Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside
Chapter 56 - 056: Won’t Die if You Don’t Seek Trouble

Chapter 56: Chapter 056: Won’t Die if You Don’t Seek Trouble

The cold night air enveloped those responsible for the night watch, as the disaster-stricken villagers huddled together, warming themselves by the fire.

Hu Si and Sister Liu, along with their twenty cohorts, skulked under the cover of darkness, crawling on hands and knees toward the resting villagers.

They had already picked out those families with beautiful daughters. As they neared the resting area, they split into groups of three to carry out their plan: as the girls’ family members slept soundly, they used handkerchiefs soaked in a drugged solution to cover the girls’ mouths and noses, rendering them unconscious before discreetly dragging them away.

Their movements were stealthy, their noises minute, easily drowned out by the howling northern winds.

However, not every attempt was successful. If they noticed any of the girls’ family members awake, they would retreat without abducting anyone.

Even so, after two rounds, they had managed to drag away eight girls.

They brought these girls to a small depression about thirty meters away from where the villagers rested. Tongshan Prefecture was mountainous, and there were many such depressions in the area where the disaster victims had settled.

Once the girls were taken to the depression, five burly men who had been waiting there took over, carrying the girls away to hide them.

But those eight girls were not enough to satisfy Sister Liu’s greed; she had her eyes on Gu Jinxiu and Gu Yumei.

"Those two maids from the Gu Family are quite pretty and of the right age. If we abduct them and sell them off in the Prefecture City of Tongshan Prefecture, we can fetch a good price," she mused.

Liu Hezi, however, was reluctant to target the Gu Family: "Those families are not to be trifled with—from the elders to the young ones, they’re all tough characters. We’re about to enjoy our life of comfort in the Prefecture City, we shouldn’t offend those evil men over two girls."

Liu Hezi, who used to follow Wu Da, was still haunted by the memory of Wu Da’s tendons being cut by Gu Jinli and didn’t dare to mess with these families.

Other men who had also been with Wu Da agreed, "Brother Hezi is right. Those families, especially that girl with the Dagger, are not to be provoked. Let’s leave quickly and not take any risks."

"What’s wrong with you brothers? Are you scared of a little girl just because she has a Dagger? We have knives and drugs, what’s there to be afraid of?" Sister Xia reclined against the wall of the depression, her eyes slyly upturned with a seductive allure as she glanced over at Liu Hezi and the others: "If you guys are scared and want to chicken out, then don’t go. We’ll go on our own to drag them away."

Upon hearing Sister Xia’s words, Hu Si said to Liu Hezi and the others: "Let’s go up there one more time, drag down a few more, and after this time, we’ll pull out."

After stating this, Hu Si didn’t wait for Liu Hezi and the others to respond. Taking Sister Liu, Sister Xia, and his ten subordinates, they climbed out of the depression and once again, headed for the villain’s resting spot.

Liu Hezi and his group had joined Hu Si mid-way and knew that Hu Si didn’t fully trust them. If they didn’t follow this time, it would only make Hu Si trust them even less in the future.

Liu Hezi had no choice but to take some of his companions and follow Hu Si and the others.

Seeing Liu Hezi and his group catching up, Sister Xia smiled triumphantly and followed Hu Si, Sister Liu, and three men toward Gu Jinli and the others’ resting place.

Gu Damu and Gu Dalin, the Lin brothers responsible for the night watch during the latter half of the night, were fairly diligent despite the cold. They huddled close to the fire for warmth but frequently turned their heads to survey their surroundings.

However, the light from the fire couldn’t match the brightness of daylight, and their visibility was limited. Sister Liu and her accomplices, experienced in such acts, waited until they had figured out the brothers’ pattern of checking and when the Lin brothers turned their gaze away again to warm themselves, they swiftly crawled up to Gu Jinxiu and Gu Yumei, covering their mouths and noses with the drug-soaked handkerchiefs. After knocking them out, each of the three men dragged a girl away.

Gu Jinli, being a military doctor and sensitive to the scent of medicines, awoke to an unusual medicinal smell in her half-dream state. As she opened her eyes, she saw several individuals dragging two girls away into the distance, and realized that Gu Jinxiu was no longer by her side.

"Someone come quick, kidnappers are abducting people!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, brandishing a dagger and charging at the three men dragging Gu Jinxiu, slashing one on the wrist. The man, in pain, quickly released Gu Jinxiu’s hand.

Gu Jinli’s dagger then twisted and stabbed toward another man’s abdomen.

"Ah—" The man who was stabbed in the abdomen screamed in agony and scurried away, clutching his belly.

The man whose wrist Gu Jinli had slashed initially wanted to knock her out, but seeing her stab his accomplice, he was terrified and fled helter-skelter.

Sister Liu cursed under her breath ’useless’, and immediately got up to run away.

Qin San Lang had already woken up, quickly closed the distance and caught up with Sister Liu. With a swift kick to her waist, he sent her tumbling to the ground. Rushing over, he systematically disarmed her and broke one of her legs, immobilizing her.

Hu Si, seeing Sister Liu captured, didn’t go to her rescue but instead hurried off into the night, dragging Gu Yumei and an accomplice along with him. As long as they reached the shadows, they could use the darkness to make their escape.

Gu Damu and Gu Dalin, armed with wooden sticks, caught up and yelled, "Stop, let her go!"

Then they shouted to the surroundings, "Everyone get up, the kidnappers are snatching people!"

Gu Jinli’s initial cries had already awakened some of the refugees. When Gu Damu and Gu Dalin’s shouts followed, all the refugees were roused.

The refugees’ first reaction upon waking was to count their family members. Those who found their daughters missing immediately burst into wails, "My girl is gone, damn it all, return my daughter!"

"My daughter is also missing, Cui’er, my Cui’er, where are you? Respond quickly, oh-hoho..."

"Stop crying and start looking for people!"

In no time, the entire refugee resting area plunged into chaos with everyone picking up sticks, rods, and hoes to search for the missing.

Holding the unconscious Gu Jinxiu, Gu Jinli pointed in the direction where Hu Si had escaped to, and said to the searching refugees, "They ran off that way, quickly chase them! If it’s too late, they’ll escape, and we won’t be able to find the people."

Upon hearing Gu Jinli’s words, the refugees immediately followed the direction she pointed and went chasing. After a while, they met brothers Gu Damu and Gu Dalin. Guided by their shouts, they saw Hu Si, Sister Xia, and their accomplice who were dragging Gu Yumei.

"Kidnappers, they are kidnappers, catch them!"

Hu Si was not afraid of brothers Gu Damu and Gu Dalin, but upon witnessing hundreds of refugees rushing toward him, he panicked, dropped Gu Yumei, and started to sprint, "Get out of here, there are too many of them, we can’t hold them off. Don’t go back to the cave yet, hide in the deeper mountains first, we’ll return to the cave and take the people after we shake them off."

Hu Si shouted the plan to Sister Xia and the other accomplice while running.

"Got it, brother Four." Sister Xia and the other accomplice replied, desperately dashing towards the mountains.

Liu Hezi and his crew hadn’t dragged the people to the depression before they heard the noise of the refugees waking up and searching, and immediately panicked: "Damn it, we’ve been discovered."

One of his accomplices asked, "Brother Hezi, what should we do now?"

Liu Hezi, using the firelight for vision and seeing the masses of approaching refugees, immediately dropped the girl in his hands and said, "What to do? Run, of course!"