Chapter 60: Caravan
On a night of bitter wind and miserable rain, in a dilapidated mountain temple.
Lü Huaijin sat leaning against a wooden pillar, carefully nibbling her dry provisions and drinking plain water.
Beside her was her younger brother, Lü Woyu. At thirteen or fourteen, he was still only a half-grown child.
Both their faces held sorrow and anxiety. Vast though heaven and earth were, there seemed to be nowhere left for the two siblings to call home.
Their mother had died young. To make a living, their father often went to Qisong Prefecture to search for pine longevity stones, traveling from place to place to sell them. He had therefore been forced to leave the siblings with their maternal grandmother in Guangning Prefecture. Who could have imagined that word would arrive from Qisong Prefecture a short while ago, saying their father had died of a sudden illness and asking them to collect his belongings and body?
Unwilling to let their father remain dead in a foreign land, his soul unable to return to its roots, the siblings had fallen out with their uncle and aunt. Using the money their father had regularly given them, they had sought the protection of the Chen Family Caravan and set out for Qisong Prefecture.
Less than two days into their journey, the caravan had encountered bandits outside Sunset Glow Ridge on Crouching Lion Mountain. Fortunately, the escort agency they had hired at great expense was strong and willing to fight fiercely. Only then had they driven off the enemy and kept everyone safe.
However, this had delayed the caravan. Unable to cross the ridge before sunset, they had been forced to stop temporarily in this place, with neither a village ahead nor an inn behind, and wait for dawn.
After handing some