Chapter 17 Encountering Bandits
The next morning, after preparing the food, Li Zheng pushed the cart away. Xiao Ze naturally sat in the cart, leaving Bao Ge'er to sit in a corner of the car.
The drought in August has lasted for more than a month. The scorching sun seems to melt people. The land is cracked and no grass grows. It is a desolate place.
Li Zheng was irritated by the sun and her emotions were a little out of control, but she knew she had to control herself. Xiao Ze saw this and said to Li Zheng, "Let's go rest under the tree for a while. Bao Ge'er is too young to hold on."
Li Zheng saw Bao Ge'er's face full of pain, so she didn't say much and quickly pushed the cart to the tree. As soon as she got under the tree, Xiao Ze took out a bag of water and gave it to Li Zheng: "Thank you for your hard work, drink it quickly."
Li Zheng took the water, and surprisingly, her irritability was smoothed out. After drinking the water, she looked at Xiao Ze, who seemed to be calm and composed no matter where he was, especially his face that never tanned. The irritability that had been smoothed out started to rise again. She felt like a servant girl waiting on the master! Annoying!
They had been on the road for the past few days. He would light the fire while she cooked, offer her water when she was thirsty, and silently watch her practice at night, or teach Bao Ge'er to read. Whenever they had time on the road, they would talk about the current situation. Xiao Ze, looking at the food and water bags that were never empty, and the occasional meat and vegetables, never asked any questions, as if nothing was unusual.
Seeing that he was so smart and sensible, Li Zheng felt that he was a really caring assistant. They could chat about things when they had something to talk about. When she was traveling with Baoger before, she didn't have much to say. It's not that Baoger was bad, but that Baoger was young and didn't understand some things.
As they walked further, the scenery remained unchanged. Instead, they spotted pedestrians in groups of two or three. Their clothes were dusty and they were skinny. Of course, she wasn't much better off. These fellow refugees glanced warily at the strangers like Li Zheng, then clutched their belongings tightly in their hands.
Seeing this, Li Zheng quickly sped up and shook them off without looking away. "What's going on?" she looked at Xiao Ze.
Xiao Ze knew what she meant. "This direction leads to Taiyuan Prefecture. We didn't run into anyone the past few days probably because we took a long detour. We only got back on track these past two days. But we still have to be careful."
When they reached a valley, Li Zheng felt something was wrong while pushing the cart. The terrain was very strange. Xiao Ze immediately hugged Bao Ge'er in his arms and said, "Zheng, hurry up, I don't feel right."
After hearing this, Li Zheng pushed the cart and ran away. The refugees around him saw this and started running too.
"What's going on?"
"This place is low-lying, with high mountains on both sides. If someone rolls a rock from above, it will be disastrous. Generally, this kind of terrain is a good place for robbery. I don't know if there are any, so it's better to leave first."
As if to verify Xiao Ze's words, there were loud "rumbling" sounds one after another, and rocks from the mountain rolled down.
"Ah, run away, there are bandits."
"Run!"
Some people ran out quickly, but others couldn't dodge in time and fell to the ground. Li Zheng pushed the cart and ran, looking at the situation above.
"There are people behind the trees on both sides of the mountain, about twenty of them. They intend to smash people to death! Run out first, otherwise you won't be able to escape." Xiao Ze observed the situation on both sides. The slower he was, the more stones he would get.
…
"Brother Shitou, your idea is really good. We can have food to eat without sending anyone! Fortunately, there is a small waterfall in our village, otherwise we would have died of thirst." A man with a pointed face and a monkey-like face looked at the man named Shitou with a flattering smile.
"This is also because our Baijia Village has a good location." Shitou's real name is Bai Shi, he has a handsome appearance, but his lively eyes look a little out of place.
"That's right, Shitou, don't be so modest. It's because you have a good brain, otherwise the villagers would have starved to death long ago." The person who spoke was named Bai Da. When the drought happened, his family ran out of food and his old mother was about to starve to death. After hearing Bai Shi's idea, she immediately agreed, saying that he was killing people. Don't joke, he is about to starve to death, who else can he care about!
The first time, only Bai Shi and Bai Da took food back to the village together. The villagers immediately exploded, pointing fingers at them and accusing them of murder. What if the government came and implicated them? But Bai Shi and Bai Da didn't care. They were about to starve to death anyway, and every day they lived was a blessing. Later, more and more people left their homes to join Bai Shi and Bai Da's team. After all, filling their stomachs was the most important thing for them. The villagers turned a blind eye to this. After all, the village had been out of food for a long time, and whoever survived now was eating food stained with blood. It was just that the village was guarded more and more strictly.
Bai Shi looked at the refugees running around being hit by rocks, and he actually wanted to laugh. At this moment, he seemed to understand why so many people wanted to be officials, wanted to get rich, and wanted to exploit farmers like them. It turned out that watching them helpless in his hands and fleeing in panic was so interesting. It felt so good to have them in his hands!
"Shi, Brother Shi, there's someone here." He didn't know how this person appeared here, but he saw him as soon as he turned around.
Bai Shi turned back to look at the young man holding the knife. The backlight made it hard to see his expression, but he was no ordinary man. One could tell by the knife. "Young man, you are lost and don't know the direction. You are also short of food. I brought some dry food with me, and I will give it to you."
When Bai Da heard this, he took out the dry food he had with him and handed it to the boy, "Young..."
Bai Shi touched the blood on his face and looked down. Bai Da had been beheaded. The people around him immediately picked up their weapons to guard against the young man. They were not pushovers. Since they had picked up food and saw that the man was not dead, they would naturally give him a ride.
Bai Shi looked at the blood on his hands and Bai Da lying on the ground, and his hair stood on end with anger, his eyes bloodshot, "Kill him."
When everyone heard this, they immediately attacked together, but they underestimated the strength of the young man in front of them. Their weapons were just like eggs hitting stones after being hit by the young man's knife. The young man exerted his strength and chopped at them with his knife, and they fell to the ground in an instant. Everyone saw this and ran for their lives, but after taking a few steps, the stone pierced their throats.
Bai Shi looked at the fallen man with a face full of disbelief. Is he, Bai Shi, going to fall into this kid's hands today?
"Tell me. How do you want to die?"
Bai Shi smiled. "Is there any choice? In the end, you'll still die." Resist? The boy was so fast that even the eyes couldn't follow him. How could he resist? Bai Shi felt a pain in his heart and fell to the ground. Looking at the heartless sun, he suddenly remembered his mother. His mother died of illness and pain. Perhaps she should be grateful to him for making her feel less pain. He could feel his body getting colder and colder. He thought about how those people died.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
