Chapter 51 Surveillance
After Zhou Yunshu said this, the wind passing through this place in the sky seemed to slow down.
The woman holding the child glanced at Zhou Yunshu cautiously, then looked at the crazy woman nervously. Probably no one here knew better than her what she had experienced.
The crazy woman held the child in her arms without saying anything, and Zhou Yunshu did not urge her.
"Daddy!" A soft and tender voice came from behind them.
Xixi took Chunque's hand and trotted to Zhou Yunshu's side. She raised her little head and opened her arms to Zhou Yunshu. Then, after thinking of something, she retracted her arms and obediently held Zhou Yunshu's hand.
Zhou Yunshu smiled and tidied up Xixi's messy hair.
"Daddy, what are you doing?" Xixi asked, looking up.
"Making a decision."
"Dad, is this a difficult decision to make?"
"Um."
The crazy woman seemed to be touched by the repeated calls of "Daddy". She hugged the child tightly in her arms. Finally, her voice seemed to penetrate through layers of thorns and she said hoarsely: "I've made up my mind. Send him away."
The night wind blew, and the leaves in the firewood pile made a rustling sound.
A small corpse was wrapped in a gray cloak and placed on the firewood pile by a pair of hands with countless scars but still showing that they had lived a life of luxury in the past.
The crazy woman...or should we call her Du Huairou, she looked at the package lying on the firewood pile, bent down and kissed it gently.
Cremation was Du Huairou's request.
She didn't want to let her child lie alone in this wilderness, she wanted to take him away and bring him home.
Du Huairou held the torch in both hands and used it to light the fire tremblingly. He watched the orange-red flames slowly climb up the firewood and lick the gray cloak, and suddenly he heard the sound of calm chanting in his ears.
It is the mantra of rebirth.
"Namo Amitabha Night, Duotagadu Night..."
Du Huairou turned her head to look at Zhou Yunshu who was silently reciting the scriptures beside her as the scriptures were being heard. Tears slowly blurred her vision and she could no longer hold back her tears.
Yu Miaomiao, holding her child, looked at the flames in front of her and couldn't help but think of her family members whose bodies were exposed in the wilderness. She couldn't help but sob softly and burst into tears.
The chanting sound gradually stopped as the flames slowly died down. Du Huairou held the jar in her arms and carefully collected all of her child's ashes into the jar bit by bit without waiting for the sparks on the ground to disappear.
After everything was packed, her hands were scalded badly, but she seemed unconscious and held the jar in her arms with satisfaction and attachment.
When Zhou Yunshu turned around and prepared to leave, Du Huairou's voice came from behind her.
"Thank you." Du Huairou knelt on the ground holding the jar and kowtowed to Zhou Yunshu.
Zhou Yunshu murmured "hmm" softly, took her daughter's hand and walked towards her mother.
A few hundred meters away, several heads huddled together in the dry grass. One of them asked, "Do you want to go check again?"
The older man said, "Wait a minute."
This wait lasted a whole night.
The next morning, the people in the bushes watched the long team in the distance eat breakfast and leave in an orderly manner, and only then did they dare to come out with bows and arrows and machetes.
They rushed all the way to the dilapidated temple, leaving them with only the strong smell of blood in the yard and black bones and wood ashes on the ground.
"They are all dead." The young man said to the elders who were searching everywhere.
"Um."
"These refugees are so aggressive, and the direction they just left from..."
Before the young man could finish his words, the elder clenched the bow and arrow in his hand and shouted, "Return quickly!"
…
Zhou Yunshu and Du Lao Zhuang had already told the entire team that they were about to enter the mountains during breakfast. At the same time, Zhou Yunshu and Du Lao Zhuang also told everyone about the pros and cons of taking the mountain road and going down the mountain that they had discussed last night.
Zhou Yunshu never thought of being a dictator. Only when everyone in the team knew the pros and cons would it be easier to manage them after they entered the mountains.
So that day Zhou Yunshu asked the patrol team to collect all the fires in the team, and it did not cause any complaints.
In addition, the patrol team also warned everyone in the team one by one that it is forbidden to use fire privately after going up the mountain, and it is even more forbidden to play with fire.
In addition to the members of each household supervising each other, the large groups divided by Zhou Yunshu before also have to supervise each other. Once someone violates the rules set by the team, the entire group will be punished. This is also to better avoid accidents.
Du Huairou and Yu Miaomiao joined the team with their children. They had no money and could not buy the mule cart in the team at a high price like Liu Fuyi and Wan Liqing, so they could only walk with the team.
The two of them, along with their child and Liu Fuyi, temporarily formed a group. Wan Liqing thought about inviting them to get in the car, but was rejected by Liu Fuyi.
He couldn't believe that two women had survived for so long among the cannibalistic refugees, nor could he ignore the strong evil aura from the two of them. It was best for them not to interfere with each other now.
Zhou Yunshu had them grouped together for better surveillance. They might not be unaware of each other, but other than that, Zhou Yunshu didn't pay too much attention to them.
After leaving the ruined temple, the team moved faster. The patrol team and the people in the team had been highly vigilant because of the previous riots by the victims and the cannibalism incident they had just experienced. Li Jialan and Fang Huiwen also restrained the children and did not dare to let them leave.
"Shu'er, if we can get through Anshan, how long will it take to reach Haizhou?"
Zhou Yunshu thought for a moment and said, "If we can get down the mountain from the exit that Manager Liang mentioned, we can reach Baishi County in less than half a day."
"It takes half a month to walk south from Baishi County to reach the capital of Luzhou. There we can inquire about the news of Grandmother and Second Aunt and the others, and we can also get some food and water."
"It will take us about half a month to leave the city and walk along the official road, and then we can leave Luzhou."
Of course, what Zhou Yunshu said is if everything goes well.
Leaving Luzhou means leaving the hardest-hit area, and then they will feel much more relaxed.
"Oh, right." Zhou Yunshu looked at Li Jialan and Fang Huiwen and said, "We didn't tell anyone about our trip to Haizhou, did we?"
Li Jialan and Fang Huiwen shook their heads in unison, "No."
After finally integrating into the team, if they told others that their destination was different from theirs, they might be ostracized, not to mention that they rarely interacted with other people in the team.
"That's good. There's something wrong with Wei Zhong's escort team."
"Is there a problem?!" Fang Huiwen was stunned.
During this period, she watched helplessly as Wei Zhong was about to become Zhou Yunshu's subordinate, but Zhou Yunshu said that there was something wrong with Wei Zhong. Could it be that he was sent by their mortal enemy to monitor them?
Fang Huiwen rejected herself when she thought of this. If they were people sent by her mortal enemy, Wei Zhong would have attacked them long ago. However, Wei Zhong gave her the feeling that he was more like protecting them.
"Yes, he knows my identity."
Zhou Yunshu thought about Wei Zhong's abnormal behavior during this period of time. Although she was reluctant to believe it, they did not seem like her grandfather and father's people. They looked more like... Ji Sheng's people.
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