Chapter 145
Xie Shuyu, who was sitting on the ground, looked up at Yin Zheng and said with some difficulty while panting: "Help me!"
Yin Zheng's eyes did not fall on him, but on the torches in the distance that were moving rapidly towards the village entrance. He smelled a hint of blood in the wind.
Xie Shuyu looked at the torches, a hint of ruthlessness flashed between his brows. He didn't expect those people to be so cruel. In order to prevent him from hiding in the village at the foot of the mountain, they were so bold as to want to wipe out all the villagers at the foot of the Fog Mountain!
He pulled out an account book from his pocket and handed it to Yin Zheng, saying with some effort, "Take this... go... to Longgu City's West Road Camp to find General Qi... and make sure... to hand it over to him..."
Longgu City was just a short distance from these two counties. Under the relentless pursuit and siege of officials from Liangjiang, he temporarily changed his route to the capital, planning to take a detour through Xingzhou Prefecture, which led him to this place. However, he never expected...
Xie Shuyu handed the account book to Yin Zheng, gritted his teeth, stood up with the help of the wall, and walked forward.
In fact, he knew in his heart that with the ruthless nature of those people, even if he stood up, they would not let these innocent villagers go, but he still planned to give it a try.
If he's lucky, maybe he can exchange his life for the lives of innocent villagers in these villages. If he's unlucky...
Xie Shuyu, who was weighed down by thoughts, had just taken a step when Yin Zheng grabbed him and pulled him back.
"Stay here." Yin Zheng threw the account book to Xie Shuyu and strode out.
There were about thirty or forty people disguised as bandits who looted the village. They all held big knives and looked ferocious. At first glance, it was obvious that they were murderers.
If these people wanted to massacre an ordinary village, it would be enough.
As they walked in, Zhao Da and others saw a tall figure standing at the entrance of the village. He raised his hand to signal the people behind him to stop, and looked at the person in front of him with surprise and doubt in his eyes.
In the dark night, the faint moonlight fell on the figure. The only thing Zhao Da could see clearly was the hideous scar on the man's face... and the pair of eyes that were a mixture of brutality, ferocity, ruthlessness and bloodiness.
“Boom!”
With a loud thunder, heavy rain finally fell in the gloomy sky all afternoon. The deafening thunder, accompanied by the sudden barking of dogs in the village, gave people an extremely ominous feeling.
The people in the village who were awakened by the barking of dogs did not think of finding out what was going on. They all curled up in their bedding, feeling a little scared.
Jiaojiao, who was awakened by thunder in her sleep, rubbed her eyes in confusion, "Boom!" Another thunder exploded, and the flesh on Jiaojiao's face trembled in fright. After she came to her senses, she quickly grabbed her big milk bottle from the side and took two sips of sugar water to calm herself down.
Yin Zheng didn't know what Jiaojiao's strange bottle was used for, so he simply filled it with some sugar water and let Jiaojiao use it as a water bag.
After drinking two sips of sugar water and recovering his strength, Jiaojiao looked around. When he found that his father was not there, he blinked in confusion, put down the bottle, slid down from the bed, and ran out in his slippers to find his father.
As soon as he came out of the house, Jiaojiao saw his father coming in from outside, who was soaked. He hurried back to the house, picked up his small hat, and rushed into the rain in a hurry.
The rain made his small body stagger, and even his voice became intermittent. He held up the small bamboo hat in his hand, and his baby voice was hurriedly split: "Daddy...Daddy gives..."
Yin Zheng leaned over and picked up Jiaojiao, slightly bent his body to hide him in his arms, took the hat from his little hand and put it back on his head, then dragged Xie Shuyu, who had fainted in the corner, and strode into the house.
Jiaojiao, sitting in his father's arms, was completely hidden in his arms. It was raining heavily outside, but very little rain fell on him.
As soon as he entered the room, Yin Zheng threw Xie Shuyu, who was dragging him, aside, then hurriedly took off Jiaojiao's wet clothes, frowned, and rubbed his cold back and abdomen.
Yin Zheng's rough hands made Jiaojiao feel a little itchy. She couldn't help but pursed her lips and smiled as she hid behind her back: "Giggle giggle... Daddy is itchy..."
After rubbing Jiaojiao's back and belly to warm them up a little, Yin Zheng tucked Jiaojiao into the quilt and went to the kitchen to boil water and make ginger soup.
There was enough firewood and the water boiled quickly. Yin Zheng came out with the bathtub with the water temperature adjusted, picked up Jiaojiao from the bed and put her into the water.
After being drenched in the cold rain, Jiaojiao couldn't help shivering when he suddenly came into contact with the warm water. Yin Zheng quickly touched his forehead, with unspeakable worry in his deep eyes.
"Don't worry, Dad." Seeing that her father was worried, Jiaojiao, who was sitting in the bathtub, pinched the fat on her belly to show her father: "Jiaojiao is in good health, don't worry." Then she looked up and showed her father a wet smile.
Yin Zheng remained silent as he bathed Jiaojiao quickly and gently. Dark red blood continued to spread from his broad and thick back, dripping onto the ground along the water stains on his clothes.
Jiaojiao, who was sitting in the bathtub like a big glutinous rice dumpling, suddenly moved her little nose, wrinkled her nose and sniffed around, and her eyes fell on the blood-red color spreading on her father's shoulder.
Jiaojiao was stunned for a moment, then her eyes turned red. She struggled to get out of the bathtub and threw herself into her father's arms. Her little hands tightly grasped Yin Zheng's clothes, her eyes red and her lips pursed as she cried.
Yin Zheng frowned, feeling a sharp pain in his heart.
"Daddy, drink it. Drink the bitter medicine." After crying for a while, Jiaojiao looked up at her father, with a subtle cry in her tender voice.
If you bleed, you have to drink bitter medicine to get better!
Yin Zheng looked down at him, touched the corners of his red eyes with his fingertips, and said in a low, hoarse voice, "Okay, take the medicine."
"Jiaojiao has candy, give it all to daddy. Daddy is not afraid of bitter medicine."
"Well, I'm not afraid."
Jiaojiao then smiled, and the candlelight made his watery eyes sparkle. Yin Zheng looked at him, his heart tightening with pain.
For a moment he felt as if he had abandoned him!
The rain lasted for a long time at night and only stopped in the afternoon of the next day.
With a heart-wrenching cry of "Someone's dead!!!", the entire Lijia Village suddenly became noisy.
"People are dead! People are dead! So many people are dead!" Wu ran home in horror and said to Yin Dazhu, who was sitting in the house smoking a pipe with a sprained waist.
"What are you talking about? Someone died?" Yin Dazhu knocked on the butt of his cigarette and frowned.
"At the entrance of the village, so many people died, and the blood flowed like a river!" Mrs. Wu sat down trembling, her eyes full of horror.
Seeing her like this, Yin Dazhu paused smoking his pipe and asked, "Is someone really dead?"
Wu nodded, and Yin Dazhu's eyes were full of horror.
In Hengyang Town, the bailiffs quickly ran to the government office: "Sir, something happened! Something happened!"
"What happened? You're so flustered!"
"Someone died in Lijia Village!"
"It's just a dead person, why are you so panicked?"
"Thirty or forty people died!"
"What?!!"
Hearing the commotion outside, Yin Zheng remained calm in the room. If you asked him why, he would glance at Jiaojiao, who was sitting in front of him on a small stool, holding a bowl and a spoon, and trying to feed him medicine with a stern face.
Yin Zheng resisted silently, but this resistance did not last long as he was defeated by Jiaojiao's stern face. He compromised and lowered his head to drink the medicine that Jiaojiao fed him.
Seeing that her father had taken the medicine obediently, Jiaojiao breathed a sigh of relief. She no longer had the stern look on her face, but smiled cutely with her lips pursed.
Xie Shuyu, who was lying on the bed and saw this scene through the door and window, was very puzzled. Such a small bowl of medicine could be drunk in one gulp, so why did he have to use a spoon to feed it one spoonful at a time?
Forget about feeding her, because Jiaojiao, who was sitting on the stool, was too short, every time she was fed a spoonful, Yin Zheng, who was lying on the recliner, had to lower his head with great effort to drink the medicine. Isn't this even more tiring?
What is the point of feeding this medicine?
Thinking about this, Xie Shuyu lowered his head and drank the medicine in his hand. There was a hint of surprise in his eyes reflected by the medicine soup.
The people sent by the Liangjiang officials to slaughter the villagers who might have seen him or were hiding him were not masters, but they were also good fighters among the private soldiers. Yin Zheng was able to kill them all by himself, so he was definitely not an ordinary person. Even more unlikely was he a farmer who scraped for food in the fields.
A bitter and fishy taste spread from his mouth. After drinking the medicine, Xie Shuyu put the medicine bowl aside. He glanced out the window and saw Jiaojiao raising her little hand to feed her father malt candy.
Xie Shuyu, who had a new injury on top of his old one yesterday and was still running a fever, said: "...?!"
Didn’t we agree to give him a candy every time he takes medicine?
It was obvious that he was the one who was more seriously injured, and he also had a fever!
This kid actually said nice things to coax him!
Perhaps it was because of the fever and dizziness, Xie Shuyu felt an inexplicable sourness in his heart. He suppressed the surprise and doubt in his heart, but felt a little aggrieved.
Jiaojiao, who sensed something was wrong, turned around and met Xie Shuyu's gaze. Xie Shuyu quickly looked away and turned his head away without looking at him.
Jiaojiao tilted his head in confusion, scratching his head as he couldn't figure it out. He got down from the stool with the bowl in his hand, ran into the house, and raised his fair little face to ask, "Uncle, are you unhappy?"
Xie Shuyu's cold voice became a little hoarse due to the heat: "No."
“Obviously.”
"No."
"Jiaojiao can see it all!"
"You're seeing things!"
"Really?" Jiaojiao pursed her lips in suspicion, then decided to follow her instincts. She took out two pieces of candy from her pocket, walked forward on tiptoe, and placed them in Xie Shuyu's hands: "Uncle, have some candy."
Xie Shuyu glanced at the amber-like candy in his hand, and his mood inexplicably improved.
The situation at the village entrance became more and more serious with the arrival of the officials. The three people in the house had no reaction to it. Yin Zheng had always been like this. Jiaojiao had to take care of the two injured people at home, and Xie Shuyu had already made arrangements.
The heavy rain yesterday washed away all traces. When the government office could not find any clues and was undecided whether to report it, General Qi, who arrived on horseback, stopped them and explained that it was he and his followers who did it.
This group of people were bandits. They were planning to rob and kill people in Lijia Village last night. He encountered them and took care of them.
In the spirit of "less trouble is more", the county government closed the case according to General Qi's wishes.
Qi Zuqing later checked the bodies of these people and couldn't help but be shocked. Judging from the knife marks, they were all done by one person. He didn't know where Brother Xie found these people from. Their skills were too powerful.
Thinking of this, Qi Zuqing became eager to try it out. When he returned to Beijing, he would ask Brother Xie to let him have a good competition with this guy.
After resolving this matter, Qi Zuqing stayed in Hengyang Town for a few days and then went to Lijia Village for two days. He did not see Brother Xie contact him, so he understood that Brother Xie probably had no intention of seeing him.
He turned his eyes and found someone to pretend to be Brother Xie. Late one night, a group of people rode on horses and headed towards Longgu City in secret.
Xie Shuyu really had no intention of meeting him. As long as Qi Zuqing showed up in Hengyang Town, the officials of Liangjiang would definitely think that he followed Qi Zuqing to Longgu City. Even if they didn't think he would go to Longgu City, they would still wonder whether he had already rushed to the capital from other routes. They would never think that he was not in a hurry to send the account books in his hands to the capital and was still staying here.
They had lost a lot of manpower, and the account books were most likely on the way back to the capital. They had no time to care about Lijia Village at this moment. In addition, last night's incident had become a big deal, so they probably wouldn't attack Lijia Village again.
So for him, staying in Lijia Village to recuperate is an excellent choice. Moreover, he has doubts about Yin Zheng in his heart, and given his personality, he will definitely stay to find out the truth.
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