With a trembling voice, he said, "Good children, get up first, and let's talk it over."
The young and middle-aged men of Qingshan Village also gathered around, and Xiao Ba and the Gu brothers and sisters stood in front of Grandma Gu.
The men who were chasing after them did not dare to cause trouble when they saw that the other side was outnumbered. The leader had a face full of flesh, but pretended to be kind and said to everyone with an awkward smile:
"Hello everyone, please make way. My two nephews are ignorant and have offended their aunt. I will take them away right away."
The girl saw that Grandma Gu felt pity for them, so she crawled over to her on her knees, hugged her calves, and choked out her words, "You look as kind as my grandmother. Please! Please, buy us out! We can do anything. All we want is 40 kilograms of coarse grain and two buckets of water."
The older boy, his eyes red, kowtowed and begged, "Grandma, please buy my sister. She's a good girl. You can't let her end up in a brothel and ruin her life. Twenty kilograms of coarse grain and a bucket of water will do."
Everyone sighed, how worthless human life was in a disaster year! What kind of vicious relatives would sell a child into such a filthy place?
Seeing that her grandmother was in a dilemma, Gu Xinran looked at her for help. These two people were indeed pitiful.
He stared fiercely at the so-called uncle with a face full of flesh and said coldly: "Are they really your nephews? Are you sure you want to sell them?"
The uncle saw that the person who stood up was small but powerful, so he did not dare to be presumptuous and continued to say with an awkward smile:
"Really, there's really no other way. My family's out of food and water, and I'll just suffer if I stay. It's better to move to a better place, at least I won't starve."
"So you bought them to that filthy place?"
"Only they can bring out water. Look, we are almost dying of thirst." After saying this, he licked his cracked lips.
Gu Xinran looked at the group of strong men chasing after them. Although they were also ragged and dirty, they were much stronger than the two children.
They must have suffered a lot following this group of people, so let’s just do something good.
Anyway, there is food and water. It is not easy for grandma and mother to prepare three meals a day. It is also tiring to drive the mule cart by myself. It is good to find two people to help.
Speaking of which, why haven't the guards Xiao Mingzhan wanted to send appeared yet? Never mind, I'll just take two for myself first.
Then he said calmly: "We bought forty kilograms of coarse grains and two buckets of water."
At this moment, a sharp and piercing voice rang out, "No, they were spotted by Cuihua Tower and Qingfeng Pavilion first. We have to follow the principle of first come, first served."
Along with the sound, a wretched man with a pointed chin and a woman with a face full of makeup appeared, followed by several thugs.
The two of them glanced at Gu Xinran's dark and yellow face with disgust, and rushed forward without any hesitation, trying to push Xiao Ba aside and pull the two siblings kneeling on the ground.
Hitting Xiao Ba was like hitting a wall. With two kicks, he was already three meters away.
The thug with a knife behind was so scared that he quickly took a few steps back and raised his knife to defend himself, but he didn't dare to move forward.
The two men who had fallen to the ground recovered their strength and pointed at the retreating thugs and shouted fiercely: "Fuck you, come on, there is no one that Qingfeng Pavilion can't take down."
Then he pointed at his uncle and threatened, "If you dare to sell me to anyone else, I will not let you leave Jinzhou."
Gu Xinran couldn't stand their nagging and complaining, so the Gu siblings and Xiao Ba beat them up, leaving them unable to fight back.
People who show off their power like this need to be severely beaten and given a good beating before they can behave themselves.
Look, a bunch of people are crying and begging for mercy on their knees.
Gu Xinran asked them to take out all the money they had, leave behind the carriage full of food and water, and get out.
You have to pay some interest for all the hard work.
The onlookers were intimidated by their fighting power and dispersed, warning those around them that they should not mess with that team.
The uncle, with a face full of flesh, took out the household registration of the two children, accepted the food and water, and ran away with the group of people as if they were being chased by evil spirits.
Without even cooking or resting, he led the team away from the camp.
Gu Xinran handed over the more than one hundred taels of silver that he had confiscated to Village Chief Li, asking him to distribute it to the cheering crowd, and to use the water and food on the carriage to feed the two children.
The two people who were rescued finally smiled and rushed to help with the work.
Through chatting, we learned that they are a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, now fourteen years old. The brother is called Zhao Mancang and the sister is called Zhao Manniang. They are from Cangzhou.
That man is not their uncle at all!
Two months ago, Cangzhou ran out of food and water, and most villagers began to flee south, while a small number went towards the capital.
More than 50 people from their village were on the road for more than ten days when they unfortunately encountered bandits who robbed them of their money and raped them, committing all kinds of atrocities.
In order to protect them, their parents escaped and were hacked to death by bandits. The villagers died or scattered, leaving only the two of them to depend on each other.
They were heartbroken and unwilling to give up, so they stayed in the area where the bandits were active and lived a hard life, hoping that one day they could kill a lone bandit and avenge their loved ones.
But they were too naive. Those bandits robbed refugees passing by every day and were always successful.
Those small groups of villagers with their families could not escape their clutches.
As more and more people were robbed, there were more and more survivors like them, and they gradually formed a team, mainly composed of young and middle-aged people.
Unable to defeat the bandits' swords, short of water and food, they had no choice but to continue moving south to make a living.
At first, everyone huddled together for warmth, sharing the same hatred for the enemy, and could barely maintain peace with the remaining food.
After entering Chengzhou, the situation improved and people could buy food and water at high prices.
Their parents left them ten taels of silver as a life-saving fund so that they would have enough food and drink, and the people in the team seemed to be treating them well.
But problems arose in the past few days. After running out of water and food, they gradually discovered that there were fewer and fewer women and children in the team, and the elderly were gradually disappearing.
Today, he accidentally overheard the conversation between the team leader and a brothel owner, who wanted to sell them to a brothel and a tavern respectively.
What’s more, they even stole my household registration, so I had no choice but to do what happened at noon.
By chance, they actually met a good family.
After hearing this, the Gu family felt very sad. These two children had suffered so much at such a young age.
Grandma Gu looked at you with pity and comforted you, "This will be your home from now on. Things will get better one day."
The Zhao brothers and sisters burst into tears of gratitude, "Thank you, grandma, we will definitely work hard."
After a hearty lunch at noon, the task of cleaning up was left to them.
Only when they are asked to work do they feel at ease and the smiles on their faces never fade.
When setting off, Zhao Mancang drove the carriage that was seized in the morning. The Zhao family ran a tofu shop. He had driven an ox cart at home, and now he was driving a horse carriage, and he got the hang of it quickly.
The closer we got to Jinzhou, the more chaotic the roads became, and there were more and more refugees who cheated, stole, and robbed people.
Along the way, you can always see all kinds of messy scenes, and people lying on the roadside are often seen, and it is unknown whether they are dead or alive.
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