Combustion

Wu Hai said, "A motorcycle going in won't even run as fast as a tortoise."

Wu Jun got out of the car. "We've already wasted so much gas, we can't let her get away. Get out of the car, we two men can't even catch a woman."

Wu Hai and Wu Jun darted through the woods like two pythons, carrying an aura of coldness and death, chasing after Li Guorong.

Li Guorong's clothes were soaked with sweat. She took deep breaths. She couldn't give up. As long as she went along the woods to the city, they definitely wouldn't be able to do anything to her.

Wu Hai was in his twenties and Wu Jun was in his forties, both in their prime. No matter how fast Li Guorong could run, he had already exhausted a lot of energy, so how could he be a match for them now?

Li Guorong's leg jerked, and Wu Hai seized the opportunity to kick her. Li Guorong felt a sharp pain in her waist and collapsed to the ground, her lower body seemingly numb. She struggled to support herself with her arms, but Wu Jun stepped forward and stomped hard on her back, delivering another kick. A heavy feeling settled in her chest.

Wu Jun pulled up her braid and slapped her face with his calloused hand, leaving a metallic taste in her mouth.

Wu Hai cursed, "You're pretty fast, bro. Remember to treat me to something!"

A fierce glint flashed in Wu Jun's eyes. He had spent over 5,000 yuan on this woman, which was his savings over the years. Now, he had spent several hundred more to ask for help after she ran away. He grabbed a tree branch about the size of a bowl and brought it down heavily, carrying with him years of resentment.

"Ah~nr"

A flock of birds took flight in the forest. Li Guorong was covered in cold sweat. Her lower body, which had been numb, was now wracked with excruciating pain, causing her heart to pound. Her leg must be broken. Her head was filled with pain, a throbbing agony. Then everything went black, and finally, this inhuman torture ended.

Wu Hai touched Li Guorong's nose and found she was still breathing. "Didn't you say you'd let this woman work in the fields, raise pigs and ducks, and earn money? You broke her legs, how can she do that?"

Wu Jun kicked Li Guorong's good leg, saying, "He still has one good leg. If he doesn't behave, I'll break the other one too."

Wu Hai scratched his head. "Get in the car."

When Li Guorong opened her eyes, she felt a throbbing pain in her right leg. Her leg was fixed in place by two tree branches. She was taken back to the animal shed, but this time she was not tied up.

Wu Jun's mother held up a bowl of porridge filled with bran. "You're so honest, how could you suffer so much? Look at the neighbors on both sides, they're all honest and well-behaved when they marry into the family, and one of them is even a college graduate."

Li Guorong lowered his head, feigning compassion like a crocodile crying over a mouse.

"You'd better behave yourself and give my Junzi a big, healthy baby boy. Then we'll live a prosperous and happy life together." Thinking of this, Wu Jun's mother's wrinkled face smoothed out.

Li Guorong cried out, "Auntie, take me home. I'll pay you double, not triple, how much you paid for me."

Wu Jun kicked the door open and cursed, "So what if you're rich? Let me tell you, even if you're a general's daughter, you still have to serve men."

The stench of Wu Jun's sweat assaulted Li Guorong's nostrils, causing him to instinctively back away. At one point, Wu Jun grabbed Li Guorong's hair and warned, "If you dare to run again, that woman on the mountain will be your future."

Li Guorong pursed her lips slightly and said softly, "I dare not do it again." She subtly adjusted her position, making her appear even more gentle and charming.

Seeing the woman back down, Wu Jun's blood boiled. "Mom, you can go out now. I have something to do."

Wu Jun's mother grinned, "Okay, okay, Mom will be leaving right away." She was just waiting to hold her eldest grandson.

Li Guorong stepped back, and Wu Jun took off his shirt and threw the sweaty, yellowed shirt at Li Guorong's face. Li Guorong took off the shirt and showed a fawning smile.

Wu Jun had looked for women in the town, but they were all smelly and unpleasant, nothing like the fair-skinned, tall young city women like Li Guorong.

He pressed down on Li Guorong, who dodged to the side. Wu Jun pounced on the spot where Li Guorong had just been, and Li Guorong pounced on Wu Jun, pressing his upper body firmly against Wu Jun's head and abdomen.

Wu Jun felt a sharp pain in his throat as a tremendous force pressed his face hard into the haystack. He opened his mouth, and a large amount of blood gushed out. His eyes stared straight up, unable to close in death.

Li Guorong breathed a sigh of relief. She reached out to touch the man's breath. Her hand trembled slightly. He was dead. The spikes on the rake gleamed coldly, reminding her of how Ye Jidi's feet had been mangled by the fat plow in her previous life. Yesterday, when the old woman got up in the middle of the night, she was worried that Wu Jun would ambush her at night, so she covered the bottom of the rake with a thin layer of straw.

She had deliberately adjusted herself to that position. She couldn't possibly live the life of farming, having children, and cooking again. If Wu Jun didn't fall for it, she planned to stay on top and trick him into lying on the sled.

Li Guorong vaguely heard footsteps, sat on Wu Jun's body, and exclaimed, "Ah~~~ um~ ww~"

Wu Jun's mother, who was eavesdropping outside, chuckled. This woman became obedient as soon as she got into bed. Thinking of her husband who had passed away more than 30 years ago and how difficult it was to raise children, she wiped her eyes and left.

Li Guorong stood up and peered out the window. The old woman entered the house. Thinking of what the old woman had just said—that no one here was innocent—how could she escape? Could she even escape? She touched the mole on her chest. She dared not gamble, but she had no choice but to.

Li Guorong secretly ran out of the woodshed, dragging her broken leg to the side room. The side room was dark and contained some miscellaneous sheds. A pungent smell caught her attention. She pulled out a large bottle of gasoline and half a bucket of cooking oil from the cabinet. She thought of the motorcycle from that morning, and now she would have to pay for the gas herself if she borrowed it.

Li Guorong poured gasoline into cooking oil and mixed it evenly, then poured the mixed oil back into gasoline and mixed it together. She mixed it evenly several times until the oil smelled less strong. She picked up the remaining half pack of matches and oil from the cabinet and hid them in the animal shed. She then lay down next to Wu Jun with her clothes half off.

It was dark. Wu Jun's mother held a candle and looked out the small window. She was old and her eyesight was already half blind at night. Li Guorong's leg injury exposed bone. The room already had a strong smell of blood. Wu Jun's mother thought that the couple had fallen asleep on the haystack after working hard. She then left with the candle.

Li Guorong mentally calculated the time. The pain in her leg didn't hurt as much under her intense concentration. It was a dark and windy night. The wind blew across the empty road, sounding like weeping and lamenting. Li Guorong poured oil on Wu Jun's door. Then she remembered that several other families around her were also involved in this kind of business. She dragged her broken leg down the road, leaving a long trail of blood and oil.

Li Guorong sensed the direction of the wind and realized that Wu Jun's house was downwind. She returned to Wu's house, tore off a strip of cloth, lit it with a match, and threw it onto a haystack mixed with oil. Bright flames shot up, and Li Guorong felt as if she had returned to the human world. Where could she run to with her broken leg?

There are probably no good people in this village, and they even have spies in the town. Li Guorong gritted his teeth, picked up the few remaining matches and half a can of gasoline, and ran up the mountain. Only by making a big fuss and letting other departments know could he stop the evil deeds of this village.

Li Guorong narrowed his eyes and walked up the mountain where the tragic woman was, trying to find as many withered branches and leaves as possible to mix with oil and spread on the road.

The mountain village below was engulfed in flames. Now, only a few families can afford to live in brick houses. Most villages like this have wooden structures with mud and thatched roofs. If a fire is not put out quickly, it could spread to other houses.

When Wu Jun's mother woke up, the room was still brightly lit. She shouted, "Junzi, Junzi!"

Wu Jun, who was outside, had long since passed away and could not hear her cries for help. The wooden beams of the house were quickly burned through and fell on Wu Jun's mother's legs, emitting a sizzling smell of roasting meat. Wu Jun's mother wiped away her tears, crying out, "Help! Help me!" Thick black smoke filled Wu Jun's mother's mouth and nose, and her vision went black.

The wife of the neighbor on the left was sleeping in the woodshed. She had been abducted to the village three years ago. Her two daughters, one three years old and the other one year old, were lying next to her. Smelling the smoke, she pulled her older daughter and carried her younger daughter out. Inside the main house, the family of three was fast asleep. Today, they had drunk a whole bottle of their own homemade high-proof sorghum liquor.

The woman covered her eldest daughter's mouth, picked up her youngest daughter, and left the house, speeding towards the main road at the village entrance. She touched the 10 yuan she had saved over three years in her pocket; it was enough to go to the city. If only she could go to the city.

The people here love sorghum liquor, but wives aren't allowed to drink it. Most of the families who came out to put out the fire were wives who woke up the drunkards. A few families who didn't drink organized people to help with the rescue. In a short while, the flames spread out in one place thanks to the wind.

Wu Hai wiped his face and went to his uncle Wu Jun's house. The house was already burned to a crisp, which must have been the place where the fire started. The bloodstains on the ground made him shout angrily, "Come up the mountain with me! That woman dared to set the village on fire! I'm going to burn her down!"

The rest of the men, who were fighting with their wives to salvage their property, remained silent. Several men who had bought wives slapped their wives and daughters, cursing, "What shameful women!"

The eyes of the single, older men flashed with the fury of betrayal: "Chase them! Light them up!"

There were also a few men who bought wives, and at this point it seemed like they were all being cuckolded.

The torches formed a winding fire snake that climbed up the trail of blood. Li Guorong's feet dragged long tracks on the ground. She was exhausted. She could vaguely hear the noise from below the mountain. She gripped the rocks tightly with both hands and climbed up a boulder on the cliff. The fire snake, mixed with soaring flames of anger, snaked upwards. Her blue shirt was stained dark blue.

"Aaaaaaah!"

Li Guorong turned his head, leaned on a tree and walked over there. The woman with broken legs seemed to be saying something. Li Guorong said, "I can't escape now."

The woman's bright eyes dimmed for a moment.

"Are you the legendary general's daughter? I'm sorry, I couldn't make the call." Li Guorong regretted it a little. If he had known earlier that this girl's family was so powerful, he could have made the call in town and hid for a few more days, and things wouldn't have ended up like this.

The woman grinned, her chapped lips bleeding, and shook her head, as if comforting Li Guorong.

The man's shouts of profanity below grew closer, and the woman pointed at the cave as if trying to get her to hide. Li Guorong shook her head; where could she possibly hide? She evenly sprinkled the last bit of oil. "You must be in a lot of pain too. I don't know if we can do it all over again. If we could, I would definitely save you."

Wu Hai, his face full of malice, pointed at Li Guorong and cursed, "It's this woman who caused our village to catch fire. Catch her!"

He wanted a motorcycle with flowers he could bake himself and a new house smothered in soot; he couldn't wait to tear the woman in front of him to pieces.

"Hahahaha." Li Guorong struck a match and threw it on the ground. The fire ignited the oil-soaked dry grass, enveloping the men and also enveloping Li Guorong.

Women and property are unimportant; life is what matters. These villagers disobeyed Wu Hai's commands and ran wildly in all directions like herbivores without a leader. The flames spread rapidly across the still-green mountain, thick smoke billowed from the mountain, and several houses with gas cylinders at the bottom of the village exploded with loud bangs. The entire village resembled a legendary apocalypse of heavenly fire.