RWNEFE -Chapter 75 Wu Youliang’s Death!

When Wu Youliang saw that his identity had been exposed, he flew into a rage. If he couldn’t have it easy, then no one else would either.

“What are you all so smug about? Village Head, I’m afraid you still don’t know what kind of people you’ve taken in, do you?”

Everyone’s faces changed drastically. By the time they tried to rush forward to stop Wu Youliang, it was already too late.

“They’re the Shen family who caused the deaths of the Wei Family Army—they’re exiles who stole military funds!” Wu Youliang shouted, a triumphant, ferocious grin on his face after finishing.

“Now you’re scared, huh?”

“Trying to shut me up? Why didn’t you do that earlier!”

“Too late!”

“Everyone here is an exile. I’m just a petty thief, but they’re traitors to the state!”

All the Shen family members turned deathly pale, their bodies trembling.

The villagers of Gulan Village were terrified as well, standing there in stunned silence for a long while.

A figure rushed forward and pinned Wu Youliang down, beating him fiercely.

“So you dare spout nonsense! Just because your own hands aren’t clean, you want to drag us down with you? You ungrateful bastard—back on the road, we should’ve let the refugees tear you apart…”

Liu Laohu reacted and, seeing that Liu Yanhui couldn’t restrain Wu Youliang alone, ran over and kicked him twice.

“You bastard! You had food to eat and drinks to have all along the way—how did we wrong you, for you to harm us like this?!”

Shen Yuanjing also ran over and kicked him.

“This toad wanted to eat swan meat. When our family didn’t agree, he bore a grudge. Let’s beat him up and send him to the authorities to rot in jail!”

When the words “send him to the authorities” were heard, the faces of the Gulan Village people looked a bit better. If they really were criminals, they would definitely stay far away from the county office!

Shen Yuanruan’s eyes filled with hatred. She scrambled up and pointed at the corner of the wall, shouting, “I saw him hide all the stolen money there!”

The Shen family looked at Shen Yuanruan with complicated expressions.

Liu Laohu quickly had the constables dig out the money pouch. Inside were a few scattered pieces of silver—less than ten taels altogether.

“Village Head, let this money count as compensation for his theft.”

The village head was just about to take the silver when a woman suddenly ran over and said, “Village Head, our two chickens were stolen.”

The village head’s face changed. Just as he was about to withdraw his hand, Liu Yanhui said, “When we leave tomorrow, we’ll leave another sack of grain for the village.”

Remembering the amount of grain in a sack from earlier that day, the village head silently took the money pouch.

“You all leave early tomorrow. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, our village will treat it as if you were never here.”

Liu Laohu, Liu Yanhui, and the others quickly nodded in agreement.

As soon as the villagers were sent off, the refugees swarmed forward and savagely beat Wu Youliang!

They had finally eaten their fill and were about to get a good night’s sleep, all of which this bastard had ruined. Worse yet, he had exposed their identities as exiles—he was trying to get them killed!

Since he wanted them dead, they weren’t about to let Wu Youliang live.

Fists and kicks fell like raindrops, no one holding back. At first Wu Youliang groaned, but after a while, he went completely silent.

No one cared whether he was alive or dead. Only when they were exhausted did they stop.

Liu Laohu casually had the constables tie Wu Youliang up and then went to sleep.

They still had to travel the next day—no one was going to delay the journey because of a piece of trash.

After everyone had fallen asleep, a low, pressed voice sounded by Shen Yuanruan’s ear.

“If Wu Youliang wakes up, he’ll definitely smear your reputation again. When that happens, he’ll cling to the family and force you to marry him. In outsiders’ eyes, you’ve already lost your chastity—other than marrying him, there would be no other way out.”

Not long after, a black shadow quietly slipped out.

~

“Wu Youliang’s body is stiff—he’s been dead for quite a while!”

“Brother Liu, what do we do?”

“What’s so strange about someone dying on the road to exile? Same as usual—cut off one ear to report back, put the body in a sack, and bury it once we’re farther away!”

…

After martial practice, the Shen family lined up to receive pastries.

Shen Yuanjing looked at Shen Yuanruan as she came up and handed her a piece of cake.

“The past is over. Learn from it and focus on practicing martial arts properly.”

Shen Yuanruan silently accepted it. She walked under the shade of a tree and was just about to eat when a hand stretched out in front of her.

“Elder Sister, I remember you don’t like sweet things. From now on, give all your sweets to me!”

Shen Yuanruan stood up, wanting to leave.

“Elder Sister doesn’t want people to know what you went out to do last night, right?”

Shen Yuanruan’s expression changed. Her heart instantly sank to the bottom.

“Younger Sister, I don’t like sweet things. From now on, I’ll give all the pastries I get to you.”

Shen Yuanxin smiled innocently. “I might have been dreaming last night—dreamed that Elder Sister went out. In reality, Elder Sister didn’t go out at all.”

“Elder Sister, you’d better remember what you just said. If one day you forget, but I remember… that wouldn’t be very nice~”

~

“Big Brother, I saw that you haven’t eaten any pastries. This sweet cake is for you!” Shen Yuanxin said with an innocent smile, holding the pastry out to Shen Lanxi with both hands.

Shen Lanxi raised her hand and took it, holding it without eating.

Seeing this, Shen Yuanxin’s smile grew even more harmless. “Big Brother, yesterday I heard Second Aunt say that Grandmother might fall ill. She and the other two aunts discussed that if Grandmother does get sick, they’ll have Father come to find you!”

Shen Lanxi glanced at Shen Yuanxin and nodded, signaling her to continue.

Seeing that she was willing to listen, Shen Yuanxin felt delighted and immediately said, “Third Uncle and Fourth Uncle saw that Second Uncle got pastries, and they said they want to come learn martial arts too!”

“They said it in front of Father. Father didn’t say anything—he might actually be happy that they want to come!”

“My brothers have gone to learn staff techniques from Master Hu. Big Brother, can I go learn too?”

Shen Lanxi said, “Yes.” As for whether Wei Dongzhu was willing to teach her, that wasn’t her concern.

Because their identities had been exposed in Gulan Village, both Liu Yanhui and Liu Laohu were very worried. After discussing it, they went to see Shen Lanxi.

“I suggest we stop resting during the day and speed up our march,” Liu Yanhui said.

Liu Laohu replied, “Agreed!”

Shen Lanxi also nodded in agreement.

They traveled like this for another two days. Due to exhaustion and excessive worry, Grandmother Shen developed a high fever at night. In less than half a day, Old Master Shen also fell ill.

Shen Congwen didn’t go to look for his daughter. Instead, he went directly to Zhang Niu.

“Doctor Zhang, the elders in my family are sick. Please trouble yourself to take a look.”

Zhang Niu hadn’t come along to treat exiles in the first place. If he hadn’t been worried about Wei Dongzhu, he wouldn’t have followed them to suffer like this at all.

“Do you have silver for the consultation fee?”

Shen Congwen froze.

Zhang Niu said mercilessly, “You don’t think I’m also an exile, do you? That seeing patients doesn’t cost money?”

Shen Congwen was so ashamed his face flushed. He quickly lowered his head and went back.

The result was predictable. The Shen family searched themselves thoroughly and couldn’t scrape together even a single copper coin.

They truly had nothing.

What they hoped for most now was to run into another chance to make a fortune—when that happened, they would all jump on it without hesitation.

Shen Congwen had originally thought he could resolve the matter without seeking out his daughter. In the end, he still had to go to her.

“Lanxi…” Standing before his daughter, he had no confidence at all.