Ink Burns

Chapter 6 The Rain Stopped

He Shanyue mustered up the courage to speak, but his voice was quickly drowned out by the noisy sounds of piano, pipa and drums, and no one responded.

Like insignificant bubbles, melting in the water.

Life is gone, but the wind passes by without leaving a trace.

He Shanyue looked at the frame of the cart. The hemp rope that hitched the cart had been soaked in tung oil and was thick and strong. Then she looked at the big drum that was only ten steps away from her. There was a lotus carved in relief on the edge of the drum. Now she could see it more clearly. The lotus was surrounded by a circle of gold-plated circles, which gave off an air of wealth and splendor.

He Shanyue took a step forward and slammed the drumstick hard on the drum—"Dong Dong Dong!"

The sound of stringed instruments stopped abruptly. The people on the carriage were stunned for a moment, and almost at the same time, their eyebrows raised in unison, their eyes drooped and they looked down calmly.

That's where the ants are.

"We won, right?" He Shanyue spoke loudly again.

Finally, someone on the frame laughed.

It was the burly man with sparse hair and eyebrows, his voice as high and sharp as before: "Hahahaha! Win? What do you mean by win? There are still four of you left! The last person left is the winner!"

The man's eyes wandered around the three people. After seeing the relationship between them clearly, he suddenly raised his hand and grinned: "Number 15, if you kill your mother and sister, you win! All this silver is yours!"

Finally, Qiu Erniang could no longer hold back and knelt on the ground with a plop. "We don't want the money! We don't want the money! Please let us go back! I will die, I will die, but I only ask you to let my two daughters live!"

The woman, who was the center of attention, frowned slightly and said, "I said I'm not impatient to listen to Songjiang!"

Two men in black stepped forward immediately, one grabbed Qiu Erniang's back, and the other pried open her mouth. With a flash of cold light, they raised their hands and slashed with their knives, and a piece of bloody tongue fell to the ground.

"Mother! Mother!" He Shuiguang screamed, cried helplessly, and rushed forward.

Qiu Erniang's eyes were wide open, her mouth was open, and blood was dripping down.

Everything came so fast!

He Shanyue's eyes suddenly filled with tears: "Mom!"

This is a demonstration.

If the mother and her two daughters don't take any action, someone will collect their bodies.

He Shanyue's eyes were hazy, her tears could not be wiped away and would not stop flowing. She finally took a deep breath, slowly raised her right hand, revealing a pair of sharpened scissors, and pointed the blades at the people on the frame.

The sound of stringed instruments stopped, and countless figures ready to go jumped out from the back of the mountain.

In the face of the darkness, He Shanyue's scissors were like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, so small that they were ridiculous.

"Do you keep your word?" He Shanyue raised the scissors in one hand with a cold expression, and turned the blade towards his mother whose face was covered in blood and his sister who was crying bitterly.

No one responded, but everyone on the carriage looked at her with warm and excited eyes.

"Ding——" the highest note of the strings was struck.

He Shanyue moved accordingly, dodged to the side and hid behind the round-eyed boy who had been silent all the time. He wrapped his left arm around the boy's neck and used his right hand to move it horizontally towards his throat. With strength bursting out from nowhere, He Shanyue dragged the round-eyed boy and quickly took several steps backwards. He leaned his back against a big tree, then he gasped and stuck out half of his head.

"If you let them go, I will let him go! I have only one worthless life, and I will not lose out if I exchange it one for one with you rich and powerful people!" He Shanyue shouted loudly.

The round-eyed boy raised his hands above his head and cried, "No. 15, I am also a pariah! What's the point of tying me up!?"

He Shanyue didn't want to talk to him. He exerted force with his right hand, and a blood mark instantly appeared on the round-eyed boy's neck.

The woman on the frame, who was the center of attention, stood up suddenly and said sternly, "How dare you!"

He Shanyue finally smiled fleetingly, and with a glance, He Shuiguang immediately supported Qiu Erniang and staggered to hide behind He Shanyue.

"You can try to see if I dare!" He Shanyue said loudly: "You like to watch people being killed, so I will kill people for you to see! Who is this piglet I am killing?"

He Shanyue shouted, "Is he the young master from the capital? How stupid! Even though he's wearing linen clothes, they look as new as if they were just made today!"

"You young masters and young ladies have never walked on mountain roads, have you?! Running in such high bushes, the hems of your clothes should have been torn to shreds a long time ago, how could they still be so neat!"

"What's even worse is that you kidnapped thirty-four people, but there were only four men. I could remember the faces of the four men after just one scan, but suddenly a strange face appeared halfway through - bah! Although our lives may be cheap, our brains are not stupid! Although you have a good reincarnation, your stupidity will be punished by heaven!"

"The funniest thing is, I held up the torch, but no one came forward - my proof was successful! This white-skinned piglet must be secretly protected by someone, which isolates him from all possible dangers!"

He Shanyue said sarcastically, "As the old saying goes, when you have nothing to do after eating, you either jump off a cliff or die. Others watch cockfighting, but you watch people fighting! It's not enough to just watch, you even come out to fight in person! As you wished, now, the fight has finally fallen into the hands of us, a bunch of lowly people!"

He Shuiguang helped Qiu Erniang hide behind a big tree.

Too bright.

It took almost four or five breaths before the two dared to move backwards again.

The people on the carriage were extremely angry, especially the woman with the teardrop mole, but no one dared to order a kill. The man on the far left finally spoke, slowly stood up, crossed his arms, and looked at He Shanyue calmly: "When did you realize that we were not going to leave anyone alive?"

He Shanyue quickly turned his gaze to the man in white: "At the beginning."

The man in white frowned: "Why?"

He Shanyue laughed sarcastically: "Your rules say 'the last person alive has a chance to take the silver away' and 'the winner can sleep peacefully with the silver' - 'have a chance' is the same as impossible; 'sleep peacefully together' -"

"Only the dead can sleep peacefully together with a dead object like this hill!"

He Shanyue laughed: "You never thought of letting us live!"

As he spoke, the blade cut the skin of the round-eyed boy. Blood flowed down his neck into his clothes, and soon dyed the collar and chest red.

“No, no, no!” The round-eyed boy finally fell into real panic and raised his eyes: “Sister! Save me! Sister!”

The tear-mole woman threw the wine cup to the ground viciously, "Bitch! How dare you, a lowly bitch, plot against us!"

Many arrows were aimed at He Shanyue, and He Shuiguang and Qiu Erniang who were retreating little by little.

Qiu Erniang clung to the tree trunk tightly, shaking her head, unable to speak, but tears and blood flowed from her eyes.

He Shuiguang cried and fell backwards, wanting to reach out and touch the corner of his sister's clothes.

"Run!" He Shanyue turned his head and lowered his voice. His eyes were like two burning torches under the oil-paper lamp that was as bright as day. "Run! Run to the west and think carefully about what's in your arms!"

He Shanyue said viciously: "Use your brain! Live with your back teeth clenched! Live well!"

What's in your arms?
He Shuiguang's eyes were blurred with tears, but suddenly they brightened up. He pulled Qiu Erniang over and quickly ran west while the people on the carriage were still furious.

Qiu Erniang's tears of blood fell and she shook her head again and again with difficulty.

"Go!" He Shanyue shouted angrily, and the strength in his hands increased, and the blade went deeper.

The round-eyed boy screamed, "Sister! Please let them go first! Sister!"

The woman on the bicycle frame turned around and around. I don't know how long the stalemate lasted, and then I heard someone screaming: "It's a fire! It's a fire! It's a fire! It's a fire!"

In the forest not far away, a huge fire suddenly broke out!
The high temperature of the past seven or eight days had dried up the moisture in the trees in the forest! There was not only one fire, but several fires gathered in a nearby place and quickly connected into one. The haystacks placed on the platform absorbed all the suspected sparks, and the sparks spread to the hemp rope soaked in tung oil.

He Shanyue's back is scorching.

The round-eyed boy screamed one after another.

The situation in front of the frame was a mess.

The man in white on the left had a cold expression on his face and spoke again: "Archers, shoot."

"No! A Yuan is there!" The woman gently pulled the man's sleeve.

The man in white raised his hand slightly, letting the woman's fingers slip away imperceptibly. "Either be burned to death or have your throat cut. Yuan, you have to choose one, right?"

The man in white's tone did not change much from beginning to end, but now there was a hint of obvious sarcasm in his voice: "Only a fool would be so interested in becoming prey."

After mocking, he raised his hand and hooked his finger, "Shoot No. 15. There is a fire burning behind her. It is impossible for her to have no loopholes. Now if we kill her, we can still save Ah Yuan--" He paused, "Although she is a fool, she is also a fool in the Princess's Mansion. She must be saved."

The man in white raised his finger, and the arrow pierced through the rising fire with precise momentum and struck straight at him.

He Shanyue groaned as the arrow nailed his shoulder to the tree trunk.

The round-eyed boy took advantage of the situation and crawled forward, crying and pissing his pants.

The fire grew bigger and bigger, and the flames finally kissed the tung oil hemp rope. The people on the frame abandoned the car in panic and fled. Before leaving, they shouted angrily: "Add a few more fires! Burn it all! Fortunately, there are people here, otherwise it would be a real bummer!"

The fire was very big, flames shot up to the sky, and billowing smoke and heat waves came in waves.

He Shanyue was half-kneeling on the ground, the hot dust entering her lungs, and she was about to lose consciousness.

In a daze, or perhaps it was a dream, she seemed to see Qiu Erniang, her face covered in blood, rushing through the sea of fire in dripping clothes. Her hunched body had never been raised so high before, and she pulled out the arrow nailed to her shoulder, then made a "squeaky" sound as she gestured to hide her in her shriveled arms.

In the sea of fire, Qiu Erniang hugged her eldest daughter who was almost unconscious tightly.

He Shanyue was curled up in his mother's belly, like a baby just entering the world.

He Shanyue shed a tear unconsciously.

Now, she no longer has the strength to repay her mother's selfless gift of life with a cry.

　Ah, it’s half an hour late, but there are three thousand words, so I’ll make up for it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)