The bearded man kept the distance between the two men and said coldly, "No matter who you are, this village is now my territory, Zhao Sandao's territory. If you want to leave here unscathed, leave the grain and this woman behind. If you want to stay in the village, that's fine too, just give me some money."
Zhao Sandao's gaze swept over Jiang Yimian and landed on Zhang Shi.
Although Zhang hadn't had time to take care of herself these days, with her hair all messy, it was still clear that she was a pretty young woman.
Jiang Yimian was only glad that she had dressed up specially before going down the mountain.
This body was already weak, and due to long-term malnutrition, at the age of fifteen, it was only 1.5 meters tall, not much taller than Gou Sheng next to it.
Because their faces were covered in mud, making them look dirty, and their hair was dry and yellow, tangled in clumps, obscuring their faces, it was difficult to tell whether they were male or female.
Zhang was startled when her name was called, and when she heard that she was to stay, she was furious. She shouted, "You bandits! I am a resident of Xinghua Village! Get out of here! You're even asking us for money! Bah!"
This was her first time experiencing famine, and having been hiding in the mountains for days, she was unaware of the situation outside. She assumed these people were just ordinary refugees passing by and thought she should quickly reveal her identity to scare them away.
Unexpectedly, the men laughed at them.
“Xinghua Village? What Xinghua Village? There is no Xinghua Village here, only my Brother Zhao’s Shanhu Village.”
"This is the first time I've heard of anyone trying to drive us away. We've fled all the way from Tianyue Prefecture, and everyone who saw us ran away in fear. This is the first person who dares to challenge us. I think you're asking for death."
As a man spoke, he raised his wood-chopping knife to chop at Zhang, who was so frightened that her legs went weak and she fell to the ground.
Zhao Sandao laughed and stopped them, "Alright, don't scare people. I'm tired from traveling these days. I don't want to see blood today. You guys leave the silver and food and get out of here."
Seeing that she wasn't there, Zhang panicked and pointed at Wang Ergou, shouting, "No, no, you can't leave! That's my man! I... I want to be with my man!"
Wang Ergou's legs went weak with fear. He wanted nothing more than to bite Zhang Shi to death. When he saw Zhao Sandao frowning at him and a hint of murderous intent in his eyes, he hurriedly said, "Brother Zhao, this, this is indeed my woman. But if Brother Zhao thinks highly of her, I'll leave her here to warm your bed. I'll leave now, I'll leave now."
As he spoke, he was about to turn and leave, but the people next to him quickly stretched out their machetes to block him.
Zhao Sandao said coldly, "Wait, since you are all from Xinghua Village, then you may all stay."
He originally didn't want to touch these people, but they were blind and insisted on challenging his bottom line, so he decided to leave them all alive and kill them to vent his anger whenever he felt like it.
Upon hearing this, Wang Ergou panicked instantly. Before he could figure out how to escape, Jiang Yimian, seeing that the situation was not good, took the initiative and said in a hoarse voice, "We are not from this village. We were just passing through and wanted to come in to see if we could find anything to eat. We didn't expect to only find some seeds. If you gentlemen want them, my brother and I will leave them here."
As she spoke, she opened the contents of the two people's baskets.
Upon seeing that they were indeed just seeds, the men frowned instantly and looked away in disgust.
Why carry so many seeds on the way to escape famine? Are they even edible? They're such little devils, they can't even run away properly.
Upon hearing this, Zhang's eyes widened. She wanted to say something, but fearing she might say the wrong thing, she kept her mouth shut.
Upon seeing that they were indeed seeds, Zhao Sandao instantly lost interest, looked away, and remained silent.
Seeing this, the lackeys nearby quickly spoke up, saying irritably, "Go away, get out of here. You're carrying around some seeds and acting like they're treasures. If it weren't for my brother Zhao being in a good mood today, you'd all be staying here to die."
After saying that, he waved to the side.
The man who had been surrounding the group simply moved aside, leaving a space large enough for one person to pass through.
Jiang Yimian nodded repeatedly, then quickly pulled Gou Sheng out of the village.
When Wang Ergou saw the two kids run away, he immediately became anxious and said repeatedly, "Brother Zhao, could you please let me go too? I, I promise I won't cause you any trouble. I don't want this woman anymore, please let me go."
Upon hearing this, Zhang's eyes turned red with anger, and she immediately began to shout, "Wang Ergou, you heartless, ungrateful bastard, you even push your own woman away! Bah! What kind of man are you? I, I'll beat you to death today!"
Unexpectedly, she was so frightened by the wood-chopping knife that it was thrust out from the side that she fell to the ground. She dared not cry out anymore and squatted on the ground, sobbing.
Wang Ergou was also frightened by the woodcutter's knife, but he had no way to get away. He was so anxious that he scratched his head and cheeks. Suddenly, he thought of something and quickly took out the silver hairpin from his pocket and handed it over, saying obsequiously, "Brother Zhao, this silver hairpin was left to me by my mother. It's probably worth a few taels of silver. Please let me go for the sake of this hairpin."
Zhao Sandao took the silver hairpin, glanced at it a few times, and then curled his lip.
Back in Tianyue Prefecture, such things wouldn't have caught his eye. But when war broke out, their mountain stronghold was scattered by the rebel soldiers, and all their gold and silver treasures were looted by them.
In their haste to escape, they hadn't brought any supplies with them. As they fled, few of their brothers remained in the village, and they had to steal food from the refugees along the way.
These days, getting even a small amount of silver is considered good; this silver hairpin is quite nice.
After putting away the silver hairpin, he looked Wang Ergou up and down a few times before saying, "Since you're from Xinghua Village, then stay and help me with my work. As long as your wife stays put and doesn't cause trouble, I won't touch her."
They had just arrived in the village and were not familiar with the surrounding area. If they wanted to set up camp here, they would really need a local to guide them.
This place is remote, with continuous mountains behind the village. If you can't hide in the village, you can go into the mountains. You can also rob some things from passing refugees from time to time. Setting up camp here again is an opportunity.
They were exhausted after months of fleeing famine, and if they continued to flee, more brothers might die.
The thought of working for this group of people made Wang Ergou want to cry but he was about to say something more when the man next to him coldly interrupted him, "Don't be so shameless. Without you, we'd just waste more time. If you don't want to work for my brother, then you can die with the other refugees."
As he spoke, he raised the wood-chopping knife, which frightened Wang Ergou so much that he nodded repeatedly and dared not utter another word.
*
On the other side, Jiang Yimian and Gou Sheng left the village and took a long detour up the mountain.
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