Chapter 81 Don’t worry, we won’t suffer forever
Border troops, as the name suggests, have a higher status than those armored soldiers, so formal soldiers will naturally show no mercy when they take action.
Hearing this, Ruan Mian suddenly remembered something and asked, "Then have you heard who is in charge of these border troops?"
Mei Xi thought for a while and shook her head: "I haven't heard of this."
Ruan Mian patted her shoulder and, facing the endless internment camp, asked her, "The environment here is not good. Do you regret coming here?"
Unexpectedly, Meixi shook her head decisively, not feeling the pain at all: "I don't regret it. I have you, Cuizhu, and Ah Qing by my side now, and I have many friends. How can it be hard?"
Seeing that she was in such a good mood, Ruan Mian felt relieved.
"This is just a temporary residence. Our Nguyen family didn't commit a first-class crime, so after spending some time here, we can probably move to the thatched hut behind the post station, or the local stone house."
"Don't worry, we won't suffer forever."
Ruan Mian was confident, but others thought that this was the place where they would stay for a long time.
I saw that the cells inside were one after another, separated by simple stone walls. Sometimes a whole family was crowded in a small cell, and all kinds of smells mixed together. Even under the ice and snow, the stench could not be covered up.
There is not even a toilet here, only a ditch in the cell for excretion. There is no separation between men and women, which makes the situation here extremely miserable.
They also found that there were very few women in the cells, and their team was mostly composed of women, so they received a lot of attention as soon as they entered the shelter.
Anyone looking at them would feel scared.
Ah Qing even held Ruan Mian's hand tightly: "Sister, their eyes are so scary."
Ruan Mian patted the back of her hand calmly and said comfortingly, "It's okay, I'm here."
The officers took them deeper into the camp. When they came to a fire, they suddenly saw two officers holding red-hot irons and pressing them hard on a man's shoulders.
The smell of burnt flesh suddenly rushed into the man's nose, and he screamed miserably and struggled violently regardless of anything.
No one knew where he got the strength from, but he suddenly broke free from the officer's restraints, pulled out the sword from the officer's waist and stabbed it directly through the officer's stomach!
Suddenly blood splattered!
The next moment, the man stabbed his wife beside him with a knife, hugged his wife with tears in his eyes, and slit his throat to commit suicide.
The bloody scene that happened in just a moment shocked them all and some of the women in the team even closed their eyes tightly and trembled with fear.
They seemed to have felt the oppression here.
The exile was just a little bit harder, but it was much better than this internment camp.
This is the Avici Hell, the beginning of their real suffering.
But it did not affect the leading officer from leading them to continue walking. Ruan Mian dared to ask about what happened just now, and the leading officer took the opportunity to warn everyone.
"That man just now was trying to escape, but he was caught and brought back! You all saw it, and that's the outcome! Kill him without mercy! So all of you behave yourself. If you behave well, you'll have the opportunity to leave the internment camp, depending on your crime, and be registered as a Longchang resident, living in a straw hut."
The latter part still gave me a lot of hope.
However, before I could relax, the officer pointed to a hilltop not far away and said, "That pit is full of corpses. If you don't obey orders and try to play tricks, that's where you'll end up!"
They looked up, and if they looked carefully they could see a few white bones at the edge of the pit.
Here, the fugitives are treated like animals, without any humanity at all.
The man just now killed his wife and then committed suicide. He probably didn't want his wife to suffer more hardships alone, so he just died.
They were divided into different cells, basically based on families. If there were more people, two more cells would be arranged.
Their cell was at the very back of the camp. Ruan Mian saw there was a cellar next door and asked another question.
"Sir, are those cells in the cellar also used to hold prisoners?"
The officer snorted when he saw that she was pretty and had a decent attitude.
"Do you want to live in there? It's indeed a prison cell, but many people have died there. If you want to go, I won't stop you."
People died? What's the big deal? People have died everywhere in these cells!
Ruan Mian nodded decisively and took the initiative to request that his family go to the cellar.
Others thought she didn't want to live anymore, and Liu even laughed out loud.
"That cellar is filled with the stench of corpses. Wouldn't living in there be tantamount to seeking death? Well, this bitch deserves some torture!"
Everyone in the Ruan family believed her and had no complaints about living in the cellar.
Just with some fear.
As soon as I entered, there was an indescribable smell inside, and there was no airflow, so I couldn't see my hand in front of me.
Ruan Mian took a torch from the officer and found that the place was better than he had imagined.
Although the house was bare, without even a charcoal fire or a straw mat, and even some unknown corpses, the space was warm and airtight.
Compared to the cell outside with no door, how cold it would be when the strong wind blows!
Ruan Qingsong realized his sister's thoughts, a smile appeared on his face, and he comforted his parents and wife.
"Mianmian has a good idea. Although this place doesn't look very good, it can protect us from the wind and snow and is very warm. If we clean it up, won't it be much better than outside?"
"As for these corpses, they are all from the same family as us. What's there to be afraid of? Let's take good care of them and bury them in the ground to let them rest in peace. That way, their spirits in heaven will surely bless our family."
Ruan Qingsong's words did have a significant effect.
Ruan Qing was no longer afraid.
Yes, they have been through this before, they are all poor people.
With this goodwill, Ruan Qing was even brave enough to go with his brother to clean up the corpses.
Ruan Mian looked around and called Cuizhu to bring other family members to move all their supplies in.
The officials did not confiscate their supplies, as they thought they would not be needed for long anyway and since they were just fugitives, they had nothing valuable except dry food and clothes.
They spread out all the animal skins and blankets in the box together, took out a few quilts, and placed the rest neatly in the box, which was carried to a secluded place and hidden with hay in the cellar.
Cuizhu saw the little bit of charcoal fire left under the box and hurriedly told Ruan Mian.
"Girl, we don't have much charcoal left, we have to save it."
The officials didn't even provide charcoal in the cellar cells, so if you wanted to burn firewood, you had to chop it yourself. The key point was that you were ordered to do hard labor every day, from dawn to dusk, so you didn't have time to go out and chop firewood.
"It's okay, use it first, I have a way."
Let’s warm up the room first.
However, burning charcoal here is not very suitable, after all, the cellar is not well ventilated, so she asked Wanshu to take Lao Ding to open the lid of the cellar and gave them instructions.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com