"Then you and he can leave!"
Shen Xi's expressionless face, though still somewhat childish, was extremely serious.
The middle-aged man was stunned: "Why?"
"It seems my words were wasted. If you want to follow me, you must obey. If everyone has their own plans, then there's no need to follow me."
Chen Xi stopped looking at him and loudly asked the people behind the middle-aged man, "Is this the same thought you have?"
None of them spoke. Chenxi asked again, and a woman came out leading a toddler. She was very thin, skin and bones. The toddler was also very thin, with a big belly. What was particularly striking was his pair of big eyes.
The woman was only in her early twenties, and if she was a bit chubby, she was quite attractive.
She glanced at the middle-aged man with some fear, but finally spoke: "Commander, I don't want to leave. I can do anything and serve you."
Zheng Yang had just snapped out of his reverie that Chen Xi said he and the clan leader could leave when he saw the woman actually trying to light a fire in the stove. Enraged, he slapped her and roared, "I knew you were always restless, but I never thought you'd actually dare to do it!"
The woman remained motionless, as if the slap hadn't landed on her face, but the child wailed, "Uncle, don't hit my mother anymore, my mother is obedient."
Zheng Yang glared at her angrily: "If she were truly obedient, she wouldn't keep trying to run away. My brother is gone, and she's still restless."
Chenxi didn't care about any of that, and only asked the woman one question: "Are you really determined to follow me?"
The woman nodded vigorously, without the slightest hesitation.
Shen Xi nodded, then pointed at Zheng Yang: "If you slap him back, I'll agree!"
The woman paused for a moment, then bit her lip, turned to the side, and raised her hand to slap Zheng Yang.
Zheng Yang wasn't about to let her slap him. He grabbed her arm, his voice filled with anger: "You bitch, you dare hit me? I'll beat you to death!"
As he spoke, he raised his other hand, about to hit the woman, but Chenxi shouted, "I don't want someone who is too weak."
The woman was startled. Although she didn't dodge Zheng Yang's slap, her fingernails scratched his face.
The child was only four or five years old. When he saw his mother being beaten again, he let out a howl and bit Zheng Yang's leg.
He was just a child and didn't have much strength, but Zheng Yang was furious and raised his foot to kick him away.
Chen Xi kicked Zheng Yang with lightning speed, using a clever technique to strike an acupoint. Zheng Yang felt a numbness in his leg and almost fell over.
Shenxi took the child into his arms and led the woman back a few steps.
Then he handed the child to the woman: "You can come with me now!"
Zheng Yang was furious. He lunged forward and attacked, hitting anyone, whether it was Chen Xi, a woman, or a child.
He doesn't have any particular martial arts style, but he's probably fought a lot and has quite a few unorthodox techniques. If he were an ordinary person, he could easily take on three people at once.
Before Shenxi could make a move, Zhao Rong and Zhao Peng stepped forward and blocked Zheng Yang, and the three of them started fighting.
Shen Xi sneered, "You, as the clan leader, really know how to manage people!"
The middle-aged man's face was flushed, but because he was usually exposed to too much sun, his already dark complexion didn't show any redness.
He was a little weak. It was indeed outrageous for the uncle to beat his sister-in-law, but this woman had always wanted to stay in the village and had run away many times.
"Although she was relatively obedient along the way, she hadn't lived a proper life with Zheng Er back in the village and had run away many times."
This can be considered an explanation for Chenxi.
Chenxi turned to look at the woman behind him. By the light of the piles of fire, the woman's eyes were not cloudy, but clear and strong.
Although she doesn't know how to read faces, she can still tell whether a person is upright from their eyes.
Although the woman's eyes had changed from being dazed after being beaten the first time to now showing strength and not wavering, the eyes are the windows to a person's soul. Through her eyes, she could tell that this woman was clear and pure, and not a fickle person.
Shen Xi looked at the middle-aged man again: "Why did she run away?"
She didn't want to ask women, because women and men have different perspectives, and in this era, women are still subject to greater constraints.
Asking a woman in public might not yield many results. This middle-aged man's eyes revealed a resolute nature; he wasn't the cunning type.
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, then said, "She was brought back by Zheng Er, who said he bought her as a wife."
Fearing that Chenxi might misunderstand, he continued, "In our village, it's not just one family that buys wives. We're poor, so about half the people have to buy wives."
The woman spoke up at this moment: "Commander, I wasn't bought by Zheng Er, I was kidnapped by him. I've said it so many times, but nobody cares. Zheng Er and his family are all beasts!"
The middle-aged man's face darkened further. He knew about the incident, but back then, his second uncle was in charge of the village. He was working away from home and rarely stayed there, so he rarely heard any gossip. However, once when his second uncle was drunk, he said that Zheng Er's wife was really pitiful. She had been abducted by Zheng Er and was beaten every day. That wife would often run away, only to be chased back and beaten again. Why bother? There were so many women from other places in the village, from all walks of life, and none of them ran away all the time. She should just settle down, live a good life, and have a son. She could just endure it!
He said somewhat hesitantly, "There are plenty of wives bought in the village, and some even abducted, but no one keeps running away. Just take good care of your son, and things will get better when he grows up."
The woman opened her mouth as if to say something, but swallowed it back down.
At this moment, Zheng Yang shouted, "Clan leader, are you just going to watch me get bullied? Help me!"
He couldn't hold on any longer. The middle-aged man wanted to step forward to help, but another woman pulled him back: "Brother Kang, you can't."
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment: "Ah Qiao, it's not appropriate for me to ignore this!"
Pan Ruoqiao glared at him: "Brother Kang, Zheng Yang is no good person. If he gets dealt with, it will save us a lot of trouble."
“But I am the clan chief now.” The middle-aged man sighed. He knew that Zheng Yang was not a good person, but he had always respected him as the clan chief. He was also good at fighting outsiders and was considered one of the better fighters in the group. In such a chaotic world, they needed someone like Zheng Yang to protect the clan with him.
Shenxi watched as she observed the group of thirty-odd people. It wasn't that no one wanted to help, but they all had some reservations.
At this moment, the middle-aged man joined the battle and turned the tide of the battle in an instant. Shen Xi never expected that the middle-aged man's kung fu was so amazing.
Zhao Rong and Zhao Peng were taken down by him in no time. The middle-aged man stopped short of killing Zheng Yang, but he stopped him from going for the kill.
Shenxi was genuinely interested in the middle-aged man. Judging from his skills, he wasn't using his full strength. This wasn't the brute force of a farmer; it was the result of someone who had truly learned martial arts.
Zhao Rong and Zhao Peng had also learned some kung fu, but it was just the most basic hunter's kung fu. The middle-aged man's kung fu, however, had the style of Shaolin.
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