The clan chief, his face ashen, glanced at Yu Suqin. It was that troublemaker again.
She usually leads a few gossipy women to cause trouble and disputes in the village.
"The distribution of grain was decided by the village chief and the clan elders. Do you have any complaints?" The clan chief's voice was icy, and his sharp gaze was fixed on Yu Suqin and the others.
The women were terrified by the chieftain's imposing presence and cowered in silence.
The clan chief didn't want to waste time talking to them, as they still had a long way to go.
"The road ahead is difficult, as everyone has seen in Xincheng."
The clan chief glanced at the surrounding villagers and continued, "No one is allowed to say anything that is detrimental to unity. Anyone who has objections to decisions made by the village will be expelled from the clan."
In this era, leaving one's clan was a very serious matter.
Yu Suqin took the initiative to provoke the incident, and the village chief decided to compensate Li Shulan with the grain that had been distributed.
The other two were accomplices, and half of the grain was recovered by the village.
The three tried to argue further, but the village chief shut them down with a single sentence: "If you disagree, leave the village."
Lin Yinan reapplied medicine to Li Shulan's wound, and Li Shulan woke up at the right time. The mother and her two children thanked the clan chief and village chief for upholding justice.
The village chief waved for everyone to pack their things, and they would set off in a quarter of an hour.
"Village chief, my husband has disappeared!" A woman cried out as she ran from afar.
The village chief's brows were so furrowed they could trap a fly; every day was filled with trouble.
"Explain yourself, how did the person disappear?"
The woman wiped away her tears, "Waaah, my family got up before dawn to fetch water, and they haven't come back yet. I've looked for them by the pond, but there's no one there."
"Half an hour has passed since before dawn," a villager said, counting the time on his fingers.
"Could he have gone to dig for wild vegetables?"
"My two children have already dug up the wild vegetables," the woman said.
"In this deep mountain forest, could it have been carried off by a wild animal?"
These words quickly spread panic among the villagers.
The village chief immediately dispatched the young and strong men of the village to search within a ten-mile radius of the camp.
Lin Shuo and Lin Yizhang, carrying hoes and machetes, also went out to search.
For a person to disappear without a trace, it must be either a large, ferocious beast or a human.
Lin Yinan was worried, so he carried a bow and arrows and followed behind the father and son.
The group first arrived at the pool where they were drawing water. The pool was surrounded by messy footprints left by villagers, and no useful clues could be discerned.
Lin Yinan looked around and finally found a large patch of grass lying flat upstream of the pool.
In September, the dew was heavy at night, and the marks on the fallen grass looked very fresh.
"Anan, have you found anything?" Lin Shuo asked Lin Yinan, who was staring blankly at the bushes, while holding a machete.
Lin Yinan pointed to the bushes and said, "Uncle, there are signs that a heavy object was dragged through this patch of grass."
Lin Shuo and the villagers came over to take a look and found that it was indeed true.
“Let’s go, I’ll follow the trail,” said the leading villager.
They followed the drag marks into the dense forest. As the forest thinned out, the drag marks became almost imperceptible until they were no longer visible.
"It seems there aren't any here."
Having walked quite a distance, the villagers were somewhat discouraged and wanted to give up.
Lin Yinan, who was walking at the front, frowned slightly. She could smell a faint scent of blood in the air.
"Wait, can you smell blood?"
Lin Shuo and his son, who were standing close to her, sniffed carefully and shook their heads. "I can't smell it."
The villagers also took a closer sniff; the only fragrance coming from the trees was that of the woods.
"Anan, are you sure you're not mistaken? None of us can smell it!"
"No!" Lin Yinan said with certainty.
Having lived through more than a decade of the apocalypse, if you were to ask her what she is most familiar with, it would be the smell of blood and the stench of corpses; she could never be mistaken.
"Since we're already here, let's take a look ahead."
Looking at Lin Yinan's confident expression, Lin Shuo remembered how she had managed to rescue five children all by herself, and he believed in his niece.
The further they went, the stronger the smell of blood became, and the villagers gradually began to smell it.
Their faces were grave, and they had a vague sense of foreboding.
Lin Tiezhu was probably in grave danger, and they gripped their hoes and shovels tightly.
Lin Yinan, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped and raised her hand to stop the villagers from moving forward.
"Anan, what's wrong?" Lin Shuo asked, puzzled.
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Yinan pushed him away.
Immediately afterwards, a figure jumped down from the tree, and Lin Yinan leaped up and kicked the person hard.
The newcomer was kicked and staggered, but quickly regained his balance and slashed at Lin Yinan with his bloodstained scimitar.
At this moment, the villagers saw clearly what the person was wearing and were immediately stunned, their hands and feet going weak and they stood frozen in place.
—It was a Hu soldier, his face, hands, and even his knife were covered in blood, he looked like a demon who had just crawled out of hell.
"Hu people!?"
"The bearded man is here!"
The villagers realized what was happening and turned to run.
Lin Shuo and his son followed behind, but after running a few steps, they remembered that Lin Yinan was still fighting with the Hu people, so they hurriedly called out to the villagers.
"Don't run, there's only one bearded man, let's go up and kill him."
The villagers stopped upon hearing this and turned around to see Lin Yinan, like a god of war, wielding a dagger and fighting with the Hu people.
"I'll go back and get help!" one of the more astute villagers said as he ran towards the camp.
Lin Shuo and his son tried to step forward to help, but Lin Yinan stopped them.
"Don't come any closer! Stay away, you're no match for him."
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