63 Night Attack

Chen Yaohui and his brother looked at each other and made up their minds to follow Li Yu and the others.

The two of them confirmed their gazes and nodded at Li Yu. “Xiaoyu, let’s go to your house first and help weigh the food.”

“Alright, sorry to trouble you.” Li Yu and Chen Yaohui went out and saw the old man still standing at the door. Chen Yaohui looked at him and went forward to support him. “Uncle, why are you standing at the door? Aren’t you going in?”

Uncle looked at Chen Yaohui and smiled bitterly. “I wanted to go to Xiaoyu’s house to buy some food. Just as I reached your door, I met Xiaoyu.”

Li Yu didn’t know how to address him for a moment. She took a step forward. “Old man, let’s go! Let’s go to my house to weigh the grains.”

Chen Yaohui helped the old man towards Li Yu’s house.

When he arrived at Li Yu’s courtyard, he saw that there were already seven to eight villagers standing at the door with baskets and sacks.

When everyone saw Li Yu, they bowed to her gratefully. “Xiaoyu, thank you for selling food to us. Thank you.”

Li Yu hurriedly bowed in return. “Uncle, Auntie, my family happened to have bought more food. We’ll sell some to everyone at the market price before the new year so that we can tide over the crisis together.”

Uncle nodded and pointed at Li Yu gratefully. “Xiaoyu really saved our lives! The market price before the new year is several times lower than the current price.”

Li Yu was not used to hearing praise. She hurriedly opened the courtyard door and walked in. However, she saw that the courtyard was a mess. Li Qing was chasing a rooster with blood flowing from its neck with a kitchen knife.

When Li Qing saw Li Yu enter, he shouted crazily, “Sister, why is it still running around after I cut it?”

Li Yu looked at the depressed Li Qing. “You didn’t cut in the right place.”

Chen Yaohui ran over and grabbed the rooster to check. “Ah Qing, you can’t even cut the chicken’s trachea.”

Chen Yaohui helped Li Qing kill the chicken and taught him how to kill it. Li Yu and Chen Yaozu came out with the grain bags.

Li Yu pointed at the sack and said to everyone, “I’ll leave 20 stones. The families can buy four stones worth of the other type of wheat.”

The village chief said to Li Yu, “Xiaoyu, there are a total of 16 families in the village who don’t have food. Sell the remaining wheat to the few families with more people!”

Li Yu nodded. “Alright, I’ll weigh the grains for everyone now.”

The first family to leave paid the money. Only when everyone saw that they only paid 2,800 copper coins did they believe that Li Yu was indeed selling grain at the market price before the new year. They all bowed gratefully to Li Yu.

The news that Li Yu had sold more than 80 stones of wheat at the market price before the new year spread throughout West Mountain Village that night. Some people said that Li Yu was stupid, while others said that Li Yu was kind and would be rewarded.

Li Yu didn’t care about what everyone said. She stayed at home and prepared the things she needed on the way.

That night, Li Mei and Liu Changmin returned to Li Yu’s house. The couple helped grind the flour and sift it.

Li Yu stir-fried the flour she had sifted out into oil tea noodles. The wheat straw was mixed with flour and fermented before being roasted into charcoal to make coarse grain pancakes.

She boiled the cabbage and radish in salt water and placed them in a jar to make pickled vegetables.

The villagers did not even dare to open the doors and windows. They had to do everything behind closed doors. The moment they opened the door, locusts flew into the house when they saw the light in the house, filling their food with feces.

The heads of more than a dozen families were sitting in the patriarch’s house. Everyone looked at the patriarch and village chief. “Patriarch, village chief, do you think we should stay or leave?”

The village chief looked at them with a frown. “The water in the river is about to dry up. I’m afraid we won’t even be able to see a green leaf when we go out tomorrow morning.” The village chief sighed. “We’ll die if we stay behind in the drought. If we follow Xiaoyu and Young Master Zhou, we might be able to survive.”

The chief kept sighing. “That’s right! Our old bones have lived enough. It doesn’t matter if we die, but the children can’t wait for death here with us! Let’s go! Let’s go out and run for our lives.”

In the end, the village chief, the chief, and more than ten other families decided to leave with Li Yu and the others. After agreeing, everyone took their torches and went home to pack.

When the village was quiet, more than a dozen men in black masks walked in from the pass and headed towards the Xu family at the east end of the village. Soon, the sound of fighting and crying for help came from the Xu family.

Someone from the Xu family rang the gong and shouted miserably, “The bandits are here! The bandits are here! Everyone, come and help…”

After two bangs, the sounds stopped. The nearby villagers all got up and hid behind the window. They looked in the direction of the Xu family in fear. No one dared to help.

Zhou Jia, Ji Xiang, and Ruyi carried arrow jars on their backs and stood behind the door with oil lamps. Zhou Jia was worried about Li Yu’s safety and instructed Ji Xiang, “Ji Xiang, go out the back door and quickly rush to Ah Qing’s house to take a look. They probably can’t hear anything at the end of the village.”

“Young Master, you should go and hide first!” Ji Xiang looked at Zhou Jia and refused to leave. “Young Madam is skilled. She’ll be fine. Those bandits must be here to rob the Xu family and our family.”

Zhou Jia looked at Ji Xiang and shouted in a low voice, “Just go.”

“Yes, Young Master.” Ji Xiang hurriedly turned around and left. Zhou Jia looked at Ruyi and said, “Go hide on the parapet. As long as someone you don’t know breaks in, shoot them to death.”

“Yes, Young Master.” Ruyi jumped onto the parapet in a few strides. Zhou Jia took the bow and hid behind the wall to look at the crescent moon in the sky. He was worried about Li Yu’s safety.

Ji Xiang rushed to Li Yu’s house and climbed over the wall. Just as he entered the courtyard, he heard Li Yu ask, “Who is barging into my house in the middle of the night?”

Ji Xiang walked to the door of the central room and whispered, “Miss Li, it’s me, Ji Xiang.”

Li Yu opened the door of the central room with the oil lamp and asked Ji Xiang strangely, “Why are you here? Did something happen?”

“The Xu family has been attacked by the mountain bandits. Young Master was worried and asked me to take a look.”

“The Xu family is attacked by bandits?” Li Yu was worried about Zhou Jia. “Hurry up and go back. I’m fine.”

When Ji Xiang heard this, he felt as if he had been pardoned. He turned around and walked out. Li Yu remembered that she had not given the sleeve arrow to Zhou Jia and hurriedly called out to Ji Xiang, “Wait, I have something for you.”

Li Yu handed the sleeve arrow to Ji Xiang and said, “Get Young Master to tie it to his arm. He can kill enemies within 30 steps of flicking the butterfly feature.”

“Okay, I’ll leave now.”

Ji Xiang held the sleeve arrow and ignored his surprise. He opened the courtyard door and ran towards the Zhou family.

Li Yu closed the courtyard door and turned around to return to her room. She lay on the bed and listened quietly to the commotion outside.

Ji Xiang flew back to the Zhou family’s back door like an arrow and knocked lightly. “Uncle Zhou, open the door.”

Uncle Zhou opened the door halfway and flashed in. He smiled at Uncle Zhou and said, “Young Madam is very alert. She knew as soon as I entered the courtyard.”

Uncle Zhou smiled proudly. “Of course. Don’t you know whose wife that is?”

Ji Xiang ran to the front yard. Zhou Jia came out from behind the photo wall and reprimanded him in a low voice, “Why are you back again? I don’t think you listen to me anymore!”

“Miss Li asked me to come back,” Ji Xiang explained aggrievedly and hurriedly handed the sleeve arrow to Zhou Jia. “Miss Li even asked me to send this to you.”

Zhou Jia took the sleeve arrow and looked at it several times. He looked at Ji Xiang in surprise. “Where did she get it?”

Ji Xiang pouted. “I don’t know either. Miss Li stopped me after I left. She gave me the sleeve arrow and even taught me how to use it.” Ji Xiang taught Zhou Jia how to use it and helped Zhou Jia tie the sleeve arrow to his arm.

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