Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside-Chapter 36 - 0 Tragic

Third Grandpa saw Third Grandma crying and rebuked her in a low voice, "Stop crying, woman. Hurry up and pack your things, we need to go find people."

Third Grandma quickly wiped away her tears and said, "Yes, yes, we need to pack up quickly and go, now is not the time for tears."

Those evil men were too cruel, and who knows what has become of the people in the village? How many are still alive? They had to hurry out to look for survivors; if they couldn’t find any alive, they would at least have to collect the bodies of the deceased villagers.

Ms. Chu and Mrs. Cui also started packing up with a few children.

In their haste to escape, the three families didn’t bring much with them, only some food and water.

The men from the families took up clubs, sticks, and machetes—tools that barely counted as weapons.

Gu Jinli had even less to carry; he slung over his shoulder the cloth bag given by Qi Mansion that contained coarse salt and took up a dagger, and he was ready to go.

So they didn’t waste much time. In a short while, they packed their things and arrived at the cave entrance, where they tied ropes around their waists. Qin San Lang and Elder Qin were pulling from the cliff above, lifting each person out of the cave one by one.

Qin Er Lang was still looking at them disdainfully and didn’t help them. After climbing the cliff using a rope with a grappling hook, he stood cold-faced next to a withered tree.

The several families had long been accustomed to Qin Er Lang’s cold demeanor and paid it no mind. After climbing the cliff, Qin San Lang pointed to the left and said, "If you go this way, you should reach your resting place from the other night in less than half an hour."

But...

Qin San Lang warned them, "It’s not a good place, be prepared."

He had seen the resting place at the foot of the mountain, and it was littered with corpses.

Third Grandpa and the others knew what Qin San Lang meant by ’not a good place.’ They nodded in silence, confirming their understanding, and then headed towards the left.

To the left was the thorny woods they had passed through previously. Beyond the thorny woods was a field of wild grass that had been trampled by fleeing villagers into a chaotic mess.

In that field of wild grass, there were wild grass dens about a yard wide. Gu Jinli had sharp eyes, she noticed pieces of clothing and toes protruding from those grass dens, and quickly said to Mrs. Cui, "Mother, hold Brother Cheng tightly."

She then smiled at Brother Cheng and said, "Brother Cheng, those evil men have left, you don’t have to be scared."

Brother Cheng was frightened by the escape the other night and had only just recovered after two days in the cave. If he saw the corpses again and was frightened anew, she feared that Brother Cheng might get a high fever from continuous shock.

Brother Cheng, looking at Gu Jinli’s smile, felt less afraid and said maturely, "Second Sister, I’ve grown up, I won’t be scared." He wouldn’t become a burden to his family.

Gu Jinli smiled and praised, "Such a good boy," then gripped Gu Jinxiu’s trembling hand. The sisters followed Mrs. Cui and continued walking forward. ƒreewebɳovel.com

Third Grandpa, hearing Gu Jinli’s words, glanced at the grass dens and said to the families, "We’ve all been through a lot, we must not make a fuss at anything we see."

The families understood Third Grandpa’s meaning and nodded quickly, saying, "We know."

Even though they were prepared psychologically, when they passed through the field of wild grass and saw the expanse of bodies at the base of the mountain, they were still horrified and turned pale.

The vast expanse at the foot of the mountain was filled with corpses—most of them had their skulls split open, with eyes wide open in death; others were mangled and messy, their abdomens pierced... the death scenes were tragic.

These were the bodies of able-bodied men, and there were also bodies of women. These female corpses were not only in a tragic state but were also naked, and it was obvious that they had suffered indescribable humiliations while alive.

Third Grandma watched those female corpses and wept, running to those bodies along with Ms. Chu to cover them with clothes, hoping to grant them some decency in death.

"Dad, Mom, my wife, wake up, don’t leave me and the children alone!" The cries of a man erupted, and the families looked towards the source of the sound. They saw a man with two children, wailing over a few corpses.

"You can’t die, head of the household, if you die, how are we, your wife and kids, going to live?"

"Dad, dad, wake up, don’t abandon us."

"Aunt Cui, my dear Aunt Cui, how could you die in such a tragic way!"

More and more wails of grief came from all directions, from disaster victims emerging after the gang of evil men had left, only to find nothing but corpses.

Third Grandma, Ms. Chu, Mrs. Cui, and Gu Jinxiu, hearing these cries, couldn’t help but shed tears, and the men of the families, seeing the tragic scene around them, felt their eyes redden with grief.

Gu Jinli, Gu Jin’an, and Luo Wu were even more filled with anger, wishing they could catch up with those evildoers and slaughter them.

Third Grandpa looked at the wailing disaster victims, his old eyes brimming with tears, and said, "God grinds people down."

When will these bitter days end?

After a short while, Third Grandpa suppressed the heart-wrenching grief and called out to everyone, "Don’t cry, let’s hurry to the rest area at Village Chief Gu’s house to find people. If there are any villagers still alive, they would definitely gather there. Maybe we will run into them."

Families hurriedly followed Third Grandpa towards the rest area at Village Chief Gu’s house.

They were in luck and indeed saw Gu Dafu with his son and daughter, and Gu Dagui’s family of four at the village chief’s rest area.

But before they could rejoice, they were overwhelmed by the corpses before them, all people from Gu Family Village.

"Da Fu," called out Third Grandpa.

Gu Dafu, hearing Third Grandpa’s voice, was stunned for a moment. When he turned and saw Third Grandpa, he knelt down with a thud, crying, "Third Uncle, our family deserves death, we deserve death. We shouldn’t have called everyone to gather here. They’re all dead, they’re all dead!"

That night when the evildoers came, their father had called everyone to gather at their rest area before fleeing for their lives. But before all the villagers could arrive, the evildoers descended on the Gu Family villagers, slaughtering them, and many villagers were beaten to death, including his own wife and youngest son.

He and Dagui’s family were able to escape only because their father traded his life for theirs.

Gu Dafu lay kneeling on the ground, relentlessly pulling at his hair, crying so hard he almost passed out.

Gu Dexing and Gu Yumei, seeing their father kneeling and crying in pain, were frightened and wanted to comfort him but dared not, only standing to the side, clutching the corners of their clothes, and looking at Third Grandpa with pleading eyes for help.

Third Grandpa squatted down, patted Gu Dafu’s shoulder, and said, "Da Fu, the dead can’t be brought back to life, don’t be too heartbroken. You still have two children to take care of; you can’t collapse."

Gu Dagui also comforted his elder brother: "Big brother, Third Uncle is right. This isn’t our family’s fault. It’s the evildoers’ sins. Don’t blame yourself. Let’s hurry and bury the villagers’ bodies and continue to flee. If those evildoers come back, we won’t survive."

Mrs. Chen, the wife of Gu Dagui, heard this and her legs went weak from fear, asking apprehensively, "Head of the household, are those evildoers really going to come back? Why should we bother burying the bodies? Let’s just run away quickly."

Gu Dagui glared at Mrs. Chen, this foolish woman. He was just saying it off the cuff, and she took it seriously.

After a bout of agonizing cries, Gu Dafu finally stopped his tears: "Third Uncle is right, I can’t collapse. I have to collect the villagers’ bodies."

"That’s right," said Third Grandpa.

Third Grandpa looked around at the numerous bodies, easily a hundred, and said, "Just dig a big pit right here and bury them." With so many bodies and too few hands, they could only use the simplest method to collect the corpses.

Gu Dafu nodded in agreement: "We’ll listen to Third Uncle."

Gu Jinli reminded Third Grandpa: "Third Grandpa, we should first get the household registration papers from the bodies of the villagers. If we encounter any of their surviving family members, we can return the papers to them, so those who survived don’t become displaced."