Chapter 115: A Melee
Gu Fei’s eyes turned cold. She closed them for a moment, then snapped them open and thrust her long saber forward. SHLICK! It plunged into the woman’s stomach.
She pulled the saber back, its tip dripping with fresh blood. The woman swayed a few times before collapsing limply to the ground.
Gu Fei took a moment to scan her surroundings. It was chaos everywhere. Behind her, Aunt Liu was wielding a kitchen knife, hacking at a man who was trying to climb onto her family’s mule cart.
Ms. Qian was tangled up with an old woman, each of them pulling at the other’s hair.
Up ahead, her mother was with Gu Sanlang. She was holding a rolling pin, fiercely bashing a woman over the head with it.
Seeing that her mother clearly had the upper hand, Gu Fei didn’t go to help. She brought her focus back to the area directly in front of her. The moment anyone tried to approach, she swung her long saber without mercy.
The chaos lasted for nearly a quarter of an hour. Perhaps because so many had fallen, the people who were still standing no longer dared to charge forward.
But they didn’t leave, either. With bloodshot eyes, they stood by the side of the road, staring intently at the mule carts.
Suddenly, Li Chunhua cried out from the front, "Our mule!"
Gu Fei looked over and saw their massive, eleven-hundred-pound black mule slowly collapsing to the ground. Its four legs twitched uncontrollably, and blood gushed from a hole in its neck.
The mule cart tilted forward, and with a cry of pain, the old woman tumbled out.
Gu Fei quickly shouted, "Second Brother Gu, carry Grandma over to this cart!"
Gu Erlang hoisted the old woman onto his back and came over. Gu Fei then yelled, "Sister-in-law, move the things from that cart over to this one!"
Lian’er hurried over to help Li Chunhua move the bedrolls, quilts, and several bundles from the other cart.
While remaining wary of the people left standing, everyone began to take stock of their losses.
Aunt Liu was cursing, "You black-hearted bastards! You stole half a bag of my corn buns!"
Shanzimama stared blankly as several people scrambled to pick up the millet that had spilled from her family’s cart, stuffing it directly into their mouths.
With her hair in disarray, Ms. Qian stood by the cart, gasping for breath.
Boss Zhang ran over, clutching his arm. He called out by Gu Zhang’s cart, "Second Brother Gu, do you have any antiseptic medicine? My arm got slashed."
Gu Zhang quickly rummaged through his bundle and handed him a bottle of antiseptic medicine.
Uncle Ma walked up and down the line, checking on everyone. "Is everybody alright? Can we keep moving?"
Boss Zhang shouted, "Uncle Ma, wait for me to put on some medicine before we go!"
After a short wait, the convoy started moving forward again.
Gu Fei glanced back. The people by the roadside were swarming the dead mule on the ground, completely ignoring the men and women who had just been killed or wounded.
Some, despite the large patches of blood staining their own clothes, were pushing into the crowd to fight for a piece of the mule’s flesh.
Lian’er muttered beside her, "Isn’t there a saying that you’d rather starve to death than eat mule meat? I heard eating it makes you unable to have children. Besides, mule meat is really sour and doesn’t taste good."
Gu Fei shook her head. "If they don’t eat it, they really will starve to death."
Now one cart short, the old woman, the ailing Gu Zhang, and Little Cao were all crammed into the remaining one, making it difficult for anyone else to get on and rest.
Fortunately, after walking for so long, everyone’s stamina had improved, so they all forced themselves to press on.
They continued on like this for more than ten days. Then, one evening, Uncle Ma pointed to a ruined temple beside the main road and said, "We’ll rest there tonight. We’ve reached the territory of Hedong County."
The temple’s courtyard gate was half-open, and the yard was blanketed in dead leaves.
Everyone led their mules inside, only to discover there were people in the main hall.