Becoming the Villain's Discarded Wife
Chapter 52_1

Chapter 52: Chapter 52_1

"What’s going on? Why are we back so late?" Shen Qingchuan asked while helping to unload the coffin from the wooden board.

There were only sixteen donkeys in the village, which could only pull sixteen coffins at a time. This morning they made one trip, would they still have time to bury the dead today?

With the current heat, things could start to smell soon if left.

"Don’t get me started, we ran into robbers during our trip!" Shen Yuntian shared their encounter while unloading the coffins.

Upon hearing ’robbery’, Shen Qingchuan froze. How come problems occurred both when they ordered and collected the coffins?

"We set off early today and everything was fine until we collected the coffins and were just leaving town when we got ambushed. Luckily, we had our choppers with us. We engaged them for a while without a clear victor, and then the men from Stone Village showed up."

A man, upon hearing this, was about to ask what happened when he heard a donkey braying from the village entrance.

Everyone turned to look.

They saw, approaching them, over twenty sturdy men leading a donkey cart.

"Wow, that was fast!" Shen Yuntian smiled and waved at the incoming men, then turned to Shen Dashan and explained, "Li Zheng, these are the brothers from Stone Village who came to our aid when they saw we were being robbed. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t be back by now!"

"Really?" Shen Dashan looked curiously at the two dozen men, then nodded before walking over.

"I’m the village head of Lihua Village. Thank you very much for your help this time."

The man, who looked in his late twenties, replied with a hearty smile, "No big deal, it’s nothing."

After speaking, he waved at his fellow villagers and said, "Don’t just stand there, everyone. Help unload the coffins with our brothers from Lihua Village."

Observing the enthusiasm of the group of men, Shen Dashan was slightly taken aback. He knew the men of Stone Village were valiant and generous, but wasn’t this a bit too enthusiastic?

"Li Zheng, there are still seven or eight coffins in town. The few of us will make another trip later. Having just had a fight, we’re not afraid of encountering more robbers. We won’t be delayed." Shen Yuntian wiped the sweat from his forehead.

The incident had been too thrilling for one day.

"Alright, you’ve worked hard." Shen Dashan nodded. But he was puzzled about the Stone Village men who were helping unload the coffins.

Although he knew they were chivalrous men, wasn’t helping fend off the robbers enough? Why did they also help transport the coffins back?

Seeing Shen Dashan’s puzzled face, a man from Stone village chuckled, "Li Zheng, don’t worry, we’re not bad people. If you’re worried, you can ask Ms. Lin about us."

Shen Dashan was taken aback. Who was this Ms. Lin from the Lin family?

Although there were indeed two Lin households in the village, neither had daughters.

Shen Qingchuan, however, realized, "Is it Ms. Lin?"

The man hesitated. Which daughter of the Lin family had gotten married and consequently been called Ms. Lin?

"You mean Nanzhi? You’re definitely in Lihua village, right?" The man looked at Shen Dashan and Shen Qinghe puzzledly- Ms. Lin had married here five years ago, and it was she who brought back news of Diniu’s revolt back in Stone village not too long before.

"Who’s Nanzhi?" Shen Yuntian was clueless. Was there a girl called Nanzhi in the village? How come he didn’t know?

"We have a Ms. Lin in our village named Nanzhi, could it be her?" Shen Xing was resting after unloading the coffins and he interjected when he saw the conversation had come to a halt.

The man’s eyes lit up as he nodded rapidly, saying "Correct, correct. Nanzhi!"

But ’Nanzhi, Nanzhi’, it didn’t sound as nice as ’Nanzhi, Nanzhi’. Remembering how cute and chubby she was as a child, after she changed her name to Nanzhi, she had shrunk to the size of a bamboo pole.

The men from Stone Village had been to town to buy bricks and tiles. Stone Village was not as wealthy as other villages, and when the houses collapsed, they were left in need of tiles. It was at the village head’s urging they went to buy some.

On the way, they encountered robbers. The men of Stone Village were already chivalrous type, but when they heard people from Lihua Village- the village Nanzhi was married into- were being ambushed, they joined in the battle with their choppers and clubs.

Afterwards, they asked Shen Yuntian what he was doing in town and when they found out about the coffin transportation, they volunteered to help.

After all, without Nanzhi reporting back, they too might have ended up buried in the ground.

Shen Dashan thanked the people from Stone Village once again before they left with their donkey cart, heading back to town.

Having helped, they couldn’t forget about their own village’s problems.

Shen Yuntian and a few others rushed with their donkey carts to the town to transport the remaining coffins, leaving the others in the village to prepare for the burial.

There were ninety-three corpses, large and small, stored in the shed.

Excluding the forty-one corpses from the households that were wiped out, there were only five households that had forked out money to buy coffins together. The remaining forty-seven corpses belonged to families that didn’t have the money for them, and were preparing to wrap their deceased in straw mats for burial.

As each body, wrapped in white cloth, was placed into a coffin, no one in Lihua village spoke. They only silently continued their work.

When Shen Yuntian brought back the last coffins, there were already quite a few villagers, their heads adorned with white cloth, gathered at the entrance.

With the cry of "lift the coffin—" from the Shen family’s patriarch,

Mournful wails filled Lihua village.

A long procession of white moved from the entrance of the village up to the hillside, cries and pieces of paper money filled the air.

Many in the crowd cried till they were out of breath, looking pitiful.

At the end of the line were an uninhibited Xiaoqi and an ignorant Yueyue.

"Brother, what are they doing?" Yueyue looked blankly at everything before her, tightening her hold on her brother’s hand.

"Don’t be afraid, Yueyue. The bad guys are all dead. I will protect you, Yueyue. Nobody will bully us again."

Xiaoqi held Yueyue’s hand even tighter as he stared resolutely at the procession.

The spacious hillside was filled with coffins and straw mat rolls, making it look somewhat crowded amidst the white figures.

"Yueyue, you have to cry later." Xiaoqi whispered to Yueyue when no one was paying attention to them.

Looking at her brother’s stern face, Yueyue nodded. If her brother wanted her to cry, then she would cry. Her brother wouldn’t lie to her.

"Drop —"

With one command, the coffins were dropped into the graves. Seeing the two straw mat rolls being placed into the grave in front of him, Xiaoqi’s expression suddenly became cheerful — they were really dead.

Hearing the wails around him, Yueyue blinked hard. Finally, she pinched her leg softly, causing her to cry out in pain.

Hidden in the crowd, Xiaoqi laughed to himself until suddenly, tears fell.