Normally, He Jiuniang would have had hundreds of ways to teach them a lesson, but saving lives was the priority at this moment, so she swiftly slit the throats of the three men.
The snoring stopped abruptly. He Jiuniang wiped the dagger on their clothes with disgust and spat, "You dogs, you got off easy!"
Putting away her dagger, He Jiuniang wanted to go find the people who had been captured, but after walking only a few steps, she heard a woman's voice.
He Jiuniang walked forward and saw a thatched shed with ventilation on all sides, which was the bandits' kitchen.
“There’s a kid who’s dying. I’ll ask him if he can eat when the boss comes back. Keeping him alive is a waste of food; we don’t even have enough to eat ourselves!”
Another voice rang out: "You wish! The boss has his eye on that kid's mother, and we still have some food. He'll definitely keep the kid around for now to please that woman."
"Sigh, I don't know what the boss was thinking. Wouldn't that woman be obedient as soon as she rolled onto the bed? They can have as many children as they want, so why keep this little bastard!"
"What do you know? The boss and his men have made a lot of gains these past few days. They're probably trying to strengthen our stronghold. They probably want to recruit those boys and girls to their own cause. You'd better behave yourself and not ruin the boss's plans!"
He Jiuniang frowned as she listened. These two women were also from the bandit's den; no wonder they could move around freely.
These two women were so noisy that He Jiuniang simply walked out.
The two women were doing well in the village. They were quite plump. When they saw her, they were taken aback at first, but then they reacted and fiercely asked, brandishing their kitchen knives, "Who are you?"
"The one who will take your dog's life."
Before He Jiuniang could finish speaking, the dagger in her hand flew out and slit the throat of the woman who had just spoken.
The other woman turned pale with fright and turned to run away, but He Jiuniang kicked her in the calf, causing her to fall to the ground instantly.
He Jiuniang leaned forward, grabbed her by the collar, and asked, "Tell me, where are the women and children you captured?"
The woman winced in pain, realizing she was no match for He Jiuniang. She pointed to a cave not far away and said, "It's...it's in that cave!"
"Where's the warehouse?"
The woman hesitated for a moment; in this day and age, nothing is more important than a bite to eat.
He Jiuniang slapped her across the face: "I don't have that kind of patience!"
These past few days he's been playing dumb in front of the Lu family, but now that we're all alone, his true nature has been instantly exposed.
Back then, she had also received training and served on the battlefield.
The woman clearly hadn't expected the village woman in front of her to be so ruthless. She looked around, trying to find someone to rescue her, but the surroundings were completely silent. She couldn't even hear the snoring of the men, who had probably been silenced as well.
The woman's mind raced. She thought of the traps hidden in the warehouse, which might give her a chance to survive. She gasped for breath and said, "If you don't kill me, I'll take you there!"
"Can."
He Jiuniang really let her go. She rubbed her swollen calf and limped ahead to lead the way.
The woman led He Jiuniang to the back of the cave. As soon as they turned a corner, the woman grabbed a vine, and a dense barrage of bamboo arrows shot towards He Jiuniang's side.
He Jiuniang remained vigilant, and just as the bamboo arrow was about to pierce her, she dodged it with a backflip.
The woman's eyes widened, and before she could run, a bamboo arrow pierced her forehead, causing her to fall straight backward, dying with her eyes wide open.
He Jiuniang almost laughed. To think that someone would use such a trivial trick to scheme against her, who did they think they were?
However, the woman's fall triggered another mechanism. A stone tablet not far away loosened, and He Jiuniang went over to check and discovered that it was a living tomb.
He Jiuniang took out a mask and a flashlight from her spatial storage and jumped down.
It was quite dry down there; it was just a small cellar. It looked like the bandits had done a lot of wicked things and still had a lot of stock.
"Tsk tsk, the organization isn't very well done, but the grain is well hidden."
After making a comment, He Jiuniang checked everything one by one.
There were a total of more than twenty bags of grain, among which the better ones included white rice, millet, brown rice, wheat flour, and bean flour, but most of it was bran flour ground from wheat bran. This stuff could fill your stomach, but it was also the worst to eat and it burned your throat.
What's rare is that there are also a few large Chinese cabbages and some dried fish and rabbit meat.
There was enough food to last for a while, so He Jiuniang took out some pork and beef from her spatial storage and put them together with dried fish to make do.
There was also a small box of gold and silver jewelry, with two silver notes worth a hundred taels each on it. Roughly estimated, it should be worth three or four hundred taels.
He Jiuniang took away two silver notes and jewelry, leaving only about one hundred taels of silver in the box.
"Third sister-in-law! Third sister-in-law!"
The voice of Boss Lu came from outside. He had actually come in, which meant that he had taken care of the two at the door.
He Jiuniang felt a surge of admiration. Boss Lu was quite good; he could take on two people even though he didn't have any martial arts skills.
Without thinking too much, she took out a few more buckets of water from her spatial storage, replaced the packaging with the kind of jars available in this era, and then headed back.
Once outside the cellar, she carefully put away her mask and flashlight before speaking, "Big brother, I'm here!"
Boss Lu waited outside for a long time but heard no sound. He thought something had happened to her and was extremely anxious. He threw a smoke bomb and, while the smoke was swirling, stabbed the two people at the door before hurriedly beckoning her in.
The mountain village was quiet. He saw the corpses of the man in the house and the woman in the kitchen, and was sure there were no survivors. Fearing that He Jiuniang might have met with misfortune, he had no choice but to shout for help.
Seeing He Jiuniang standing unharmed in front of him, he couldn't help but exhale a breath of relief.
"Third sister-in-law, are you alright?"
"It's alright! Brother, I've found the bandits' warehouse! There are a lot of good stuff inside! Let's rescue them first, then we'll bring Father and Mother over. We'll stay here for the night."
As she spoke, she walked toward the cave: "I asked, and everyone is locked inside."
The cave was quite deep, and the further in you went, the darker it became. Luckily, Boss Lu had lit a torch at the entrance.
Is anyone there?
Boss Lu tried calling out, and received a response almost immediately.
"Uncle Jingxuan! It's Uncle Jingxuan! Mother, we're saved!"
First came a boy's voice, then more voices gradually joined in: "There! Someone's there! Help!"
As they went further in, the sound grew closer, and the unpleasant smell became stronger.
It seems the bandits found it too troublesome and didn't want to take care of their basic needs, so they had to relieve themselves in the cave.
In an era that places great emphasis on the separation of men and women, one can imagine how difficult these past few days have been for them.
"Brother Lu, Aunt Jiu, please save my little bamboo! He's been sick for days, he's been sick for days, waaaaaah..."
As soon as he walked up to him, a young woman hugged Boss Lu's leg and cried uncontrollably.
The torches illuminated the faces of everyone present. Among them were people from Lu Family Village, whom He Jiuniang could recognize using the original owner's memories. The young woman was named Cui'er, and her husband was also a member of the Lu family, though their relationship was somewhat distant. The boy who had just spoken was named Tiedan, and he was also a Lu family child of the same generation as Gou'er.
There were also people I didn't recognize, including women, teenagers, and children as young as a few years old, like Xiaozhuzi.
They were all chained by the neck and treated like dogs.
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