what's up!!!"
Li Ai was stunned, and then she remembered what her brother said. She immediately got up, put on her clothes, got out of bed, put on her shoes, and shouted, "Everyone, get up quickly!!!"
"what happened?"
"I'm exhausted after a long day, can't I sleep?"
"Is there a fire in the mansion?"
"Go out and check the situation!"
Everyone got up and put on their clothes while talking.
Li Ai followed everyone out of the room. The people in the opposite room were already in the yard.
Under the dark night sky, flames shot up into the sky, illuminating half the sky, with black and red contrasting with each other!
Everyone in the yard was in a panic, not knowing what was happening outside!
The crying, shouting and screaming outside passed through the heavy walls and courtyards and reached people's ears, making people terrified!
The flames that shot up into the sky could not be caused by just one or two houses on fire. I'm afraid the city has really been breached and the soldiers outside have rushed in!
What should I do, what should I do, what should I do!!! Li Ai's hands and feet couldn't control the shaking, and she told herself to calm down, calm down, calm down!!!
Looking at the flames rising into the sky and the crying and shouting outside, everyone in the yard realized that something terrible was going to happen.
"Mother Hu, open the gate quickly!!!"
“Wuwuwuwu…”
"Someone come!!! Someone come!!!"
"Open the door! I don't want to die! Wuuuuuu..."
"Grab the key, go grab the key and open the door!"
Everyone in the yard was shouting anxiously, and they just wanted to open the door and run out.
The gate is locked?!
Yes, in ancient times, courtyards would be locked at certain times, and there would be women guarding the gates. Where does my brother live? How many doors are there between here and here? They are all locked, how can the two of them meet?
While Li Ai was daydreaming, Mother Hu had already packed her bags, opened the gate, and ran away.
The yard was crowded with people, so Li Ai retreated and hid under the wall. She didn't want her small body to be crushed or trampled to death. She waited until most people in the yard had left, and then waited for her brother.
In the night of black and red, a group of people in coarse linen clothes went back to their rooms to get their things, some walked away, some ran away. Soon, Li Ai was the only one left in the yard.
Everyone was running for their lives in a panic. Li Ai felt that the scene before her was unreal. Was she in a nightmare?
Li Ai looked up at the night sky. What time was it? Was it midnight? Alas, it seemed useless to know what time it was!
After a while, Li Ai was the only one left in the yard.
I wonder if this little girl in her original body has any private money? Servants also have monthly wages, right?
Should we go find some things to pack? Forget it. For such a young child, what can he pack when living in a place like this?
Why hasn't bro come yet?!
He ran away by himself? Impossible! Could he be unable to get out of the yard?
I squatted by the courtyard wall and heard even more noise outside the wall! The noise was so loud that I couldn't tell which was which.
Li Ai was getting more and more restless. On the first day of coming to this strange world, she encountered a war and a broken city. She didn't even have time to get to know the environment. Even if she walked around the mansion a few more times, it would be good to know the general location and route!
Tsk!
When people are unlucky, they will choke even when drinking water. The current situation is a perfect example of this.
Li Ai's mind was full of random thoughts and her feet became numb from squatting, so she stood up and stretched her legs.
"Li Ai! Li Ai!!"
Li Ai heard shouting from outside the wall behind her. She immediately looked up at the top of the wall. The wall was probably about 2 meters high.
"Li Ai!! Li Ai!!! She wouldn't run away, would she?!" Along with the sound, a rope ladder fell from the top of the wall.
Li Ai quickly shouted: "Brother, I'm here!! I'm here!!!"
"I was so scared! Why couldn't you reply to me right away!!!"
"I thought it was hallucination..."
"Hurry up!! Hurry up!!!" Li Hao sat on the wall, stretched his hand down and shouted.
The rope ladder is soft and it takes a lot of effort to climb it, but it is much easier to climb than a single rope. Li Ai gritted her teeth and climbed up. Li Hao sat on the top of the wall and reached out to help. Li Ai finally climbed to the top of the wall.
He panted and said, "Why climb the wall when there is a gate?"
Li Hao looked outside the wall and said, "Go down quickly! We'll talk later!"
Li Ai grabbed the rope ladder, climbed over the wall and quickly climbed down.
Li Hao quickly put away the rope ladder, threw it down, turned over and stepped on the bumps on the wall, and landed on the ground in two or three steps. He picked up the rope ladder, pulled Li Ai and ran.
"Hurry up!! We haven't left the house yet!!"
"what?"
The two did not run far before they came to a wall. Li Hao pushed aside the bushes beside the wall, revealing a large hole, and climbed out first using the rope ladder. "Safe! Come out quickly!"
Li Ai immediately crawled out on her stomach, "This is a dog hole..."
After exiting the dog hole, the streets outside the mansion were brightly lit in the middle of the night. The sound of crying was amplified in my ears, and people were busy running for their lives with their families.
Li Hao pulled her and ran, saying, "Stop looking, hurry up and leave! If we can't leave the city, we're doomed!"
"Since they've broken in, there must be soldiers guarding the city gates. Even if there are no soldiers guarding a gate, with so many people fleeing for their lives, all running towards the city gates, we won't be able to squeeze out!"
"I've figured it out! Not only are there a lot of people, but there are also a lot of carriages from those wealthy families! We're afraid that we'll be trampled to death on the street before we even reach the city gate! Follow me!" The two of them ran across the street and into an alley. The alley was narrow and the light from outside could not shine in.
The two ran for a while, turned two corners, and ran and walked all the way. Li Ai vaguely heard the sound of running water. When she walked out of the alley, a river in the city came into view, and the water surface was lit up by the lights on the river bank.
"We're here, wait for me." Li Hao dropped the rope ladder, swam into the water to a bush on the river bank, and dragged out something.
Li Ai squinted her eyes and looked over: "Raft?"
"It's just a raft at best. This river leads out of the city."
"That's great, brother! You've been very busy for most of the past half month! It wasn't in vain!" Li Ai gave her brother a thumbs up.
"Stop talking nonsense! Here are these two reed tubes for you. If something goes wrong, just dive into the water, hold the reed tube in your mouth to breathe, and hold on to the raft with your hands!" After saying that, he threw the rope ladder on the raft, climbed up and tried it out.
"You don't need to ask me if I can swim? Aren't you afraid of drowning me?" Li Ai half-knelt and grabbed her brother's hand and stepped onto the raft. The raft sank slightly, and the water came up and wet her cloth shoes. "Fortunately it's a hot day!"
"Oh, I've lived with you for more than 20 years, but I still don't know if you can swim! It was early August when I came here, and now it's almost late August! It's really a blessing in disguise that it's hot."
"The body is not the same body as before!"
"It's OK as long as the soul is the original soul. Theory and experience are enough! Now we have to escape!" Li Hao turned his head and rolled his eyes, paddling in the water with a simple wooden board in his hand. Fortunately, he was not going upstream to get out of the city, but downstream.
The raft moved quickly along with the current.
Late at night, Li Ai used the lights from the fires on both sides of the river to see that the river was wide and the two banks were not close to each other.
The two rowed the raft a short distance before they saw many logs, rafts, wooden basins, rafts, and even small boats in the distance.
Everyone had the same idea and wanted to escape from the city by crossing the river.
Compared to the noisy shouting, fighting, and crying on the shore, the river was unusually quiet. Only a few suppressed cries occasionally leaked out, and more often there was the sound of water flowing and paddling.