Xiaoyue's face turned pale, and she stumbled and was pushed into the trap by Liang Qi. Only when she was pushed into the trap did Xiaoyue remember that she had put the tinder in the kitchen, so she mustered up her courage and shouted to Liang Qi, "The tinder is still in the kitchen."
Upon hearing Xiaoyue's words, Liang Qi rushed into the kitchen and found the fire poker safely placed on the stove. He quickly grabbed the tinderbox and dashed to the doorway. Just as he was about to step out of the house...
Suddenly, he caught sight of several figures on horseback entering the courtyard. Liang Qi gripped the handle tightly and hid behind the door, feeling a chill run down his spine as he remembered that the lid of the trap hadn't been put back on.
Xiaoyue heard the sound of horses' hooves entering the courtyard from inside the trap. The sound grew closer and closer, and Xiaoyue broke out in a cold sweat with nervousness. She scrambled to the edge of the trap, her hands and feet moving in disarray.
I gently closed the lid, leaving a small gap, to see where Liang Qi was and what he was doing.
The centurion, who was unconscious, and Hei Zi and Hui Shi rode up to their horses, each supported by soldiers behind them. Only the scholar rode up to his horse alone.
The scholar dismounted and went to the centurion's horse. He said to the soldier on horseback, "Help the centurion down and give him to me. You quickly ride to the surrounding area to find a doctor."
The scholar helped the centurion into the house on the east side, and then helped Hei Zi and Hui Shi into the house as well. The soldiers behind them all rode off to find the doctor.
Xiaoyue waited until everyone dismounted and left, then closed the trap lid and nervously listened to the sounds coming from the courtyard from the trap opening.
Liang Qi hid in the gatehouse. He saw that there was only one scholar and three injured people left. Just as the three soldiers rode away, Liang Qi was about to make a move when more than thirty people rushed in through the gate.
When Liang Qi saw the people who had broken in, he crouched down and hid under the window. The soldiers who had run back gathered in the courtyard. The scholar went out, and Liang Qi was so anxious that he was tearing his hair out. He looked at the front house, which was only a few feet away, but he just couldn't get through.
After the scholar arrived at the courtyard, he addressed everyone clearly: "First, I have three things to say. First: you will be living in this courtyard and the courtyard next door."
Pointing to Ge Sanlin's brick-built courtyard, he said, "His courtyard can accommodate twenty people. In my courtyard, the west room can sleep eight people, and the front room can accommodate five more. All thirty of you can stay here."
The second thing: the night watch. This village is strange, so everyone needs to be on high alert at night. We shouldn't separate. Before dark, the two courtyards will be arranged by the squad leader, with four people in a shift, changing every two hours.
The third thing is: before it gets dark, the two groups of four will go to that house to gather firewood in the village, while the rest will go to check other houses for food. Don't go to the house where the person died. Meet back here before dark.
As soon as the scholar entered the house, everyone scattered. Liang Qi could clearly see the people in the courtyard through the west window. Four people were on duty, while the others were either looking for food or fetching firewood from the village. Liang Qi went around to the west and threw a snowball.
The four soldiers ignored them.
Liang Qi threw another hard snowball at a soldier, and this time someone realized what was happening.
"Someone's here!" the man shouted.
There were only four of them, and everyone else had their own things to do, so they never expected there would be anyone else at this house.
The two stayed behind to guard the area, while the other two headed towards the spot where the snowballs were thrown. They weren't afraid of the ordinary villagers and soldiers, as the soldiers had killed quite a few villagers themselves. They turned the corner and saw Liang Qi.
The chubby soldier spoke first: "You threw snowballs at us, is there something you want to say?"
Liang Qi blinked, beckoned to them, and said, "Come here, I know where the grain is." Her voice was very soft, as if she was afraid that others would hear her.
The fat soldier and the tall man beside him exchanged a glance. They didn't take Liang Qi seriously since he was alone, and they both rushed towards Liang Qi. Liang Qi led the way and they chased after him. After chasing for a while, the two of them became a little scared. They looked at each other and stopped.
Seeing that the two had stopped moving, Liang Qi turned back and asked, "Why aren't you moving?"
The fat man said, "You're not leading us into an ambush, are you?"
Liang Qi smiled and said, "The grain is in that cornfield, in a family's cellar."
The fat man looked at the tall man, and all he could see was a vast expanse of white, except for the furrows and ridges. Reassured, the two of them continued on their way.
Liang Qi ran ahead of the two men and when they reached the cornfield behind them, he stood by a corn cob and waited for them to approach.
With a swift movement, he disarmed the fat soldier, taking his life in an instant. Liang Qi then removed the fat man's clothes, put them over his own, and ran back.
When they arrived at the house, near the west wall, they called out to the two men, "We've found grain. Come with me to carry it."
The two men, hearing there was grain, followed. Liang Qi didn't look back, running straight towards the cornfield. The two behind him ran after him. Halfway there, Qi suddenly crouched down. When the two men arrived...
One of them stopped and asked, "Why did you stop running?"
Liang Qi quickly got up and stabbed the man who had questioned him in the stomach. When the other man saw this, he swung his knife and slashed. Liang Qi was a veteran of the battlefield, and he quickly finished off the two men.
I returned to the house with ease. Now it's time to play the time game; there's still the scholar to deal with.
Liang Qi knocked on the door. The scholar, who was inside hesitating about what to do, asked impatiently, "What's wrong?"
In fact, the scholar was also in distress because he discovered that the centurion and Hei Zi had both died, and only Hui Shi was still breathing faintly. He was afraid that if the soldiers found out, they would attack him, but he was also afraid that if they heard the news, they would scatter and disobey orders.
Just then, the soldier's urgent knocking sounded again.
The scholar initially didn't want to get involved anymore and just wanted to figure out what to do next. But the soldier kept knocking, which annoyed the scholar so much that he kicked open the door and went out.
He discovered that the soldiers who were originally on duty were no longer there. Instead, there was a strange soldier in front of him who smiled and bowed, saying, "They asked me to call you to take a look. They've found some grain."
The scholar frowned slightly, clearly displeased.
But this person was clearly a hothead, and he just went straight to me without thinking.
He thought about it again and decided he didn't want to go back to those two dead men, so he closed the door and followed the soldier.
Without a doubt, this person was not one of their soldiers.
Liang Qi led the scholar about fifty meters away, then turned around and swiftly slit the scholar's throat with a knife. His movements were so smooth that not a drop of blood splattered on him.
Then they heard voices coming from Ge Sanlin's courtyard.
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