Chapter 103 Escape
When Sister Cheng came back in the evening, Du Ruo planned to say goodbye: "Something happened at home, I have to go back tomorrow, you are welcome to visit me when you have time."
Sister Cheng was a little surprised: "Sister, you are leaving so soon. I haven't asked you to stay at home for two more days. Why don't you wait a few days before leaving? I will make you dumplings. We make dumplings with wild vegetables from the mountains. They are delicious. I guarantee that you city people have never eaten them before."
Du Ruo smiled and shook her head: "I got a call from home. The child has been restless recently. I have to go back quickly."
When she heard that the child was restless, Sister Cheng did not try to keep him. Now the family only has this one child, and they are all little emperors and little princesses. Which mother would not worry about him?
She said regretfully, "Now you know my home. Next time you pass by, come and visit me. I'll make dumplings for you."
Du Ruo packed up her things for the evening and prepared to go to bed. She lay on the bed thinking that she might not wait for Ling Yun and go home first. If she hurried, maybe she could make it to Ji Bailin's engagement ceremony.
Listening to the cicadas chirping outside the window, Du Ruo fell asleep in a daze.
In the middle of the night, I suddenly heard someone talking under the window in front of me.
"I'll go in and cover that bitch's mouth first, and you tie her up with a rope, and be quick."
"Don't worry, big brother. How strong can such a delicate woman be? I can hold her down with one hand."
"Third brother, you must not let your guard down and alarm others. There are many families living next to each other in this village. If there is a commotion, we will all be stuck."
"Brother, can you be sure that all our things are in the hands of this woman? Did she really take them away? She just came yesterday, how could she move so quickly?"
"Not necessarily, but we all know the people in this village, so how could it be someone else? They all treat those things as scrap metal, and if you give them to them for free, they will have to think about it. Apart from this woman, who else could it be?"
"Maybe it was the two men from Old Li's family who did it? Didn't they just come here these two days?"
"Get rid of this woman first, then go find those two men."
Du Ruo cursed in her heart, isn't this bullying? It's simply bullying the weak who are afraid of the strong. Since they didn't dare to go find the two bodyguards of the Yuan family, they bullied her first.
Du Ruo was feeling anxious when she heard two soft knocks on the back window.
"Boss Du, open the back window. I'll catch you. Come out."
Du Ruo quietly opened the latch of the back window, and saw two bodyguards of the Yuan family standing under the back window, making gestures to her, asking her to jump out quickly.
The sound of the window in front being pried open was heard. Du Ruo did not dare to delay. He quickly packed his clothes, put on his backpack, and jumped out from the back window.
The two bodyguards reached out to help her, and the three of them quickly disappeared into the night.
As the group ran, the dogs in the village started barking one after another. The big bodyguard Yuan Qi said, "Oh no! Once the dogs bark, the people behind us will know we are heading this way. Xiao Wu, I will lead them over there first. You and Mr. Du go up the mountain first."
Yuan Wu said solemnly: "We are not familiar with the terrain here, let's go together."
He observed the terrain, stretched out his hand and pointed forward: "Go that way!"
Yuan Qi didn't care about the taboos, reached out and grabbed Du Ruo's arm, dragging her all the way.
The faint sound of a dog barking could be heard from behind. It must be that those people noticed that Du Ruo had run away and were chasing after him.
Yuan Wu stretched out his arm around Du Ruo's other arm, and he and Yuan Qi dragged her along as they ran.
It was not until they were on the mountain road and Yuan Wu turned on the flashlight that Du Ruo realized something was wrong. She asked in surprise, "Where are we going? Why do we seem to be heading to the cave we visited yesterday?"
Yuan Wu explained as he ran, "These people are most likely the owners of the things in the cave. They may have heard something and ran to get the things. When they found that the things were missing, they came to us."
"How did they know we took it?" Du Ruo asked breathlessly while running.
"There are only three strangers like us in this village, people will definitely be suspicious of us first." Mr. Du looks so smart, why is he talking nonsense?
Du Ruo ran a few steps and stopped, looking at the cave not far away in surprise: "Shouldn't we run somewhere else? How did we end up in someone's lair where they hide things?"
"There are many people, and we are few. Even if the two of us can escape, the three of us can't leave. The most dangerous place is the safest place. Let's hide here first, and wait until they chase us far away, then we can go down the mountain."
Du Ruo twitched her lips. What the other person meant was that she was tired. Well, when it came to running away, she was indeed not good at it.
A few people ran to the entrance of the cave, and found that the grass at the entrance had been trampled flat, which meant that quite a few people had come.
Yuan Wu made a gesture, signaling everyone not to go in yet. Several people hid at the edge of the cave and waited for a while, but heard no movement.
Yuan Wu stood up first, and Yuan Qi pressed Du Ruo's shoulders, telling her not to move.
Yuan Wu quietly moved forward along the stone wall of the cave and slipped in. After a while he came out again and made a gesture to Yuan Qi, signaling him to bring Du Ruo in quickly.
Du Ruo walked into the cave and shone the flashlight in his hand. The cave was quite spacious, but it was pitch black in front and he had no idea where it led to.
There were traces of something piled up in the cave, as well as some broken ceramic fragments.
Du Ruo walked forward, picked up the ceramic fragments on the ground, and looked at the patterns on the fragments with the help of the flashlight. Yuan Qi glanced at her hands and said, "This pattern is very similar to the patterns on the clay figurines made in the next village. It seems that they came from the same place, which should be not far away."
Yuan Wu said: "As long as we can survive tonight, we should be safe tomorrow. When I was delivering something, I received a call saying that Mr. Yuan was almost there and told us not to have a direct conflict. They will be in the village tomorrow at the latest. If they can't find us tonight, we won't be afraid tomorrow."
Du Ruo's heart skipped a beat. Yuan Tingchuan is here?
Yuan Qi ran out of the cave, gathered a pile of dry grass and brought it back.
He made two grass nests in the corner of the cave, waved to the two people and said, "Let's rest here for a while, and go down the mountain when it gets light. Those people won't dare to do anything in broad daylight, so we can take a bus back to the county to meet Mr. Yuan."
Yuan Qi turned off the flashlight, leaving only a faint light in Yuan Wu's hand. He said to Du Ruo, "Mr. Du, can you please turn off your flashlight as well? Firstly, to prevent the light from leaking out, and secondly, we don't know what the situation is yet, so we have to use it sparingly."