The person behind him was speechless, but was drawn by the sound from afar, and looked up in that direction.
Hu San had already turned around, his head down, muttering to himself, his face full of panic. The procession had stopped moving, and Hu San didn't even realize that he had stopped as well.
He was still muttering, "My rice seedlings haven't been planted yet! What am I going to do?!"
"Nobody told me beforehand, I should have been caught sooner!"
He slammed his fist into his palm, and with a surge of courage from who knows where, he ran straight out of the ranks and rushed to the leading officer at the front.
The squad leader, seeing Hu San suddenly appear, frowned deeply.
"What are you doing?!"
Hu San bowed deeply, clasped his hands in a gesture of supplication, and said with a pleading expression:
"Sir, could you give me a couple of days? I want to plant my rice seedlings."
"After planting the rice seedlings, I'll go back to war."
"What nonsense are you spouting? Get back here right now!" the squad leader shouted, but his gaze was already drawn to something else.
Hu San was completely unaware of this; he had already bowed as low as he could, repeatedly clasping his hands in supplication, and continued to beg:
"Just one day, sir! Just one day is fine! I beg you!"
The squad leader didn't turn to look at him; after all, the commotion over there was getting louder and louder. He waved his hand, signaling several soldiers around him to go and check it out, while still coldly shouting:
"Go back! Don't make me say it again!"
Hu San's eyes reddened, and his prematurely aged face made him look nothing like a thirty-year-old man. He choked back tears as he continued to plead:
"Sir, one night will be enough, no, perhaps not even that!"
"I'll go back now, go to the fields immediately, and plant the rice seedlings. You don't need to call me, I'll be right back. I'll do whatever you want me to do."
Sweat beaded on the squad leader's forehead. The commotion there was making him uneasy, and the incessant buzzing of the fly beside him was irrelevant. He snapped, "..."
"Shut up!"
"If you dare go back to me, I guarantee you'll never have to farm again! And your family's land will be gone too!"
"And you all! Stand still, no one is allowed to move!"
After saying this, he turned around and headed there.
"I guarantee you'll never have to farm again! And your family will lose all their land!"
Hu San's mind went blank, only the words echoing in his mind, like needles piercing deeper and deeper, or like heavy hammers pounding on him, driving his bent back into the ground.
His foot suddenly slid inside the straw sandal, and his thick, black toenails finally wore through it. Hu San felt a sharp pain in his pupils, and the blood rushing up quickly into his eyes, making his pupils appear somewhat red.
The sorrowful and distressed expression vanished, replaced by one of unbearable anger and despair.
His eyes widened, his teeth gritted, and he ran forward a few steps, his thin but powerful hand grabbing the hilt of the soldier's knife at his waist.
As the squad leader turned around in surprise.
With a "whoosh".
Hu San pulled out the gleaming blade.
At that time, the sky was dark and seemed about to collapse.
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