After questioning her carefully, the two learned that the old woman's surname was Ye, and she lived in Yangjia Village, ten miles outside Liangcheng. Her husband's surname was Yang, and he had passed away a long time ago. She only had a lame son, and her family was not well-off.
Before the New Year, Liu arranged for her son to marry an orphan girl. The girl was beautiful, but she was born mute. The family of three lived a harmonious life.
The area around Liangcheng has been quite unsettled in recent years. In order to maintain peaceful relations with the bandits, the county magistrate, Li Quangui, has generally turned a blind eye to their activities, which has allowed the bandits to run rampant in the Liangcheng area.
They routinely abduct women and robbed homes, treating the people of Liangcheng like their granaries.
Knowing that the surrounding environment was not peaceful, the old woman was reluctant to let her daughter-in-law leave the village.
However, this morning, while her daughter-in-law was feeding the chickens in the yard, bandits passing by saw the old woman's daughter-in-law and had evil intentions. Several of them went up, grabbed the old woman's daughter-in-law, and carried her away.
Hearing the commotion outside, the old woman and her son rushed out, begging the bandits to show mercy. The bandits, seeing that the old woman's son was lame, not only mocked and insulted him, but also beat him to death.
The villagers, fearing they would be implicated, all stayed indoors and dared not offer any help.
After the bandits left, the villagers came out to help the old woman carry her son's body to the mass grave and bury it.
Now that the old woman's son is dead and her daughter-in-law has been abducted, she has nowhere to turn for help and plans to kill herself tonight in front of her son's grave.
Until she encountered Mu Jin and Nangong Min. Seeing that the two were carrying swords and had an extraordinary demeanor, the old woman thought they might be chivalrous heroes and decided to ask them for help in finding her daughter-in-law.
"Bandits again!" Mu Jin said with a look of displeasure. Nangong Min knew that Mu Jin was thinking about the time when she was kidnapped by bandits and taken to the mountain.
The two decided to take the old woman back to her home first, and then make other plans.
Because the old woman had a broken leg, the two men were afraid that putting her on the horse's back would aggravate her injury, so Nangong Min carried the old woman on his back and walked down the mountain to her house.
Fortunately, the journey wasn't long; they arrived at the old woman's village entrance in half an hour.
When the three entered the old woman's courtyard, the dark courtyard was still draped with white cloth, a symbol of the daytime funeral.
Nangong Min put the old woman back on the bed and lit the lamp.
Mu Jin examined the old woman's wound and noticed that her leg was severely swollen, causing her to frown slightly.
At this moment, Nangong Min boiled water in the kitchen, brought it into the room, and together with Mu Jin, helped the old woman clean her wounds.
Mu Jin gave the old woman painkillers and anti-inflammatory pills. She found that although the old woman's bones were broken, they had not shifted. So she took two wooden sticks and placed them on both sides of the old woman's wound, and tied them with cloth strips.
The old woman grabbed Mu Jin's hand and cried, "Sir, can you help me? My son is dead, and I can't live without a daughter-in-law. Otherwise, there's no point in me living."
Given Mu Jin's personality, taking the old woman home was already her limit, because she knew that at this time, the Dongyue Kingdom was plagued by a foolish emperor and corrupt officials who were corrupting the entire country, and it was also threatened by the Beiqi Kingdom from the outside. She disliked this country and everything about it.
Even if she occasionally felt compassion, with her meager personal strength, she could never shake or change this deeply entrenched status quo.
She had originally planned to escort the old woman home with Nangong Min and then leave, but tonight, for some reason, seeing the old woman pleading so desperately, she couldn't bear to refuse.
Mu Jin asked the old woman, "Grandma Ye, do you know where the bandits' hideout is?"
The old woman was suddenly stunned; she truly had no idea.
After a long while, the old woman sighed shakily and said, "Life and death are predestined. It was an old woman like me who should not have defied fate. Thank you, two chivalrous men, for saving me."
Mu Jin fed the old woman some calming pills, and seeing that the old woman had fallen asleep, the two of them left the old woman's room.
By this time, it was nearly midnight. If they went into town again, the inns would probably be closed, so they decided to spend the night in the old woman's kitchen.
The two sat leaning against each other in the kitchen. Nangong Min said to Mu Jin with a guilty conscience, "You've been wronged again tonight. If I hadn't insisted on saving Granny Ye..."
Am I supposed to blame you for having a kind heart?
Before Nangong Min could finish speaking, Mu Jin interrupted him with a smile.
Mu Jin continued, "Do you want to help Granny Ye find her daughter-in-law?"
Nangong Min frowned and remained silent, watching the old woman's son die and her daughter-in-law being taken away. If the old woman's daughter-in-law could not be found, the old woman probably wouldn't live much longer.
Just like tonight, if she hadn't met him and Mu Jin, that old woman would probably have died in front of her son's grave tonight.
However, helping the old woman find her daughter-in-law would create many unnecessary troubles and inevitably delay her return to the Nangong Shenzong sect.
Seeing that Nangong Min didn't say anything, Mu Jin smiled and said, "If you want to help, then help. These bandits are so high-profile in Liangcheng, I believe it won't be difficult to find out their hideout. It won't take too long."
Nangong Min gratefully took Mu Jin's hand and gently squeezed it in his own palm.
From a young age, he received the ancestral teaching of the Nangong Shenzong clan: "to take saving the common people as our mission." He could foresee that the old woman would die if she could not find her daughter-in-law, and if he did not help her, his conscience would not be at peace.
"Thank you, Ah Jin. I will definitely find Granny Ye's daughter-in-law within two days and return to Nangong Shenzong as soon as possible. After I finish dealing with Nangong Ce's matter, I will go to the border with you to find General Mu, okay?"
Mu Jin closed her eyes, leaned on Nangong Min's shoulder, and smiled, saying, "Okay!"
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