Chapter 153: Delivering A Letter
His muscles twitched involuntarily, and with a slight movement, he felt as if all his strength had been drained, cold sweat breaking out unconsciously.
“Go back and look carefully then, don’t move around now.” Shang Wan didn’t call out his bravado, but her expression grew colder.
She tore off her skirt hem and simply bandaged Lu Chengjing’s right arm, slinging it around his neck,
Hearing the off tone in Shang Wan’s voice, Lu Chengjing grabbed her wrist and said softly, “I’m fine.”
Shang Wan gave him a blank look, tossed out a “don’t move around” and went to dig a pit.
Feeding the corpses to the wolves was just talk; if these wolves got used to eating human flesh, it would be trouble if they sneaked into the village later.
After burying the black-clothed men, Shang Wan took the weapon from Chu Xu, using the excuse of hiding it in the wolf den, but actually quietly stored it in the space.
Shang Wan said, “I buried a total of fifteen corpses. How many black-clothed men attacked you?”
Shi Tou said, “Didn’t count carefully, but definitely more than fifteen.”
Shang Wan looked at Lu Chengjing. Lu Chengjing closed his eyes and recalled for a moment, then said slowly, “A total of nineteen, plus that peddler, twenty in all.”
“Tch, four got away.” Shang Wan’s finger poked a pit in the ground.
Chu Xu said nervously, “They won’t come back, will they?”
Shang Wan glanced at him, “That depends on how valuable you are in their eyes.”
Chu Xu immediately regretted slacking off during training before.
Shang Wan patted the dirt off her hands and stood up, saying to everyone, “Staying in the wolf den forever isn’t an option. Let’s go back first.”
Everyone had recovered some strength. Shang Wan picked up Xiao Huan, Shi Tou and Lu Chengjing supported each other, Chu Xu carried Yuan Yuan, and the group found their way down the mountain.
Yuan Yuan slept surprisingly well, showing no signs of waking despite being passed around by everyone.
Chu Xu reached out and poked her chubby cheek. Father and Elder Brother always said he was carefree; they should see Yuan Yuan, who could sleep soundly even while being chased and killed—that was truly carefree.
On the way down the mountain, Shang Wan briefly recounted what had happened on her side.
“Now there are two groups of people. The ones who kidnapped the children and the ones who set fire to the Gao Family are probably the same group, but that fisherman—unclear if he’s with the assassins or the kidnappers.”
……
A crowd stood in front of the wooden shed, and Shang Wan heard a familiar voice.
She set Xiao Huan down and told Lu Chengjing and Shi Tou to stay hidden and not come out; they were too disheveled to explain.
She looked down at herself; aside from the missing section of her skirt hem, there was nothing else amiss.
Chu Xu’s condition was also decent; his clothes were messy, but at least there was no blood on him.
“A Nian, come with me.” Shang Wan picked up Yuan Yuan and walked out, with Chu Xu hurrying to follow.
The two approached the wooden shed as if nothing had happened.
Standing by the wooden shed were people from the Li Family, Wu Family, and Cui Family; they had come to thank Shang Wan for finding their children.
Shang Wan accepted their thanks, and the group wasn’t in a hurry to leave, chatting idly with her there.
Wu Mingli scanned the surroundings and asked puzzledly, “Why is there still blood on the ground?”
“It’s chicken blood. Just now when killing the chicken, it wasn’t tied securely, so after its neck was slit, it flew around everywhere.” Shang Wan smiled, “Ended up splattering everywhere, haven’t had time to clean it up yet.”
Earlier when she went home, she had seen a man’s corpse and fortunately tossed it into the cellar; otherwise, if these people saw it, that would be bad.
After a bit more chit-chat, Shang Wan made an excuse about needing to clean the house and let everyone go about their business.
Her euphemistic way of seeing them off—everyone wasn’t blind to it, and they all made excuses about unfinished chores at home before bidding farewell and leaving.
Once the people were completely out of sight, Shang Wan turned back to pick up Xiao Huan, with Shi Tou supporting Lu Chengjing, and they all headed home together.
Chu Xu had already placed Yuan Yuan on the bed and covered the soundly sleeping little one with a small blanket.
Shang Wan came in carrying Xiao Huan, “A Nian, take Yuan Yuan to my place to sleep.”
She needed to carefully check Xiao Huan’s injuries here.
“Okay.” Chu Xu agreed, picking up Yuan Yuan along with the small blanket and moving her.
Cleaning wounds, applying medicine packets, and bandaging—suddenly there were three injured people at home, and Shang Wan was busy running around.
Chu Xu wanted to help, but the young master had no experience caring for people or doing chores, so he could only help in very limited ways.
His own injuries weren’t fully healed yet, and after running around for so long, full of fright and fear—though the child was holding strong without showing it, Shang Wan couldn’t pretend not to know.
If Chu Xu collapsed too, she’d have one more to care for. Thinking it over, she shooed the child off to keep Yuan Yuan company and call her if anything unusual happened.
After tending to all the injured, two hours had passed. Shang Wan leaned against the door to rest briefly, then began dealing with the surrounding fight marks and bloodstains.
Handling those was quick; once done, she went to the cellar again and dragged out that corpse.
Earlier, rushing to the mountains to save people, she hadn’t looked closely when tossing the corpse; now examining it carefully, Shang Wan realized the peddler’s build was surprisingly similar to the fisherman’s.
Could this guy actually be the fisherman?
She searched the peddler and the two baskets he had, and sure enough found some fishing line and fish hooks—all used, with bits of dried flesh on the hooks.
However, this corpse’s appearance didn’t resemble those Western Xia people; it looked more like a Great Zhou person.
Shang Wan flipped the corpse over, cut open the clothes on its back, and exposed the entire back.
On the right shoulder blade was actually a tiger head tattoo.
Shang Wan stared at the tattoo for a moment; it was indeed the same as those on the black-clothed men’s shoulder blades.
Personal guards were confidants; would a Western Xia general select a Great Zhou person as his personal guard?
Thinking it over, she called out loudly, “A Nian, come out here!”
“Coming!” Chu Xu ran out at the sound and squatted down beside Shang Wan.
“Does this look like a Western Xia person to you?” Shang Wan turned the corpse’s face for Chu Xu to see clearly.
“No.” Chu Xu had seen the peddler’s face before and answered affirmatively.
Shang Wan gestured for him to look at the tiger head tattoo on the corpse’s back, “Then how do you explain this?”
“How could that be?” Chu Xu’s cat-like eyes widened slightly as he exclaimed in shock, “Impossible!”
The Tiger Might General despised Great Zhou people the most and had a habit of abusing captives; how could he let a Great Zhou person be his personal guard?
Shang Wan narrowed her eyes in thought for a moment, then said to him, “You’d better let your father and elder brother know about this.”
Chu Xu glanced at her, “Will you help me send the letter?”
Shang Wan closed the corpse’s back clothes as she said, “There are three injured at home; I need to stay and care for them. If those assassins come knocking again, can you handle it?”
Chu Xu……of course not.
But the letter could only be entrusted to someone trustworthy.
Shang Wan pondered for a moment and asked, “Do you know how to write an encrypted letter? The kind only you and your father can understand, so even if intercepted, others won’t know what it says. Do you?”
Chu Xu blinked blankly, and from his expression, Shang Wan knew it was no use; she had only asked casually without much hope.
Unexpectedly, Chu Xu nodded at her.
“I can. Only Elder Brother can understand it.”
It was a little game Elder Brother often played with him.
