There was no response from outside.
Not only was there no sound from the Lin family men, but the bandits' shouts and jeers also came to an abrupt halt, their arrogant laughter vanishing along with them. Even the puppy's barking inexplicably fell silent.
In that instant, the only sounds were a series of dull thuds, like heavy objects hitting the ground.
The Lin family stood frozen stiff, unable to tell what was happening outside.
The feeling was utterly bizarre.
It was as if everything outside had been suddenly frozen by the wind and snow, instantly brought to a standstill.
The women and children stood rooted in place, staring fixedly at the wooden door propped shut by the bar, yet none dared reach out to remove the bar and open the door.
They were afraid of seeing something they didn't want to see, afraid of facing the shock of losing their loved ones.
"Grandma, Mother, let's go out—don't be scared, it's safe." A child's soft, milky voice broke the frozen silence, and at the same time, the door bar was moved aside by the child's small hands.
The cold wind seized the opportunity to blow the door open a crack.
Creak—
The scene outside came into view.
"?!?!" Caught off guard and forced to see what lay beyond, pairs of red-rimmed, tearful eyes suddenly flew wide, filled with disbelief, shock, grief, and bewilderment.
Lying sprawled across the snowy ground outside was a mass of people.
There were their eldest and second sons, lying right at the kitchen door—half their bodies on the porch, half off it—with bows, arrows, and firewood knives scattered at their sides.
A bit further off were the bandits, lying every which way, twenty-odd bodies stretching from the courtyard gate all the way to the porch. Whether they were dead or alive was anyone's guess.
And no one bothered to check.
"Dashan!"
"Erhe!"
"Father! Father!"
The women and children snapped back to their senses and threw themselves at their husbands and fathers, and after confirming the men still had breath, they truly sobbed with tears and snot streaming down their faces.
Granny Lin stumbled several steps, steadied herself, then laughed and cried at once. The joy of surviving a disaster gave the old woman a booming voice. "Jiang'er, hurry—get some rope! Tie up the bandits first!"
Lin Jiang immediately turned back into the kitchen to search for the thick ropes they usually used to bind game and bundle hay.
In the meantime, Baixiang looked at her father and second uncle, who couldn't be roused no matter how much noise was made, and guiltily rubbed her little nose. Then her right hand curled loosely, and a green light emerged from her palm, flying to the two men's nostrils and being drawn into their bodies with each breath.
The white-coats had said she was born with a natural herbal constitution—her right hand could heal, her left hand could poison.
At first, she hadn't known how to use this ability. She'd been locked in a glass room for a very, very long time. By the time she learned to control it, she'd poisoned all the white-coats dead in one go.
Giggle giggle!
Baixiang didn't rush over to cry with her mother and brothers. Instead, her small body turned, and she walked over to the bandit lying closest to her father.
The burly, rough bandit still wore a ferocious expression even in his dead faint.
Ugly.
Baixiang clenched her little fists, hopped onto the bandit's chest, and swung her little feet, stomping on his face with all her might.
Behind her, Lin Dashan slowly regained consciousness amid the joyful weeping. The moment his eyelids cracked open, what he saw was his little daughter stomping repeatedly on a bandit's face. "…"
Lin Dashan was so flustered he didn't even take stock of the situation. His first instinct was to yank his daughter over and hug her tightly to his chest, only then managing to ask, "…Daughter, what are you doing?!"
Baixiang pointed a small hand at the unconscious lump and declared with righteous, baby-fierce indignation, "He was closest to Father—it must have been him who cursed you! I'm stepping on him!"
Lin Dashan, "…"
Lin Erhe, who woke up second, and the rest of the Lin family, "…" How was their Baixiang braver than any of the boys?
Also lost in stunned silence were the Yuxi Village villagers who had come rushing in force, just now arriving at the Lin family's courtyard gate.
They had hurried over as fast as they possibly could, even faster than the half-hour deadline they'd agreed upon—so how had they still been too late?
What had happened? Were the twenty-odd big men lying on the ground all bandits?
Had the Lin family's eldest and second sons taken down the whole lot by themselves?
…Were they dreaming?
Just then, Lin Jiang came out carrying the rope. Seeing the situation, he shouted, "Don't just stand there—come help tie them up!"
The villagers snapped out of it and flooded into the yard without a second word, grabbing rope and binding people. Some villagers even hurried off to the nearest house to borrow more rope, afraid they wouldn't have enough.
Every single one of those men lying on the ground was a ruthless bandit who wouldn't blink at murder—until their hands and feet were completely bound, the villagers' necks would stay cold.
After a brief flurry of chaos, the Lin family's courtyard now held over twenty "silkworm cocoons." Only once they'd confirmed the bandits couldn't so much as struggle did the men who'd come to help plop down on the snowy ground and grin like fools.
"Aw, my mother—my wandering soul's finally back in my body. You don't know, when I heard the dog barking I was still squatting in the outhouse. My mother kicked the door open and dragged me out—I was so panicked and frantic I nearly fell in the pit." The speaker was Li Fugui, Granny Li's son, two years older than Lin Jiang, and already married with a wife.
He laughed heartily. "I really was anxious and panicked. I didn't dare charge over alone and throw my life away, and while waiting for you all at the crossroads, I was so nervous I nearly pissed my pants."
One of the Wang family men grinned and teased without mercy, "I was wondering why your belt was tied so sloppily—half hanging off your ass and drooping down to your knees. Turns out you came running straight out of the latrine."
"Hahaha, who wasn't panicked and anxious? I don't know how many times I fell on the way to meet up, but I didn't dare slow down for even a step."
"Damn it, these mountain bandits finally took a fall! I'm happy, damn happy! Wuwuwu!"
After the laughter died down, several of them broke down sobbing and embraced.
No one knew how the villagers of Yuxi Village had endured these past days—living in constant dread, not knowing when the bandits hiding in Shennü Mountain would strike. Every single day was torment.
Everyone who had rushed over tonight had thrown caution to the wind. Fighting the bandits, even with their numbers, no one could walk away unscathed—there would surely be casualties, and the one who died might well be themselves.
Every villager of Yuxi Village understood this.
But in the end, no one had expected things to turn out this way—they hadn't even gotten the chance to be of use.
Yet their joy was undiminished.
The twenty-odd bandits they'd captured weren't all of them, but they'd caught them nonetheless. This was a victory for the Lin family, and a victory for Yuxi Village.
The dark cloud hanging over Yuxi Village had at least been lifted by more than half.
Granny Lin wiped away the tears that had gone cold against her wind-chapped face, her voice hoarse yet booming, "Now that we've got them, someone needs to go to town and report to the authorities, so they can come take the prisoners away. This can't wait—there are still bandits hiding in Shennü Mountain who haven't shown themselves. If they come and rescue these men, not only will tonight's efforts be wasted, but we'll be in even worse trouble afterward."
"Let Dashan and Erhe go—they're the ones who caught them, so they're the best fit." The Wang family man scrambled up from the snow-covered ground and hurried out the door in a flurry. "Wait here, I'll go borrow the ox cart from the village head's place and give you a ride!"
None of the other Yuxi villagers raised any objection.
Capturing the bandits was a great achievement. If Dashan and Erhe went to report to the authorities, they could show their faces before the constables and become familiar to them. In the future, if the Lin family ever needed anything handled, it would go more smoothly.
This was what the Lin family deserved.