The wretched screams tore through the silent village.
Zhao Dahu stared at the wooden arrow trembling in his thigh. The searing pain twisted his entire face out of shape.
He clawed at the ground with both hands and feet, dragging behind him a long streak of blood.
“D-Don’t kill me! Lord Lang! I was wrong! I really was wrong!”
Fear completely crushed him. Snot and tears streamed down his face as he frantically kowtowed to Xu Lang, who was walking toward him step by step.
“I’ll give you all my money! I still have land! It’s all yours! Spare my life! I beg you!”
Xu Lang’s face showed no expression at all. In those bloodshot eyes, there was only a frozen wasteland.
He drew the mulberry wood longbow again.
The creaking of the bowstring sounded like a death knell to Zhao Dahu.
“No—!”
Thud!
Another wooden arrow shot out, piercing cleanly through Zhao Dahu’s other thigh.
“Ahhh!”
Zhao Dahu’s scream grew even more shrill. Like a mad dog nailed to the ground, he thrashed violently.
Xu Lang remained unmoved and nocked another arrow.
Thud!
This time, it struck Zhao Dahu’s right arm, the one he had been waving in desperate plea.
The agony and despair shattered Zhao Dahu’s sanity completely. He stopped begging. He stopped screaming. A strange, choking laugh bubbled out of his throat.
He lifted his blood-and-mud-smeared face and glared at Xu Lang with venom.
“Hahaha… kill me! If you have the guts, kill me!”
“Xu Lang! You think you’ve won? You think you’ve avenged that fool Wang Erniu?”
Zhao Dahu’s laughter was sharp and grating.
“You lost! You lost completely! Hahaha!”
“You’ll never sleep peacefully again in your life! Every night you’ll dream of him! Dream of his whole family!”
Xu Lang’s heart jolted violently. A terrible premonition seized him in an instant.
Zhao Dahu noticed the change in his expression and laughed even more crazily, more triumphantly.
“What? Afraid now? Hahaha!”
“If you’ve got the nerve, go to Wang Erniu’s house!”
“Go take a look! I left you a big surprise! Hurry up and see! Hahahahaha!”
Xu Lang’s breathing stopped.
He stared at Zhao Dahu’s manic face. His mind buzzed and went blank.
He gave Zhao Dahu no more chance to speak.
Whoosh!
The final wooden arrow shot out with all his strength, passing straight through Zhao Dahu’s laughing mouth and bursting out the back of his skull.
The laughter ended abruptly.
The world fell silent.
Xu Lang threw the bow aside. Without even looking at the corpses on the ground, he turned and sprinted toward the west end of the village.
Go to Wang Erniu’s house.
…
Wang Erniu’s home stood at the far western edge of the village, a thatched hut even more dilapidated than the one Xu Lang had lived in before.
From a distance, Xu Lang saw the broken wooden door half open. No light flickered inside. Only dead silence.
His heart sank bit by bit.
He stumbled to the doorway. He raised his hand, but for a long time, he did not dare push the door open.
He was afraid.
Afraid of the “surprise” Zhao Dahu had mentioned.
Hua Yourong and the other three women had followed him. Seeing Xu Lang frozen at the entrance and his ashen face, they did not even dare breathe loudly.
“Husband…” Hua Yourong called softly.
Xu Lang seemed not to hear. Gritting his teeth suddenly, he shoved the wooden door open.
A heavy stench of blood mixed with something foul and nauseating rushed toward him.
The hut was dark.
In the faint moonlight, Xu Lang saw clearly.
A small figure was curled up motionless in the corner. It was Wang Erniu’s five-year-old son.
In the center of the room, on a straw mat, lay another figure.
Wang Erniu’s wife.
Her clothes had been torn to shreds. Her body was twisted in a humiliating posture. Bruises covered her skin. Her eyes were wide open, staring hollowly at the thatched roof.
Boom.
Xu Lang’s entire world collapsed.
The towering rage inside him was extinguished in that moment by an even colder flood called guilt.
His legs gave out. He fell heavily to his knees.
Wang Erniu had tried to warn him, and that was why Zhao Dahu targeted him and slaughtered his entire family.
If it had not been for him, that honest man who only wanted to survive would not have died.
His poor wife and child would not have…
“Ahhh!”
Xu Lang let out a beast-like roar and smashed his fist violently into the ground.
“Husband!”
Behind him, the women saw the tragic scene. Xia Zhiruo and Li Xiuzhi screamed and clung to each other, bursting into tears.
Murong Yanran’s body trembled as well. Righteous fury surged within her at the sight, but even stronger was the pain of seeing Xu Lang collapse.
She walked quickly to his side and crouched down. She reached out but did not know where to place her hand. In the end, she stiffly rested it on his trembling shoulder.
“This… is not your fault.”
Her voice was hoarse, carrying a tremor she herself did not notice.
Hua Yourong covered her mouth, tears sliding silently down her face.
But she did not break down. She glanced at the poor woman, then silently untied an outer garment from herself. She walked over and gently covered her, straightened her torn clothes, preserving the last shred of dignity.
Xu Lang knelt there, unmoving, letting the piercing regret tear him apart.
…
He did not know how he left the hut.
One pit.
Two.
Three.
Like a machine devoid of emotion, he repeated the digging motion over and over.
The four women stood not far away, silently keeping him company. None of them dared disturb him.
When dawn broke, three small earthen graves stood in the courtyard.
Xu Lang threw down the shovel and knelt upright. Facing the three new graves, he kowtowed three times heavily.
His forehead split open. Blood mixed with dirt, but he felt no pain.
Back in the newly built wooden house, Xu Lang shut himself into the shadows of a corner, silent.
The four women, who had not slept all night, watched his walking-corpse state, their hearts twisting painfully.
The sun rose. A ray of morning light shone into the house, driving away some of the chill.
At last, Xu Lang moved.
He slowly lifted his head and saw the four women gathered around him, their faces filled with worry.
Hua Yourong’s eyes were swollen red. Murong Yanran looked exhausted. Xia Zhiruo and Li Xiuzhi had cried until they could barely open their eyes.
Xu Lang’s heart was pierced sharply.
He forced the corners of his mouth upward, producing a smile uglier than crying.
“I’m fine.”
His voice was terribly hoarse.
“Life… still has to go on.”
He looked at them and said word by word, “I can’t let you live in fear with me. I still have to support you, let you bear me sons and daughters.”
After speaking, he struggled to his feet and walked toward the kitchen.
He saw the fattest wild chicken he had deliberately set aside yesterday.
A plan began forming in his mind.
Several people had died this time. Although Zhao Dahu had provoked it first, four lives were gone.
In this chaotic era, human life was cheap, but the royal authority would not ignore it.
This matter needed to be settled.
He picked up the wild chicken and turned to the women. “I need to go into town and visit Constable Li Si.”
“I’ll go with you!”
Murong Yanran stepped forward first. She worried about Xu Lang’s current state and feared he might suffer losses.
“If they don’t reason properly, I can protect you!”
Xu Lang glanced at her and shook his head.
“With your fiery temper, you won’t be helping. You’ll just cause trouble.”
“You!”
Murong Yanran’s pretty face flushed red from being choked off by his words. She was both angry and anxious.
She stomped her foot and turned her head sharply to the side.
“Hmph! I’m only worried about you!”
“Not appreciating kindness! Go by yourself! Who cares!”
Though her words sounded harsh, the deep concern in them could not be hidden at all.