Chapter 81: That Night Heads Rolled, That Year Her Eyes Curved Like Crescent Moons
That night.
The barking of dogs in the village was desolate.
Occasionally, there were one or two barks.
There was no crying of children.
It was very quiet.
The vast village, once silenced, felt a bit terrifying.
It was never brightly lit to begin with, but when everything went dark and there wasn’t a glimmer of light, it was still a bit frightening.
At Master Liu’s house, Sixth Auntie’s old man sat outside the gatehouse, smoking his hand-rolled, low-quality tobacco. Looking at the pitch-black village, he thought to himself that he should sneak over to Jiang the Second’s house right now; he wondered if he could find some treasures.
When fleeing for one’s life, one surely couldn’t take everything along. Whatever couldn’t be taken had to be hidden, though he didn’t know where.
However, it was too dark, and he felt too lazy to crawl over there. Forget it, wait until tomorrow. If they still hadn’t returned by tomorrow, he would take his son along to search; he would surely be able to turn something up.
Master Liu was also very stingy and didn’t really light any lamps at night.
Guards were added at night, but they could only rely on moonlight for illumination.
A-Cui’s fiancé was also there.
Landlord Liu was miserly and paid a very low monthly wage, but Xiao Wu’s Mother was ill and bedridden year-round, so he needed the money and had to come.
Fortunately, by his own merits (a handsome face and a sturdy build), he had managed to woo the young girl A-Cui, and they were soon to be married. His Mother didn’t like A-Cuis Mother, thinking that if he married A-Cui, there would be many troubles later on, but given his circumstances, it was already quite good that A-Cui didn’t mind.
He thought that after marriage, A-Cui could stay home to take care of his old Mother while he worked hard at Landlord Liu’s place. Ten years later, perhaps he would have saved enough money to redeem his family’s land. They could farm it themselves, and in the future, he and A-Cui could farm together, eat their fill, and have children. Just thinking about that life made it seem wonderful.
A smile appeared on the corners of his mouth.
An arrow shot in, narrowly grazing Xiao Wu’s shoulder. For a split second, he was so shocked that his heart stopped beating.
Then he shouted, “Bandits are here! The bandits are really here!”
A barrage of arrows was faster than his voice.
Firelight flared up.
The old man outside the gatehouse had already fallen to the ground, an arrow in his chest, bleeding. As he lay there twitching, he was still thinking before he died that he should have snuck over to Jiang the Second’s house earlier. Not taking advantage of an opportunity, he realized, truly led to a quick death.
Shouts and screams.
The villagers who hadn’t fled far, those who were harboring wishful thinking, felt sweat break out on their backs in the cold night upon hearing these cries. They felt deep gratitude toward Jiang the Second; it was fortunate that he had risked his life to come and warn them, otherwise, they would not have escaped with their lives.
The bandits were here.
If the villagers hadn’t hidden, they might have noticed something.
But the villagers had all fled, so the bandits had an unobstructed path and went straight to Master Liu’s house.
The bandits dared not attack the county government office because the Yamen Runners were well-trained, ate better than them, and used better weapons than them. But they were not afraid of these local gentry.
The gentry’s guards would not fight for their lives either; they would fight if they could win, and hide if they couldn’t.
Master Liu was usually very harsh to his servants, and now the evil consequences were showing.
Xiao Wu had shouted once at the beginning, and after that, he tried to find a way to hide.
When the bandits arrived, they were thinking of mountains of gold and silver, but once they reached Master Liu’s house, they had to search for a long time just to find a candle.
Except for Master Liu’s own family, who wore greasy clothes and ate greasy food, the other servants looked even poorer than the bandits.
Facing a group of masked, fierce-looking bandits.
Master Liu roared with a fierce exterior but a cowardly interior, “My daughter is the favored concubine of the County Magistrate! Are you not afraid of death?”
A spear pierced through his heart.
Master Liu pointed at the masked person in front, his hand trembling continuously; he recognized the person who had thrown the spear.
He recognized those eyes.
He had once wanted to take her as a concubine. At that time, her eyes were big and round; she was a young girl with a round face, and when she smiled, her eyes curved like crescent moons.
He looked down in terror at the spear in his chest. There was so much blood. He opened his mouth but could not make a sound. Everyone only heard, “Please, please, please…”
The bandit leader spat and cursed, “Bad luck! Who made the move, so fast? This dead old man is strangely polite even in death. What is he saying ‘please’ for? Please come in?”
Qin Luoxia ran stumbling into the forest.
The brambles she could easily avoid on ordinary days pierced straight into her feet.
She couldn’t care about the pain, nor did she feel it.
She ran for her life.
She ran for her life.
She ran for her life.
There was a lot of the scent of leaves in the dense forest.
It covered the smell of blood, and her mind gradually regained some clarity.
She couldn’t run toward the cave.
She was covered in blood.
Going back like this would scare her husband and child.
She stumbled and ran toward the mountain stream.
Thinking of her husband and child, she completely calmed down and became clear-headed.
Cold winter.
There was no water falling in the mountain stream; the water had dried up.
But there was still water in the pool.
She reached out to touch the water; it was ice-cold and biting.
Qin Luoxia had cleaned many pieces of prey here.
And today, she came to clean herself.
She also had some wounds on her body, but it wasn’t a big problem; the people who wounded her were all dead.
She had killed Master Liu.
Later, seeing those bandits attacking women and children too, she killed those bandits as well.
She had killed too many people.
She discovered that humans were even more fragile than beasts.
Beasts had fur, so there was resistance when a spear went in; humans did not.
Humans had clothes, but the clothes were very thin and useless.
Beasts ran very fast, and some could even fly; they were hard to chase.
Humans ran slowly, couldn’t fly, and were very easy to catch.
Beasts would resist, and humans would resist too.
Human resistance sometimes caused her injury because humans had weapons and knew how to cooperate.
But it wasn’t a big problem.
She had resolved them all.
The icy water quickly stopped the bleeding from her wounds.
She cleaned her wounds by the pool, soaking her blood-soaked outer garment in the pool, and the water in the pool was stained black-red.
Her breath formed puffs of white mist.
No birds or beasts dared to come near.
Not even the chirping of insects could be heard.
Quiet.
The sound of dripping water.
After cleaning herself up, she changed her clothes and walked back.
At dawn.
There were morning clouds in the sky.
Qin Luoxia arrived at the cave entrance.
She saw a man standing at the entrance, his long hair flying, the cold wind making his robes rustle loudly.
His nose was frozen red.
It did not affect his beauty in the slightest.
The ten thousand rays of morning light could not compare to a corner of her husband’s robe.
“Husband, I’m back,” Qin Luoxia said with a smile.
Jiang Changtian looked at Sister Xia, looked at her appearance, and asked nothing, but instead pulled her into his embrace.
He had waited for her for a long time, a very long time.
He was worried about her.
Seeing Sister Xia return, seeing her smile.
He was relieved.
He held her in his arms, and before his eyes were ten thousand rays of morning light.
Jiang Mianmian crawled out of the cave with a huff and a puff, and seeing the two hugging at the entrance, with neither paying her any attention, she huffed and puffed, stuck her butt in the air, turned around, and crawled back. Forget it, she would go play with Ant.
Mother’s body smelled bad; the scent of blood was incredibly thick.
Jiang Mianmian didn’t want to know what had happened; she had probably gone to dig for wild vegetables again.
In this chaotic world, who wasn’t just another vegetable?
Halfway through crawling, she was grabbed by Mother and lifted up.
Jiang Mianmian landed in Father’s arms, and the cold wind made her sneeze, “Achoo!”
Qin Luoxia looked at this Father and daughter who looked so alike, both with red-tipped noses, both incredibly beautiful and exquisite.
She grinned.
As if she were still that round-faced young girl from that year.
Smiling, her eyes curved like crescent moons.
Thank you for reading + listening 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
