The short man instantly lost consciousness too, collapsing limply to the ground.
“Done.” Qiao Xihe kicked him hard, twice. “Trying to pull off something so heartless! Damn thing!”
She turned around and saw all four little ones staring at her, dumbstruck.
Even Shen Wanzhou, for once, was frozen stiff, showing no reaction at all.
“Are you all okay? Were you scared?” Qiao Xihe asked, worried, walking over to pat Shen Wanyin’s head.
To her surprise, Shen Wanyin threw her arms around her instead, eyes shining, saying with admiration, “Sister, you’re way too amazing!”
This sudden, unexpected happiness left Qiao Xihe’s head spinning with joy.
“It was nothing much,” Qiao Xihe said modestly. “Little Yin’er, don’t worry. As long as Sister’s here, no one can hurt any of you.”
In an instant, Shen Wanyin’s eyes shone even brighter.
“Ding! Congratulations, host, you have successfully completed the pursuit of Shen Wanyin. The first pursuit task is complete. Grand reward received: fifty koi fragments, two lottery draws, two special pills! You now hold fifty-two koi fragments in total, fifty are enough to combine into a rare reward. Combine them now?”
Surprise after surprise crashed down on her, leaving Qiao Xihe’s head spinning, caught off guard.
She had already completed the pursuit of little Yin’er!
She’d finished pursuing one of the four protagonists, could the rest be far behind?
“Hold on a moment, let me deal with these two traffickers first, then I’ll look at the rewards.”
The system stopped speaking, and Qiao Xihe said to Shen Wanzhou, “Can you go get the village head? These two traffickers need to be dealt with.”
Shen Wanzhou nodded and sent Shen Wanmu to find the village head.
Shen Wanmu was quick on his feet, and vanished off in a flash.
Shen Wanzhou stayed behind. He still wasn’t comfortable leaving his two sisters alone with Qiao Xihe.
What if everything that had just happened was only an act, staged together with these two villains?
But after waiting a while, Shen Wanmu came back with the village head, huffing and puffing, along with several other adults from the village, and the two men lying on the ground still hadn’t woken up.
Shen Wanzhou’s feelings were incredibly complicated.
So he had misjudged Qiao Xihe after all.
Just now, Qiao Xihe really had been protecting them.
What Auntie Liu had said was completely wrong.
Not only had Qiao Xihe not sold them off, she’d saved them from the hands of human traffickers.
“Village Head!” Qiao Xihe finally relaxed, since she hadn’t been entirely sure when the two traffickers might wake up.
“Qiao Xihe, what exactly happened here?” the village head asked, still catching his breath after the run. “Who are these two men?”
“They’re the traffickers who’ve been wandering around the villages nearby lately!”
“What?” The village head and everyone else present were shocked. “These are them?”
“That’s right.” Qiao Xihe nodded. “They just tried to kidnap these four children of mine. Thank goodness I got here in time.”
The village head, of course, was well aware of Qiao Xihe’s “glorious history,” and clearly didn’t quite believe her.
“You? You protected them?”
A villager surnamed Wang muttered under his breath, “Don’t joke around, I bet you’re the one trying to sell them off.”
“That’s not true!” Just then, Shen Wanyin suddenly spoke up loudly. “Sister was amazing just now! She protected us! If it weren’t for her, we’d already have been dragged off by the bad guys! You can’t talk about Sister like that!”
The village head and the other adults were stunned.
Why was the Shen family’s youngest defending her vicious stepsister?
Could it be that what Qiao Xihe said was actually true, that she really had protected the children?
“All right, whatever the case, let’s tie up these two traffickers first,” the village head ordered. “We can’t let them get away, no telling how many more children they’d harm otherwise!”
When Shen Wanmu had gone to fetch the village head earlier, he’d already mentioned there were villains involved, so the village head had had them bring rope before arriving.
Now, hearing the village head’s order, the villagers immediately bound the two men up tight.
“Let’s take them to the local magistrate later… hold on, wait a moment, who exactly knocked them out?” The village head’s eyes went wide, asking with confusion.
Shen Wanyin had just said Qiao Xihe had protected them, could it really have been her? How was that even possible?
Qiao Xihe was just a little girl, the only thing she seemed capable of was bullying her younger siblings. How could she possibly overpower two grown men?
Hearing this, Shen Wanyin was eager to sing Qiao Xihe’s praises again. “Of course it was my sis—mmph…”
Before she could finish, Qiao Xihe quickly covered her mouth, saying with a smile, “Village Head, here’s what happened, when these two men came charging at us, they both tripped over rocks and knocked themselves out.”
The village head: “…”
That excuse was way too flimsy! Was that even remotely believable?
But the idea that Qiao Xihe herself had taken down these two men seemed even more unbelievable to him.
Whatever the case, they’d caught the two traffickers, and all the village children were safe, that alone was cause for relief.
The village head had the two traffickers carried off, and gave everyone a warning: “These two traffickers might have accomplices. Head home quickly, everyone, and don’t go out without an adult with you for the time being.”
“All right, thank you, Village Head, we understand,” Qiao Xihe said with a smile.
The village head looked at her deeply for a moment, then left as well.
Having finally dealt with the two traffickers, Qiao Xihe led the four children home.
Shen Wanyin held onto her hand the whole way, skipping along cheerfully.
“Sister, how did you actually do it just now? Why did they both collapse the moment they got close to you?” Shen Wanyin asked curiously.
“That’s because Sister has a secret weapon,” Qiao Xihe said with a smile. “None of them can beat Sister.”
“Really? Sister’s so amazing!”
Watching Shen Wanyin’s face full of admiration, Qiao Xihe felt her satisfaction and sense of accomplishment overflowing.
So this was what it felt like to be loved by children, such happiness!
She needed to hurry home and check out those grand rewards, then start the next pursuit task!
Shen Wanzhou walked behind with the other two siblings, still thinking back on that strange, unusual rod Qiao Xihe had held in her hand.
What exactly was that thing?
He thought he’d even heard a faint crackling sound.
Where on earth did Qiao Xihe keep getting all these strange, powerful things?
Back home, Qiao Xihe told the children to go rest in their room, then went back to her own.
“Old Gong.”
“Host, I’m here.”
“We can combine the rare reward now.”
“Understood, host, please wait a moment.”
Qiao Xihe waited a while with no response, and just as she was about to ask again, she suddenly noticed her whole body was glowing with golden light.
“What is this!” She jumped, startled.
But the golden light only lasted a brief moment before fading away.
“Fifty koi fragments have been combined into a rare reward. Congratulations, host, you have obtained the Koi Constitution. From now on, wherever the host goes, good fortune will follow, and happy occasions will never stop coming!”