Chapter 55 Discovering the Village
Wan Jinshu, Liu and others were originally huddled behind a tilted rock.
This rock is like a safe haven, not only protecting against the wind and sand that roar like evil spirits, but also blocking some wind and rain.
However, Liu was kicked out by Wan Jinshu in the middle of the night.
His tall body would stretch unconsciously in his sleep.
And Liu was kicked out little by little by Wan Jinshu, and slowly moved out of the protection of the rocks.
When Xiangyang shouted for everyone to get up quickly, he found that Liu could not be woken up no matter how hard he shouted.
Xiangyang kicked Liu hard, but it felt like he kicked a piece of ice. He felt something was wrong and immediately squatted down and reached out his hand to Liu's nostrils.
"Dead?" Xiang Yang stood up with a serious face, slowly straightened up and immediately walked towards Li Zuo.
"Brother Li, that old woman seems to be dead, her body is as hard as a rock." Xiangyang frowned, his eyes like an eagle scanning the prisoners not far away who had not yet gotten up, his heart seemed to be weighed down by a heavy burden.
"Hurry up and check the other prisoners to see how many are still alive." Li Zuo said with a chill in his voice.
After saying that, he and Xiangyang immediately went their separate ways.
After a while, everyone finished checking.
The officers and soldiers carried the people who had stopped breathing together like cargo.
"Brother Li, ten people froze to death last night! We only have twenty or thirty prisoners now. There were fifty or sixty people when we first came out, plus a dozen who joined us along the way, a total of nearly seventy people. What should we do? How are we going to report to our superiors?" Xiangyang had a worried look on his face, and his words were as heavy as lead blocks.
"What else can we do? We can't just grab someone on the way to fill in the gaps, right? So what? When the time comes, we can put all the blame on Zhou Qiang. Anyway, he has already turned into dry bones and there is no evidence.
We should all speak with one voice and say that Zhou Qiang was a poor leader and encountered wolves and tigers, and those people became food for the tigers. Don’t say anything more.”
Li Zuo secretly calculated in his heart that he was not originally the person in charge of this escort, but was temporarily elected as the leader by everyone. Naturally, this responsibility could not be borne by him.
Xiang Yang nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go say hello to my brothers. But the snow shows no sign of stopping. We are almost at our destination, and now I don't know how long it will take to get there. Sigh!"
Xiangyang sighed, then walked away to give instructions to other yamen runners.
Because so many people died at once, the atmosphere in the camp was extremely heavy.
Wan Jinshu looked at Liu's body with mixed feelings.
He didn't expect that Liu would die so soon. He just said that last night just to piss her off, but who knew that Liu would freeze to death in the middle of the night.
Wan Jinshu kept his promise and dug a hole to bury Old Lady Wan.
Wan Dielan became a fool and froze to death last night along with Liu. Wan Jinshu buried the mother and daughter together so that they could have company.
Others who died included Chang and He, but the devil Wan Xingchang escaped thanks to the desperate protection of the two.
However, without the protection of the Chang and He families, Wan Xingchang's future days would surely be extremely difficult.
Liu's two daughters-in-law and Sun's eldest son Wan Xingyang were also frozen to death.
Fortunately, Sun held the little one in her arms and the child survived.
The younger daughter-in-law Qiu and her daughter stayed close to the fire and thus escaped the disaster.
Now, in the entire team, only Mrs. Wan's family is missing Mrs. Wan, the rest are safe and sound, and the Zhao family is also safe and sound.
Amidst the endless torment, the day finally dawned, but the wind in the wilderness was exceptionally strong.
The biting northwest wind was like a sharp knife, ruthlessly cutting across the face, causing bursts of pain.
The snowflakes mixed in the cold wind were like a group of frightened butterflies, making it difficult to open your eyes and walking on the road difficult.
The snow, which had been suppressed for three years, seemed to be poking a big hole in the sky and kept falling down.
By dusk, the snow was above the calves. Walking in the snow, one could easily fall into a snow pit if one was not careful. The person would disappear without a trace in an instant, leaving only a human-shaped hole.
At this time, the wind and snow became more violent, and the visibility range was only ten feet. The surroundings were vast and it was impossible to tell the direction or see the road clearly.
Wan Xingmo borrowed a rope from Boss Wan, handed it to Li Zuo, and said, "Sir, the snow is too strong, we must try to connect to each other, otherwise it will be very easy to get separated, and once separated it will be difficult to survive."
As soon as Wan Xingmo opened his mouth, a strong wind blew the snowflakes straight into his mouth, and his voice was immediately blown away by the strong wind and the snowflakes.
Li Zuo couldn't hear Wan Xingmo's words clearly, so he could only shout back, "What did you say? I can't hear you clearly."
Wan Xingmo approached Li Zuo again and repeated what he had just said loudly. Only then did Li Zuo hear it clearly.
"Yes, let everyone hold on to the rope and move forward slowly."
Li Zuo responded loudly.
He picked up the rope with difficulty, and tried his best to catch up with Xiangyang. He grabbed the corner of his clothes and shouted in his ear: "Xiangyang, let everyone stop and move forward holding the rope."
Xiangyang looked at the rope tightly held in Li Zuo's hand and nodded.
At this moment, Sun suddenly fell to the ground and never got up again.
"Mom!" Wan Xinghui cried and threw himself on Sun. As soon as the tears rolled down his eyes, they froze into ice.
Wan Xinghui's thin body had turned blue with cold, but no matter how hard he cried, Sun didn't respond. It was obvious that he was beyond saving.
At the same time, several more people in the team fell down, including the elderly, children, and young women.
The officers and soldiers were extremely busy. After they counted the number of people again, their faces were so gloomy that they seemed to blend into the sky at the moment.
"Damn it, six more people have frozen to death. What are we going to do next?" Xiangyang punched the snow angrily. The snow foam was swept up by the strong wind and instantly merged into the flying snow.
Li Zuo has arranged for everyone to hold the rope and strictly forbid anyone to fall behind. They must find a village to settle down immediately.
But now, let alone finding the village, it is even difficult to tell the direction. Everything around is white and the vision is becoming increasingly blurred.
Old Mrs. Wan began to feel anxious as she watched the prisoners leaving one by one.
Although they had cotton clothes to keep warm, they were still wearing straw sandals on their feet, which had long since frozen into ice.
Old Mrs. Wan approached Wan Ersao, who was holding little Fubao in her arms.
Little Fubao only showed his two eyes at this time, and his big black eyes looked at the flying snow with curiosity.
When little Fubao saw Old Lady Wan coming over, she tried to wave her little arms, but Mrs. Wan had wrapped her up like a dumpling and she couldn't move at all.
Old Mrs. Wan wanted to see if little Fubao was frozen, and when she saw that he was wrapped tightly, she felt relieved.
Suddenly, little Fubao shouted: "Tutu-tutu-tu-tu"
The little body struggled hard in Wan Ersao's arms, but failed to break free, so it had to calm down.
When Wan Ersao heard Xiao Fubao's cry, she hurried over, but saw nothing.
"My girl, are you dazzled? Where is the rabbit?" Mrs. Wan thought that Xiao Fubao must want to eat meat, so he said there was a rabbit.
“Thump-thump-thump-thump——” Little Fubao didn’t give up and continued to shout.
Wan Laoer, who had been paying attention to Xiao Fubao, slowly came over and asked, "Guaibao, what's wrong?"
"Daddy - thump - thump -" Wan Laoer looked in the direction of Xiao Fubao's gaze, but also found nothing. However, he thought that his daughter must have accidentally seen a rabbit just now. He wanted to go over to take a look. With such heavy snow, even if there were rabbits, they should not be able to run fast.
"Wife, how about I go over there and take a look? If my daughter said there is, then it must be there."
Wan Ersao was worried. In such bad snowy weather, could people who went out come back safely?
"Master, why don't we not go? The snow is so heavy. I'm really worried that you won't be able to come back."
Wan Ersao looked at Wan Laoer with a worried look on her face.
Wan Lao Er took out a rope from his backpack, handed one end to Wan Ersao, tied the other end around his waist, and shouted, "I won't go far. Pull the rope tight, and I'll be back soon."
Wan Ersao thought this method was feasible, so she held the rope tightly and watched Wan Laoer disappear step by step in the wind and snow, and finally turn into a small black dot. In fact, he did not go far.
Even after Wan Ersao had let go of all the rope in her hands, Wan Laoer was still pulling forward. Wan Ersao immediately became anxious and tried her best to pull the rope back.
Feeling that the rope was not moving forward, Wan Ersao breathed a sigh of relief. Soon, the rope loosened. Wan Ersao knew that it was Wan Laoer who was walking back, so she quickly reeled in the rope.
After a while, Wan Ersao saw a small black dot that was getting bigger and clearer.
Wan Laoer was so excited that he wanted to walk faster, but the knee-deep snow made it difficult for him to move.
"Wife, I'm back, good news!" Wan Ersao only saw Wan Laoer's mouth opening and closing, but could not hear what he said at all.
It was not until Wan Laoer walked up to Wan Ersao that the excited expression on his face made Wan Ersao realize that something good must be going on. Wan Ersao was full of anticipation and nervousness. She glanced at Wan Laoer and saw that he was still holding two big fat rabbits in his hands.
Mrs. Wan said with joy, "Are there really rabbits?"
Wan Laoer shook the rabbit in his hand to show Xiao Fubao, who smiled so hard that his eyes narrowed.
I didn’t expect that Wan Laoer’s next words would be a huge surprise.
"Mom, I just saw a village over there."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
