Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After dinner, Ling Chengyan prepared to teach Xiao Xing to read and write when her eldest sister-in-law brought Hongling and Hong Zhi over.
Ling Chengyan didn’t stand on ceremony and invited the two girls to join Xiao Xing in learning to read and write.
During this training session, she saw the benefits of having a blackboard, so she nailed a piece of white fabric with small floral patterns on the wall and hung it with two clips. The big characters she wrote were clipped on for learning purpose.
She pondered to herself, thinking this wasn’t convenient enough. She planned to ask a carpenter later to make her a proper blackboard.
After teaching five large characters and watching the three girls finish writing, Ling Chengyan corrected their work and took out a picture book as a reward. Seeing it was getting late, her eldest sister-in-law and the three of them left.
After seeing them off, Xiao Xing fell asleep in the quilt, and Ling Chengyan blocked the doorway with a rolled-up quilt and slipped out quietly.
She headed east; east of Nanli Village was a large area of mixed woods and wasteland, quite so distance from the village.
Ling Chengyan approached the edge of the woods, set up a prepared noose, and took sothing out of her satchel. It was a standard pistol, dark and hollow.
The moonlight wasn’t very bright, but it didn’t hinder Ling Chengyan’s skillful disassembly and assembly.
The next morning, before the two kids woke up, Ling Chengyan went out again.
The trap she set the night before caught two wild rabbits. One was strangled by the neck, dead, and the other, looking plump, was actually still alive.
Ling Chengyan approached, picked up the live, plump rabbit, noticed its bulging belly, and realized it was a mother rabbit with young inside.
She sighed, intending to release the rabbit, but then stopped herself, thinking: it wouldn’t harm to keep the mother rabbit since she’d soon give birth, resulting in a litter of kits.
She tied the rabbit’s leg with a thin string, put it into a basket, and walked ho with a smile: Xiao Xing would definitely like the baby rabbits; it could be a plaything for the little girl.
Sure enough, Xiao Xing realized the mother rabbit was pregnant and was thrilled. She wanted to take the basket to the field to dig up vegetables for feeding, abandoning her breakfast in her excitent.
Ling Chengyan amusingly stopped the little girl: "Wash your face and eat first; after that, you can go to work with . You’re just in ti to dig vegetables."
Xiao Xing agreed with a smile, led Da Huang to see the new family mber, the mother rabbit, and mumbled instructions to Da Huang to guard the rabbit, not letting dogs or cats harm them.
Listening to Xiao Xing’s muttering, Ling Chengyan shook her head in amusent but was indeed reminded of sothing.
There were so leftover bricks from house construction at ho; unsure if they were enough to build a rabbit cage...also needed so tiles...
As it turned out, she didn’t have to worry about it.
By noon, her two cousins brought over bricks and tiles and set up the rabbit pen in half an hour.
Ling Chengyan stewed the wild rabbit, filled a soup bowl with rabbit at stewed with eggplant, and asked her two cousins to take it ho.
Wang Lianfa didn’t refuse, accepted it with a laugh, and took it ho.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
This morning, Ling Chengyan got up at four o’clock. Just as she lit the lamp, her eldest sister-in-law arrived: "You go ahead, don’t worry about the kids."
Ling Chengyan tidied up a bit, t Wang Lianqi and the other two at the brigade office, and set off to the commune.
In the early spring at four o’clock, the sky was still dark, and even diligent farm families hadn’t risen. The mule cart quietly left the village, with the fields yet to sprout, enveloped in silence.
Zhang Wanxiang and Wu Qingyun were a little drowsy, leaning against each other dozing off. Wang Lianqi and Ling Chengyan didn’t speak, just traveled quietly.
Five or six people were lying in a ditch by the roadside.
The early spring morning was chilly; even wrapped in cotton-padded clothes, they were shivering.
"Xiaohuai, you’re sure the info is right? Did the people from Nanli Village already leave?" soone asked, shivering.
"How could it be wrong? If you don’t trust , you should at least trust Brother Hu, right?" This voice, if Ling Chengyan heard it, she’d probably recognize it as Zhang Qinghuai, the militiaman from Longsheng Village who attended the training with them.
"It’s not that I don’t believe, it’s just too cold..." he said, shivering as he got up, stomping his feet and rubbing his hands near his mouth to warm up.
"What are you doing? Lie back down!" Zhang Qinghuai scolded.
Zhang Qinghu gave him a direct kick, making the person yelp in pain.
Ling Chengyan, who was resting with eyes closed in the cart, suddenly opened her eyes, tapped the side of the cart gently, and said in a low voice to Wang Lianqi: "Brother... wait for a mont."
Wang Lianqi was montarily surprised but quickly reacted, imdiately halting the mule and saying, "No need to go far; the ditch nearby is dry."
Ling Chengyan nodded in acknowledgnt and indeed quickly descended into the drainage ditch.
Bending low, she walked stealthily and quietly for about two hundred ters, hearing faint voices speaking softly.
She moved close, almost lying on the ground, and saw five or six people behind a big dirt mound. Soone smoked, and the glow of the cigarette lit up Zhang Qingbiao’s face while also allowing Ling Chengyan to clearly see that there were two rifles beside them.
Her gaze turned cold; she leaped up, kicking Zhang Qinghu and Zhang Qingbiao, who were leaning against the guns, and in a swift motion, grabbed the two rifles on the ground, using the gun butt to knock down the other people.
In re monts, without a chance for the others to react, the six n, who had intended to ambush with rifles, were knocked down by Ling Chengyan, unable to get up.
"Xiao Xing’s Mom..."
"Sister-in-law..."
"Sister Yan..."
Ling Chengyan moved a distance away, and after so ti without seeing her, Wang Lianqi, worried, called out to her a couple of tis with no response, prompting him to start looking for her.
Ling Chengyan decisively kicked each person into unconsciousness, then searched them, finding two machetes and two knives. Only after this did she jump out of the drainage ditch and yell, "I’m here, Brother, co over."
Hearing Ling Chengyan’s voice was safe, Wang Lianqi initially felt relieved but then puzzled. Wasn’t she just going to relieve herself? Why did she have to go so far?
It was so dark that they couldn’t see clearly, but from the sound of her voice, she must have gone nearly half a mile.
Wang Lianqi signaled Zhang Wanxiang and Wu Qingyun to get on the cart, driving them closer, finally seeing that Ling Chengyan was holding two rifles.
"What is this?" Wang Lianqi imdiately sensed sothing was wrong and asked, his mind already suspecting a certain possibility.
En route from Nanli Village to the commune, one had to take a short detour. Not far off the path was Longsheng Brigade.
During this militia training, a few conflicts erupted between the two teams, forming a grudge.
To participate in the county competition, they inevitably had to set off in the middle of the night to gather at the commune, passing by Longsheng Village... setting up an ambush here was indeed sothing those troubleso young n would do.
"It’s those guys from Longsheng Brigade," Ling Chengyan said calmly, slinging the gun on her back, bending down to grab a person from the ditch.
The person dragged up was limp and motionless, shocking Wang Lianqi.
"This is?"
Could it be that soone got killed?
Even if the other side intended to ambush, causing a fatality would lead to significant trouble. Not just for Longsheng Brigade, but it would be hard to account for to the commune too?
Moreover, if Ling Chengyan got into such serious trouble over those troublemakers, what would happen to Xiao Xing and Shi Tou?
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