“I’ll go take a look ahead.”
Jing Zhao tightly gripped a stick in his hand. He was very strong, and if it hadn’t been for his strength, they probably wouldn’t have survived this long on the journey.
“I’ll go too.”
Jing Yin immediately followed him. Although Jing Zhao was worried, time was of the essence, so he didn’t waste any more time.
Protecting Jing Yin behind him, the two of them approached a patch of withered grass and crouched down…
“Shh, keep your voice down. Don’t let them notice us.”
“What are you afraid of? There are three of us. Why would we be afraid of them?”
“Monkey, are you sure it’s them?”
“How could I not be sure? I thought we’d lost them, but I didn’t expect to run into them here again. Heaven really is looking out for me.”
“Damn, I can smell something delicious…”
The three men drew closer and closer.
It was too dark to see them clearly, and only vague silhouettes could be made out. They all looked fairly strong.
Jing Zhao tightened his grip on the stick. Sweat dampened his palm.
There were no laws left to speak of on the famine road. Corpses were everywhere, and no one knew how they had died.
“Big Brother, if we…”
Jing Yin’s voice was soft and low, yet for some reason, Jing Zhao trusted her.
Still, he was worried.
“Little Sister…”
“Big Brother, Tangyuan will protect me.”
Jing Yin stroked Tangyuan beside her.
Even though Tangyuan itself had nearly died from its injuries before, everyone in the Jing family still trusted it completely.
As for how it had gotten injured…
Well, maybe…
It was probably just an accident…
…
The three men were now only a dozen or so steps away.
Jing Yin took out her dagger and secretly aimed at one of them.
Even if one strike couldn’t kill him, it would be enough to cripple one of their fighting abilities.
“Ah—!”
The dagger flew through the air, and a scream quickly rang out.
The man fell heavily to the ground.
A direct hit.
Hearing the scream beside him, Jing Zhao’s pupils contracted, and deep shock appeared in his eyes.
When had his little sister gained such abilities?
But when he caught sight of the Fox Immortal in her arms, the shock in Jing Zhao’s eyes quickly faded.
With the Fox Immortal protecting Little Sister, those techniques must have been the Fox Immortal’s abilities.
While Jing Zhao was distracted, Jing Yin didn’t hesitate for even a moment. She quickly rushed forward.
Before the other two could react, she had already pulled out her dagger and held it against one of their throats.
“Stay still, or I’ll kill you.”
Jing Yin threatened him in a low voice.
The man was so frightened that he froze on the spot.
Just as Jing Yin had guessed, the three men who were sneaking around like this couldn’t possibly be particularly powerful.
Jing Zhao followed closely behind and engaged the other man.
The rest of the Jing family rushed over as soon as they heard the commotion.
With the whole family helping, the other man was quickly subdued as well.
Before long, all three men had been tied up, and the cleaver they had been hiding was taken away.
When Jing Da approached with a torch, Jing Zhao frowned deeply as he stared at the scar-faced man they had captured.
“It’s him?”
“You know him?”
Jing Da stepped closer and looked carefully, but he didn’t recognize any of the three.
Jing Zhao shook his head.
“I don’t know him. I’ve just seen him talking to Li Yucai before.”
Because this involved his little sister, and there wasn’t a single good person in Li Yucai’s family, Jing Zhao had always kept an eye on them.
He had happened to see this scar-faced man talking to Li Yucai once.
“Damn that bastard! I knew that bastard was up to no good!”
Jing Da kicked the scar-faced man hard in the chest, causing him to cry out in pain.
“Talk! How did you find us? What’s your relationship with that bastard Li Yucai?”
The scar-faced man was grimacing in pain. Afraid they would hit him again, he hurriedly begged for mercy.
“Uncle, this really isn’t our fault! It was Li Yucai! It was all Li Yucai! He told us that you had food. He said your family had enough grain to give his family food, so you must have a lot of food on you. We were starving, so that’s why we did this. Uncle, I swear I’ll never do it again…”
The scar-faced man was crying and sniffling as he pushed all the blame onto Li Yucai.
After all, Li Yucai wasn’t here, and they had no way of verifying whether what he said was true.
After hearing this, Jing Da angrily kicked him several more times.
But he didn’t know what to do with these men.
They were still on the road fleeing the famine. There wasn’t even anywhere to report them.
Could they really just let these men go?
“Bah! You useless bastard who can’t even father a decent son.”
Grandma Jing spat in disgust.
Thinking about the Fox Immortal beside her granddaughter, she became a little more cautious.
“You followed us the whole way?”
“N-no! We lost track of you early on. We only happened to run into you again just now, so we followed you…”
The scar-faced man hurriedly waved his hands.
“What do you think we should do with them?”
Grandma Jing wasn’t sure what to do either.
Jing Zhao looked at the three men, bound tightly together, and his eyes flickered.
“Dad, let me handle this.”
Jing Zhao had no intention of letting the three men go.
He had seen those resentful, venomous looks in their eyes, as though they wanted to devour the entire family.
If they released them, who knew whether they would come back for revenge?
Whether what they said was true or not no longer mattered.
Dead men couldn’t talk, and he didn’t want his little sister to be threatened by any hidden danger in the future.
“Dad, take Grandma and the others back. Big Brother and I will talk to them some more.”
Jing Yin smiled as she watched Grandma Jing and the others return to the area below the slope.
Only then did she turn toward Jing Zhao.
“Big Brother, Tangyuan will take care of them for us.”
“Mm.”
Jing Zhao nodded and said nothing more.
He dragged the three tightly bound men toward a secluded area in the distance, with Jing Yin following closely behind.
“Little brother, we really were wrong. I swear we’ll never bother you again…”
The scar-faced man kept making promises along the way, but his nerves were becoming increasingly tense.
Jing Yin stroked Tangyuan’s soft fur and smiled at him.
“Big Brother, they say you don’t know someone until you’ve fought them. If you hadn’t told me, I never would have known that Li Yucai was such a two-faced, heartless bastard.”
Hearing this, the scar-faced man finally relaxed. He wasn’t as wary as he had been before.
“Little Sister.”
Jing Zhao glanced up and gave Jing Yin a subtle signal.
The surrounding withered grass was thick and messy.
It was a pretty suitable place to bury bodies.
“Be good, Tangyuan~”
The next moment, Tangyuan instantly leaped out of Jing Yin’s arms.
Its mouth opened wide, revealing a row of sharp fangs, and it viciously bit down on the scar-faced man’s neck.
The scar-faced man didn’t even have time to scream before he died.
Tangyuan was now a spirit fox, and its explosive strength was terrifyingly powerful.
Within just a few breaths, the other two men were also taken care of.
Jing Zhao was shocked inside, but he didn’t show it too obviously.
This was his first time witnessing someone being killed, yet it somehow wasn’t as horrifying as he had imagined.
Then he looked at Jing Yin.
Her face was completely calm.
For some reason, Jing Zhao felt a sudden ache in his heart.
If Little Sister hadn’t been kidnapped by those bandits, how could she have become like this?
This was all his fault.
He hadn’t protected his little sister…
Jing Yin naturally had no idea that Jing Zhao was tormenting himself with all these thoughts.
Otherwise, she would definitely have rolled her eyes and wondered why her big brother was so good at imagining things…
After the three men stopped twitching, Jing Zhao endured his discomfort and silently went over to retrieve the ropes they had used to tie them up.
These ropes were still useful. They couldn’t just leave them behind.
After retrieving the ropes, Jing Zhao searched the three men as well.
He found several pieces of broken silver, totaling around two taels.
There was also a small jar of coarse salt and a small bag of millet, roughly half a pound.
Finally, he found a book.
It was already so dark that they couldn’t see what kind of book it was.
Jing Zhao stuffed all the pieces of broken silver into Jing Yin’s hand.
“Little Sister, here you go.”