78 Danger in the Forest
At noon, Li Yu and the team arrived at a forest. The adults and children sat on the ground and relaxed their muscles.
Some of the men unloaded the carts and fed the livestock with grass. They dragged out the straw mats and placed them on the ground. The women began to boil pots and cook, and the forest became lively.
After dinner, they each found a tree to lean against and slowly fell asleep. Soon, the sound of snoring and grinding teeth came from the forest.
After about two hours, the sound of hooves came from the road. Li Yu opened her eyes and saw a group of men riding horses.
Li Yu noticed that there were a total of 19 people in this group. Most of them were strong men and their horses were all strong. When they reached the forest, they rode their horses and checked the villagers in the forest.
The leader saw that there were men, women, and children in the forest. Most of them were wearing rough clothes and pulling the carriage with cows and mules. The carriage was also filled with food, boxes of bedding, buckets, and grass.
The leader led the way down the horse and walked into the forest with a young man in his arms.
Li Yu narrowed her eyes and saw them sit down around the tired and pale youth. A tall youth took out dry rations and water bags and carefully served the youth.
Li Yu realized that those men were all on guard after sitting down. She thought to herself, It seems that they are protecting this young man. Could this young man be someone important? We’re also resting here. Will anything happen?
Li Yu moved to Zhou Jia’s side and pretended to be intimate as she leaned her head on Zhou Jia’s shoulder. She whispered, “Did you notice? These people should have a powerful background. Look at the youth in the middle. He should be the person they want to protect. Look at how careful they are. I’m worried that something will happen.”
Zhou Jia pretended to help Li Yu tidy her hair and glanced at the youth Li Yu was talking about. He thought to himself that the person looks a little familiar. He seemed to have seen him somewhere in the capital before.
Zhou Jia whispered into Li Yu’s ear, “I think I’ve seen that young man somewhere in the capital. I think something’s wrong. We’re almost done resting. Let’s wake them up and leave!”
“Okay.” Li Yu stood up and called Li Mei softly, “Wake up, Aunt. We should hurry.”
“Alright, let’s hurry!” Li Mei rubbed her eyes and stood up. Zhou Jia walked up to the village chief. “Grandpa Chen, let’s start the journey!”
The village chief nodded after resting. “Alright, everyone is almost done resting. Let’s start traveling!”
“We’re going to have to start traveling again!” Everyone muttered. The rickshaw set packed their bags and called for the children to start traveling.
Suddenly, the young man’s guards all stood up and surrounded him, protecting him as he walked toward the horses. The guards escorted the young man to the horses. The tall young man helped the young man up and said, “Young Master, let’s go.”
At this moment, a group of masked men on horses had blocked both ends of the road, blocking the youth’s group.
Li Yu felt that something was wrong and hurriedly shouted to Zhou Jia and the village chief, “Zhou Jia, village chief, don’t worry about those things. Quickly bring everyone into the forest. Uncle Chen, Uncle He, you guys cover the back.”
Zhou Jia hurriedly pulled Li Qing and led everyone into the forest. Chen Yaohui and Butcher He stayed behind to protect the fleeing villagers.
Ji Xiang, Ruyi, and Zhao Cai stood beside Li Yu and protected everyone with their weapons.
The guards drew their long and narrow machetes. The guard leader pointed his knife at the masked man and shouted to the tall youth behind him without looking back, “Ah Zhong, protect Young Master and retreat into the forest. Everyone, protect Young Master. Charge! Kill them.”
The guards rushed forward. Both sides were strong. For a moment, the forest was filled with the sharp clash of swords and the neighing of horses. Blood and flesh flew as the horses neighed.
The men in black had more people on their side. Although the young man’s people were strong, heroes were also afraid of numbers. Soon, they fell one after another.
Li Yu and the others escorted everyone deeper into the forest. Suddenly, they realized that the tall youth and the four guards had also followed them.
Li Yu said to Ji Xiang and the others, “It’s terrible. They followed us here. Everyone, get ready.”
Ji Xiang answered loudly. “Miss Li, we’re ready.”
Li Yu turned her head and shouted at Chen Yaohui and the others, who were stopping and watching them. “Don’t wait anymore. Hurry up and walk into the forest. Find a place to hide.” Only then did everyone panic and escape into the forest.
The tall youth jumped in front of Li Yu and the others and threatened, “You have to help us. If you want to leave, we’ll leave together. Otherwise, we’ll die together.”
Li Yu cursed in her heart. Li Yu looked at him angrily and said, “You’ve already lured them over. Helping you now is akin to helping ourselves. However, you have to act together with us. Otherwise, we can only die together.”
The tall man drew his saber and glared at Li Yu. Li Yu glared at him and refused to compromise. The youth shouted, “Shen Zhong, promise this girl that we’ll fight the enemy together.”
“Yes, Young Master.” Shen Zhong retreated to the side. Li Yu, Ji Xiang, and the others scattered and hid behind the tree. The tall youth and a guard also hid behind the tree with Young Master. The other three scattered behind the tree with Li Yu and the others.
More than ten masked men chased after her. Li Yu half-squatted on the ground and held the crossbow horizontally. The crossbow bolts flew towards the masked men and a few of them fell.
Ruyi, Ji Xiang, and Zhao Cai drew their bows. The three arrows instantly killed a few masked men.
Seeing that there were crossbows shooting in front of them, the masked men stopped swarming forward. They hid behind the trees and carefully surrounded Li Yu and the others.
Li Yu, Ruyi, and the others shot as soon as they discovered the masked men. In the blink of an eye, they killed a few more.
A masked man said to the rest of the men surrounding him, “Everyone, spread out and end the battle quickly. If we continue to be in a stalemate, their reinforcements will come.”
The masked men spread out and rushed towards Li Yu and the others. After Li Yu shot another masked man to death, she used up the crossbow bolts she had brought with her. She drew her long saber and faced the masked man with the young man’s guard. She slashed at a tall and strong masked man. When the masked man saw Li Yu’s sharp saber, he hurriedly raised his saber to block. Li Yu kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying. He hit a tree and rolled to the ground.
A masked man hid behind a tree and charged toward Li Yu. Li Yu leaned back and dodged the sword. Her fingers touched the butterfly sleeve arrow and it shot through the masked man’s throat.
The other masked men gradually approached. Suddenly, there was the sound of hooves. A group of people flew towards the forest. Li Yu hid behind a tree and shouted at the youth, “Young Master, are they an enemy or a friend?”
The tall young man looked at the horse team and smiled comfortably. “Don’t worry, Miss. They’re friends.”
The masked men began to flee in a sorry state, but it was too late. The group of men spurred their horses into the forest and raised their bows to fire wildly at the masked men. A moment later, all the masked men fell to the ground.
The team dismounted and walked toward the young man. The young man ran towards a tall and powerful man. He shouted in a hoarse voice, “Uncle,” and choked on his words.
The tall man put his arm around his shoulder and patted him gently. “I’m sorry, Yuhao. I’m sorry for being late and scaring you.”
The young man looked at him and said, “Uncle, I’m not afraid. I’m just worried that Mother’s stomach is... ”
The man put his arm around the young man, who stopped talking and leaned on his shoulder. For a moment, both of them were silent as they watched the guards pack up the bodies.
Li Yu saw that they were worried and thought to herself, Oh no, it looks like we’re really involved in some noble’s dispute. Ruyi and I will probably be silenced.
Zhou Jia stood in the depths of the forest and saw a group of people rushing into the forest. He told Uncle Zhou worriedly and turned to leave. Chen Baozhen stood beside Zhou Jia and pulled his sleeve. “Mr. Zhou, don’t go. It’s not safe there.”
Zhou Jia didn’t even look at her. He pulled out his sleeve and ran towards Li Yu. Li Mei glared at Chen Baozhen. The village chief pulled her over and stuffed her into Madam Liu’s arms. He scolded in a low voice, “Watch her. Don’t make a fool of yourself.”
When Zhou Jia ran closer, he saw Li Yu, Ruyi, and a group of people standing in the forest.
Li Yu heard footsteps and turned around to see that Zhou Jia had also arrived. She thought to herself, “Are you here to die?!”
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