Chapter 125: Let Me Go! I’ll Kill You!

Chapter 125: Chapter 125: Let Me Go! I’ll Kill You!

Having received repeated instructions from the Goddess and the village chief, Hunter Wang gulped down a mouthful of hot tea to soothe his throat and shouted to his fellow night watchmen, "Brothers, look alive! We must keep a close eye on this man tonight. It determines whether our entire village will live in grand courtyards or thatched huts once the snowstorm is over!"

Zhou Dashan declared impassionedly, "If we let him escape, where would we put our faces? If those one thousand taels are gone, we’ll be the sinners of the whole village!"

"That’s right! We aren’t guarding a man tonight; we’re guarding silver!"

"We absolutely cannot let him slip away!"

Zhang Dayong chimed in, "The Goddess said that if he wakes up and dares to resist, we should knock him out immediately. Just leave him with a single breath of life."

"COUGH COUGH!" Perhaps because their voices were too loud, the tightly bound madman woke up.

As soon as he woke up, the madman instinctively felt a sharp pain in his head. He tried to reach up and touch it, only to find his hands bound tight. A vicious gleam flashed in his eyes.

"Where am I?!" He let out a low, beast-like growl; his words carried a dangerous, murderous aura, like a wild animal suppressing its rage.

"Who are you people?! Let me go!" He issued a matter-of-fact warning, "Believe it or not, I’ll kill you all."

"Heh heh... heh heh..." He laughed merrily as if he had just thought of something wonderful, revealing a mouth full of eerie teeth. His smile stretched so wide it almost reached the back of his head, and a faint, ghostly green light seemed to flicker in his eyes.

He struggled fiercely on the ground. Unfortunately for him, Hunter Wang was an expert at tying up prey. After struggling for a long time, the ropes on his body didn’t budge an inch, leaving him trembling with anger.

"Let me go! I’ll kill you all!" His tone was brimming with malice. He continuously bared his teeth at Hunter Wang and the others, appearing both terrifyingly calm and utterly insane.

Hunter Wang conversed with the other men. "Why do I feel like this guy isn’t an ordinary madman? He speaks clearly and even knows how to threaten people!"

Tian Ergou nodded. "Wasn’t there a madman in the county town who killed someone before? When he went crazy, he couldn’t even speak clearly. After the government officers caught him, he couldn’t tell a man from a woman, even mistaking his own father for a brothel girl. He would yell, scream, and act completely irrationally, and he was filthy all over. This man the Goddess brought here clearly speaks well and knows how to make threats. Most importantly, he is fair and clean—better looking than the wealthy young masters in town. It’s too bizarre."

"Maybe he’s just a pure bad seed who killed someone, and that’s why the government officers in the Immortal Realm called him a madman," Zhou Dashan guessed.

Chen Mazi said with righteous indignation, "To kill his own biological sister makes him no different from an animal! Calling him a madman is already flattering him."

Perhaps the madman was unnerved by their strange attire, as he began to panic a little. "Let me go! I have money in my pockets. I’ll give you money!"

"Ignore him. We’re only responsible for keeping watch until dawn." Hunter Wang shook his head at the night watchmen.

The others nodded and changed the subject, starting to talk about other matters.

"AHHHHH!" Suddenly, the madman on the ground began screaming frantically without warning. He slammed his head repeatedly against the floor, startling Hunter Wang and the others.

Hunter Wang quickly pulled a ragged cloth used for wiping hands and feet out of his pocket and stuffed it into the man’s mouth. "Gag him, or he’ll disturb the Goddess and the villagers while they sleep."

Tian Ergou added, "Gagging him not only shuts him up but also prevents him from biting his tongue to commit suicide. Put something under his head too, so he doesn’t bash his own brains out!"

After having his mouth stuffed by Hunter Wang, the madman dry-heaved a few times before going completely still. He stared blankly toward the doorway with dim eyes, whimpering from time to time. A burlap sack filled with straw was also placed under his head as a cushion.

Yun Zhen was resting in the village tonight.

Xiaobao came looking for her, hugging a pillow. With her big, bright, grape-like eyes staring longingly at her, she said, "Xiaobao wants to sleep with Mother."

Yun Zhen lifted the girl onto the bed. "Alright. Mother isn’t going anywhere tonight. Xiaobao can sleep with me."

Yun Duo brought over her granddaughter’s two large dolls.

"Zhen Niang, that bandit was vicious and wicked. Were you hurt by him?" Earlier, her daughter had been busy dealing with the bandit, so she didn’t want to interrupt. Now that things had settled down, Yun Duo couldn’t help but ask out of concern.

"Don’t worry, Mother. The bandit originally wanted to smash me to death with an iron hammer. I simply brought him directly to the village entrance, planning to let Uncle Wang deal with him. But in the end, he knocked himself out from a fall, saving the villagers the trouble of doing it themselves. I wasn’t hurt at all." Yun Zhen spread her arms to let her mother inspect her. Seeing that she didn’t have a single scratch, Yun Duo breathed a sigh of relief and set her mind at ease.

Yun Duo smiled. "Do the exact same thing if you encounter danger in the future. If you can’t handle it yourself, bring the person back to the village and let the villagers deal with them. Everyone throwing a single rock would be enough to crush them to death."

In the very beginning, Yun Zhen hadn’t been confident either; she had been terrified. However, all of that was in the past now. There was no need to tell her mother and add to her worries. "I know. Hurry and go rest, Mother. Xiaobao will sleep here with me tonight."

Yun Duo returned to her own room.

Carpenter Zhao came through the door carrying the wooden items he and Hunter Wang’s family had crafted. "Goddess, Hunter Wang was assigned by you to guard the prisoner, so he asked me to bring over the finished woodwork. I made thirty hairpins and five three-tiered solid wood jewelry boxes. Hunter Wang and his son made a total of sixty small wooden ornaments today."

"Uncle Zhao, thank you and Uncle Wang for your hard work."

Yun Zhen inspected the items and found no issues with their quality, so she directly stored them into the treasured land in her mind.

Carpenter Zhao said, "If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave now. Get some rest early, Goddess."

Yun Zhen nodded.

After he left, Li Cuilan followed closely behind. "Goddess, did you buy the crochet material kits today?"

Yun Zhen shook her head. "Aunt Cui Lan, I ran into a bandit on my way back today and brought him straight here, so I didn’t buy the kits. There’s no rush; I’ll buy more tomorrow."

Li Cuilan nodded. "Alright, then I’ll have everyone work on making clothes tonight. We’ll cut the fabric first."

Yun Zhen said with concern, "Don’t overwork everyone. There’s still almost a month until the New Year."

Li Cuilan replied, "We’ll only work for two hours. The candlelight at night isn’t good; it can’t compare to broad daylight. We’ll just cut the fabric tonight and do nothing else."

After a pause, she added, "Goddess, if you don’t need anything else, I’ll go have everyone pick out their fabrics."

"Alright." Once she left, Yun Zhen let out a deep sigh. Her eyelids grew heavy, and her tense mind completely relaxed. Stifling a yawn, she embraced her daughter and fell asleep.

A night of deep slumber!

In her dream, she found herself in an Immortal Realm filled with the fragrance of flowers and the singing of birds. As she bathed in the warm sunlight, something suddenly plummeted from the sky. They were gleaming white and heavy, but they didn’t hurt at all when they hit her. She caught a whole pile of them in her arms. Looking down, good heavens! They were all sparkling silver ingots! She burst into excited laughter!

The next day, Yun Zhen woke up laughing from her sweet dream. Afraid of waking her daughter, she tiptoed softly to the meeting room. The madman was whimpering weakly on the floor. Tian Ergou and Chen Mazi were chatting about everyday matters, while the others were sleeping soundly.

"Goddess!" Tian Ergou called out.

Hunter Wang hastily scrambled up. "Ah! The Goddess is here."

Zhou Dashan rubbed his eyelids, stretched lazily, and glanced outside. "It’s dawn."

Hunter Wang reported, "Goddess, we haven’t failed our mission. The madman is still alive, and he hasn’t escaped!"

"You’ve all worked hard, Uncles. Go back and get some rest. I’m going to take him back to the Immortal Realm. If all goes smoothly, we’ll be able to get the one thousand taels of reward silver tonight!" Yun Zhen said to the night watchmen, giving a light kick to the madman on the floor, who had lost all strength to resist.

"Haha, to think a single madman is worth one thousand taels!" Zhou Dashan was overjoyed.

Yun Zhen took the madman and returned to her dorm room.