In the palace of the capital, Consort Duan had just finished reading the letter that had come from the south. She handed the letter to the eldest prince, a meaningful look flashing across her face. “My son, take a look. The entire Zhou family has been captured. You should be satisfied now. The grudge from three years ago in the Imperial Garden has finally been avenged.”
The eldest prince took the letter and read it. The more he read, the deeper his smile became. Finally, a hint of murderous intent flashed across his face. "Although it took a long time, he finally got what he wanted. So what if Linglong is favored by the Emperor again? That fool of her has been doing disaster relief in various places for the past few years, but she doesn't know that the court has long since left her no place to stay. At that time, not only will she not be able to protect the Zhou family, but she may not even be able to protect herself."
“My son, do not be complacent or impatient. Right now, we are still under the control of your father, and the Empress’s family is also very powerful. We must be patient.” Consort Duan felt helpless. Her son was of decent talent, but not particularly outstanding.
He appears to be deep and composed, but he is actually quite impatient and easily acts impulsively. He may seem to listen to what she says, but he actually sticks to his own opinions and is not someone who can be persuaded by others.
"Your Highness knows." The eldest prince replied that he knew, but in his heart he was thinking about how to kill Linglong and the Zhou family.
Last night, Zhou Erfu and Zhou Sifu took Chen Yuting to sleep in the cave. The two brothers failed to catch any prey late at night and were hungry all night. This morning, the three brothers were woken up by hunger. Zhou Erfu asked Zhou Sifu to watch over little Yuting while he went out to find something to eat.
Half an hour later, Erfu brought back two wild rabbits and some wild fruits. It was the season when bayberries were ripe, and there were many bayberry trees on the mountain, so he picked a handful and brought them back.
“Second Brother, this cave isn’t secluded enough. I’m afraid villagers will come up the mountain later to pick bayberries and wild vegetables. Let’s go to the top of the mountain near the mass grave.” Zhou Sifu picked up Chen Yuting and prepared to leave.
Next to the mass grave is the Zhou family's orchard. Villagers don't usually come here, except for the people who look after the orchard. However, they don't enter the orchard; they just quietly walk along the side path and no one notices them.
Upon reaching the mountaintop, the two brothers gathered firewood and grass, preparing to start a fire. Suddenly, they remembered that the fire would produce smoke, which would alert others that there were people on the mountaintop.
“We can’t just eat them raw, can we? Even if my brother and I could eat raw meat and drink blood, what would happen to Xiao Yuting?” Zhou Sifu said resentfully.
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Erfu said, "Let's go down the mountain this way. Although it will be tough going down, it's better than going hungry."
This mountaintop is where Xingxing led them to dig for wild ginseng. Down the mountain in front is a mass grave, and further down is Yegou Village. They haven't been down to the back of the mountain yet. It's overgrown with weeds, thorns, and vines that entwine the trees, making it obviously difficult to get down.
Xiao Yuting was so hungry that his eyes were seeing stars. Now he could only eat bayberries to fill his stomach. However, bayberries are sweet and sour and appetizing, and the more he ate, the hungrier he would become. But at least they could give him a little energy.
Zhou Sifu noticed that his younger brother was so hungry that his vision was blurry. In fact, he and Erfu were also so hungry that their vision was blurry. So he said, "You two wait here. I remember there used to be a beehive on this mountaintop. Hopefully, we can get some honey to tide us over."
As before, there were many small white chrysanthemums and honeysuckle on the mountaintop. Where there are flowers, there will be bees to collect nectar. However, the old beehive had moved, so they had to find another one. Zhou Sifu was lucky enough to find a beehive.
He deftly cut off two sections of bamboo tube, filled two tubes with honey, and then cut off a quarter of the honeycomb. He couldn't cut off the entire honeycomb; most of it had to be left for the bees. What he cut off was enough for them to eat for several days.
Even if they didn't hunt anymore, they wouldn't go hungry. Zhou Sifu happily climbed back to the top of the mountain with the honey, only to hear Zhou Erfu shout, "Who's there? Come out!"
Zhou Sifu was startled and immediately leaped forward to block Zhou Erfu, gripping the axe in his hand even tighter.
"Second Brother, Fourth Brother, it's us! Great, you're here too!" The person who came was Zhou Wufu, followed by Jingjing, Xiaoxiao, and Tangguo.
The three female bodyguards were all quite skilled, and they hadn't slacked off in recent years, practicing diligently. As a result, their skills were now even stronger than before. The day the constables came to arrest people, Zhao Guihua told the three of them to run away quickly so they wouldn't be caught.
The three of them rushed up the mountain and then secretly went down to try to rescue the people. However, Zhou Laoda's family had been taken to the prefectural city, and there were too many guards at the yamen. The three of them alone could not break them out of prison.
Later, they met Zhou Wufu in town, but were discovered by officials on the way. So they fled to the mountains, where they unexpectedly met Erfu and Sifu.
The three brothers hugged each other and were happy for a while, but their smiles soon faded as they became worried again, thinking about how their family members were all locked up in jail.
“Your fourth brother and I originally planned to stay at the foot of the mountain behind the mountain for a few days. We can’t cook anything on the mountain, and we’re starving, especially Yuting. He’s so young, and if he stays hungry any longer, he’ll ruin his health,” Zhou Erfu said.
Zhou Sifu immediately took out the honey and fed it to Yu Ting, saying, "I just found the beehive on that steep slope over there. I didn't even have time to drink from it before you guys came."
Xiao Yuting was starving and ate a little too quickly. However, the honey wasn't diluted with water and was too sweet, making him cough. Zhou Erfu patted his back and gave him a piece of honeycomb, saying, "Eat this. This will fill you up and won't be too sweet."
"Eat, I want to eat candy too, I'm hungry, I'm hungry." Candy is still like a child, unable to resist food.
Zhou Sifu handed her a piece of honeycomb and said, "Eat your fill and get back to your strength. We'll go rescue your parents and aunt together later."
"Yes, Candy is strong and can fight. She needs to save Madam and Master." Candy nodded vigorously. Although she didn't know exactly what had happened, she knew that Madam and Master had been captured by bad guys and thrown into jail. Those officials were all evil.
After discussing it for a while, the group decided to go down the back mountain and sneak back to the village. They would find a place to have a good meal, rest for a couple of days, and then the six of them would go to the city prison to break the prisoners.
“I’ve made a lot of anesthetics and sleeping pills before, which will come in very handy. Second brother and fourth brother, you three take charge of rescuing people, and I’ll take charge of knocking out the soldiers…” Compared to developing medicines to save people, Zhou Wufu was more enthusiastic about developing anesthetics and some poisons, thanks to the fact that his family was terrified of being chased by men in black.
At that time, Zhou Wufu regretted not making more anesthetics and poisons so that he could drug the men in black when they attacked. From then on, Wufu would make more anesthetics whenever he had the chance.
Wu Fu was filled with mixed feelings, not expecting it to come in handy so soon.
If possible, he would rather not be of any use. Who would want their family to suffer such a disaster? It would be so much better to live a peaceful and stable life. He made so many anesthetics purely as a precaution, not because he hoped something bad would happen to his family.
As night fell, the six of them secretly sneaked back to Yegou Village with Xiao Yuting. After thinking it over, they decided that the village chief was the most reliable person and that it would be better to go to the village chief's house. However, when they arrived at the village chief's house, they found that there were two government officials guarding the door.
Is it because they know their family has a good relationship with the village chief that they've been waiting here so early?
Zhou Wufu thought for a moment, then took out a tube, quietly approached, and released a sleeping gas, knocking the two henchmen unconscious.
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