Seeing this, Old Man Shen immediately had Shen Qiang, Shen Zhuang, Shen Fu, Shen Gui, and several of the older grandsons hold firewood knives, guarding in front of the family.
Old Lady Shen, on the other hand, tightly held little Xihe, terrified that someone might hurt her precious granddaughter.
Those refugees who wanted to draw close to the Shen family, seeing that the Shen family had so many strong and sturdy men, instantly did not dare to draw any closer.
However, Old Man Shen did not dare to lead the family to cook porridge and rest in the ruined temple either, immediately leading the Shen family away from the ruined temple.
Old Man Shen led the Shen family forward for a little while longer before starting a campfire under a large tree, preparing to rest here temporarily for the night.
Old Lady Shen directed her four sons and daughters-in-law to collect firewood and used the large iron pot to cook a pot of rice porridge, with the thickest bowl of rice porridge still given to little Xihe.
After the entire family ate their fill contentedly, feeling warm all over, they were all somewhat drowsy.
Thus, Old Man Shen had everyone in the family form a circle leaning against the large tree, preparing to get a night’s sleep and resume their journey tomorrow morning.
…
In the middle of the night.
While the Shen family was sleeping soundly, they suddenly heard little Xihe’s cries and shouts.
Awakened by the cries and shouts, Wang Juhua rubbed her eyes while saying impatiently, “How old is she already, why is she still so noisy in the middle of the night? Doesn’t she know we have to travel for a whole day tomorrow…”
Before she could finish her sentence, her arm was pulled by Shen Fu beside her.
Just as Wang Juhua was about to ask why he pulled her, she heard Shen Fu shout loudly, “Put our grain down!”
The rest of the Shen family also woke up, seeing that several refugees from the ruined temple earlier had actually quietly followed them all the way here.
Moreover, those refugees had waited until they fell asleep to quietly come out and steal their two bags of rice!
If little Xihe’s cries and shouts had not awakened them, they would likely have had to wait until tomorrow morning to discover this!
Shen Fu, who was the first to wake up, immediately led the four Shen brothers in pursuit, wanting to take back the stolen two bags of rice.
Among little Xihe’s ten brothers, except for nine-year-old ninth brother Shen Changgeng and six-year-old tenth brother Shen Bachen, the other several brothers also took firewood knives and gave chase.
Those seven or eight refugees were not blood-related family like the Shen family; after being discovered by the Shen family, the several people who were not carrying rice ran off rapidly, leaving behind only two men carrying the bags of rice.
These two men could not bear to throw away the rice they had just stolen, and were quickly caught up to by the Shen family members holding firewood knives.
Shen Qiang and Shen Zhuang were born taller and sturdier than ordinary people, and although they hadn’t eaten anything for the previous two days, they had eaten their fill for the last two meals, so they were full of strength all over.
Without even using their firewood knives, they pinned the two men who stole the rice beneath them.
Shen Fu and Shen Gui hurriedly bent down, wanting to pick up the two bags of rice that had fallen onto the ground.
However, even while pinned beneath Shen Qiang, one of the men tightly gripped the bag containing rice.
Seeing this, Shen Gui directly used the wooden handle of the firewood knife to forcefully strike that man’s elbow.
That man instantly felt a surge of severe pain from the hand gripping the rice bag, utterly unable to exert any strength.
Only then did Shen Gui snatch back the bag of rice that was tightly gripped by that man.
Shen Tianshu ran over with his seven younger brothers, only to see that his father had already led his second uncle, third uncle, and youngest uncle to snatch back the two bags of rice.
While he breathed a sigh of relief, he could not help feeling angry that these two people had actually taken advantage of their sleep to steal their grain.
Shen Tianshu was so angry that he stepped forward and gave each of the two thieves a kick.
Shen Tianxuan and the others who followed behind him did the same, stepping forward to give each of the two thieves a kick.
Only after seeing the two thieves looking as if they were on the verge of death did Shen Gui speak up to stop them, “Forget it, don’t beat them to death.”
After saying this, Shen Gui turned to look at the two thieves and said, “Get lost! If you dare to come steal rice again, then don’t blame us for being ruthless!”
“Anyway, so many people starve to death on the road. If you really die, no one will know whether you were beaten to death or starved to death!”