Perhaps because she had escaped death by a hair’s breadth, or perhaps because she had witnessed Li Chenghuan’s formidable self-preservation means, Jiang Jinyue’s mood relaxed quite a bit. She took the initiative to explain, “Leaving them right there for those people to see will likely serve as a bit of a deterrent. Doing anything else would just be adding unnecessary trouble.”
Li Chenghuan nodded. Her understanding of this world was based entirely on the original owner’s knowledge, and the original owner was someone lacking in worldly experience, so it was best to just listen to Jiang Jinyue.
After all, the cold-beauty sister-in-law was the female lead of this world.
“Let’s hurry and go back, and grab something to eat along the way. I’m starving to death.”
Hearing Li Chenghuan’s words, Xie Yuwan felt around the inner pocket of her sleeve and pulled out a corn bun. “Chenghuan, do you want to垫一垫 (tuck something into your stomach)?”
This was her ration for the day. Because she had been consumed by anxiety over her own ordeal, she had no appetite all day and had saved it.
A kindness of a trickle should be repaid with a gushing spring. Li Chenghuan had saved her life, so however she repaid that grace was only right. It was a pity that she now only had this hard-to-swallow corn bun.
Li Chenghuan smiled. “No need. Let’s get away from here first, I’ll take you two to eat something good.”
Anyway, Xie Yuwan had already seen her fire a gun, which counted as sharing life-and-death camaraderie. Since they were all her own people now, they might as well eat and drink well together.
After the three of them left that spot, they found a secluded place to stop. The sky was also growing close to dark.
Li Chenghuan thought for a moment and still had Xie Yuwan turn her back to them. Bringing out food and drink was one thing, but completely failing to conceal it was another. Fortunately, Xie Yuwan was a very tactful person; her face showed only amazement and gratitude, and she never asked any questions.
Eating steamed rice with Chinese sausage until she was full, followed by a bowl of coconut water—leaving aside their current predicament, living like this wasn’t bad at all.
On the other side, when the three Lu brothers returned to the original spot, quite a few prisoners had already returned. Without any exception, everyone had returned empty-handed.
“Chongli, what’s wrong with you?” Minister Lu saw his eldest son’s strange expression and asked in a low voice.
Lu Chongli opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He shook his head in a daze, clutching his head as he sat down.
Minister Lu couldn’t help looking at his other two sons. The second son, Lu Chongzhi, had an expression of wanting to speak but holding back, while the youngest son, Lu Chongxin, wore a look of fright.
His brow darkened as he looked toward the second son: “Chong智 (Chongzhi), you tell me.”
Lu Chongzhi lowered his head and said dully, “Mother… Mother will probably be able to have water to drink.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the Lu family collectively fell into silence. They all knew what this sentence implied.
“Eldest Brother, if you treat Eldest Sister-in-law poorly in the future, I will never acknowledge you again.” Amidst the silence, Lu Baozhu said in a soft voice.
Eldest Sister-in-law was undoubtedly pitiful, but as long as Mother could wake up, their Lu family would remember this debt of gratitude.
Lu Chongli let out an “en,” feeling only humiliation in his heart. His wife was currently serving other men, his wife had been dirtied…
After a long while, Minister Lu closed his eyes. “Remember this, all of you. Our Lu family has wronged Yuwan. In the future, if anyone dares to use this matter to make Yuwan unhappy, this old man will never forgive them.”
With those words, Lu Mingzhu grabbed his sleeve: “Dad!”
Minister Lu followed her line of sight, a trace of relief surfacing in the depths of his eyes. It looked like there was water to drink.
Not far away, Zhou Yuan followed behind Boss Gu, carrying a wooden bucket in his hand as he walked with extreme care. The bucket clearly contained water.
Boss Gu’s expression was exceedingly unsightly. Although they had brought back half a bucket of water on this trip, the price they paid was also immense.
Not long ago, seeing that the prisoners were all searching in the nearby woods, Zhou Yuan had suggested going up the mountain to take a look. The two of them walked deep into the mountains for a long time without finding a water source, but instead ran into several hunters.
After a lot of talking, the hunters finally agreed to trade water.
Boss Gu believed that if they weren’t bailiffs, those hunters would definitely have murdered them for their wealth rather than stripping them of everything on their bodies, letting them go, and even giving them water in a dead-serious manner, which showed it was a transaction.
What was most hateful was that those hunters didn’t even spare their sabers. Right now, not only were they penniless, but they had also lost their weapons. Truly, tigers had fallen into the plains only to be bullied by dogs!
“There’s only this much water. If you want to drink, trade something for it.” Boss Gu hardened his heart; the wealth the hunters had stripped from him had to be recouped from these prisoners.
Seeing this, Minister Lu silently pulled a bank note out from his sleeve.
Lu Chongli abruptly stood up and said in a flustered panic, “Yuwan, Dad, Yuwan!” Since bank notes could be used to trade for water, did that mean Yuwan didn’t have to serve the bailiffs anymore?
Minister Lu paused in his motion, handed the bank note to Lu Chongzhi, signaled him to hurry and trade for water, and only then looked at Lu Chongli: “Sit down!”
Matters had reached this point, and regretting it now was too late. One could only say that Xie Yuwan had bad luck; she couldn’t blame anyone else.
The corners of Lu Chongli’s mouth twitched, and in the end he could only sit down while covering his face. Turning back at this moment was no different from snatching food from the jaws of a tiger, and besides, it might not even be in time. Who knew, maybe Yuwan was already no longer clean…
The scene was bustling with rare liveliness. Prisoners who had things to trade swarmed forward, while those without things didn’t idle either, continually kowtowing toward Boss Gu with piteous and pleading cries.
Boss Gu, who had been stripped clean of everything, remained completely unmoved. If they wanted to drink, they had to bring things; if they didn’t have anything, they could just stay thirsty. Dying a few people didn’t matter.
When the three of them—Li Chenghuan and the others—returned, this was precisely the scene that met their eyes.
Xie Yuwan glanced at the Lu family members who were currently crowding around Mother Lu, feeling still somewhat uncomfortable in her heart. She pinched her sleeve and made up her mind: “Jinyue, Chenghuan, can I walk with you from now on?”
Li Chenghuan subconsciously looked at Jiang Jinyue; she listened entirely to the female lead.
Before Jiang Jinyue could speak, Xie Yuwan hurried to explain, “I’m not doing it for… in short, having a corn bun every day is enough for me, I really don’t want to go back.”
Upon seeing the Lu family again, besides feeling a chilling apathy, she was also filled with utter repulsion. Such a family, she didn’t want them anymore.
“I understand. If you are willing, then stay.” Jiang Jinyue understood her frame of mind and didn’t feel at ease letting Xie Yuwan stay with the Lu family any longer either. For one thing, she feared the Lu family might harm her; for another, she was also worried Xie Yuwan might let slip their secrets.
She trusted the Xie Yuwan standing before them right now, but she didn’t trust an Xie Yuwan who returned to the Lu family’s side—human hearts could not withstand testing.
Beside them, Old Madam Li sized Xie Yuwan up twice before withdrawing her gaze. Since Jiang Jinyue had already agreed, she had no objections either, seeing as their family of three entirely depended on Jiang Jinyue anyway.
What she cared about most right now was whether the jinx had brought back anything to eat this time. They couldn’t drink water, but eating something should be fine, right?
“Chenghuan.” Old Madam Li shot a series of winks at her granddaughter, her expression quite comical.
By this time, the night had already grown dark, and since they were positioned at the rear of the procession far away from the campfire, they didn’t need to worry about others seeing.
Li Chenghuan thought for a moment, lowered her voice, and said, “Grandmother, you and Third Sister go over there first, I’ll come over in a bit.”
“Alright.” Old Madam Li instantly smiled until her eyes narrowed. The ill-fated granddaughter’s words meant there was food; she hadn’t waited in vain after all.
As a result, just as the old man turned around, she heard Boss Gu shouting at the top of his lungs: “Everyone take a look, who else hasn’t returned?”
Old Madam Li’s mouth dropped into a pout, and she had no choice but to turn back first and wait patiently a little longer.
The atmosphere grew quiet. The prisoners searched around for their own family members, calling out in response: “We’re back.” “All of us are back.”
The Lu family had already fed Mother Lu some water. Hearing the shout, they also looked around, but failed to see the shadows of the four bailiffs.
Minister Lu sighed inwardly, and just as he was about to say that the daughter-in-law hadn’t returned, he was once again grabbed by the sleeve by his daughter.
“Dad, Eldest Sister-in-law is back, over there.” Lu Baozhu looked toward the Li family’s side, trying her hardest to open her eyes wide to see Xie Yuwan’s expression clearly, as well as whether her clothes were intact. Alas, the light of day was dim, and she could only recognize that it was her eldest sister-in-law, unable to make out anything else.
Minister Lu couldn’t make anything out either. He frowned, patting the eldest son who was sitting blankly on the ground: “Yuwan is right over there, why don’t you go call her back.”
Lu Chongli raised his head in a daze! Xie Yuwan had returned!
He scrambled to his feet, but the moment he took a step forward he sat right back down, covering his face in agony as he said, “This son has no face to face her.”
The moment he saw Xie Yuwan’s figure, he remembered his own cowardice and incompetence. Under the weight of his guilt, a faint resentment welled up in the depths of his heart: since her body wasn’t clean anymore, why didn’t she just drop dead, why bother coming back!
Minister Lu tugged at his beard, but ultimately didn’t say anything more. Let alone his son, even he as the father-in-law felt ashamed to the point of sweating.
Right at that moment, Zhou Yuan followed up by shouting: “Has anyone seen Hu Er and the other three?”
Hu Er was the mustache bailiff’s name. Right now none of the prisoners were missing, except for the four of them whose shadows were nowhere to be seen.
“Dad?” Lu Chongzhi looked toward his father. They had seen those four bailiffs earlier—should they speak up?