Chapter 23: Desperate Situation

  This winter has been without much snow, but the long-awaited heavy snow finally arrived, with large snowflakes covering the entire land in a layer of silver white in an instant.

  After realizing the heavy snowfall, Ding Yuluo and Ding Haoli immediately took action, calling out to their comrades who had just rested, no matter how unwilling they were, using both soft and hard tactics to get everyone to get up and hurry on the road.

  Heavy snow fell thick and fast, the sky and earth were a vast expanse of whiteness. When dawn broke, strong winds started to blow again. At first, when there was still some warmth, the sticky snowflakes landed on people's bodies and car wheels. Now that the warmth had dissipated, the wind blew the snowflakes straight into people's necks, making them feel chilled to the bone. From a distance, the line of people and horses all looked like moving snowmen.

  The ground was covered with thick snow, and the wheels of the carts were stuck in it, making it difficult to move forward. The coachmen, carters, and robust men who were guarding the carts were carrying their loads on their shoulders and pushing with all their might, urging the mules to hurry along. By noon, everyone was exhausted, and it was hard to take another step. The entire caravan finally came to a halt in the desolate wilderness, where there were no villages or shops in sight.

  The bright but cold sun hung high in the sky, and the sunlight reflected off the endless snowy ground, making people's eyes dizzy. The comrades who hid beside the big cart to hastily eat some dry rations looked exhausted, no matter how Ding Yuluo and Liu Shiyi, Li Shouyin and others encouraged them, even offering a huge reward, they refused to take another step forward.

  Ding Hao's throat was hoarse from shouting, and he continued to exhort everyone in a raspy voice: "Brothers, we don't have much road left, we've all crossed mountains and rivers, can we still fail at this last stretch? Let's make one more effort, and Guangyuan will be right in front of us..."

  A worn-out young man leaned against a large cart, weakly saying: "Ding Guanshi, Ding's family pays three days' wages in one day, and treats us well on the way. Everyone has a scale in their heart to measure whether the master is kind or not. If we can still walk, don't need you to say it, everyone will exert this hundred or so catties of strength. But... we really can't move anymore."

  Feng Daqu stepped through the thick snow, his feet sinking deep into the drifts. His eyebrows and beard were blown white by the wind and snow, and his bulky sheepskin coat looked as if it had been dyed red - he was a veritable Santa Claus.

  He saw Ding Hao, let out a deep sigh, shook his head and said: "Little Ding, don't make it difficult for everyone. Even if everyone is willing to risk their lives, it's still impossible. The remaining road was not easy to walk on in the first place, and with the heavy snow, we can't even see the road now. We are already lost in the wilderness, and if we continue like this, it won't take long for the axles to break."

  "We can at least try to find a way out, even if it's slower. It's better than just waiting for death."

  "Look for a way? Even if we can find the road, this car carrying so much grain will not be able to move in the thick snow."

  Ding Hao looked at the wheels of the big cart, wooden and only half as wide as a car tire. The cart was loaded with heavy grain, completely stuck in the deep snow. The strength of the mules was limited, and under normal circumstances they could barely pull this much grain. In this situation, even if the number of mules were doubled, it would be very difficult to pull the cart out of the thick snow.

  Ding Hao stared blankly at the twisted and turned vehicle fleet, exhausted Ding, couldn't help but feel bewildered. The future of the Ding family might not be what he cared about, but how much heart and soul he had invested in this matter, now... was it all over just like that?

  After a long time, his Adam's apple moved slightly, and he asked in a hoarse voice: "Where is the eldest sister?"

  The people around looked left and right, but didn't see Ding Yuluo's figure. Just now, Ding Yuluo was still here with those in charge, persuading everyone, but at this moment, no one noticed where she went. After a long time, Xue Liang said: "Ah-Dai, just now... I saw the young lady go that way."

  Ding Hao looked in the direction that Ah Pao pointed, and saw a vast expanse of whiteness stretching out before him, merging with the snow-covered earth in the distance. The thick layer of snow had bent the reeds into an arc shape, their tips buried in the snow, their stalks covered in soft, fluffy hair, like a row of fox tails. On the thick layer of accumulated snow, there was a line of deep footprints. Ding Hao pulled out a long whip from the carriage shaft and used it as a walking stick, following the footprints as he walked forward.

  It was a slope, if not for the bowing "fox tail" of reeds, just looking at the snow stripes blown by the wind, the snowy slope looked like a beach by the sea, and even more like the ripples in the desert, desolate and barren.

  Ding Yuluo stood alone in front, standing still there. Ding Hao walked to her side and stopped, seeing that her face was as white as the snowflakes on her shoulders. Her pale face had no vitality, making her look like a sculpture.

  "Big sister..."

  "I asked Feng Da Zhuang Bian..."

  "What?"

  "He said, with such strange weather, he didn't see it coming either. This snow wouldn't fall earlier or later, but just at this time... blocking our way out, blocking our path to life..."

  "Big sister..."

  Ding Yuluo suddenly burst out laughing, and the snow on her shoulders fell off: "This snow... is simply like it was specially sent for my Ding family..."

  "Big sister..."

  Ding Yuluo slowly turned around, a lone snowflake floated down and was blown onto her face by the gentle breeze. Her long eyelashes didn't even blink, those eyes looked at Ding Hao, but that empty gaze passed over Ding Hao, as if seeing the distant mountains and rivers stacked layer upon layer...

  "Ah-Dai, you should have been my second brother, but instead you have to call me 'older sister'. The Ding family's thirty years of wealth and glory, you never got to enjoy a single bit. Lucky? Or unlucky? In the past, it seemed like bad luck, but now it seems like great good fortune. At least, this calamity that befell the Ding family has nothing to do with you."

  "Big sister..."

  "A day of heavy snow that does not thaw, a day's worth of grain and hay that cannot be transported to Guangyuan. This is heaven abandoning the Ding family, the Ding family's fate... has come to an end..."

  Ding Yuluo's gaze flickered for a moment before finally focusing on Ding Hao, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth: "If it were a peaceful and prosperous era, having grain carts robbed wouldn't be a big deal. But this is the border army's grain and fodder, and the northern barbarians are currently raiding the border. The Ding family has brought about such a catastrophic disaster that no one can save us now. I think... Father must be very relieved, relieved that he always treated you like a stranger, because his ruthlessness actually left the Ding family with a glimmer of hope. As the ancients said, fortune and misfortune are intertwined, and now it seems that this is indeed true..."

  She was dazed, but a faint blush spread across her face, and that strange aura made Ding Hao's heart secretly rise with a chill. Just as he saw Ding Yuluo finish speaking, she suddenly drew out the gleaming sharp sword from behind her shoulder: "Since I, Yuluo, can't save the Ding family, now I only seek to die cleanly, rather than live and suffer humiliation..."

  Ding Yuluo's words were left unspoken, her wrist suddenly flipped over, and the sword was already pressed against her own neck.

  At this time, there were still more than two zhangs of distance between the two people, and the ground was covered with thick snow that reached their knees. Even if they had used the agile movement of the thief Bai Suo whom they had met in Qinghe Town, it would have been impossible to jump over and stop him in time.

  Ding Hao suddenly broke out in a cold sweat...