So, she agreed to it.
The next morning, Ruan Mian went to find her sister-in-law, Mrs. Chen, to explain the situation.
Mrs. Chen was a smart person and knew Ruan Mian wanted them to take refuge first. She and Ruan Qingsong had deep feelings for each other, so she shook her head quickly.
"Mian'er, no. Your brother's situation is unclear now, how can I leave with peace of mind? I'll let Rui go first, and I'll stay in the mansion to wait for my husband to return!"
"Sister-in-law, I'm here, I won't let anything happen to my brother! Rui is still young, if you're not there to look after him, how can I be at ease?"
"But..."
"No buts. Now, without knowing the situation with my brother, the only thing I can do is plan ahead. You should take Rui and leave first. Once the house is stable, I will write to you. In half a month, we will join you in Jizhou."
"You are coming to Jizhou? Mian'er, do you know something?"
Ruan Mian couldn't disclose everything at the moment; otherwise, Mrs. Chen and the others would panic, and it would be hard to explain to her parents.
She could only reassure her: "Rui is the only child of my brother, and you are his wife. If anything happened to you, how could my brother focus on handling other matters?"
These words indeed struck Mrs. Chen, and after some deliberation, she followed Ruan Mian's arrangement.
Before leaving, Ruan Mian placed a stack of silver notes in Mrs. Chen's luggage and handed some silver to Liu Changqing.
Seeing that he was about to refuse, Ruan Mian persuaded, "You can't do without silver for food and drink on the way. Although Jizhou is not far, you still need to hide your tracks and escort safely!"
After sending them off, Ruan Mian left again without stopping.
She originally planned to instruct the people in the mansion to stock up on supplies together but was worried about causing too much commotion and inviting trouble, so she decided to prepare some essential items first.
The morning after tomorrow, they would be exiled to a distant border called Wuheng.
A bitterly cold place, desolate and uninhabited, the journey alone would be exhausting, not to mention the ordeal once there.
With such a big family on this road, it's impossible to let them perish before they even reach the place of exile, like mentioned in the original story.
The Ruan Family was originally a merchant family, now with many shops in the Capital, especially the medicine shop, which is mostly owned by the Ruan Family.
The shopkeepers of the medicine shops all knew her; even before she was married, Ruan Mian often helped manage the business for the family.
Now that they saw her coming, they were all polite.
Ruan Mian didn't waste time and said directly, "Shopkeeper, there's a family matter. Except for the basic medicines on sale, please help me register and pack all the medicines in the warehouse, I need to take them away today."
The shopkeeper was surprised to hear this and said, "Miss, those medicines are our stock. If they are gone, there would be nothing to sell. It takes quite some time to restock them, not to mention we haven't heard any word from the master about this."
Ruan Mian took out the Ruan Family's seal and smiled.
"Father is not well and cannot travel; I will make the decision on this matter. As for restocking, there will be a result in three days. For now, just help me pack the goods."
Seeing the Ruan Family's seal, the shopkeepers no longer objected and responsibly helped her organize the materials.
Afterward, she rushed to a few fabric stores and used some of the silver notes at hand to buy many ready-made clothes and various types of fabric.
Going to such a cold and remote place, keeping warm was of utmost importance.
But there was no cotton at the time, and most warm clothing relied on animal skins, which were not cheap on the market.
Fortunately, she had emptied the Qi Mansion's private treasury in advance.
So she bought all the animal skins, fabrics, and charcoal she could find in the market.
When she went to the fabric store to pick up her goods, she unexpectedly found a token from Chen Anbo Mansion on the shop's counter.
Her eyebrows moved slightly, and she slipped the token into her space.
The next second, a mocking voice sounded from behind.
"Oh, look who it is?"
Hearing this, Ruan Mian slightly raised her eyebrows and looked up, only to see her half-sister Ruan Jiao, whose birth mother was a concubine in the Ruan Mansion that was sold long ago.
She married the same year as Ruan Mian, to the Princely Heir of Chen Anbo Mansion, but she was only a concubine in the mansion.
Ruan Jiao, draped in fox fur and adorned with a hairpin, walked up to Ruan Mian.
Her bright face was full of ridicule.
"Didn't you already divorce? How do you dare to swagger around the market like this and not worry about embarrassing the Ruan Mansion, letting people laugh at you!"
With these words, the two well-dressed women beside her chimed in:
"So this is the once proper wife who was expelled from the Qi Mansion."
"Divorce? I think it was a dismissal. If it were me, I would have thrown myself in the river long ago."
Ruan Jiao laughed and comforted, "Sister, remember how you married into the Qi Family with a grand dowry and spent three years as a widow; now you end up dismissed. As your sister, I'm embarrassed for you."
She then looked at the animal skin clothes and fine velvet materials beside Ruan Mian, her expression suddenly changed, and she snatched them, shouting to the shopkeeper:
"I'll take all these."
The shopkeeper looked troubled: "Miss, these... have already been chosen by this young lady."
"Chosen? So what?! You should check if she even has money to pay you!"
The woman behind Ruan Jiao stepped forward and raised her chin: "Exactly, we are from Chen Anbo Mansion. Things we buy are billed directly to the Princely Heir's account. Hurry up and pack them!"
Seeing their fuss, Ruan Mian coldly smiled and simply sat on the side, allowing the shopkeeper to give them the items.
Ruan Jiao noticed she didn't resist and leaned over to provoke her deliberately.
"Ruan Mian, when you brought such a large dowry into the Qi Family, you surely didn't expect such an outcome today, did you? Everyone mocked me for being a concubine, while you chose to be a widow to secure your position as the mistress of the Qi Family.
But now? The tables have turned, and your brother Ruan Qingsong is about to face disaster. The Ruan Mansion is going to fall!
As for me, I'm married into the Uncle's Mansion but haven't been dismissed. The downfall of the Ruan Mansion has nothing to do with me! I'm no longer part of the Ruan Mansion, but you're about to suffer big time!"
Who knows where she got this information from, but it seemed she came deliberately to mock Ruan Mian.
Ruan Jiao grabbed Ruan Mian's collar, still not finished with her mocking words, when everyone heard a crisp "slap" sound!
They saw Ruan Mian smiling as she slapped her several times, turning Ruan Jiao's face into a pig's head.
She didn't expect Ruan Mian to dare lay hands on her and roared, "I'm from the Uncle's Mansion! How dare you, an abandoned woman, lay hands on me?!"
Ruan Mian, holding those animal skin clothes, threw them aside: "Uncle's Mansion? Since you're from the Uncle's Mansion, show some silver to buy them. If not, and you want it billed to the Princely Heir, you'd better show the Uncle's Mansion's token for everyone to see."
Ruan Jiao, frantic, reached for her money bag but suddenly remembered that when she was about to pay, she had already put the token on the table.
She hurried to look for it but couldn't find it.