The soldiers drew their gleaming sabers with a sharp swish, their icy blades reflecting off the villagers’ faces.
Some villagers recoiled in fear, but several hot-blooded young men, realizing their plot had been exposed and that they might be arrested and thrown into prison, immediately saw red. They roared, “Let’s fight them!”
“Right! Let’s fight!”
A few villagers charged at the soldiers, brandishing hoes and woodcutting knives. Others tried to rush toward the seemingly defenseless exiled prisoners.
The hidden guards appeared and shielded Zhan Haoting and Cheng Yao.
Though seriously wounded, their skills had not diminished in the slightest. Their moves were ruthless and precise, and they instantly felled several villagers at the front of the charge.
Zhan Haochen held a thick wooden cudgel, protecting Madam Zhan and her daughter behind him.
When he saw a villager reaching for Zhan Liqing, he hurried over and brought the cudgel down with perfect accuracy.
The villager collapsed without a sound. Another, eyes bloodshot, raised a woodcutter’s knife and hacked at him.
Constable Wang shouted, “Anyone who resists will be killed without mercy!”
The soldiers charged into the crowd like a pack of wolves.
Chaos erupted in an instant!
The exiled prisoners had just endured a wild boar attack and the loss of their loved ones. Their fury and desperate will to survive, driven to the brink, now burst forth as well!
“Fight them!”
“You harmed people!”
The scene descended into complete disorder, but the battle was overwhelmingly one-sided.
There were more villagers, but they were nothing more than a disorganized mob. How could they possibly stand against well-trained soldiers and these exiles, who had been driven into a corner and unleashed their savage side?
And with the terrifying fighting power of the hidden guards on their side, it took less than the time needed to finish a cup of tea before every resisting villager had been subdued and pinned to the ground, leaving the area filled with cries of pain.
“You still have the nerve to complain?” Constable Wang kicked them several times. “When you were plotting against innocent people, did you ever think this would be your fate?”
Working together, everyone tied up the villagers. Constable Wang swept his gaze across the open ground before the ruined temple, only then noticing the corpses that had yet to be buried and the many exiles who were visibly gravely wounded and barely clinging to life.
The thick smell of blood hung in the air. These deaths had clearly not been caused by the brief clash just now!
“What happened here? Why are there so many dead and wounded?”
Zhang Dapeng answered miserably, “Constable, you don’t know what happened! This morning, while the group was resting in the temple, someone caught a wild boar piglet and divided the meat among everyone. That drew a herd of wild boars into the ruined temple… Eight people died, eighteen were seriously wounded, and thirty-five suffered minor injuries…”
“What a calamity!”
Constable Wang sucked in a breath, deeply shaken.
Who would have thought that even spending one night in a ruined temple could lead to an encounter with a herd of wild boars?
It was too absurd even for a nightmare!
He looked again at the gruesome condition of the corpses. Sure enough, most of the injuries appeared to have been caused by biting and being rammed.
Having spent many years traveling outside, he knew all too well how terrifying wild beasts could be in the wilderness. Herds of wild boars were especially frightening. Even armed soldiers like them might not escape unscathed, let alone a group of exiles with no weapons at all.
“Wild boars are vicious by nature. Who was so reckless as to provoke them?”
As soon as he said this, he instinctively looked toward Cheng Yao.
If there was one person in the group bold enough to do such a thing, it could only be the wife of that distinguished man.
Cheng Yao’s dress was covered in mud, and her hair was disheveled, but her back remained ramrod straight.
“Constable, it wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?”
A woman with disheveled hair and a bloody gash across her face from a wild boar’s tusk stumbled out of the crowd and collapsed to her knees before Constable Wang. Her voice rang out in a grief-stricken wail.
“My lord! You must give us justice! So many of us died unjustly!”
The woman extended a trembling finger and pointed straight at Shao Yutong, whose face had instantly gone deathly pale.
“It was her! Miss Shao incited everyone to eat the wild boar piglet and caused so many people to die!”
“Everyone ate the boar meat. Why should my daughter take the blame alone?” Zhan Yurong shrieked in protest, stepping in front of her daughter to shield her.
The woman whipped around, her eyes filled with seething hatred. “Hao Ting’s wife repeatedly warned everyone that disturbing the piglet might bring the adult wild boars down on us in revenge… But what did Shao Yutong say?”
She imitated Shao Yutong’s pitiful yet encouraging tone.
“‘Everyone hasn’t had a proper meal in ages. This little pig is heaven-sent—it’s food meant to save our lives! Are we really going to keep starving just because of a danger that might not even exist?’”
When she finished, the woman pointed furiously at Shao Yutong again.
“It was her! She encouraged everyone to roast that piglet and eat it!”
Her voice broke as tears streamed down her face. “We had barely finished eating when the herd of wild boars came! They followed the smell! They came for revenge! Old Madam Zhang was gored to death protecting her little grandson! Uncle Twelfth’s grandson had his belly ripped open by a tusk! My husband had his throat bitten through while protecting me! Wuwuwu…”
She wept so bitterly that she nearly fainted. Her heart-wrenching accusations cut into everyone’s hearts like knives.
“Murderer! Curse-bringer! Killer!”
“My father died such an unjust death!”
The crowd erupted in fury. Everyone looked at Shao Yutong and her mother with hatred and rage, as though they wanted to tear the two of them apart and devour them alive.
Shao Yutong was already as pale as a ghost. Her entire body trembled like a leaf in an autumn wind. She opened and closed her mouth several times, but not a single word came out. She could only shake her head helplessly as tears streamed down her face.
Zhan Yurong still wanted to argue on her daughter’s behalf, but the murderous looks from those around them frightened her into silence.
Constable Wang’s face turned livid. He looked coldly at Shao Yutong and demanded, “Madam Shao, is what this woman said true?”
“I—I didn’t mean to! I was just too hungry…” Shao Yutong sobbed incoherently, her whole body shaking.
“Bastard!” Constable Wang flew into a rage. He cracked his riding crop through the air, producing a sharp snap. “Because of your momentary appetite, you incited everyone and brought about this catastrophe, causing so many deaths! Do you know your crime?”
“Constable, please show mercy! Please!” Zhan Yurong rushed forward and kowtowed. “My daughter is young and ignorant. She didn’t do it on purpose! Please forgive her this once!”
Constable Wang sneered. “With so many dead and wounded, do you think ‘young and ignorant’ is enough to make this disappear? If I forgive her, how am I to answer to the dead and wounded? How am I to answer to my superiors?”
He drew a deep breath, his voice carrying an unquestionable authority.
“Shao Yutong incited the others and caused this disaster. Her crime is unforgivable. Effective immediately, she and her mother are expelled from the exile party. Whether they live or die is up to fate. From this moment on, we have nothing more to do with them!”
“No!” Zhan Yurong let out a shrill cry and lunged forward, trying to grab Constable Wang’s leg, but a soldier beside him kicked her away.
“Please don’t! Constable! We can’t be driven out! There are wild beasts and bandits everywhere out there… We’ll die! Please! We know we were wrong! We’ll never do it again!”
Zhan Yurong fell to the ground and begged through her tears, her forehead striking the cold earth and immediately splitting open.
Constable Wang’s expression remained hard and unmoved. There was no room for negotiation.
A few of the surrounding exiles looked sympathetic, but when they remembered their dead loved ones, not a single person stepped forward to speak for the mother and daughter.
Some even cursed under their breath.
“Serves them right!”
“You got what you deserved! Get out!”
