Upon seeing blood, Xu Gensheng dared not joke around anymore.

All four of them took out their personal belongings.

Xu Genqing and Xu Gensheng walked in front, while Errui stepped back to Jiang Zhi's side to protect his mother.

The mountain slopes here are narrow, and the dense forests on both sides make a ravine appear gloomy and dark.

Xu Gensheng lowered his voice and said, "There used to be a few families living here, but it seems they didn't leave during this war."

This is something everyone knows.

Because the arable area of ​​each mountain is limited, the mountain people mostly live scattered. There are four or five families living in this valley, and they know the people from Xujia Village.

On the night Pear Blossom Town was attacked, the mountain people there did not escape the calamity and were taken away, leaving the town abandoned and uninhabited.

Normally, the people of Xujia Village would cross the mountain to reach the town, but they no longer needed to come into the valley.

The group walked along a narrow path, barely wide enough to fit a foot, which was obscured by grass, into the ravine.

The footprints of mules and people were clearly visible, and more and more drops of blood were appearing.

This place is separated from Xujia Village by two hills; he must have been injured and couldn't get back in time.

After walking about 100 meters into the ravine and turning a sharp bend, the mountain range widens, and a small valley suddenly appears.

In the center of the valley, a mountain stream flows outwards, with plots of land of varying sizes and overgrown with weeds arranged in layers on both sides.

These fields range in size from three to five meters wide to as small as a door panel, all edged with pebbles, neat and orderly. Combined with bamboo groves and fruit trees, it's as if the Peach Blossom Spring has been recreated.

However, near the cliff, several dilapidated thatched huts, deserted and abandoned, along with broken and collapsed courtyard walls, make this secluded paradise appear eerie and terrifying.

The refugees emptied their belongings and refused to settle here.

However, at this moment, life has come to this place.

An old mule was leisurely grazing outside the nearest abandoned house. When it saw someone coming, it just looked up at them and then lowered its head to continue eating, as if the grass here was especially delicious!

Sure enough, it's here...

The four men paused, Xu Genqing's face flushed red then turned pale, then red again, hesitating whether to advance or retreat.

Xu Gensheng, who had just been spouting nonsense, now acted like a mute bride, not only shutting up but also shyly turning his head to look at the ground, as if a trumpet flower had suddenly bloomed on the ground.

Jiang Zhi felt a surge of frustration rising from the bottom of her heart to her head: she, as a war correspondent, should receive a medal, and it had to be a cauliflower-shaped, excrement-yellow one. She would go back and boil pomelo leaves to bathe in and dispel the bad luck.

Only Xu Errui remained oblivious, going directly to the old mule's reins: "Mother, the mule's rope is tangled in a tree stump, there's no fresh grass for it to eat!"

Distracted by Errui, Jiang Zhi also came to her senses. She couldn't afford to linger any longer.

No matter what happens, you can't leave someone's son waiting outside.

She immediately put her hands on her hips, focused her energy, and shouted in a booming voice, "Li Laoshi, you get out here!"

The loud voice echoed through the valley: Get out... get out... come out!

Almost the instant the sound disappeared, a person sprang out of the abandoned house.

Li Laoshi was holding his wrist, with half a cloth hanging from it, as if he was bandaging it.

Before he even saw anyone, he called out, "Hey, hey, it's Sister Jiang! Good heavens, you've finally come! Come and help me!"

help?

The group exchanged glances, but seeing that Li Laoshi was dressed neatly, their initial unease disappeared.

Xu Genqing rushed over and grabbed Li Laoshi: "Brother Laoshi, is my mother... inside?"

"He's inside, hurry up, hurry up! Ugh, he's like a tiger, I can't hold him down!" Li Laoshi complained.

Xu Genqing abandoned Li Laoshi and hurried into the abandoned house.

Jiang Zhi was about to go in when she stopped abruptly, turned around and glared at him: "Li Laoshi, what do you mean? What are you pressing!"

Li Laoshi grimaced and slapped himself on the face: "I misspoke, it wasn't 'press,' it was 'pull'! Look! My hand is scratched and bleeding a lot."

That woman was so stubborn and jumpy, she insisted on going to kill herself. I finally managed to wait for you all to come!

As he continued talking in increasingly absurd terms, Jiang Zhi grabbed Li Laoshi by the collar and pulled him aside, lowering her voice to ask, "What exactly happened between you two? Explain yourself clearly. If you've done something wrong, I'll castrate you!"

Upon hearing that he was to be castrated, Li Laoshi didn't even bother to cover the injury on his wrist. He jumped three feet high, patted his chest, and said, "Sister Jiang! Village Chief Jiang! I, Li Laoshi, am an honest man. I have never done anything like stealing chickens or dogs. Please don't wrong me!"

Jiang Zhi was both amused and exasperated that her words had elicited such a strong reaction from Li Laoshi. She quickly stopped Li Laoshi, who was about to swear an oath, and said, "It's good that you didn't do anything wrong. Tell me why you didn't go back, making the whole village come out to look for you!"

Li Laoshi, like a wronged young wife whose innocence had been tarnished, looked aggrieved and pounded his chest as he spoke: "I heard it from Shi Houzi and the others. They said that Qin Shi stole her daughter-in-law's money and went to town alone. I thought that with so many migrant workers on the road, she was a woman walking alone, and people would definitely say dirty things about her, so she went to town as well..."

"My goodness, she's making a huge fuss over something as trivial as losing a hundred coins!"

One minute she's threatening to jump off a cliff, the next she's threatening to hit a tree, and she keeps saying she doesn't want to live anymore and wants to die here while the mountain crows eat her.

I couldn't hold him down, I couldn't pull him away, how could I possibly come back by myself!

Jiang Zhi was utterly speechless.

He went to great lengths, searching for people with great anxiety, and even considered the idea of ​​Li Laoshi eloping with his men, but he never expected that it was Qin Shi who lost money and dared not go home... What kind of mess is this!

Inside the dilapidated house, Qin Shi huddled in a dusty corner, shivering. Xu Genqing pulled her up: "Mother, let's go home quickly!"

Qin held her head and didn't move: "No, I won't go back, I can't go back!"

Xu Genqing advised, "It's okay if the money is lost. Let's go back first and come back to look for it later!"

Qin looked up, snot bubbles coming out of her nose from crying, her eyes filled with terror: "I can't go back! Your father will beat me to death! I lost the money! Your father will beat me to death!"

Remembering how his sister-in-law had argued with his mother and mentioned that his mother had been beaten for stealing money from the family, Xu Genqing lowered his head, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "Father is dead, he won't beat you."

Qin grabbed Xu Genqing's hand, sobbing, "I don't want to eat, I want Lianhua to have a child... I'm always hungry! I... I'm so hungry! I... I didn't dare to say it before..."

Her words were incoherent, sometimes saying that Lotus was hungry, sometimes saying that she was hungry, and she couldn't tell whether Lotus or she was pregnant!

Xu Genqing, who had endured this ordeal for so long, couldn't help but shout out when he saw his mother still talking nonsense: "You lost money and you still think you're right? You insist on waiting for people to come looking for you instead of going home. You're always causing trouble. Come back with me!"

To his surprise, Qin screamed, pushed him away, and ran out, shouting as she ran, "I'll go find it! Don't hit me! I'll go find it! I'll go find it!"

Just then, Jiang Zhi and Li Laoshi finished talking outside when Qin Shi rushed out with her hair disheveled.

Before Jiang Zhi could react to what was happening, Li Laoshi had already grabbed Qin Shi and pinned her to the ground: "Don't let her run away, she's going to try to kill herself again!"