*******
Cheng Nuo waited for a while but Bai Rui simply lay motionless in a sleeping position. He walked back, puzzled. Chang Chun had curled up to sleep so Cheng Nuo lay down.
The next day, he went outside early in the morning but didn’t find a trace of Bai Rui. Whenever Chang Chun looked at him, he seemed a bit uncomfortable. Cheng Nuo was sometimes cautious but most times he was careless and didn’t pay much attention. Chang Chun took the initiative to take out a bag and show Cheng Nuo the money inside. He wanted to give Cheng Nuo a share of it but Cheng Nuo quickly refused and smiled, saying, “No, you should keep it.”
Chang Chun lowered his head and didn’t know what to think.
The road back to the slums was smooth and there were no problems this time. Cheng Nuo sorted out everything he had bought then rearranged the layout of the room. Afterward, he went to the river to bathe with Liu Guang in the same manner.
The weather was a bit cold, so he bathing in the river made him feel chilly. Cheng Nuo couldn’t help but sneeze.
In the afternoon, he saw that Liu Guang went out with an ax to cut down a tree. The little man was very arrogant, and in a short time, he came back with a tree trunk from a yellow poplar tree.
The slums were truly the place where many poor people lived and there were a lot of experts there. When Liu Guang sought help from a professional, it took him two days to use the wood to make a large and comfortable bathtub. Cheng Nuo took the opportunity to use the rest of the world to make a few more items such as small cabinets and tables to make the hut more comfortable.
After two days of calm, Liu Guang went with seven or eight strong males to the mountains to catch a bear with a rare type of fur. This kind of bear was extremely powerful, but its flesh was very expensive and it was worth a dozen chi locusts. In this world, what mattered was not age but power, so although Liu Guang was young, no one dared to underestimate him. Chang Chun and half of the other children stayed in the village.
Before Liu Guang left, Cheng Nuo gave him dry food, dried meat, steamed dumplings and so on. This type of food was all researched by Cheng Nuo. Liu Guang didn’t pay attention to what he ate as long as he could eat enough meat. Cheng Nuo didn’t want his food to be so monotonous. Therefore, he went with the others to learn where to pick wild herbs and onions and tried many new tricks.
This time they wanted to go deep into the mountains. Cheng Nuo couldn’t help but worry. After all, Liu Guang was still young. Cheng Nuo felt like a little kid’s worried parent as he reminded Liu Guang to not to be reckless. Liu Guang was impatient and looked at him through narrowed eyes. “I’ve done this three times before. What’s the fuss about? You’re the one who needs to be careful when you’re in the house alone. Don’t go wandering about outside flirting with others!”
The veins on Cheng Nuo’s forehead popped out. This little rascal, where did he learn to say such things? It wasn’t funny at all! He couldn’t help but knock on Liu Guang’s forehead. When Liu Guang immediately groaned and glared at him with his two hangdog eyes, saying: “Why did you hit me? Damned female!” Cheng Nuo simply knocked on his forehead a few more times.
However, soon after Liu Guang left, Cheng Nuo felt that the house was empty and uncomfortable. He picked up a bamboo basket and asked Cao Tou to go with him to the field outside to gather wild vegetables.
The land was too barren so the vegetables that grew in the fields were all wild, the toughest ones that could survive without being tended. There were some females there, all of them old, thin, and unhealthy-looking.
Now Cheng Nuo finally discovered how the males and females of the world were identified. Simply put, it was their clothes and hair. Females usually wore skirts, while the males wore trousers. Females wore more accessories, and kept their hair long, gathered up with a hairpin. Of course, the females in the slums generally do not pay too much attention to their appearance and wore trousers. In the small town, he saw a man wearing a red dress with two flowers on his head. When he saw that, he broke into a cold sweat all over his body. Fortunately, a woman’s hairstyle wasn’t popular here …
Some wild vegetables had small thorns on their leaves. Cheng Nuo was absent-minded and carelessly touched the thorns so that his hand itched and felt numb. He squeezed the thorn out of his hand then straightened up and looked at the undulating mountains in the distance.
Cao Tou turned to see what he was looking at and looked curiously in the distance: “Cheng Nuo, what are you looking at?”
Cheng Nuo laughed: “I wonder what’s happening in the distance.”
Cao Tou grasped his sparse hair and said, “I also want to go to the big cities. I heard people say that in those places there is so much meat and rice that you can’t finish eating it. Cheng Nuo, you’ve been to other places, what have you seen?”
Cheng Nuo smiled and was about to answer, but was surprised when he saw a large dust cloud in the distance.
In the slums, there were people who have dog-like animals, but no one has horses. However, based on the speed of the moving dust cloud, it looked like they were riding horses.
Cao Tou also saw it, and his face showed fear: “It’s a bandit group!”
The females who were gathering wild vegetables all panicked and quickly sprang up to run towards the slums. Cheng Nuo didn’t quite understand it but he took Cao Tou with him and they ran with the crowd. These days, his physical strength was much better than it used to be so he could keep up Cao Tou who was so fast that could overtake a rabbit.
Cao Tou suddenly stopped in front of the village. He plunged his hands into a mud pit then raised it towards Cheng Nuo’s face. Cheng Nuo automatically stepped back and tried to avoid it.
Cao Tou said nervously: “Cheng Nuo, this is just in case. Some thieves will not let off even good males. If something happens to you, what will I tell elder brother Guang?”
Cheng Nuo felt a chill. It seems that in this world that was full of males, people like the abnormal Zhu Liu are not rare. Never mind Cao Tou’s help, he quickly added more dirt to his body himself.
Those bandits were so fast that almost everybody could already see their faces clearly. Cheng Nuo now moved faster than a rabbit’s speed and grabbed Cao Tuo’s hand as they fairly leaped inside the house.
Cao Tou also had a shocked expression on his face. The two breathlessly looked at each other, then at the door.
The residents of the slums took care not to stir up trouble. Cheng Nuo has also seen gangs of thieves in groups of five or six passing through here before. They didn’t cause any problems. They would just briefly make a stop then leave. This time the party of bandits was composed of ten to twenty brawny men riding beasts of extraordinary size and shape, with swords in their hands and bows and arrows on their backs.
Cheng Nuo wondered why they were here. There was no wealth to plunder in this slum. Were they just passing by?
Just as he thought that the leader pulled on his reins and the whole group stopped.
Cheng Nuo peered out from behind the door and saw the man’s smiling, sly-looking fox face from afar. The leader was a man not much older than twenty. He could be considered handsome and he didn’t look the same as the rough-looking men with him. His clothes were very gorgeous and his body was leaner.
The leading man waved his hand, and a big man shouted in a loud voice like a broken gong: “Hear me! This person here is Lan Yue Camp’s second in command, Chu Yunxuan! We’re here to ask questions. Those people who aren’t involved won’t be in trouble! If after we finish you are still shrinking inside your turtle shell, don’t blame us for being merciless…”
Hearing the words “Lan Yue Camp,” Cheng Nuo’s heart jumped. He subconsciously looked at Cao Tou and saw that he was also looking at him.
Cheng Nuo soon calmed down. There was no fingerprinting technique during this time period. He didn’t believe these people could really find them. Cao Tou’s face tightened and he whispered, “Big brother Cheng Nuo, there is no evidence of the deaths. Don’t be afraid. Let’s not say anything.”
Chu Yunxuan was riding a leopard-like beast. He seemed relaxed and he looked at the slums with casual interest, as though he was just here to have fun.
After the big person finished shouting, the people from the slums exited their houses and stood in the streets. The residents here have heard of Lan Yue Camp and did not treat their words as meaningless nonsense. Cheng Nuo took a deep breath and followed Cao Tou out. Chang Chun and Jin Yu were also in the crowd and when they saw Cheng Nuo and Cao Tou, they quickly squeezed their way towards them so that they stood together.
There are not many people in this slum. They numbered around 300-400. Today some of the strong men were out hunting in the mountains. The remainder were around 200 people. Cheng Nuo knew that there were other villages like this one at the foothills of the mountain but he didn’t know whether these people from Lan Yue Camp have been there.
Lan Yue Camp’s people were divided into two teams. One team took people to an open space, and the other team searched every house. Chu Yunxuan walked up to the front with his mount and stood up, grinning: “Well, this is troublesome for everyone but it’s really just a small matter.”
He opened his hand when he finished speaking and revealed a piece of jade on a red string. The people watching below were bewildered.
Chu Yunxuan shook the jade and smiled: “Some people might be familiar with this jade. It belonged to a man from Lan Yue Camp. Well, I didn’t really like him but I was bored and had nothing to do. I thought it would be interesting to find out how this jade accessory appeared in a pawnshop in Songjia Town.
Cheng Nuo knew that Songjia was the town they went to! He couldn’t help but look at Chang Chun. Chang Chun’s hair covered half his face and he didn’t look at Cheng Nuo. Cheng Nuo was suddenly enlightened. Chang Chun was greedy and must have taken this jade.
Two brawny men lifted a sack and pulled it open, revealing two rotting corpses. It was Shang Wu and Zhu Liu!
The people from the slums hadn’t seen these corpses before and looked at each other in surprise.
Chu Yunxuan smiled and said, “Well, maybe some people don’t know. My Lan Yue Camp had a grudge to report. Our three hundred brothers take care of each other. Of course, sometimes people want to join us. If a person challenges one of our top ten men and wins, he can take over his position.”
His tone suddenly changed: “The deaths of these two is not to be regretted since their skills were lacking. However, since they seized the jade from one of the ten, they have to replace them and go to the mountains. I will count to ten. That rascal who took the jade should come forward. Otherwise… Don’t think that I can’t find you using other means. One, two …”
