"I don't know where we are either. This place has been destroyed, leaving only a few empty houses. If you need them, you can take them down." The person inside still hadn't come out. Everyone looked inside following his voice, but they could only see a back view, and they couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman.
"We want to go to S Province. Could you tell us which direction to go?" Si Cheng didn't want to pry into other people's secrets, because even if he knew, he couldn't change anything.
"Go upstream along the river and ask in other villages, but it depends on your luck whether you can find anyone." He stopped there and didn't say anything more.
"Thank you!" Si Cheng didn't insist any further. Since he had found out the information, he thanked everyone and led them back.
"Brother Cheng, why don't you ask what happened here? Why is he all alone here?" Ma Donglai was very puzzled as to why Brother Cheng hadn't asked anything.
"Yes, we couldn't even tell if he was a man or a woman."
"Why don't you go back and ask them again? What else do you want to know?" Si Cheng asked them, standing up directly.
"But aren't you curious? This place used to be a big village, but now he's the only one here. Where did everyone else go?"
"I'm really not curious. I've heard a saying: the more you know, the faster you die. Besides, they don't want to talk to you about this, so why keep asking?" Si Cheng said, then turned and walked away without paying any more attention to them.
"Brother Cheng, did you discover something?" Ma Donglai seemed to sense something from Si Cheng's furrowed brows.
"Let's talk about it when we get back." Si Cheng then ignored them, and the others followed closely behind, feeling a chill in the air.
"Everyone, let's head upstream along the river. Monkey, go and tell the leaders of each village that everyone needs to be on high alert along the way. I suspect there are bandits in this area."
"Who lives in this village? There's only one wisp of smoke coming from a chimney." Seeing that Ma Donglai and the others seemed hesitant to ask, Da Xiong simply spoke up for them, even though he was also very curious.
“There’s a pregnant woman living there, she looks to be six or seven months along. She’s probably the only one left in the whole village, because I found a large bulge not far from her backyard, it looks like it was just piled up recently, and there are some dried bloodstains on the ground. The other villagers must have met with misfortune.” Si Cheng told him everything he had found.
“I didn’t see any bloodstains, but I did see that big mound. Could it be that villagers’ bodies are buried inside?” Ma Donglai gasped.
"The bloodstains have darkened in color, almost indistinguishable from the soil on the ground, and are barely noticeable unless you look closely."
"How did Brother Cheng know there was a pregnant woman inside? We couldn't even tell if it was a boy or a girl."
"That's because you didn't see the shadows reflected on the wall. If you observe carefully, you can tell the difference. Also, although her voice is hoarse, I can still distinguish between a male and a female voice. I had some training in this area." During the free time while waiting for everyone to prepare, Si Cheng didn't mind explaining things to them.
"When we were in the village, why didn't you let us ask what happened?" Ma Donglai was puzzled. Since they already knew, why were you still being so mysterious?
"First of all, she's pregnant. If we ask too many questions, what if she gets emotional and things get out of hand? Have you thought about the consequences? Secondly, since we can't offer her any help, we shouldn't rub salt into her wounds. Besides, didn't she give us directions?"
It was only then that the people who had been there realized, "That's right! If Brother Cheng had pressed them for answers like they did back in the village, wouldn't that have caused them another round of harm?"
"Brother Cheng, everything has been explained."
Upon seeing the monkey return, Sicheng immediately urged everyone to hurry on their way.
"You and Big Bear wait here, and bring up the rear later," Si Cheng said, gesturing for them to take the black bags.
"Brother Cheng, since she's pregnant, it's not good for her to be there alone. Let's think of a way to help her." Ma Donglai and the others really felt sorry for a pregnant woman being left there, so they wanted to see what they could do to help.
"How do you want to help? Do you think she needs any of this right now? Let's worry about ourselves first. The road ahead might not be safe. Didn't you hear her last warning to us?"
"Did she give any hints?" Ma Donglai and the others tried hard to recall, but they still couldn't figure it out.
"What were her last words?"
"He told us to ask in other villages, and said it depended on our luck to find someone. Ah, I see, she's not sure if other villages have suffered the same misfortune as them." Everyone suddenly understood.
"Actually, she is still very kind, but we are in a hurry to get on our way and there is nothing we can do to help her." Yunqi thought that on the way back, he would find an opportunity to leave her some supplies or take her away from this place.
As they passed through the village, they all felt that the people in that house were watching them.
As everyone walked upstream along the river, the water level had dropped significantly, and the exposed riverbed was now visible.
It seems we need to get back before the drought starts, otherwise even getting drinking water along the way will be a problem.
"Brother Cheng, it's almost dark, and we still haven't found the village that person mentioned. Should we find a place to camp first?"
Yunqi looked back and saw many women gritting their teeth and enduring, but they still hadn't seen the village after all this time.
"Let's go a little further ahead, and if we find a good place, let's set up camp." Si Cheng knew that he was a bit impatient this time, as he hadn't let them rest for so long, but there really wasn't a place nearby where they could set up camp with so many people.
Looking around, Yunqi saw only the riverbed and weeds on the side. The place was small and uneven, definitely not a good place to set up camp. He just hoped to find a place soon, otherwise many people behind him would be helping each other.
“Our lives now are worse than those of people in ancient times. At least back then, even without horse-drawn carriages, there were at least smooth roads. Now, we can’t even move a wheelbarrow on these roads. I don’t know when these roads will be repaired.” Ma Donglai cleared away the weeds in front of him and lamented the injustice of his fate.
"The most tragic thing is that although there were corrupt officials in the past, at least there were people in charge. Now we can't even find a single corrupt official."
"Your thoughts have wandered far. I was just lamenting the inconveniences of life, and you've already started thinking about corrupt officials." Ma Donglai looked at his good friend beside him, feeling speechless.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com