Chapter 254: Hu Niang
Shang Wan pinched her own child’s fair and tender cheeks, her voice carrying a warning: “Mother can handle it. You’re not allowed to do this again next time.”
Overdrawing the body carries great hidden dangers. This time it was fine, but there won’t be a next time.
“Yuan Yuan, protect Mother.” The little baby girl hugged Shang Wan’s neck tightly, rubbing against it while acting cute, her babyish voice soft and glutinous.
“It’s ‘protect.'” Shang Wan was helpless, patting the baby in her arms. “If you keep doing this, you won’t grow tall.”
Yuan Yuan: “!”
Shang Wan: “Paralyzed from the waist down, unable to walk.”
Yuan Yuan: “!!”
Shang Wan continued: “All your teeth will fall out. You won’t be able to gnaw on sweet and sour pork ribs or eat snacks. You can only watch us eat.”
Yuan Yuan: “!!!”
The little baby girl immediately raised her small hand to admit her mistake: “Mother, Yuan Yuan was wrong.”
Don’t want to not grow tall, don’t want to be paralyzed, and don’t want all teeth to fall out.
A life without snacks is not happy!
“If you know your mistake, correct it.” Shang Wan lowered her head and kissed her daughter’s fair and soft cheek. “You saved Mother just now. Good child, you’re awesome.”
Praised by Mother, the little baby girl who had been pouting with worry about losing all her teeth immediately broke into a smile. She liked Mother the most!
·
More than half of the mountain bandits who drank the meat soup were poisoned. The remaining ones who weren’t poisoned also lost their will to fight after seeing their bandit leader kicked flying by a baby, and were quickly subdued by everyone and tied up with hemp rope.
Some mountain bandits saw the situation was bad and fled amid the chaos.
The merchant caravan’s guards were seeing red, grabbing their knives to chase, but were stopped by Xiao Huan.
“No need to chase. They won’t survive.”
Xiao Huan’s eyes were very cold. How could the wild beasts in the mountain forest let fresh meat that came to their mouths go after smelling blood?
Not long after, human screams and the excited roars of wild beasts rang out from the mountain forest.
“There’s a tiger.” Someone heard the tiger’s roar and glanced at the blood on the ground and the crowd with severe injuries, saying worriedly, “The bloody smell will attract wild beasts.”
Shi Tou wasn’t worried about this at all. With Yuan Yuan here, what wild beast would dare to act presumptuously?
However, he still raised his hand and called out: “Two people come with me to close the gate. The mountains are unsettled, so we’ll stay in the mountain stronghold and go down the mountain after dawn.”
Two guards from the merchant caravan followed Shi Tou.
The remaining people looked at each other, at a loss for what to do for a moment.
“I have medicine here.” Shang Wan reached into the small floral bundle Yuan Yuan was carrying on her back, took out gauze and about ten bottles of golden wound medicine from the space, and distributed them.
Those who weren’t injured helped bandage those with minor wounds. For those with severe injuries who couldn’t move, broken arms or legs, Shang Wan handled them personally.
In the apocalypse, people and zombies beat each other up. Broken bones like this happened often—who couldn’t set one?
“Ouch, ouch, ouch!” Qiao Yu’an sucked in several breaths of cold air, glaring at Xiao Huan with his eyes. “Grand Aunt, this is a hand, not a radish. Can you be gentler?”
Thinking that this person had at least gotten injured while helping her brother-in-law, Xiao Huan lightened her force by a third.
Lu Chengjing walked over and only asked after Xiao Huan finished bandaging Qiao Yu’an: “How are the injuries?”
“Not broken.” Qiao Yu’an gripped his wrist and smiled. “A couple of days’ rest and it’ll be fine. It won’t affect the provincial examination.”
Looking at his hand wrapped in gauze, Lu Chengjing felt a bit guilty inside.
If he hadn’t gotten interested and gone to see the rice paddies with other fellow students, Yu’an wouldn’t have been alone and wouldn’t have been captured by the mountain bandits.
Seeing this, Xiao Huan said: “Brother-in-law, I used the best medicine from our Spiritual Medicine Pavilion on Young Master Qiao. A couple of days’ rest and he’ll be fully healed. It won’t affect his writing.”
Lu Chengjing nodded, his gaze sweeping over Qiao Yu’an once.
Qiao Yu’an felt his hair stand on end from the look and blurted out without thinking, “My chastity is still intact!”
Lu Chengjing: “…”
Who asked you about that?
Xiao Huan: “…”
This person really is a bit silly.
The others: “…”
It’s not like you’re some innocent young lady. What chastity are you talking about, you big man?
Qiao Yu’an’s face turned beet red. He was so embarrassed he wanted to find a crevice to crawl into.
Lu Chengjing raised his hand and patted his shoulder, saying nothing.
Qiao Yu’an felt depressed and went off to squat in a corner by himself.
Here, Shang Wan had just finished setting and fixing the last injured person’s bone and wiped her hands clean when Tan Zhang walked over and knelt down with a thud in front of her. “Please punish me, Head Owner.”
The people around all looked over curiously.
Shang Wan reached out and yanked him up, dragging him into the nearby room.
Zhou Gua followed in.
Lu Chengjing stood in place for a moment, then carried Yuan Yuan inside as well.
The door closed, blocking the gazes from outside.
Inside the door, Shang Wan and Lu Chengjing sat at the table, while Tan Zhang and Zhou Gua stood together.
The two had one with his head fully wrapped in gauze and the other with his arm wrapped in gauze; both had gotten injured in the earlier fight.
“Head Owner, it was my negligence that let the mountain bandits take advantage.” As Tan Zhang spoke, he tried to kneel again, but Shang Wan waved her hand. “Stand and talk. Does the merchant caravan have history with these mountain bandits?”
Tan Zhang had no choice but to straighten his bent knees and bowed as he replied: “There is some old grudge. That woman is called Hu Niang. She used to be… Yang Wu’s lover.”
There’s a story here.
Shang Wan changed her sitting position, propping her cheek with one hand: “Tell me in detail.”
Tan Zhang said: “Hu Niang was someone Yang Wu met while traveling as a merchant. The two hit it off at first sight, talked happily, and soon became a pair.
But not even a month later, Hu Niang suddenly chased after Yang Wu with a knife, saying he had deceived her.
It turned out Hu Niang didn’t know Yang Wu was already married. Yang Wu had tricked her into giving him her chastity. Hu Niang was not like ordinary women. After learning of Yang Wu’s deception, she wanted to kill him.
The guards naturally couldn’t let Yang Wu be killed and all joined hands to subdue Hu Niang, locking her up.
They had planned to release her once she calmed down, but Yang Wu was inhumane and actually reported her to the officials.
The officials came and took Hu Niang away. They took Yang Wu’s bribes and didn’t listen to Hu Niang’s explanations at all, intending to throw her in prison. I tried to speak up and was threatened by Yang Wu and kicked out of the merchant caravan.”
As he spoke, Tan Zhang sighed, a look of shame on his face. “After that, I never saw Hu Niang again. I never imagined she would become a mountain bandit.
That day when Hu Niang brought people to rob the merchant caravan, I recognized her and told her about Yang Wu’s fate, thinking of spending some money to smooth things over. But Hu Niang was no longer the same Hu Niang. She pretended to catch up with me, and when we weren’t on guard, she gave us muscle relaxant powder.”
Tan Zhang sighed again, thinking how unpredictable the world was.
What a fine young lady she had been originally, yet she had turned to banditry, engaging in raiding homes and robbing travelers.
Shang Wan felt a bit emotional too. Men really were all unreliable big pig trotters!
Tan Zhang said guiltily: “If I had noticed Hu Niang’s changes beforehand and not harbored wishful thinking, perhaps the merchant caravan could have avoided this disaster.”
“You were indeed negligent.” Shang Wan looked at him. No matter who the bandit leader was, as the merchant caravan’s leader, Tan Zhang shouldn’t have trusted a mountain bandit lightly.
Tan Zhang sighed inwardly, about to proactively resign from his position as caravan leader, when he heard Shang Wan say: “No next time.”
Having been captured and taken up the mountain for so long, not a single person from the merchant caravan had been lost, and Tan Zhang had put in great effort.
“In a bit, take people to inventory the goods. Whatever’s missing, make up for it out of your own pocket.”
“Yes.” Unexpectedly able to keep his position as leader, Tan Zhang gratefully saluted Shang Wan. She waved him off, and he went out to get busy.
