The people who came out of the village were all elderly women with hunched backs. I could see that their eyes were very bright, but the things they said were a little off.
"Yuancheng, should we continue?"
"Of course we should. Since you've lured us in, we shouldn't hold back."
I was stunned for a moment, and as soon as I turned around, he covered my ears. I didn't dare to move. All around me were the sounds of fighting. Xie Yuancheng was leaning on me. After two incense sticks had burned, my ears were finally freed and I could hear again.
"Ying'er, everything's alright now. Let's go listen to what those people have to say." Xie Yuancheng gave me a pill, which made me feel a little better.
"What happened just now?" I saw bloodstains on the ground, and Xie Yuancheng's men were standing neatly at the village entrance, with several people kneeling in front of them.
"We're just doing what's best for ourselves. The rest is their own fault. If they wanted to come and take things, they should have known what would happen if they didn't succeed."
I just nodded. Although he didn't let me see the scene, I could guess some of it. There was still a dangerous smell in the air.
“Yuancheng, I won’t think too much about it. They deserve it. Our present is the result of your and many others’ hard work. It’s not something you can just pick up on the street.”
“Ying’er, it’s good that you think this way. Let’s go see what they have to say.”
Xie Yuancheng's previously tense face broke into a smile. Seeing that he seemed more relaxed, I followed him over. As long as Xie Yuancheng was happy, I was happy too. If I had known before that I would be thinking of him this much, I would have slapped myself a few times to remind myself not to be fooled by his sweet words. But now, I am willing to stay in the place he has built for me, to stay with him for the rest of my life.
"My lord, there are only nine people left in the village." A man wearing half a mask came over and spoke. Xie Yuancheng moved his hand, and the kneeling people began to wail. There was even a man's voice among them.
"Speak, what are you doing in the village?" Xie Yuancheng's voice had never been so cold. If the other party displeased him, they would be shot dead on the spot.
“Yuancheng, they include both men and women. Since they like to pretend to be old people so much, we can make them age. I have developed a medicine that will make them so old that they can’t be distinguished from animals.”
“Great! It just so happens that my wife likes to make some strange medicines. You two just happened to be there, so I'll give them to you.”
Xie Yuancheng actually had a pill in his hand, and he asked the nearest person to take it and have someone else take it.
"I...I won't eat it. I'm only eighteen, so young." A person with half a face covered in smeared smears turned around and knelt down, kowtowing and crying: "My lord, I admire you. If you give me a chance, I will serve you well."
"You're so ugly, yet you feed her. You have no self-awareness at all."
The girl was terrified, struggling and screaming. She then shouted, "I... I won't eat it! I'll tell you everything! My brother wants to raise Gu worms in Linyang so he can turn Linyang into an independent little country! Ah!"
She rolled around on the ground, her face turning completely bluish-black. People behind her threw some red powder at her, and she stopped moving, only groaning on the ground.
"Her brother must be inside. Kill him, no matter who he is," Xie Yuancheng said coldly, as two curved blades flew over from either side.
I was just looking closely when I saw someone move a couple of times. "The person in the gray clothes is suspicious!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Xie Yuancheng threw his dart at the man in gray. It was indeed a boy, about sixteen or seventeen years old. So young and already stealing other people's things; if he doesn't learn a lesson, he won't know which way the sun rises.
"Ying'er, you go out with the other five first, I'll be out in a bit." Xie Yuancheng smiled at me, as if the person from before wasn't him at all.
"No, I'm dressed as a man today because I need to do something for you. I suspect something very dangerous. The man in gray is her brother. They took over a village. In order to become villagers, and because Maple Forest Mountain needed repairs, they drove the villagers there to plant trees, and then buried them around Maple Forest."
"That's how it is. Ying'er, you go out first. This village is no longer safe; it will be destroyed in a moment."
I was determined to help him, but Xie Yuancheng still insisted I leave, so I had no choice but to follow the five men in black. When I looked back, I saw his smiling face, so I had to keep walking.
We had barely reached the village entrance when we heard some noises, and the village quickly burst into flames. There were even some crawling creatures moving about; I quickly took a few steps back, but they were soon engulfed by the fire.
When Xie Yuancheng returned, we mounted our horses and left. This time, not a single person was missing. He said it was an unexpected result; he had predicted that some people would die or be injured, but it went so smoothly.
"What did you say to them in the village? Is it really what I think?"
I looked back at Xie Yuancheng. He had already praised me. Even if there were crawling insects in the village, he should have explained it to me clearly.
"Ying'er, that's roughly the gist of it, but there's a mistake in one detail, so their intentions are more ruthless than we thought."
"What is it?" I leaned closer to listen. I'm so grateful to my parents for giving me such a good height.
"Ying'er~" Xie Yuancheng hugged me from behind: "We need to hurry back. I'll tell you when we get there."
"Okay, I'm just so curious, you little rascal, you just won't tell me."
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but this story goes back more than ten years. Let’s go first, and when Lu Fengjun comes back, we’ll level this place and turn it into a lake, so that the people here can rest in peace.”
Xie Yuancheng continued on his way. I didn't understand what he meant and was extremely troubled by it the whole way, just wanting to know what he had said. But everyone was in a hurry, so I could only stay silent.
This time, they didn't stop and headed straight for the city. This road was indeed prone to accidents, especially since that village was quite far away. However, Xie Yuancheng considered every detail; how could he have overlooked this village?
Many soldiers stood at the city gate, and Meng Anshi stood on top of them. When he saw us coming, he ordered the drummers to beat the big drum, and only then did the pointed fence at the city gate move away.
As soon as I entered the city, I saw some people whispering to each other. I looked around and saw that the streets were still a bit messy, with some rotten vegetable leaves and broken things on the ground.
"They're not going to parade them through the streets, are they?" I asked casually, but Xie Yuancheng nodded and said that they would make them walk all over the city so that the people of the city would have more opportunities to recognize bad people.
"You really have a unique way of thinking, but they did something wrong and they should be punished. Don't worry about their pride."
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