Chapter 191 Ghost Soldiers
It would have been better if Niu Xiaochun hadn't said this. After he finished speaking, Zhu Lan felt uneasy.
After riding for a whole day, Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan felt sore all over. Thinking that they would have to continue traveling tomorrow, everyone went to bed early.
At night, Zhu Qingyan suddenly opened her eyes from the bed and wanted to go to the toilet. She got out of bed quietly, opened the door and walked out.
The night wind in the northwest is different from that in Jiangzhou. It feels like sand blowing on the skin.
She found a bush to relieve herself, and as she was walking towards the house, she was suddenly attracted by a beam of fire. She looked closely and saw that it was someone holding a torch and wandering around the village entrance.
Zhu Qingyan became curious and walked towards the fire. When he got closer, he found that it was Niu Xiaochun.
"Miss Zhu, Miss Zhu, why are you still awake so late?" Niu Xiaochun is older than Zhu Qingyan. He has dark skin, but good-looking facial features and a somewhat rugged handsomeness.
He had never been out of Niujia Village in his life, and had never seen such a delicate and tender girl from the city. Fortunately, it was not daytime, otherwise Zhu Qingyan would be able to see two red clouds on his face floating to the roots of his ears.
"Brother Xiaochun, what are you doing here so late at night?" Zhu Qingyan asked.
"Oh, this is the rule of our Niujia Village. Someone must be on guard at the entrance of the village every night. Today is my turn."
Niu Xiaochun smiled innocently, looked away shyly, but unconsciously wanted to steal a few glances at Zhu Qingyan's face.
"Watching the night? Are you worried about what might happen?"
Niu Xiaochun scratched his head and said, "Actually, I was just afraid that some soldiers would come and cause trouble. But this hasn't happened in a few years. I didn't tell you before because I was afraid you would be scared."
Then he patted his chest and said, "But don't worry, nothing will happen. Just go to sleep, I'll be watching you!"
Zhu Qingyan was amused by his appearance, and Niu Xiaochun's face suddenly became even hotter.
"Okay then, Brother Xiaochun, I'll go back first." Zhu Qingyan smiled at him and turned around to leave.
The next moment, she paused and moved her ears slightly, "Brother Xiaochun, listen, is there any sound?"
Zhu Qingyan's hearing is more acute than that of ordinary people. Niu Xiaochun listened for a long time with his ears perked up before he vaguely heard a slight movement.
Zhu Qingyan squatted down and put his palms on the ground, and indeed he felt a slight vibration.
"It seems like a lot of people are riding horses towards here." She looked up at Niu Xiaochun, only to find that Niu Xiaochun's expression suddenly turned ugly.
"No way..." Niu Xiaochun murmured and looked up towards the north of the village entrance.
Under the night sky, I saw continuous mountain ranges, and the junction of the hillside and the night sky was dotted with twinkling stars.
wrong!
Niu Xiaochun's pupils suddenly shrank.
Those are not stars, they are torches!
Many people holding torches and riding horses rushed towards Niujia Village!
Niu Xiaochun didn't care about etiquette anymore. He grabbed Zhu Qingyan's arm and ran back, shouting at the top of his voice:
"The ghost soldiers are coming! The ghost soldiers are coming! Everyone hide quickly!"
Niu Xiaochun pulled Zhu Qingyan to a house, and without even bothering to see whose house it was, he rudely opened the door and pushed her in.
"Hide, don't come out!"
When Zhu Qingyan reacted, the door in front of her had been shut tightly. An old couple hurriedly walked out of the house and waved to her.
"Girl, come in quickly!"
Zhu Qingyan hurried into the house and saw the old couple moving bags of food and valuables into the yard. She didn't understand what they were doing, but went forward to help.
When they had almost finished moving, the old couple pulled her into a small hut where there was a large empty water tank. The couple swiftly went in.
"Girl, come here quickly!"
The two of them squeezed out a little space, and when Zhu Qingyan also got into the tank, the old woman reached out and took a straw mat and covered the tank with it.
Zhu Qingyan's eyes suddenly went dark. It was hard to imagine how three people could fit into a water tank.
"What's going on?" she finally found a chance to ask.
"Hush..." The old woman lowered her voice very low, fearing that she would startle something. "Girl, are you one of those strangers who came today? Don't you know that there are ghost soldiers here?"
Ghost Soldier? Upon hearing this name, Zhu Qingyan felt a chill coming out from behind him.
"But it's okay. As long as we move the food and other things into the yard, the ghost soldiers will take away what they want and won't come in!"
Zhu Qingyan nodded after hearing what the old woman said. He felt a little relieved and listened attentively to the noise outside in the dark.
Zhu Lan, Murong Jing and others who were sleeping in the other room also woke up and found that Zhu Qingyan was missing. Zhu Lan immediately wanted to go out to look for him, but was stopped by Murong Jing.
Murong Jing glanced around the room, pointed at the large vat in the corner and said, "I'll go out and take a look. If anything happens later, you take Ah Jiang and hide in the vat."
Zhu Lan knew that he didn't know martial arts and couldn't help much at this time. Protecting A Jiang was the most important thing.
After Niu Xiaochun stuffed Zhu Qingyan into a random house, he originally wanted to continue reporting the news. However, he saw that the group of ghost soldiers holding torches had reached the village entrance. In a panic, he could only hide in a haystack.
Through the gaps in the haystack, several horse hooves appeared in his field of vision. Immediately, one of them said in fluent Central Plains dialect: "Go in and search! This time, we must not only take away the food, but also the women!
If you can't find the person, go in and search. I heard that every household in Niujia Village has a water tank, and maybe the person is hiding in it."
Someone asked, "What about the man?"
"What are we keeping the men for? The chief said we'll only capture the women!"
"Okay!"
With a whistle, the sound of horse hooves quickly dispersed, and soon cries and screams were heard from every household.
Niu Xiaochun, who was hiding in the haystack, thought to himself that something was wrong. The ghost soldiers had come to the village a few years ago, but they left after stealing the food. He didn't expect that this time they would not only take food, but also women!
What's more, they even searched the water tank. Niu Xiaochun became even more nervous when he thought of Zhu Qingyan.
While the ghost soldiers in front of him had dispersed, he carefully pushed aside the haystack, slipped out through the narrow gap between the two walls, and walked towards Zhu Qingyan's yard with his back crouched.
When he got to the foot of the wall, Niu Xiaochun heard no movement in the yard and guessed that the ghost soldiers had not searched here yet, so he climbed over the wall into the yard, knocked on the door and said quickly:
"Miss Zhu, I'm Niu Xiaochun, open the door quickly, we can't hide here anymore!"
The three people in the water tank were startled when they heard someone knocking on the door, but they were relieved when they heard that the person coming was Niu Xiaochun.
Zhu Qingyan immediately climbed out of the water tank, opened the bolt, and saw Niu Xiaochun's figure in the night and the fire that suddenly appeared behind him.
"Come on, I'll take you to hide—"
Niu Xiaochun was halfway through his words when half of a sharp silver knife suddenly pierced out of his abdomen!
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