CHAPTER 54: CHAPTER 53: TALLYING CASUALTIES

The leader was about to flee, with one arm broken, the rest of the lackeys instantly fell apart.

Liu Fei, filled with a rush of blood, shouted, "Let’s fight them and take everything back!"

Everyone responded immediately, their eyes red with urgency, even stripping the clothes off the bandits.

The sound of horses’ hooves thundered as the bandits who weren’t greedy rode with the leader out of the villagers’ encirclement.

The greedy ones, who tried to grab something before leaving, were all left behind by the villagers whose eyes were blazing with anger.

A few people dealt with one, bringing hoes and sickles together.

Liu Bai rushed into the courtyard, asking Qin Yao if they should continue the chase.

Qin Yao replied in a deep voice, "Chase! Of course, we must chase! The bandit leader must die!"

Then she dashed out.

Liu Bai quickly called for the villagers to follow, and a large group of villagers gallantly pursued the bandits to the village entrance and onto the small road.

But two legs couldn’t outrun the four legs of horses; eventually, they were left far behind.

Only Qin Yao kept on chasing wildly, finally aiming at the back of the bandit leader and shooting an arrow fiercely!

He intended to shoot another arrow, but the bandits had already turned into the valley, she held her bow and aimed for a while, finally lowering it.

With an arrow in him, plus a broken arm, there’s absolutely no chance of survival!

Liu Fei, leading two other boys of his age, caught up panting, "Third... sister-in-law, should we keep chasing?"

Qin Yao looked at the entrance of the valley ahead and shook her head.

Looking back at Liu Fei with a face full of bandit blood, her mouth couldn’t help but turn up, "Young man, you performed well today."

Liu Fei couldn’t manage a smile at all; he had just killed in rage and didn’t feel anything, but now realized he might have killed someone, sending a chill down his spine.

Qin Yao noticed the young man’s fear, patted his shoulder and returned to the village entrance together.

Liu Dafu immediately dashed out from the crowd, kneeling before Qin Yao, gratefully thanking her for saving them.

Qin Yao helped him up, looked at the burning back courtyard of Liu Dafu’s house, reminding him, "Put out the fire first."

Liu Dafu repeatedly agreed, and villagers voluntarily joined the firefighting team.

By the time the sun set, the fire had been extinguished.

Every household sent representatives, gathering in the ancestral hall.

Those who couldn’t get in crowded the doorway until there was no room to move.

"Miss Qin is here!"

Someone shouted, and inside the hall, the village chief, clan elders, and the most severely affected Liu Dafu family all stood up.

Qin Yao had gone home to change her clothes and told her family that the bandits had left, comforted the four frightened children, ate the pork, tofu, and cabbage porridge carefully served by Liu Ji, and then brought a red lantern to the ancestral hall.

Liu Ji and the four children followed, but unfortunately, they couldn’t enter the hall.

However, because of Qin Yao, the villagers at the door made room for Liu Ji.

Perhaps it was the dim light, but everyone looked at Liu Ji with much gentler eyes.

Liu Ji was extremely flattered, for when had he ever received such treatment in the village?

He didn’t even know what had happened in the village, so the villagers explained how Qin Yao had made the bandit leader flee.

Liu Ji’s eyes widened in disbelief as he looked toward Qin Yao inside the hall, not expecting her to be unafraid even of the bandit leader.

The four Da Lang siblings revealed expressions of admiration; their stepmother was actually so impressive!

Qin Yao sat down on an empty bench in the hall, pointing to the bandit corpses outside, "Are the corpses not to be dealt with?"

The village chief explained he had already sent someone to report to the government; it would take until dawn for the officers to arrive.

The corpses had to wait for the officers before deciding how to handle them.

Qin Yao nodded in understanding.

The clan elders looked at her with kindly eyes, asking if she had any other questions, and then stopped discussing serious matters.

Qin Yao gave a light smile and shook her head.

The clan leader stood up, his eldest son holding a notebook and pen, recording each family’s damage and casualties.

The atmosphere during this process was somber, except for those families being asked; everyone else remained silent.

Encountering such an event during the New Year, no one felt happy.

In the village, there were a total of forty-two households, with two hundred eighteen women, children, and elderly.

Today, six villagers died, including two women, two elderly, and two young adults.

More than half were injured, with eighty-nine minor injuries and twelve serious ones.

Fortunately, the old doctor was unharmed and was currently treating the injured villagers at Liu Dafu’s house.

Among the twelve seriously injured, Liu Dafu’s family accounted for three.

The two elderly who died were Liu Dafu’s parents.

The Liu Family’s old house household was mostly unharmed, with Liu Bai and Liu Fei only suffering minor injuries, needing only a little medicine from the old doctor, and two doses should suffice.

Mrs. Zhang prayed repeatedly at home, grateful for heavenly protection.

Old Liu snorted, "If you’re going to thank anyone, it should be the third daughter’s-in-law."

Mrs. Zhang nodded in agreement, yet glared at Old Liu, not daring to disrespect heaven.

Old Liu gazed at the home ransacked by the bandits, his eyes moistening, taking a deep breath to swallow his emotions, rolled up his sleeves and began tidying up.

In every household, the situations were similar; some were generally tragic, others particularly so.

The clan leader finished collecting statistics and reported the financial losses of each family.

Since the bandits got away, there wasn’t much loss of livestock and grain, but most of the silver coin was unretrievable.

When discussing this, he had to mention Qin Yao again. If it weren’t for her leading the charge today, the village’s situation would be unimaginable.

Especially Liu Dafu, who publicly thanked Qin Yao and then the villagers in front of the clan elders.

He said, "If it weren’t for Miss Qin and everyone today, my whole family might have perished under the bandits’ knives. Now we’ve saved our lives and our grain. I want to take half of my family’s grain and distribute it to the villagers who came to help at my family...."

Liu Dafu’s actions stirred an intense emotion among everyone; some villagers who were too afraid to stand up at the time deeply regretted it.

Qin Yao understood Liu Dafu’s reasons for doing this.

First, he genuinely wanted to express gratitude.

Secondly, his family’s stash of grain was pulled out by the bandits, essentially exposing it to everyone.

Normally, people only knew the Liu family was wealthy, owning more than half of the village’s land, but nobody knew the exact numbers.

Now, this number was blatantly laid bare, though everyone was still immersed in the event with the bandits and hadn’t realized it, once they calm down after tonight, they would remember.

This much grain would surely attract hungry wolves, just thinking about it was frightening.

Now with his three sons severely injured, if something were to happen, they wouldn’t be able to handle it; it was better to distribute the grain, saving the worry of it being coveted.

Moreover, this way, those receiving the grain would naturally support his family, deterring ill-intentioned people.

The villagers had just gone through a bandit attack, now was the time when comfort was needed. Liu Dafu’s action also helped the clan leader and elders solve this problem.

No one opposed, so Liu Dafu found trustworthy villagers to move the grain from his house, right at the ancestral hall.

The joy of receiving grain temporarily dispersed the gloom brought by the bandits.