Jian Ning turned around, looked at him and said, "More people means a bigger target. You are so powerful that one person can defeat thousands of troops."
Huo Jincheng's heart trembled, and a childish voice vaguely floated in his mind, "Brother Jin, you are so powerful! One person can defeat thousands of troops!"
Those were the words that three-year-old Duan Xinning shouted as she looked back at him while holding the general's wife's hand on the winding corridor. He remembered what she said, but he couldn't recall what she looked like. All he could remember were the long pink ribbons dangling from her two small tufts of hair, floating through his memory.
He remembered that day, he was playing Cuju in the garden with several illegitimate sons of the general's mansion and the sons of several court officials who were visiting the general's mansion. Duan Xinning watched from the side for a while before her mother called her and led her to the flower hall.
When Jian Ning withdrew her gaze and walked towards the courtyard gate, he suddenly shouted at her, "Duan Xinning!"
Jian Ning's feet paused, and his heart inexplicably skipped a beat.
This wasn't her typical reaction. She suppressed the excitement in her chest, turned her head and asked him, "Who are you calling? It's the middle of the night, who are you trying to scare to death?"
Huo Jincheng raised his chin slightly, and he couldn't describe the feeling in his heart. If he was just suspicious before, now he was extremely sure that Jian Ning was Duan Xinning!
But, so what?
Watching Jane Ning push the door and enter the yard, he shook his head and a self-deprecating arc appeared at the corner of his mouth.
A moment later, Ding Youtian emerged, carrying a hoe, a spade, and two energy-saving lamps. Guoguo followed him. The mass grave wasn't far away, only halfway to town, so he didn't bring Qiu Ge along. He tossed the hoe and energy-saving lamps to Huo Jincheng and led the way to the mass grave.
In the quiet night, the overgrown mass grave was like a monster lurking in the darkness. Even at the foot of the mountain, Ding Youtian could feel the breath of death in the air.
The two of them went up the mountain one after the other. It was called a mountain, but it was actually just a slope of overgrown grass. "I'll light the way for you. You dig first. When you get tired, I'll take over."
Ding Youtian raised the energy-saving lamp in his hand, shone it around, and pointed with his toes at a slightly raised mound of grave that looked like new soil. "That should be it. Let's dig it up."
Huo Jincheng put down the energy-saving lamp, took off the cloth bag from his shoulder and stuffed it into his arms. Then he put his hands on the handle of the hoe, looked at him with his eyes tilted and said, "Are you scared? If you are, just say it."
"If you're afraid, I won't come. When I was ten years old, I brought my wife here in the middle of the night."
"You are sick, bringing her here in the middle of the night."
"I'm sick, do you have medicine? If there's medicine, my wife has it. Hurry up and dig it out, don't waste time."
Guoguo had already begun digging. The bodies in the mass grave were all hastily buried, and Huo Jincheng didn't even dare to use a hoe. He just dug a few times and together they unearthed a male corpse. Ding Youtian used a lantern to shine a light and recognized it as one of the assassins from that day.
"This is the big bearded man. No, dig a little more, dig a little more. There are several people buried in one place. Dig a little further to the side."
Without him doing anything, Huo Jincheng and Guoguo dug out the bodies of the five assassins. Fortunately, it was winter and the bodies were not buried very deep, so the bodies were almost intact and even the clothes on their bodies were not rotten.
"Don't just stand there. Take off the clothes of these two. I'll find some clothes for them." Ding Youtian said, pulling out a pair of gloves from his arms and throwing them to Huo Jincheng. "Hurry up, we have to drag them to the river."
"Why am I the one stripping the clothes?" Huo Jincheng looked at his gloves and saw him holding a lantern with one hand and unpacking the cloth bag with the other. He frowned and said, "I dug it out, you strip it, and I'll find the clothes to exchange for them."
"Their clothes are the same color. Can you tell whose is whose? Don't waste time. Hurry up. My wife is still waiting for me to go back home and warm her quilt. Don't dawdle."
Huo Jincheng glanced at the half-unwrapped cloth bag; it seemed to be all the same color, a dull gray. Never mind. He hadn't intended to argue with Ding Youtian in the first place. Why would a martial artist like him argue with a weak scholar? He was just annoyed that Ding Youtian was so arrogant even though he was clearly afraid.
"You are afraid, but I won't laugh at you. Why are you still being stubborn?" Huo Jincheng put on gloves and muttered as he stripped the clothes off the dead body.
Ding Youtian ignored him. Old Fifth's and Lu's clothes were gray and blue, respectively, and under the light, their colors looked quite similar. He had never imagined that he and Old Fifth, who had been bickering and fighting since childhood, would finally find themselves in this situation, with his older brother having to search for clothes for him and his wife's corpse. Who could be so sure of things in this world?
Fifth brother, I have avenged you. Although I didn't kill that old bastard Feng Qingzi myself, I did contribute. Please don't come to trouble me.
I'm not afraid of you looking for me. You can't defeat me when you're alive, and you won't be able to defeat me when you're dead. Just go and reincarnate in peace! Be a good person in your next life, and don't be a short-lived ghost like in this life.
He muttered to himself as he gathered the two men's clothes into a pile. On the other side, Huo Jincheng had stripped the two assassins' bodies of almost all their clothes, leaving only their undershirts and trousers.
"Take them all off." Ding Youtian looked around with the lantern. Lao Wu and Lu had never worn undershirts and pants made of such fine fabrics. "Hurry up and take them off. My wife found their underwear. They're all made of coarse cloth."
"Why me again? You've sorted your clothes, and this is yours."
"I won't argue with you, but to save time, you pick the men and I'll pick the women."
When doing something, it must be done thoroughly, and no one should be able to see any clues from the underwear. Ding Youtian gave a gesture and Guoguo got busy. It could strip the clothes off the corpse, but Ding Youtian had to dress himself.
He threw away Lu's clothes and covered the body with them first. Then he took out a pair of gloves from his arms and took out two masks. He asked Huo Jincheng, "Do you want a mask? My wife prepared one for each of us."
Huo Jinben originally wanted to keep the thing, but after thinking about it, he took off his gloves, stood up and took it, but didn't even put it on and put it directly into his arms.
"If I don't wear it, what do you want?"
"Can't I save it for another time? Just like your master before, forget it, hurry up, I am tired even if you are not, so let's finish it as soon as possible and go back to rest."
The two men changed the assassin's clothes. Huo Jincheng directly carried the man's body. When he was about to get the hoe, Ding Youtian got there first. "I'll take the hoe, the iron hoe, and the lamp. Brother Huo, you just carry the body. I have something else to tell you. It's about Prince Zhao and Feng Qingzi. It's very important."
"What else could be so important between them?"
"We're talking while walking. If you want to know more, hurry up and carry it, or you'll regret it."
Carrying more bodies was no problem for Huo Jincheng. He carried one on his back and tucked one under his arm, making it easy for him to walk. When he reached the foot of the mountain, he asked Ding Youtian, "What's going on? Tell me quickly."
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