Chapter 341 Escape

It got dark.

The lights came on in the dilapidated house.

The so-called banquet was nothing more than inviting a few elders from the clan to eat a potato feast.

Aside from having an ample supply of homemade high-proof liquor, there's not much else to offer.

The two grooms ate a few bites of potatoes haphazardly, were then forced to drink several bowls of wine, and were then sent to the "new house" by Aunt Ma.

These past two days, fearing that Ji Ying might run away, Aunt Ma has only given her a small potato each day.

Ji Ying was sitting on the edge of the bed. Although the ropes binding her hands and feet had been untied, she looked listless and weak.

After closing the door, Aunt Ma locked it from the outside and then leisurely went to continue drinking with the elders.

Inside the room, the red candles were dim.

Unable to contain himself, Ma Lao Er grinned and pounced on Ji Ying with a brutal motion.

Ji Ying let out a painful cry, which immediately stung Boss Ma's heart.

"Second brother, be gentle!"

Ma Lao Er stopped what he was doing, turned his head to look at him, and his face was full of hostility.

"You spineless piece of trash, you want to steal my woman? Bah, you're only fit to share a trough with livestock."

This statement successfully ignited Boss Ma's anger.

He grabbed Ma Lao Er by the back of the neck and pulled him off the bed.

Although Ma Lao Er was not as big as Ma Lao Da, he turned around and punched the other man.

The two brothers immediately started fighting.

The wine jars stored in the room were overturned, and the cheap, high-proof liquor was spilled all over the bed and under the bed.

"Stop fighting."

Ji Ying lingered around the two brothers, seemingly trying to break them up, but in reality, she took the opportunity to spill the wine on them.

Inside another room, Aunt Ma and several elders were already quite drunk. They vaguely heard the noises from next door, assuming it was just the "lively" atmosphere of a young couple's wedding night.

Aunt Ma grinned and thought that she would be able to hold her grandson in less than ten months, and the Ma family line would flourish.

Seeing that the alcohol concentration in the room was already high enough, Ji Ying, in a moment of panic, kicked over the red candles on the table just as Ma Laoda grabbed Ma Laoer by the neck and pinned him against the wall.

The moment the flame touched the ground, the spilled wine was the first to ignite with a ghostly blue flame.

Immediately afterwards, the flames quickly spread along the wine stains to Boss Ma's trouser leg, Boss Ma's sleeve, ignited the bedding on the bed, and spread to the cracked old newspapers on the wall...

The Ma brothers quickly released each other and patted the flames off their bodies.

Meanwhile, Ji Ying, who was ignored by them, grabbed a stool and smashed it against the wooden window.

"Brother, that woman is trying to run away!"

The Ma brothers then realized they had fallen into Ji Ying's trap, but by then the house was already ablaze.

The fire on the two brothers had not yet been extinguished, and the rolling flames formed a blazing wall of fire between them and Ji Yingzhi.

Ji Ying didn't even glance at them. She quickly climbed out the window and jumped into the yard, then fled in the direction she had observed during the day. Her figure quickly disappeared into the night.

Although she had been confined to the house for the past few days, Ji Ying would peek through the crack in the door to observe the terrain outside whenever Aunt Ma and her son were not home.

She knew that Aunt Ma and her two sons carried their farm tools every day, walking along the dirt road on the left leading to the field ridge.

Therefore, she chose the right side without hesitation.

But the more they ran, the denser the mud-brick courtyards became on both sides, and the barking of dogs rose and fell.

Ji Ying felt increasingly uncertain.

Perhaps this is not the way out of the village.

Flames soared into the sky above Aunt Ma's courtyard, followed by the loud banging of gongs.

The dogs nearby barked even louder, and several houses turned on their lights.

Ji Ying's heart sank.

The sound of the gong would wake the entire village, and she would soon be surrounded.

Suddenly, a unique courtyard appeared before them.

The wall was made of neat white bricks and was much taller than the surrounding adobe houses. The courtyard was also flat and spacious.

In the center of that flat cement ground, a slightly worn blue farm tricycle was parked quietly.

Ji Ying suddenly stopped in her tracks...

The sound of gongs and clamor grew louder as they approached, and the flickering light of torches was already visible in the distance.

Aunt Ma's shrill curses were the first to pierce the air.

"...That damned outsider woman set fire to my two sons. If we catch her, we'll skin her alive!"

The villagers, awakened by the noise, formed a group and rushed to the outside of the white brick courtyard.

Just then, the white brick door opened, and a middle-aged man wearing a coat and with a solemn expression walked out.

The noisy villagers immediately shouted in unison, "Village Chief!"

Aunt Ma rushed forward as if she had seen a savior, wailing and crying.

"Village chief! The woman I bought has run away! She set fire to my house and burned my son. You have to help me!"

The village chief frowned, glanced in the direction of the Ma family by the firelight, and quickly ordered, "Dacheng, Ercheng, quickly carry the Ma brothers out, I'll take them to the town clinic in a car."

After saying that, he turned to the agitated villagers and said, "That woman can't have gone far. You guys take the dogs and go after her separately! Once you find her, cripple her first, then bring her back."

The villagers responded immediately.

The village chief then strode toward the tricycle in the yard.

The truck bed was very wide. He tightened the pile of tattered sacks on the side even more, and then laid a layer of dry grass in the truck bed before driving the truck to the outside of the Ma family's courtyard.

The fire at the Ma family's house grew stronger and stronger, and with the help of the wind, it was impossible to save the house, so the villagers gave up.

The two Ma brothers have been carried to the doorway.

The two men were charred black and unrecognizable, with only the faint rise and fall of their chests proving that they were still alive.

The villagers hurriedly lifted the person onto the truck bed. The village chief dared not delay any longer and drove off towards the town.

It was already past midnight when the tricycle arrived at the town clinic.

The village chief and the sickly doctor hurriedly moved the two charred bodies off the tricycle, neither of them glancing back at the pile of debris that had been moved to the side.

While everyone was busy in the treatment room, the pile of tattered sacks and straw was suddenly lifted, and Ji Ying slowly sat up.

The journey was so bumpy that her bones almost broke, but she dared not stop. She bit her tongue hard, and the sharp pain mixed with the taste of blood instantly dispelled her confused consciousness and exhaustion.

Inside the clinic, the village chief's anxious inquiries could be heard intermittently.

Seizing this brief moment, Ji Ying scrambled out of the truck bed and ran without looking back toward the town where the scattered lights were still partially extinguished.

At this time, almost everyone in the town was asleep.

Ji Ying walked around and found that there was only one hotel here.

She dared not linger outside for too long, and a plan quickly formed in her mind:

First, she should beg the innkeeper to let her stay in the cheapest bed on credit for the night, no matter what. Then, she should use the inn's phone to contact Liang Yizhi. If he could arrive as soon as possible, the danger she was facing would be over.

So she walked to the wooden door with "Peaceful Hotel" written on it and gently knocked on the door.

Repeatedly several times.

A short while later, the sound of slippers could be heard from inside.

The door latch was pulled open, and a seemingly honest and kind-hearted couple stood inside.

Just as Ji Ying was about to speak, the moment she saw the two of them clearly, her blood froze.

These two were the couple who were among the three human traffickers who kidnapped her from the airport and then sold her to Aunt Ma.