By the time the white smoke was diluted, the Japanese pirates had already disappeared on horseback.
"I'll chase him!"
Lu Jingxiang mounted her horse and was about to chase her, but Song Che called out to her: "Forget it, the dangers ahead are unknown, so don't chase her easily."
Looking at Nangong Yue again, there was a big hole in her waist, blood had stained a large area of her clothes, her face was pale and her teeth were gritted, she was enduring the pain.
"Boss, I'm fine. It's because I was useless and failed to block the bandit's hidden weapon, which caused your appearance to be disfigured..."
The more she said this, the more guilt Song Che felt.
Song Che stroked his cheek and asked with a smile: "My appearance is disfigured, am I still handsome?"
Nangong Yue was stunned for a moment, then forced out a smile, "Chad looked at it and saw that there was a cut, which actually makes him look more manly."
"Hehehe...Okay, it's not suitable to stay here for a long time. Let's leave quickly."
Song Che used gauze and alcohol to briefly treat Nangong Yue's wounds;
Lu Jingxiang put down the woman's body and took off her clothes to cover her shame. It would take a lot of time to dig a grave and bury it on the spot;
Lu Jingxiang carried the body, and Song Che took Nangong Yue and quickly left the sow forest.
When we walked out of the forest, our eyes suddenly opened up. In early spring, everything revived. Moistened by successive spring rains, flowers and plants grew luxuriantly, but it was completely silent.
The sky is dark and night is approaching.
Dense dark clouds, a heavy rain is coming.
A few scattered houses along the road either collapsed or burned down, making them uninhabitable.
Nangong Yue's face became paler and she could clearly feel that she was running a fever, so she had to quickly find a place to rest out of the rain.
"Boss, look, there seems to be smoke over there!" Lu Jingxiang suddenly pointed.
Song Che used his telescope to look around. Four or five miles away, there was a slightly raised mound. Dozens of houses stood beside the mound, and smoke from their kitchens curled up into the sky.
"Let's go over and have a look."
The two of them rushed forward.
To enter the village, you need to turn from the main road to a small path and pass through a bamboo forest.
"Be careful. Those who can stay on this land may have militiamen -"
As soon as I entered the bamboo forest, I opened my mouth to remind him, but before I could finish the words, there was a sudden shaking in the forest, "Whoa!" A horse tripping rope stretched out from the pile of dead leaves.
"Hush!"
Lu Jingxiang, who was walking in front, reined in her horse in time and narrowly avoided the horse's stumbling rope. She immediately drew her sword out of its sheath and shouted into the bamboo forest:
"Who is cheating in secret! Get out of here!"
There was another noise in the forest, and more than a dozen men in civilian clothes sprang out from both sides of the road, holding poles, hatchets, and hoes, and they were also covered with homemade rattan armor.
It was indeed a militia.
Nearly twenty militiamen surrounded Song Che and the others.
"Who are you, and how could you come to invade my village!" A burly man in his early thirties with an unshaven beard asked pointedly.
Unlike other militiamen, he wore a worn-out armor and had a complete but full of chipped sword.
Lu Jingxiang shouted: "Are you blind? There are only three of us, how can we offend your village?"
"Then get out of here! You are not welcome here!"
"You--"
"Okay." Song Che shook his head at Lu Jingxiang and signaled not to argue. He stepped forward and bowed with the big man, clasping fists and explaining politely:
"This good man, we originally wanted to go to Penglai from here. We searched all along the way but couldn't find a place to stay. It's getting late now. I'm passing by your village and want to stay overnight. Is it convenient?"
Seeing that Song Che was so humble, the man softened his tone a little, but still refused: "This official, your dress and conversation are not ordinary people, but our village has rules. If you are not from this village, we will not entertain you. If you really want to find a place to stay, walk seven miles along the main road, there is a Earth Temple there, it will be no problem to provide shelter from the wind and rain."
"If it's sheltered from the wind and rain, we won't bother you. It's just that my friend was seriously injured and must rest."
Song Che took out a large ingot of silver from his sleeve and handed it to the big man, with a pleading tone: "We only have one night's rest and will leave early tomorrow morning. Is it convenient for a good man?"
The big man looked at the pale Nangong Yue on the horse and couldn't help thinking. He sighed: "All major events in the village are decided by the village chief. I will ask the village chief for instructions to see if he can keep you."
"Wait a minute." Lu Jingxiang jumped off the horse holding the female body she had rescued earlier in the woods, and handed it to the big man and said:
"She was accidentally rescued by us when we passed by the sow forest just now. You won't welcome the living. The dead must do their best and help her bury her in peace, right?"
As soon as the big man saw the female corpse, he hurriedly came up to her, brushed her hair aside to get a clear look at her face, and his eyes immediately filled with tears. He hugged the corpse and wailed:
"Xiuhe!"
…
The village is called Chenjiacun, with more than 80 households and more than 300 people.
The big man is the village militia captain named Li Tao. He served in the army for five years in the north. When he returned home, his family was in ruins. Fortunately, the village chief Chen Qing did not dislike him and recruited him as his son-in-law.
The village chief's daughter and Li Tao's wife is Chen Xiuhe who was rescued in the forest.
With this relationship, Song Che and the others naturally moved into Chenjia Village.
At night.
Heavy rain is imminent.
Song Che asked a clever woman in the village for needlework.
Nangong Yue was injured by a Japanese knife, and the wound was an inch long. To prevent inflammation and infection, the best way was to suture.
"Be patient, it might hurt a little."
Song Che first boiled the needle and thread in boiling water, then soaked it in alcohol to disinfect it, and finally sutured her wound stitch by stitch.
Without anesthesia, it would definitely be painful.
Nangong Yue clenched her teeth, her body trembled slightly, and she breathed heavily with each injection, and she never uttered a word until the end.
"If you hadn't saved me today, you wouldn't have been seriously injured. I... am really useless."
Seeing her sweating profusely, Song Che felt unspeakably guilty.
Nangong Yue hugged the pillow and said: "The role of ducks is to lay duck eggs, and the role of hens is to lay eggs. When the duck can't lay eggs, how can you say it is useless?"
Song Che smiled and said, "It's a very vivid metaphor."
"How did you know that I brought eggs and duck eggs?"
"Uh-"
Lu Jingxiang opened the door, holding a tray in her hand. On the tray were a bowl of chicken and duck eggs, a bowl of millet porridge, and a few dry pancakes.
Despite its simplicity and simplicity, for a small village, this is already a high standard of hospitality.
Lu Jingxiang filled a bowl of rice porridge, peeled an egg, picked up the small cloth bag next to the bowl, took out a yellow crystal from the bag, and threw it into the porridge bowl——
"Wait a minute."
Song Che asked: "What is this small square?"
Lu Jingxiang said: "The boss looks like he comes from a wealthy family. These are salt cubes. Put them in the porridge to taste."
She didn't say it was a salt block, but Song Che thought it was a stone. "A salt block of this color has impurities at first glance. How can it be eaten?"
Lu Jingxiang curled her lips and said, "What can we do? There is a shortage of salt right now, and many villagers can't even eat salt cubes. I heard that the village chief's daughter was unfortunately captured by Japanese pirates just to buy refined salt in the town... "
Is it not necessarily difficult to purify salt blocks?
Song Che grabbed the salt bag and went straight to the kitchen.
