Ask the mountains and rivers

Chapter 43 Bait
The grain was all put into the thatched hut. The silver box was moved into Pei Qinghe's room and then disappeared.

The two bandits who were leading the way were tied up and thrown into the house.

Pei Qinghe did not beat or scold them, but simply gave them half a steamed bun and half a bowl of water each day. After three days, the bandits were so hungry that their limbs were weak and their hands and feet were limp.

On the fourth day, Pei Qinghe appeared before the bandits.

The five bandits, starving and seeing stars, were filled with despair.

It's over! They've confessed everything they needed to, so they're useless now. The female Yama has come to claim their lives!

"Drag them out," Pei Qinghe ordered slowly. "Hang them on the trees north of the village."

Their hands and feet were still tightly bound, and the rag in their mouths hadn't been removed. The five bandits were dragged out like dead pigs and then hung under a tree.

The north side of Peijia Village faces the direction of the Black Bear Village in the mountains.

Five bandits were hanging from five large trees. A mountain breeze blew, the branches swayed, and the ropes swung back and forth. The bandits hanging from the trees swayed back and forth like bait on a fishing rod.

Pei Yan squatted on a tree, carrying a bow and arrows on her back and holding a knife in her hand, her eyes fixed intently on the empty wilderness.

When you're hungry, you can eat meat buns; when you're thirsty, there's warm water in your water pouch.

The bandits who were hung up didn't receive such treatment; they had no food or water and were exposed to the scorching sun all day. As night fell and the weather turned cold with howling winds, they remained hanging under the trees.

The people squatting in the trees had changed.

"Cousin Qinghe, it's too hard for you to keep watch all night." Pei Yan felt sorry for her cousin and straightened her chest, saying, "Let me do it!"

Pei Qinghe chuckled and patted Pei Yan's braid: "If the bandits don't come to rescue us during the day, they'll most likely come at night. I'll keep watch. You should go to sleep. Don't sleep too soundly. When you hear the bamboo whistle, get up immediately and follow my instructions."

After Pei Yan left, Pei Qinghe used both hands to climb the tree, as nimbly and silently as a monkey, and disappeared into the dense foliage. She waited quietly for the fish that would soon be lured by the bait.

Exhausted and chilled to the bone, the bandits, witnessing this scene, closed their eyes in despair and awaited death.

Will the people from Black Bear Village come?

of course.

The Black Bear patriarch led dozens of men down the mountain with great fanfare, but several days have passed without a word. They were determined to go down and investigate. Once they approached Pei Family Village and saw their comrade hanging from a tree, they would surely be enraged. Waiting until nightfall to make their move was already their limit.

As soon as the third watch of the night passed, there was movement in the wilderness.

Pei Qinghe, who had been quietly lying among the branches and leaves, twitched her ears slightly, quickly stood up and looked out, blowing her bamboo whistle without hesitation.

The quiet Peijia Village was stirred by the sound of bamboo whistles. Dozens of figures darted about, some climbing onto rooftops, others hiding in the shadows, all drawing their bows and arrows.

Whoosh!
Pei Qinghe released the arrow from the bow.

The longbow of the Tuomu had an extremely long range, and the arrowheads, forged from fine iron, were exceptionally sharp. A dark figure hundreds of paces away was struck and fell straight to the ground.

Without hesitation, Pei Qinghe continued to draw his bow and shoot arrows. As he fired the third arrow, Pei Yan and the others followed suit, firing their own arrows.

In the darkness, not everyone possesses Pei Qinghe's eyesight and accuracy. Of the volley of arrows, only a few truly struck the enemy.

But for the bandits who came to rescue them, it was already terrifying enough.

The village, shrouded in darkness, resembled a monster with its jaws gaping open. Five companions, swaying aimlessly under a tree, seemed to foreshadow their impending fate.

Those who rushed to the front had already reached the foot of the tree.

The last bandit watched as a person jumped down from the tree. The person was neither tall nor intimidating; it was clearly a young girl who had not yet reached adulthood.

With a single swing of her knife, the cunning and scheming second-in-command was cleaved in two.

The bandits were terrified and ran away without uttering a sound.

Once the first one fled, a second and a third followed. Pei Qinghe caught a glimpse of someone escaping out of the corner of her eye, but had no time to chase after them, focusing instead on wielding her knife to kill the bandits before her. Pei Yan wanted to rush after them, but Pei Qinghe sternly rebuked her: "Don't pursue a desperate enemy!"

Unable to give chase, Pei Yan channeled her pent-up anger into her longsword, and with a swift stroke, killed two men in succession.

An hour later, almost all of the more than twenty bandits who came to rescue the people were killed, leaving only three survivors, all of whom were wounded.

At Pei Qinghe's command, three more swaying figures appeared under the tree.

……

The bandits who had fled into the mountains gathered together, their faces pale.

"She's a female assassin!"

"The boss must be dead, and now the second-in-command is dead too. What do we do now?"

"Let's go back to the village first and ask the third leader what he thinks."

"Yes, we have to go back and deliver the message. We can't be foolish and send them all to their deaths."

The bandits quickly reached a consensus: escaping back to the stronghold to deliver the message (and save their lives) was the priority. They dared not stop for a moment, as if pursued by evil spirits, and did not even look back along the way.

The third leader, who was waiting in Black Bear Stronghold, saw the bandits who had fled back in a panic and his face turned black: "You guys actually ran back halfway! I'll chop you all up!"

The bandits pleaded with mournful faces, "Third Master! This really isn't our fault!"

"You didn't see it with your own eyes. That female assassin shot an arrow from afar, and it didn't miss!"

"She killed the second-in-command with a single slash!"

"Our leader must be dead at her hands too. We've lost more than half our men. Now we're all left. Let's divide the money, food, and women and escape!"

The third leader was skeptical, so he first tied up the few who had escaped back and questioned them separately, but they still said the same things.

Black Bear Village has over a hundred people. Of the hundred who went down the mountain twice, only a few returned. At most, there are only about thirty people left in the village who can actually fight.

Should we go down the mountain or not? Should we rescue them or not (or send them to their deaths)?
The third leader hesitated for half the night, then gritted his teeth and said, "No, I have to go down the mountain and see what's going on. This time, I won't go in the middle of the night; I'll rush over in broad daylight."

The third leader led thirty men down the mountain.

Only a few bandits who had escaped back to deliver the message and refused to come down the mountain again remained in Black Bear Village, along with about twenty women and thirty or forty children.

One day and one night passed.

Seven or eight people scrambled into the village, shouting, "Quick! Close the gate!"

"The third leader was captured alive and hung from a tree."

"There's a female demon in that village who kills without blinking an eye. She's absolutely terrifying!"

……

Ta-da-da!
The sound of horses' hooves shattered the tranquility of Peijia Village.

Mao Hongling, who was busy digging a hole, suddenly trembled, and her voice quivered: "Qing, Qinghe! Listen! What's that sound!"

"Where did all these horses come from! Could it be that all the bandits got wind of this and came here?"

Pei Qinghe's eyes flashed: "Don't panic."

“They’re not bandits. Bandits wouldn’t have this many horses. Judging from the sound of hooves, they must be warhorses.”

(End of this chapter)