Chapter 47: Screw Righteousness And Morality
“Er Ya, Er Ya~”
“Tell me, where is Xiao Bao?”
“Did you hide him somewhere?”
“Tell me quickly.”
The woman’s spirit seemed to have received a tremendous shock, completely like a madwoman, pulling the girl’s arm and shouting loudly.
After hearing the sound of Li Xiao riding over on horseback, she immediately turned her head to look at Li Xiao.
Then she shook her head in disappointment: “You are not my Xiao Bao.”
“Xiao Bao, where are you?”
“Mother is looking for you.”
“Hurry home.”
The woman appeared deranged, shouting loudly, her voice desperate and pained, like a mother beast that had lost its child, constantly looking to the sky and howling, piercing the heart of every listener.
Her eyes were full of urgency and confusion, her thin body swaying unsteadily under her tattered clothes.
In a daze, she seemed to hear the child’s voice.
She suddenly lifted her head, her face showing a glimmer of hope as she looked into the distance.
“Xiao Bao, is that you?”
“Mother is here, Mother is here!”
The woman cried and shouted, stumbling and running outward in panic, falling to the ground several times, her body already covered in injuries, yet she continued running full of hope.
“The child’s voice?”
Watching the woman’s staggering steps, Li Xiao was puzzled in his heart; he hadn’t heard anything just now.
Were the woman’s senses sharper than his own? Or was it a mother’s bond with her child?
“Did you just hear a child’s voice?” Li Xiao asked the girl.
The girl had just noticed Li Xiao approaching; she had been comforting the woman earlier.
Although Li Xiao at this moment had taken off the leather armor he wore that night, washed the blood from his face, and revealed his true appearance, looking completely like a resolute youth.
But the girl recognized Li Xiao at a glance; he was the youth who had saved her from the Geluolu People that night.
At this moment, Er Ya finally had a chance to carefully observe Li Xiao’s appearance.
About the same age as her brother.
Taller and stronger than her brother, with a straight figure like a pine tree, deep eyes, heroic spirit, and a bit handsome.
Er Ya looked deeply at Li Xiao’s face, then turned her gaze to the woman’s staggering departing back and shook her head as she spoke.
“There was no child’s voice; it was her hallucination.”
Li Xiao nodded lightly, guessing that the woman’s spirit had suffered great shock and she was starting to go a bit mad.
“I’ll go take a look and have someone help her find the child.”
With that, Li Xiao prepared to leave.
But Er Ya looked at Li Xiao with wet eyes and shook her head gently as she said: “No need.”
“Her child is already gone.”
“Gone?”
Hearing Er Ya’s words, Li Xiao felt a bit dazed in his heart.
So, the woman’s child was already dead.
“She is one of my cousins by marriage; her husband was killed by the Geluolu People, and her child was less than half a year old.” Er Ya briefly told Li Xiao about the woman’s situation.
“On the day Sanhe Fort was broken through, the Geluolu People snatched the child from her side and put him in my family’s room, but the Geluolu People did not feed him.”
“Not long after, he fell ill, crying nonstop until his throat was hoarse.”
“The Geluolu People found him too noisy and in the courtyard, they~”
“Smashed the child to death alive.”
As she spoke, Er Ya’s tears slowly flowed, her voice becoming hoarse, her body starting to tremble slightly, and her mood growing more depressed.
She seemed afraid to recall that terrifying scene~
“At the time, I was hiding in the cellar, watching through the vent as those Geluolu People smashed the child to death.”
“But I, but I~”
“Wah wah wah~”
“Why am I so useless? Why could I only hide there and watch?” Er Ya’s voice was nearly hoarse, each word squeezed out painfully from the depths of her heart.
Her face was full of tear streaks, her eyes filled with deep self-blame and despair.
Her legs slowly buckled as she squatted down, curling her body into a ball, as if this could detach her from the painful memory.
“Smashed to death?”
Li Xiao’s brows furrowed tightly, his heart slightly shaken.
But he immediately shook his head slightly; this was an age that devoured people.
Some foreign races most enjoyed eating the organs of living infants.
Smashing an infant to death was indeed something the Geluolu People would do.
Seeing the girl’s self-blaming and guilty expression, Li Xiao sighed softly, stepped forward, and said: “This is not your fault.”
“In that situation, even if you had come out, you couldn’t have saved the child; instead, you would have lost your own life and your brother’s.”
“You don’t need to feel guilty about this.”
“The ones who truly deserve to die are those Geluolu People.” Li Xiao said in a deep voice.
Recalling the woman’s appearance just now, Li Xiao already knew what she had endured at the hands of the Geluolu People.
Rape and defilement!
Actually, not just her; many women in Sanhe Fort had suffered the same fate.
And such a small child was ultimately smashed to death alive by the Geluolu People.
The reason was simply that he was too noisy.
Such a simple reason.
At this moment, Li Xiao just wanted to curse: “Fuck benevolence and morality.”
There was never any need for benevolence when dealing with the Geluolu People.
Just one word was needed:
Kill!
When facing other ethnic groups, Li Xiao might be lenient, as long as they behaved, they could fully be incorporated into the great Han family and become his wings.
But when dealing with the Geluolu People, he must retaliate with a hundredfold, thousandfold cruelty.
No truce until death!
Even at this moment, Li Xiao felt that what the soldiers of the four forts had done to the Geluolu People before was all so gentle and cute.
It was merely applying the way the Geluolu People treated the Han People back onto them.
Still too merciful.
If Li Xiao handled it personally in the future, he would only need one command.
“Level the wagons, exterminate the tribe!”
“Torment the ringleaders, death by a thousand cuts!”
After all, the Geluolu ethnic group was inherently filled with betrayal.
Li Xiao would never repeat the mistakes the Tang army suffered back then.
Seeing the girl’s haggard and weak appearance, Li Xiao did not leave for the time being but continued to comfort her emotions.
“Your name is Er Ya?”
Li Xiao had just learned the girl’s name from what the woman shouted earlier.
“Mm.”
The girl’s eyes were still red-rimmed as she nodded slightly.
“My surname is Wei, and I have an older sister, so I’m called Er Ya.” The girl explained softly.
While speaking, she occasionally lifted her head to look at Li Xiao in front of her, then quickly lowered it again after meeting his direct gaze.
Her name was Er Ya, and everyone usually called her that; Er Ya had never felt anything wrong with it.
But for some reason, at this moment, saying this name to Li Xiao made her feel a bit embarrassed.
Li Xiao smiled slightly and nodded: “A very cute name.”
This name seemed innately to carry the traits of ‘upright, kind, brave, and fearless.’
These were all embodied in the girl before him.
“I am Li Dalong, Fort Master of Hexi Fort.”
“But I prefer you call me by my other name, Li Xiao.”
Li Xiao?
“I know you.” The girl said.
Her slightly flushed gaze looked at Li Xiao: “In these two days since arriving at Hexi Fort, I’ve heard many things about you.”
“You led people to defeat the Geluolu People and rescued the people of Sanhe Fort.”
In these two days, the name the girl heard most was Li Xiao.
She had heard so much about Li Xiao’s battle achievements that she could even recite them.
She even learned that Hexi Fort Master Li Xiao was the youth who saved her before.
It was just that Er Ya had been too exhausted at the time and fainted directly, without much interaction with Li Xiao.
These two days, she had been imagining what kind of person Li Xiao was and how she should thank him for saving her life.
Would he be very scary? Very fierce?
After all, he had killed so many Geluolu People, so he must be a very dominant man.
But through the brief exchange just now, Er Ya discovered that Li Xiao was actually a very gentle person, not as arrogant or overbearing as she had imagined.
At least, he was like that in front of her.
“This is all what I should do.”
“The Geluolu People started the war and killed my Han People.”
“Every man with blood in his veins would rise in anger and cut them down.”
“Moreover, defeating the Geluolu People was not just my merit; it was everyone’s merit.” Li Xiao said softly.
Seeing Li Xiao’s humble yet resolute appearance, ripples stirred slightly in Er Ya’s heart.
“Anyway, thank you.”
Er Ya lowered her eyes slightly, not daring to look at Li Xiao’s face.
