"You, don't come over here—"
The little girl came back to her senses with fright, holding a gold hairpin that was not threatening at all, and facing the two of them with trembling hands. Perhaps she also realized this, and turned the hairpin to touch her chin. The top of the hairpin had been polished, and it sunk deep into the skin, leaving only a little red mark.
It is useless whether it is used to threaten others or to commit suicide.
Shen Tang: "I'm not going over there, you come out."
The little girl looked pale and shook her head: "No!"
Crystal tears suddenly rolled down his eyes filled with fear.
She blinked her eyes, trying to clear her tear-filled vision, but the tears rolled down even more. The tears rolled from her round, babyish cheeks to her chin, gathering and dripping. One has to admit that a beautiful woman shedding tears is indeed heart-warming.
Zhai Le stood aside and laughed: "Brother Shen, you are being disliked."
A girl in distress needs gentle comfort.
Speaking harshly will only scare people.
Shen Tang tilted his head and thought for a moment, then he made a move at lightning speed, grabbing the little girl by the collar and pulling her out of the box. The little girl was stubborn, and even though she was extremely frightened, she did not give up struggling, and her fingers trembled as she grasped the golden hairpin.
Zhai Le came closer, and the smile in his peach blossom eyes spread like ripples: "Hello, girl. Brother Shen and I are both good people."
The little girl endured her trembling teeth!
She didn't believe that nonsense.
Zhai Le asked again: "Is the girl's surname Lin?"
The little girl shrank back, her eyes accidentally sweeping across the bodies lying on the ground, her already round eyes widened even wider in shock. She didn't even care that Shen Tang and the others were still there, she grabbed the golden hairpin and almost staggered and crawled closer.
He stared at the warm, soft corpse.
The eyes that should have been pure and clear now had something called "hatred". Regardless of the dirty blood, he wiped the blood off the corpse's face with his bare hands and wiped it with his sleeves for easy identification. After confirming that it was correct, he suddenly thrust the golden hairpin into the corpse's eye socket.
Zhai Le sucked in a breath of cold air and raised his hands to cover his eyes.
Relying on the burning hatred, she stabbed the corpse's eye sockets hundreds of times, until the golden hairpins pierced both eye sockets into pieces and the eyeballs turned into blood foam. Only then did she sit back exhausted.
Two thugs who were waiting to move the body: "..."
They almost jumped up and hugged each other, trembling.
It took a long time for the little girl to come back to her senses.
She clenched her back teeth tightly, suppressing the fear that had carved a bottomless pit in her heart. She stood up, straightened her sleeves, and with a cold look on her round oval face - she looked childish, but she deliberately squeezed out some maturity and steadiness - she took two steps forward, crossed her hands towards Shen Tang, and bowed deeply twice.
"Thank you for avenging the twenty-four members of the Lin family."
Zhai Le on the side raised his eyebrows.
He clapped his hands and laughed, "What a courageous girl."
The little girl's already pale face became even paler.
Shen Tang raised his foot to kick Zhai Le.
"Why are you scaring people if you're fine?"
Zhai Le jumped away: "How can it be a threat? It's clearly a compliment."
Although I didn't know the inside story, I could guess a little bit. It was not easy for an eight or nine-year-old child to watch his relatives being slaughtered by the family guards and their bodies thrown into the mountains, and to survive by chance and meet a group of people who did not know good from evil.
At least, it's courageous.
Shen Tang kicked the lid of the wooden box back and used it as a stool.
"Who are you? What happened before? Do you have other relatives? Why did you happen to be hiding in the wooden box?"
Zhai Le reminded: "Ask in a more tactful way."
Shen Tang glared at him, and for a moment he had the illusion that his brother Zhai Huan was staring at him, so he subconsciously chose to turn off the microphone and keep silent.
Zhai Le: “…”
That’s not right, he is obviously the “brother”!
Seeing that Shen Tang had no ill intentions for the time being, the little girl relaxed her tense nerves a little, grabbed the golden hairpin, her nails almost digging into the flesh of her palm, and forced herself to answer: "My surname is Lin, and my ancestral home is Lingzhou. I went south with Chongci, Jiaci, my stepmother, my uncle, my brothers and sisters, and a group of maids and old women to live with my relatives. Who knew that the servants on the way had evil intentions and killed people and robbed them of their money..."
Including her, there are twenty-five people in total.
“There are so many female relatives walking outside, and only one male following them? This is really…” Zhai Le frowned when he heard this. The world is so chaotic, and one has to guard against both external enemies and internal thieves. It is too careless to only send an elder "uncle" to escort them, plus a "brother" of unknown age.
The little girl bit her lower lip, lowered her head, and the corners of her eyes were red.
Who would have thought that the guards they had used for seven or eight years would suddenly turn against them? The guard leader was still highly trusted and had saved the family master's life.
“… Because she was naughty and played with her sisters, she hid in a wooden box and escaped.” She often played with her sisters at home, and occasionally hid in wooden boxes to avoid being found. The elders were worried, so they opened secret holes in her two wooden boxes to facilitate ventilation. When she woke up from the wooden box, she was still wondering why no one had found her.
She peeked out through the hole and saw the servants raising their butcher knives towards her relatives. The elderly, the weak, the women and the children did not even have the strength to fight back. All of them died, including her uncle who was seriously injured.
All she could do was cover her mouth and swallow her cries.
But she knew she would be caught.
More and more desperate.
Who knew there would be such an unexpected turn of events.
"Everyone else is gone... I am the only one alive... Woo woo..." She wiped away her tears and sniffed her nose hard to prevent the snot from running down and staining the tip of her nose red.
She pursed her lips again, trying to swallow back her emotions, but the more she held them back, the more bitter she felt. Finally, she couldn't hold it in any longer and her tears broke out, falling one by one like pearls from a broken string. She looked so pitiful.
Shen Tang lowered his eyes and thought for a moment.
"Besides the relative you are going south to, do you have other relatives you can rely on? It would be best if they are closer..."
The little girl stood there and shook her head, looking confused. She really didn't know what to do now. She had no one to rely on.
Zhai Le sighed, "How pitiful! Why not take it in as well?"
Shen Tang wanted to pick up the sword and poke a few holes in him.
"What are you collecting? How old is she?"
Zhai Le: “…???”
He jumped up suddenly, his voice rising seven or eight degrees: "I'm telling you to keep her by your side as a maid, it's at least a way to survive. If you have a chance to find her again in the future, what are you thinking, Brother Shen? Don't you think it means 'keeping'?"
Shen Tang: “…”
She couldn't help but cover her face.
Well, she has an unhealthy mind.
Shen Tang adjusted his mood and coughed lightly to ease the embarrassment.
"You heard it too, right? Do you want to come home with me first? Wait until the situation stabilizes, then contact your other family members or go south to look for relatives. You are too young to survive alone."
The little girl lowered her head and thought for a long time.
He nodded vigorously with tears in his eyes.
"Thank you very much, benefactor."
However, he still seemed to be hesitant to speak, as if he was in trouble.
Shen Tang guessed what she wanted to say and said, "Wait until daybreak! It's too dangerous to search in the dark at night. Just pray that the beasts haven't gone mad with hunger, or that they've left behind a complete corpse."
In this era, children as young as eight or nine can be treated as adults. When a relative dies tragically, they know to collect the body and bury it in peace.
"Thank you very much, benefactor."
The little girl bowed deeply again, expressing her deep gratitude.
Then he said, "My nickname is An Nan."
"No name?"
The little girl said nothing.
Shen Tang: "Then I'm presumptuous to give you a nickname? It's not convenient to call you by a nickname. If your last name is Lin, why not give yourself the name 'Feng', Lin Feng."
Zhai Le: "Lin Feng? This is too manly."
Shen Tang rolled his eyes.
"Do you know what 'wind under the forest' means?"
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