Pan Yun had only been looking at first, but the longer she looked, the more she sensed something was wrong. She could not help stopping.
Miao Zhen nearly bumped into her and stopped as well.
Miao He threw herself onto the two of them from behind and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
Pan Yun looked up at the sky, rubbed her stomach, and said, "I'm a little hungry. Let's go to the village ahead, find a household where we can stop and cook, and ask for a bowl of water."
They walked for another quarter of an hour before they saw cooking smoke.
Turning off the official road and following a small path for a while, they could see a village.
Some children came running out of the village, wooden sticks and wooden swords in hand. When they saw them, they waved their sticks and swords, blocked their path, and shouted, "Who goes there? State your names!"
Finding them amusing, Miao He cupped her fists and smiled. "This poor Daoist Miao He, traveling the world with my senior brother and senior sister, humbly asks for a bowl of water."
The children burst into laughter. Their serious act fell apart in an instant, and they immediately made way before running over to the cart. "If you want water, come drink at my house."
"Come to my house, come to my house! My water was just drawn from the well."
They crowded around Pan Yun and the others, ushering them into the village.
All along the way into the village, there was not a single adult or elderly person in sight. There were not even any older children—only eight- or nine-year-olds leading even younger children.
One boy of around eight pushed open his family's wooden gate, ran into the courtyard, scooped them