I Became a Sugar Mama to an Ancient General during a Famine! - Chapter 4 Part 2

“Where is your husband?” he asked, and she quickly pointed to a dilapidated alley.

Zhan Chengyin walked there.

Inside the alley, a father wept as he prepared to exchange his last child. The child clung to his legs, promising not to eat, begging to be spared.

Another child sat silently, shirtless, ribs clearly visible. Hope had abandoned him. Tears streaked through the dust on his face.

The woman cried, “Yang’er!”

The silent boy struggled to stand at his mother’s voice. His cruel father kicked him down, grabbing his neck. “Will you be traded or not? If you want to die, don’t waste my time.”

Tian Qin’s sword pressed against the man’s throat.

Trembling in fear, the man dropped the child.

The woman rushed to hug him.

The boy finally cried, “Mom, you’ve come to save me! Can I live? won’t I be eaten like my siblings?”

The woman broke down. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault for not protecting your brother and sister.”

The man spat, “Spare me your act. You drank more broth than I did.”

Horrified, the woman covered the child’s ears. “You never said it was our children’s lives! You tricked me!”

“How could you be so heartless? They’re your own flesh and blood!”

The man tried to hit the woman, but Tian Tai’s sword pressed harder against his neck.

A drop of blood oozed from his neck.

Terrified, he pleaded, “General, I was wrong. I truly know my mistake.”

“Please spare me. I’ll never trade my child again. I’ll raise him well.”

But this man has always been a local thug and a habitual liar.

So Zhan Chengyin coldly ordered, “Take him to the military camp for conscription.”

The man let out a pig-like scream begging for mercy.

With the barbarian army of three hundred thousand surrounding the fortress, not even a fly could escape. Going to the military camp was like a death sentence.

The man wailed, begging for mercy, but was dragged away cursing at the woman and her child.

Zhan Chengyin looked at the emaciated child and reached for two rice balls in his coat.

He secretly slipped one to the woman, who accepted it, stunned but grateful.

As he left, mother and child kowtowed repeatedly, thanking him profusely.

With one rice ball left, Zhan Chengyin headed towards the camp to visit a young, well-liked soldier skilled in repairs.

Wounded by arrows in a recent barbarian attack, the soldier was dying from infection.

Despite his fate, the young man’s eyes were bright as he smiled, saying he only wished for one last meal, even if just grass roots.

On his way to the military camp, a frail, elderly woman collapsed before him. She knelt shakily, holding out a plate of grass roots.

“General, this old woman is near death. I beg you to protect my granddaughter for a while. Our whole family has died. Only we remain. I can’t bear for her to become someone’s food.”

Zhan Chengyin noticed the wounds on her arms and hands, made by a blunt object. The three-year-old granddaughter’s mouth bore dried blood. He suddenly understood everything.

He clenched the rice ball tightly.

A mighty general who had slain countless enemies, even his hardened heart ached at the sight of the old woman bleeding to save her granddaughter.

He gripped his last rice ball tightly, forcing back tears. “Live on. Boil and eat the grass roots,” he said, placing the rice ball in their bowl.

Hurrying back to his mansion, Zhan Chengyin’s mind raced. Seeing the citizens suffer so greatly pained him deeply.

He resolved to beg the gods to save the soldiers and all the city’s people, even at the cost of his own life.

He couldn’t bear to see corpses everywhere, people cutting their own flesh in despair.

These were the very people his army had sworn to protect.