Chapter 650: Settling Down in the Land of Exile (1)
Before leaving, Huo Ziheng went up the mountain alone and went to the front village to meet the boss and the second in command.
The three of them stayed in the hall for half an hour, and no one knew what they talked about.
After coming out, Huo Ziheng took Ah Xian directly down the mountain.
No one came to see me off.
It rained heavily the day before yesterday, and the mountain road was muddy and slippery. Two figures supported each other and walked farther and farther on the road without looking back.
On the small peak of Bandit Mountain, there were two other figures standing side by side, looking at the person who was staggering away on the winding path.
"Are you really not going to show up and say goodbye in person? This is the last time we'll see each other in this life." The second in command stomped his feet.
After climbing up here with the boss, my shoes were covered in mud. When I lifted my feet, they felt heavy and sticky, which was very uncomfortable.
The eldest boss's face seemed to never brighten, always gloomy. "It's better if we don't see each other. These years, I've only let her deal with black market merchants and not let her get involved in robbery. I just want her hands to be clean. If she comes down from the mountain and becomes an ordinary person, she won't have nightmares at night and can live a peaceful life."
"Don't you want to hear her call you daddy?"
"Having a father who's a bandit leader is not a glorious thing. If you're going to pick it, pick it cleanly."
"Your plan is quite far-sighted. Little Ah Xian still thinks she was lucky enough to have a master willing to teach her whip techniques when she was little. She doesn't realize that you spent a lot of money to hire that master specifically for her."
The eldest brother lowered his head, stamped the mud off his shoes, and walked back with his backhand pressing the second brother's neck. "No one in this line of work has a good ending. If I had no other choice, I wouldn't let her grow up in a bandit camp. The government will take action soon. Second brother, we are brothers for life. Let's die together."
Second in command: Fuck your uncle, my life is worthless after all.
"Forget it. I'm open-minded. I've been targeted for a long time anyway. There's no way I can escape. I'll have to pay for what I've done sooner or later." He snorted and laughed, talking non-stop, "Do you think that kid surnamed Huo is reliable? After Ah Xian left the mountain, she really had no one to rely on. After going down the mountain, she was left alone with only a weak and frail man by her side. People's hearts are fickle and unpredictable. What if the guy surnamed Huo betrays her——"
"He dares. Ah Xian will chop him into eight pieces with her own hands."
"...Hahahaha! Exactly! Even though that guy looks useless, at least he still has a little courage to come and talk to us."
Thinking of the scene when Huo kid came, the boss's face became less gloomy.
He is a smart boy. When he came, he got straight to the point and told the story of his relationship with Ah Xian.
The boy said, "I've taken Ah Xian with me, and I will never let her down. Before I leave, I'll pay my respects to her as her husband. The eldest master is certainly not a good man, but it's undeniable that he's a good father who cares deeply about his son. I pay my respects to him to express my gratitude. Many of you who have occupied the mountains as bandits have ended up in dire straits, so please take care."
Ah Xian has good taste.
I should be able to have a peaceful life in this life.
The second-in-command at the side started chattering again, "Your son-in-law said his name is Huo Ziheng, and his surname is Huo... Judging from his elegant manners, he seems to be from a wealthy family. Is there anyone with the surname Huo in the surrounding area?"
"I don't know."
"There's nothing in the surrounding area, and if we expand outward, there will be ten cities and eight states?"
"Don't think about it. Why bother when you're about to die?"
"Can't you just say something cheerful..."
…
On the sixth day after Huo Ziheng and Ah Xian left the village, the bandit village on the Qili plank road outside Weicheng was surrounded and suppressed by the imperial court.
The top two leaders of the village died in the encirclement and suppression, and the rest of the bandits were either captured or escaped.
When the people around heard the good news, they applauded.
At that time, Huo Ziheng and Axian had arrived at a small town on the edge of Weicheng and temporarily stayed in a small inn in the town.
"The boss and the second in command are both dead. I heard that most of those who escaped were women living in the lower-class areas. If we weren't lucky enough to leave a few days earlier, we would be in trouble now." Ah Xian sat at the table in the guest room holding a small suitcase. She wanted to say something in a light tone, but failed. Her eyes were red.
She sniffed and turned to look at the man packing his luggage beside the bed. "Damn man, did they deliberately drive me away?"
That day, the head of the village suddenly notified her to go to the main hall of the village and used the matter of Manager Ma to make trouble again, saying that she was not of the same mind as the brothers in the village and would never be able to walk the same path in the future.
He scolded her for not only betraying her brothers but also being greedy for money. He dug up all the old accounts of her taking errand fees and ordered her to get off the mountain immediately.
She was so angry that she whipped the boss and had a fight with him, but she didn't win.
Ah Xian sniffed again, put the small wooden box on the table and opened it.
The box contained two bundles of cloth, some hairpins and jewelry, and a handful of silver coins.
It was a gift from the second in command on the day she married the man.
Only after leaving the bandit camp did she discover that there were silver notes hidden in the two bundles of cloth. Four hundred and fifty taels of silver was enough for an ordinary family to live on for a lifetime.
"Goodness is endless, evil is endless." Huo Ziheng said lightly, "Those women and servants in the lower-class area should have been dismissed in advance by the first and second in command."
"Then they must have given the women and servants severance pay as well. They led the entire village as bandits for decades. They certainly never imagined that all their accumulated wealth would end up being used as severance pay."
"Um."
After the government wiped out the bandits, they also searched the bandit camp. In the end, they found nothing but some clothes and weapons.
Even after taking off the bandits' money bags and combining them, they still couldn't come up with ten taels of silver.
"The money I've saved plus this is more than enough. Once we find a place to settle down, we'll have more than enough to worry about food and clothing." Ah Xian quickly calmed down and closed the small wooden box again and put it away. "Stupid man, think about where we can settle down? How about finding a quiet town to settle down? I'm definitely not good at farming, so we can open a small shop and figure out what to sell!"
Huo Ziheng packed up his luggage, turned around and shook his head at the woman, smiling, "Even opening a shop is not an option."
"Why?"
"If the customers of this black shop don't support it, well... the government will come and cause trouble."
"..." You said I was running a black market? Are you looking for trouble?
It's because you have a nice smile!
As the couple was joking, noise came from under the window.
This room is located on the second floor facing the street. If people downstairs talk a little louder, they can be heard clearly in the room.
"Someone's been exiled again. Look at the huge crowd, dozens of people, right? Which high-ranking official or family has committed a crime?"
"Who knows? Anyway, if you commit a crime, all the glory of your family will be gone. What's the use of calling high-ranking officials and noble families? Now you are just a bunch of exiles."
"They've been to our town, and they've been exiled to Yongzhou... Tsk tsk, that's really miserable! Fengyun City, the exile area of Yongzhou, is like a den of dragons and tigers, full of villains. Even the government doesn't dare to intervene there. If you want to survive there, you either need money or skills, otherwise—"
Huo Ziheng walked to the window, glanced down, closed the window, turned back to look at his wife who was still counting silver on her fingers, and smiled slightly, "Ah Xian, let's go to the place of exile in Yongzhou."
Ah Xian fell off the chair with a thud, "..."
You stinky man, you are not only looking for a beating, but also for death?
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