Li Xiaoxiao sighed and looked seriously at the two men. “Do you know? Even in the apocalypse, trafficking women and children is punishable by death.”
Qiangzi and the man in the short brown jacket had no idea what “the apocalypse” meant, but they certainly understood “trafficking women and children” and “punishable by death.”
The two men repeatedly slammed their heads against the floor. “Spare us, heroine! Spare our lives! Please let us go. We’ll never dare do it again.”
Li Xiaoxiao weighed the silver in her hand.
“There’s only this much money. That’s not enough for me to spare you.”
Qiangzi hurriedly pleaded, “But that’s all the money we have on us. If you’re willing to let us go, we’ll go home and get more. We can gather twice this amount!”
The man in the short brown jacket quickly added, “Yes, yes, I can also give you twice the amount.”
Li Xiaoxiao widened her eyes. “You want me to let you go home and gather the money? What if you run away? Do I look stupid to you?”
She shook her head and sighed, walking two circles around them before suddenly pointing toward the ox cart in the corner. “How about this? Give me that ox cart, and I’ll spare your lives.”
She had spent more than a month walking on foot with the refugees. She was thoroughly sick of walking. In such a backward and primitive era, having an ox cart to get around in was actually pretty good.
She nodded in satisfaction.
A flicker of pain crossed Qiangzi’s eyes. An ox cart, including the ox, would cost at least twenty-five taels of silver. The cart had been bought jointly by the three of them. They relied on it to travel around and “do business.” Who would have thought they would run into such a murderous fiend today, who was even going to confiscate their ox cart?
But what else could they do if they refused? Qiangzi and the others had never seen anyone with such terrifying strength. He was eight chi tall and weighed more than 150 jin, yet she had thrown him over her shoulder and sent his entire body flying through the air before slamming him hard onto the ground. His hands and feet were still weak, and every joint in his body ached faintly. He could not summon even the slightest bit of strength.
The man in the short brown jacket was even worse. She had simply grabbed his wrist and snapped it with one hand, and it was still hanging limply at an unnatural angle. As for the one she had struck in the back of the head, he was still unconscious. They did not even know whether he was still alive.
Faced with such a terrifying killer, they were already too frightened to do anything but beg for mercy. How could they dare bargain? They quickly agreed in unison, “Yes, yes, yes. We’ll give the ox cart to you as well, heroine. Please spare our lives.”
Li Xiaoxiao nodded in satisfaction. “All right, then. I’ll spare your lives!”
She walked forward a few steps, picked up the piece of firewood from the ground, and tapped it against her palm. “The death penalty can be avoided, but you still have to suffer the consequences. Leave one leg each, and I won’t kill you.”
Break their legs and see how they could keep going around deceiving people!
Qiangzi and the man in the short brown jacket were horrified. “You… how can you go back on your word?”
Li Xiaoxiao looked innocent. “I didn’t. Didn’t I already spare you from the death penalty?” She pointed the piece of firewood at them. “If I sent you to the county office and let the magistrate decide your punishment, do you think you’d still see tomorrow’s sun?”
If the magistrate passed judgment, for the crime of trafficking women and children, even if they were not sentenced to death, they would at the very least be beaten half to death and exiled thousands of li away. How many people died on the way into exile because they lacked clothes and food?
Qiangzi and the man in the short brown jacket trembled in terror, their faces covered in tears and snot.
“Heroine, please spare us! We’ll never dare do it again. We only started doing this because our families were struggling. Please spare us! We’ll go back to our hometown and farm from now on.”
Li Xiaoxiao’s expression turned cold. “But when the women and children you sold begged you like this, I’m sure you didn’t pay any attention to them.”
Before long, several shrill screams rang out from the narrow alley, but they soon fell silent as if someone had clamped a hand around their throats.
Li Xiaoxiao dusted off her hands and leisurely sat on the ox cart. She flicked the whip against the ox’s rump, and the old ox began moving. The creaking of the cart wheels rang out as it slowly headed toward the county office, carrying a cartload of straw and an unconscious Liu Zhi inside.
When she reached the side gate of the county office, she knocked on the gate. The gatekeeper, Uncle Chai, opened it and was immediately stunned. “Xiaoxiao? You… where did you get that cart?”
Li Xiaoxiao replied, “Someone gave it to me! Uncle Chai, can my ox cart come into the courtyard?”
Uncle Chai stared blankly, unable to recover from his shock. She had gone out with Liu Zhi earlier, and only two or three shichen had passed. How had she already returned driving an ox cart? And what was going on with Liu Zhi lying in the pile of straw? Had she fallen asleep or fainted?
He patted his head. “Technically, the place where we keep livestock is in the front courtyard. There’s a stable there, but this ox cart…” Ox carts were too slow, and their masters certainly would not use them. The firewood and straw that the kitchen burned regularly, however, were usually delivered by other people using ox carts.
Uncle Chai rubbed his temples. “Wait here. I’ll go ask Granny Qi what we should do.”
He left the gate only half-open and hurried into the inner courtyard to find Granny Qi.
Li Xiaoxiao had no choice but to wait where she was.
Before even half a cup of tea had passed, a flurry of hurried footsteps came from the inner courtyard. Li Xiaoxiao looked inside and saw Granny Qi with Mama Mao following behind her. The two hurried over at a brisk pace.
When they saw Li Xiaoxiao sitting on the ox cart, Granny Qi and Mama Mao were both stunned. Once they noticed Liu Zhi sleeping in the straw, Granny Qi exclaimed in surprise, “Why is Liu Zhi sleeping there?”
Li Xiaoxiao sat bolt upright, her expression smug, as though silently saying, Hurry up and praise me.
“She was knocked unconscious by kidnappers. They put her in the ox cart, covered her with straw, and were getting ready to take her away to sell her. I happened to see them, so I snatched her back!”
Mama Mao was shocked. “What? She was knocked unconscious by kidnappers? What happened? How could there be kidnappers brazenly snatching children off the street in broad daylight?”
Granny Qi immediately stepped forward and pulled Liu Zhi into her arms. Anxiously, she checked whether the child had been injured anywhere. After finding no obvious external injuries, she called Liu Zhi’s name repeatedly. Liu Zhi’s body was limp. She opened her eyes to a narrow slit and let out a weak cry. “Grandma…”
Only then did Granny Qi’s heart finally settle. “Liu Zhi, how are you? Is anything hurting?”
A few moments later, Liu Zhi suddenly remembered what had happened before she lost consciousness. With a loud wail, she threw her arms around Granny Qi and burst into tears. “Wah, Grandma, I ran into kidnappers!”
Granny Qi held her close, soothing her with tender words as she asked Li Xiaoxiao exactly what had happened. The two of them had clearly gone into town together that day, so how had Liu Zhi ended up being kidnapped?
Li Xiaoxiao sighed. “Exactly. At the time, I was at Huichun Hall, while she was at Jinxiu Pavilion…” She recounted the entire process of Liu Zhi being kidnapped.
Granny Qi immediately understood. “Those three were probably habitual offenders. One of them pretended to be a relative. Once Liu Zhi started crying and making a fuss and the passersby became suspicious, the other two would jump out and play along, making the story seem legitimate. Everyone else would assume it was a family matter and usually wouldn’t interfere. Then they would cover Liu Zhi’s mouth, knock her unconscious, and take her away.”
Mama Mao cried out in shock. “They were actually that brazen? What happened afterward? How did you rescue Liu Zhi?”
Li Xiaoxiao shrugged. “I beat them up. They paid me money, and they also gave me an ox cart.”
Mama Mao and Granny Qi looked at each other, speechless. “You… you beat three grown men by yourself?”
Li Xiaoxiao nodded, then happily asked, “Mama Mao, can I put this ox cart beside the woodshed? Then if we need to go out in the future, we can ride in the ox cart.”
Granny Qi and Mama Mao were still concerned about the kidnappers, yet she had already changed the subject to the ox cart. Mama Mao glared at her. “This matter isn’t over yet! Since you beat them up, why didn’t you send them to the county office? Our master is the county magistrate. If one of the servants from our household encounters something like this while out in town, you should have tied them up and let Master deal with them.”
Granny Qi was holding Liu Zhi and comforting her. Upon hearing this, she glanced at Mama Mao. Seeing the meaning in Granny Qi’s eyes, Mama Mao immediately swallowed the words she had been about to use to reprimand Li Xiaoxiao.
Granny Qi turned to Li Xiaoxiao. “Wait here for a moment. I’ll ask Madam how we should handle this.”
Li Xiaoxiao sighed. “All right.” What a hassle. She would have to wait again. If only this place belonged to her. Then she could simply build a shed beside the woodshed.
“What are you all doing blocking the way here?”
A clear male voice rang out. A young gentleman wearing a scholar’s headscarf and a light-green lan shan appeared at the side gate, followed by a young servant carrying a book basket.
When Granny Qi and Mama Mao saw him, they immediately crouched down and bowed. “Young Master.”
Li Xiaoxiao looked at him blankly, then jumped down from the ox cart and copied Mama Mao’s movements, giving him a bow.
Meng Guanqi had just returned from the county school. Since the county school was not far away, he always walked. “Rise. Granny Qi, what happened?”
Granny Qi did not dare hide anything and had no choice but to recount the whole matter.
Meng Guanqi’s originally calm and indifferent expression immediately became stern. “Where are those three men? If they are habitual offenders who traffic women and children, why didn’t you simply tie them up and send them to the county office to await punishment?”
His gaze was sharp as lightning as he stared directly at Li Xiaoxiao, as though she had committed some unforgivable crime.
If he had not still been young, with some baby fat remaining on his handsome face, Li Xiaoxiao would have thought his words carried even more authority.
But his appearance did not intimidate Li Xiaoxiao. It did, however, frighten Mama Mao. She hurriedly pleaded for Li Xiaoxiao. “Young Master, please forgive her. Xiaoxiao only recently joined our household and doesn’t know some of the rules yet. Besides, she was just a young girl facing three grown men. It was already difficult enough for her to rescue Liu Zhi from them. She probably didn’t think things through at the time.”
Meng Guanqi instead turned to Li Xiaoxiao. “Your name is Xiaoxiao, right? Let me ask you, besides this ox cart, did they also compensate you with silver?”
Li Xiaoxiao nodded. “They did~”
Granny Qi and Mama Mao were horrified. How could this silly girl be so oblivious? Didn’t she know that Young Master was already angry?
Meng Guanqi smiled faintly, his expression calm. “How much?”
Li Xiaoxiao rummaged through her pocket and took out the silver. “Eighteen taels.”
Although Meng Guanqi was quite surprised, a trace of doubt also flashed through his eyes. Could this girl actually be a fool? Knowing that he was already this angry, she had actually taken out the silver she had accepted as a bribe right in front of him without the slightest hint of shame?
He remained calm. “You took eighteen taels of silver and their cart, and then let them go?”
Li Xiaoxiao nodded. “They probably can’t run away.”
Meng Guanqi frowned. “Why can’t they run away?”
“I broke their legs. How could they run?”
…
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