Chapter 3 What if I can’t lift the knife anymore?
The night wind howled past the gate at the village entrance.
The words "Liangmin Village" on the gate were hidden in the night, but the old stone tablet next to it engraved with "Heifei Mountain" was illuminated by the torches.
There is a small wooden house next to the gate, which is used by the night watchman.
Although people no longer become bandits in recent years, the habit of living in mountain villages has been ingrained in many people, and there are people taking turns to be on duty at the village entrance day and night.
The person on duty tonight is Old Man Qin, who is nearly seventy years old and has white hair and beard.
Inside the wooden house, Old Man Qin was half-lying on a bamboo chair, holding a pot of wine in his hand. He took a sip, and his mouth was filled with spicy taste:
"You have to be alert tonight, I'm afraid there might be some little devils causing trouble."
Opposite old man Qin sat the burly and strong Kong Wu.
“Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh…”
Kong Wu gestured with his hands, showing that there were only teeth but no tongue in his open mouth.
Kong Wu was no more than fourteen or fifteen years old, tall, with a round head, thick eyebrows and thick lips.
He is the most sturdy-looking man in the village, but he is also the most honest and obedient man in the village.
It was not his turn to be on duty tonight, but Old Man Qin called him over to drink with him.
"Did Er Niang bring this wine to you? Aren't you afraid that she will poison it? Hahaha..." Old man Qin said, and took another sip of wine.
Kong Wu scratched his head and laughed foolishly: "Ah, ah, ah."
"Take a nap. I'll call you when someone comes."
Old Man Qin turned over on the bamboo chair, revealing the side of his face without ears.
Old man Qin has only one ear.
But this ear can hear sounds twenty feet away.
The candles rolled down layers of hot tears, piling up on the candlesticks.
Old man Qin seemed to have fallen asleep on the recliner, but suddenly he opened his eyes and stood up from the chair.
"The little devil is here." Old Man Qin tightened the lid of the wine flask. "It's time to get up and exercise!"
"Ah, ah." Kong Wu understood, picked up the iron rod as thick as his wrist, went out and disappeared in a flash.
Rustling.
Dozens of snakes slithered through the grass and entered the gate.
A golden ring snake quietly moved towards the crack of the wooden house's door, its sinister eyes like two cold stars in the abyss.
Just as the golden ring snake slid halfway in, a plum blossom dart spun from the air.
Bang! The krait was nailed firmly to the door panel, and blood was slithering down from the gap between the panels.
Old Man Qin put his index finger and thumb in his mouth and blew a whistle hard.
Gu——
A giant eagle half the height of a man swooped down from the sky with a scream. As soon as its claws touched the ground, it grabbed a snake and started to bite it.
The other snakes that were originally swimming in the grass retreated when they saw the giant eagle.
Old Man Qin kicked the carcass of the Bungarus krait and smiled as he looked at the golden and black ring patterns on it.
"It has a nice pattern. If I peel it, it will be perfect for making a new whip for Zhizhi."
Twenty feet away.
The people hiding in the mountains and forests held down the weapons at their waists.
Killing intent flashed in Liu Yinhuan's eyes: "It's almost time, take action!"
As he and his men came out of the forest, they saw the shadow of a black bear running towards them.
"Bear! There's a bear!" Several people from the Green Snake Village subconsciously retreated.
The black bear shadow almost flashed in front of them and swung the iron rod to hit them.
Liu Yinhuan did a somersault and barely avoided it. Only then did she see clearly that it was not a bear, but a human.
He is a young man as strong as a bear.
Kong Wu is extremely strong, has great explosive power and is very fast. He can break bones and tendons with just one blow from his stick.
"You guys tie him up first!" Liu Yinhuan asked someone to distract Kong Wu's attention in front, and at the same time took out a silver needle soaked in snake venom from her arms.
Just as he was about to release the silver needle in his hand, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his hand and the smell of blood filled the air.
He looked down and saw a plum blossom dart stuck in the back of his hand.
Old Man Qin walked out of the shadows holding a plum blossom dart and sneered:
"You dare to offend me? Do you really think I'm too old to lift a knife?"
The moment Liu Yinhuan saw the one-eared old man Qin, the blood in her body rushed back!
Compared to his brothers, he started to get involved in the underworld earlier.
When he first started to make his mark more than ten years ago, he heard a legend:
There once was a man on the road known as "Shunfenger." He was gifted with exceptional hearing, capable of hearing sounds dozens of feet away. He often used plum blossom darts and was particularly adept at night raids.
He once killed hundreds of people at night with one blow, and his darts never missed their targets.
And the most terrifying thing is that if anyone offends him, he will dig up their ancestral graves and disturb their ancestors!
But it is said that he dug the wrong grave one day... and offended a powerful enemy, had one of his ears cut off, and since then he retired from the world and no one knew where he was.
Liu Yinhuan's lips trembled: "You, you, senior are..."
Before he could finish, Kong Wu caught up with him and hit him from behind with a stick, almost breaking his body.
In the moonlight, dark shadows fell one by one.
“Ah—ah—!” a scream rang out.
In the village.
In the quiet little house, several children were sleeping soundly.
Xue Che, who hadn't slept well to begin with, was startled awake. He propped himself up and said:
"What's that sound!"
"They're hunting again."
Su Zhizhi turned over at the head of the bed and mumbled something in a daze, obviously she was used to it.
Xue Che grabbed the quilt and crawled to the window to listen carefully, but he heard no more screams.
Even he himself wondered if he had just heard correctly. After waiting for a long while and seeing no movement, he finally got tired and crawled back into bed to sleep.
I slept until noon.
When Xue Che opened his eyes, he saw that the bed beside him was empty, with only bright sunlight filling the bed and shadows from the window frames.
At this time, Su Zhizhi came in with a bowl of snake soup:
"Are you awake? My mother asked me to bring you a bowl of snake soup."
She put the earthenware bowl on the table:
"Grandpa Qin and Kong Wu caught a lot of snakes last night, and each of them got a bowl of snake soup. Smell it, it's so delicious."
Xue Che got out of bed, washed up briefly, and drank a sip of snake meat soup.
Unexpectedly, there was no fishy smell at all, and the broth was so delicious that it awakened the gluttony dormant in his stomach.
The other children abducted by Wu Laosan were sent back to the nearby county early in the morning, leaving only Xue Che behind.
Su Zhizhi patted Xue Che's shoulder and comforted him:
"Don't worry. Although your home is far away, my father will find a way to contact you. Besides, Doctor Yu said that you are weak now and can't travel far."
Xue Che lowered his head and continued to drink his soup.
He had no urgent desire to go back, and even if he did, he would only be faced with a huge empty mansion.
"The village is gathering, come and gather quickly——"
"Come quickly—"
A deep voice exploded outside the window, and Xue Che almost dropped the chopsticks in his hand.
Su Zhizhi propped up the window and pulled Xue Che to lie down by the window to look out:
"My father came back this morning and called the villagers to discuss matters."
At the front of the village open space, Bai Xun, holding a knife in his left hand, was calling for help.
He roared, and the whole mountain could hear it:
"Let's have a meeting—!"
Su Zhizhi: "This is Uncle Dao. He has a loud voice and is the one who calls out orders every time we have a meeting."
The villagers gathered together, one by one, with their sleeves rolled up to their elbows.
Bai Xun stood on the stone pier, counted the number of people, then turned around and said:
"Village chief, everyone is here, we can start."
Su Zhizhi gestured for Xue Che to look behind him: "Look, that's my dad."
A tall figure walked out calmly from behind Bai Xun.
Xue Che could sense from the words of Su Zhizhi and other people in the village that Village Chief Hao was very prestigious among the people and everyone respected him very much.
Therefore, he imagined that Village Chief Hao should be a farmer with some dignity.
But the person who walked out from behind Bai Xun was actually a very handsome man.
The man was wearing a brown coarse cloth shirt and standing under a jujube tree with green branches and leaves. The corners of his shirt fluttered in the wind, creating a breeze and bamboo moon.
Every step he took was dignified and self-respecting, gentle as jade, and even had a bit of the demeanor of a noble family.
Su Zhizhi held up her cheeks and said, "Isn't my dad very handsome? The aunts and uncles in the county blush when they see my dad."
Xue Che was speechless.
He has met many young men from aristocratic families.
In Chang'an, everyone said that Congratulations to Fu Sanlang for his appearance and bearing, which was the best in the capital. He only drank tea from a celadon cup and wore brocade clothes.
He was so refined that even his wives and concubines felt ashamed of him and asked to leave him. In the end, He Sanlang became an older bachelor in Chang'an.
Xue Che had met He Sanlang several times, and he was indeed a dazzling man, like walking up a Jade Mountain.
But now, he felt that the country village chief in coarse linen clothes was even worse than He Sanlang.
"We have a few things to discuss at today's meeting."
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