"Oh no! Quick, save them!" Li Laosi was the first to react. He rushed over and tried to push the door open, but it was locked from the inside.
He could only pound on the door, shouting, "People inside, open the door!"
Unfortunately, no one answered from inside.
At this moment, Sister Qiong and Chief Escort Liu and others also arrived. Li Laosi gritted his teeth, took a step back, and kicked the door open with a bang.
When everyone looked up, they were all startled and gasped.
The bodies of four children lay side by side on the ground, while the women were hanging from the rafters.
"Quickly, save them!"
Li Laosi was about to go in when he was stopped by Sister Qiong.
"There's no point in trying to save her; she can't be saved anyway!"
Li Laosi was stunned. Liu Biaotou and the villagers were also anxious. "You haven't even tried to save him yet, how do you know he can't be saved!"
They ignored Sister Qiong, pulled up the table and stepped on the stools, quickly put the women down, and then... fell silent.
The woman's body was almost completely cold; even a celestial being couldn't save her.
Some villagers felt guilty, saying, "We should have left some people to keep an eye on things earlier."
"Yes, I was only thinking they were sad and would feel better after a while, I never imagined..."
Sister-in-law Qiong shook her head and said softly, "You can only save them for a moment and persuade them once. You can't persuade them or save them for a lifetime. They are determined to die, and they will always find an opportunity."
“It’s better to live a miserable life than to die a good death. The bandits are all dead…” Some villagers didn’t believe it, but Sister Qiong went to the table and sure enough, there was a blood letter and a token there.
She picked it up, glanced at it briefly, and said, "They were relatives of the Guo family from Taihua Academy in Kyoto. They asked us to deliver news of their deaths home. In a scholarly family like the Guo's, chastity is valued far more than life itself. These women endured humiliation to survive, solely for the sake of their children."
Now that their child is dead and they've lost their virginity, they have no reason to live. If you pity them, please keep their story a secret. If anyone asks in the future, tell them that their whole family was killed by bandits at the same time.
Everyone felt a pang of sorrow and despair upon hearing this, wishing they could drag the bandits out and kill them a thousand more times.
Sister-in-law Qiong showed the blood-written letter and the token to Li Laosi and Liu Biaotou, then put them in her bosom.
"Our wife and Headmaster Guo's wife are old acquaintances. Although they haven't seen each other for many years, entrusting these things to our wife should ensure they reach the Guo family. Rest assured, everyone, she certainly won't try to take credit for your efforts..."
Li Laosi quickly waved his hand, "We didn't help much, we didn't do anything. But we couldn't keep an eye on these poor women right under our noses, and they took their own lives. We feel terrible about it."
Chief镖 (bodyguard) Liu nodded and sighed, "Now that things have come to this, we can only hurry up and help him bury him properly."
Sister-in-law Qiong said, "Let's search around and see if there are any of the Guo family's belongings or women's clothing. I'll help them tidy up so they can be buried more decently. That way, when their family comes to exhume the remains, it won't look too bad."
Women are more perceptive; neither Li Laosi nor Liu Biaotou could have thought of all this, but they were willing to give their full support.
The villagers immediately scattered and searched everywhere. Sure enough, they found several packages on the ground in the west room.
In addition to clothes, there were also some odds and ends, including several bottles of pills.
Sister-in-law Qiong quickly identified the bottles and gave one to Uncle Wu.
"This should be for treating colds, just like the one our lady took before. Give the child one pill first."
Uncle Wu quickly thanked him. Gou Sheng'er had a cloth on his forehead and had already woken up. When he saw his father, he cried loudly, but his fever still hadn't subsided.
This pill came just in time!
Sister-in-law Qiong nodded and took the dresses to help the Guo family women put them on.
Since she was the only woman there and no one else could help her, she simply moved the wooden box from inside the house to the outside, intending to use it as a temporary coffin.
Halfway through their work, a villager suddenly exclaimed, "Come quick! There's grain here, lots of grain!"
Everyone quickly gathered around. It was a small side room, but there were three layers of grain sacks stacked on the earthen bed, more than twenty in total. One of them was open and half-eaten, and it was filled with white glutinous rice.
There were four or five other jars of vegetable oil, some salt, ginger, garlic, and even a jar of candied apricots. It was clear that these things were brought by the Guo family on their journey, but were unexpectedly stolen by these bandits…
"Great, great! We won't have to worry about going hungry this winter."
"If we bring this back home, our family will be ecstatic."
Li Laosi and Liu Biaotou exchanged a glance, their understanding perfectly aligned.
"Let's bury the Guo family members first, and then thoroughly search this courtyard. These things all belong to the Guo family. We've received their kindness, so we should do something to make it feel right to take them back with a clear conscience."
The villagers all nodded in agreement and quickly carried out all the boxes in the yard. There were five boxes in total, which was enough for the Guo family to settle down.
Li Laosi led his men to carry back the men who were hanging in the woods and helped them put on their clothes.
It was unclear how many days these people had been frozen, but their bodies were extremely stiff, and it took the group a lot of effort to find them.
It was freezing cold outside, so it wasn't a good time to dig a hole.
The group removed the items from the west room of the main house and dug up the floor.
Perhaps good deeds are rewarded, because when a paving stone near the corner of the wall was pried up, a jar was revealed, filled with silver.
Everyone was stunned; it was clear that this was dirty silver hidden by the bandits.
This jar of silver seemed to have started a treasure hunt for everyone. For half the night, the Guo family's grave was dug out, and the entire courtyard was thoroughly excavated.
Unfortunately, apart from that jar of silver, there was nothing else.
Everyone was disappointed, but Liu the镖头 (bodyguard) kept shouting.
"What are you all thinking? Aren't you being too greedy! We came here to save the child, and now that the child is saved, we've also received so much grain and a jar of silver. We're already very lucky. If things had gone wrong even slightly last night, we'd all be meeting the King of Hell by now!"
Everyone agreed that this made sense and laughed sheepishly.
No one complained for a moment, and they quickly helped to bury the Guo family members.
Because it was unknown who was related to whom, and to avoid awkward situations such as the eldest brother and younger brother's wife being buried in the same box, the Guo family buried men and women separately.
Two women in one suitcase, two men in one suitcase, and four children in one suitcase.
Finally, all five boxes were placed into the pit.
Sister-in-law Qiong found a charred wooden stick and tore off a piece of white cloth. She made a simple record of the characteristics of the Guo family members buried in each box, intending to hand them over to the Guo family later.
Li Laosi picked up his axe, marked the box, and jumped up. Everyone looked at the twelve members of the Guo family, feeling uneasy.
Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs!
In times of chaos, human life is as fragile as roadside weeds.
"Mr. and Mrs. Guo, we are also unfortunate people fleeing famine. We unexpectedly arrived here and encountered your family's tragedy. This is all we can do. We hope you are satisfied."
We're taking that grain and silver, we don't know if it belongs to your family. When we leave the mountains and reach Jiangnan, we will find your families and explain this to you. Please wait patiently for your families to come and take you home.”
After speaking earnestly, Li Laosi led everyone in bowing.
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