More than a month later, Song Zhuiyan and the others finally returned to Songlin Village. They were originally expected to return in twenty-six days, but they encountered a ferocious beast on the way and fought with it. Liu Cheng's guards were seriously injured, and Song Zhuiyan's Zhong Qingyi was also slightly injured.
It rained along the way, but fortunately Song Zhuiyan had enough small tents and enough medicine for her injuries. Although the journey was not smooth, she finally arrived safely.
Liu Cheng had previously been seriously injured and unconscious. After finally regaining consciousness, he was chased by Duke's men. He was then chased by wild beasts in the deep mountains, which was a very difficult journey. So he was still seriously injured. He persevered all the way, and when he arrived at Songlin Village, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and fainted.
He was carried by his guards the whole way. Later, two of the guards were injured, so he could only rely on the one uninjured guard to carry him. This guard persevered for the whole way, but by then he was so tired that he collapsed on the ground and could not walk anymore.
The women and children were in even worse shape. Their faces, which used to have some flesh, were now skin and bones, and their complexions were sallow. They looked no different from refugees.
"Why did you bring so many refugees back?" Lin Fuhai exclaimed in surprise as soon as he saw them.
Who are the refugees? The women were indignant, but they were too weak to argue with anyone. Apart from looking unwell, none of them uttered a single word.
"Take them back first, and I'll explain later." Zhong Qingyi was also exhausted. The women in Liu Cheng were barely able to walk, let alone the children. He and Song Zhuiyan were the only ones who could help.
The baby was always carried on Song Zhuiyan's back, while the other three children were pulled by Zhong Qingyi. When they couldn't walk anymore, she would carry them for a while. When they encountered wild beasts, they could only rely on the two of them. If it weren't for the help of the second and third children, they probably wouldn't have been able to protect so many people.
On the way, he and Song Zhuiyan discussed that if things really didn't work out, they would escape on their own, trying to take a few children with them. The adults wouldn't care so much. Fortunately, the situation wasn't as serious as they had imagined, and in the end, everyone returned safely.
Zhong Qingyi and Song Zhuiyan went home and asked Lin Fuhai to arrange for Liu Cheng and his group to stay at the stone house. They also asked Azhu and Shuisheng to go and check on them, especially Liu Cheng, who was so badly injured and they didn't know if he would die.
After taking a bath and having a full meal, they went back to their rooms to sleep, not caring about anything else.
"Village chief, these refugees are going to stay in our village. That man looks badly injured and has a deathly pallor. Will he not be able to be saved?" Chen Jinhua said whatever came to mind, not caring what others thought.
"Keep your voice down, what are you yelling about?" Lin Fuhai said sternly. "I don't know what happened either. Young Master Zhong and Miss Song just got back and they're exhausted. We can only ask them tomorrow."
"Disperse, disperse. Except for Ah Zhu and a few others who know medicine, everyone else, disperse. Don't stand around making a fuss." After Lin Fuhai chased the villagers away, he gave Ah Zhu and a few others instructions and left as well.
After sleeping all afternoon and night, Song Zhuiyan finally woke up late the next morning. She had been really exhausted recently, not sleeping well at night and being on edge during the day, and she was also carrying a bunch of burdens. She finally got a good night's sleep yesterday, but she still felt sore all over and uncomfortable when she woke up today.
Just as she was about to go to the kitchen to cook, she heard a knock on the door, and Zhong Qingyi's voice came in, sounding anxious, "Miss Song, are you up yet?"
"Just got up, what's wrong?" Song Zhuiyan stepped to open the door, only to see Zhong Qingyi holding a pottery jar, her face full of anxiety. "Miss Song, I killed a chicken, made some soup, and brought some over to you."
He walked straight past her into the house, placed the pottery jar on the dining table in the main room, and turned around with a very ugly expression. "Miss Song, you don't know yet, do you? Ah Xun, he and Tan Tan secretly went out of the mountains."
It turns out she knew the two kids weren't home, so she came to talk to her today. It seems she was too tired to ask yesterday and went straight to sleep, only to find out they weren't there when she woke up this morning.
“I went to Ah Xun’s room to look for him when I got up today, and found that his door was locked. I thought he had gone to school or into the mountains. Later, Village Chief Lin came to me and complained that we had secretly taken Ah Xun and Song Tantan out of the mountains without taking anyone else. He also asked why the two of them hadn’t come back.”
Song Zhuiyan felt a little guilty. She had known about this for a while, but she hadn't dared to say anything. She had just gotten up and gone into her space to meet with Tantan to make sure that she and Axun were both safe before she felt relieved and got up to prepare breakfast.
Seeing her in a daze, Zhong Qingyi thought she was very worried and couldn't speak for a long time. He continued, "The pigs in your family are all fed by Zhu Xiu and A Yu in turns. Wei Feng and Qiao Qiao's litter are also fed by them. These two children are too bold. They don't care about the family and just run away, leaving everything to others to do."
Zhong Qingyi went on and on, not because of the things at home, but because he was worried about the safety of the two children.
“No wonder Taishan suddenly left that day and didn’t come back with us. You said Taishan was going back to let us know he was safe, but we were all wrong. Taishan went to find the two of them. Ah Xun and Tan Tan still haven’t come back. It’s too dangerous. I have to go and find them.”
Seeing that he was about to turn around and pack his things to leave, Song Zhuiyan quickly stopped him, "Brother Zhong, it's still raining today. If you want to go out of the mountain to search, you have to wait until the rain stops. I'm also worried about Tantan."
I desperately wanted to set off to find them, but getting out of the mountains wasn't something that could be done in a day or two. The mountain roads were difficult to traverse, so we needed to prepare properly before setting off. Otherwise, if something happened to me, how would I find them?
She was so worried, but she couldn't tell him directly that she could meet with Tantan and that the two children were safe, just that they couldn't find their way back for a while, but there was no need to worry too much.
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