Marrying the Crown Prince

All the men stood up. The strong ones disarmed the attackers with their bare hands, snatched a longsword, and began hacking wildly with their broadswords.

"The girls and children run first, run!" At this moment, Zhou Laowu's mind was incredibly clear, and he shouted again, "Men cover the rear, fight these beasts to the death!"

"Fight!"

"Kill!"

They were all people who were used to farm work, and they were as strong as oxen. For a while, they did not lose the upper hand.

The group fought and retreated, and then fought again. Eventually, they estimated that the time was about right—the women and children should have run far enough.

They scattered and, taking advantage of the terrain, ran wildly to evade their pursuers.

Of course, there are pros and cons to both collective action and dispersing. The main reason for dispersing is to avoid being wiped out in one fell swoop.

Anyway, it's time to escape.

Zhou Laowu ran to an abandoned thatched hut. Based on what the villagers had told him, he opened the cellar door. To his surprise, the cellar was already hiding many women and children.

He hesitated for a moment, then put the cellar door back on and covered it with straw.

Having done all that, he prepared to go out and continue running.

Unexpectedly, the sounds of a search could be heard outside the door.

Zhou Laowu stopped in his tracks.

He gritted his teeth and placed a tattered straw hat on top of the rice jar lid.

Then he hugged the bundle of straw, crawled under the bed, and pressed the bundle of straw on and around himself to cover his body.

No sooner had they finished doing all this than the door of the thatched hut was kicked open.

Yun Qinren walked in while cursing.

Zhou Laowu hurriedly held his breath, not daring to breathe out a single breath.

The Qin people searched here and there, muttering under their breath, "I clearly saw someone in this direction, how did they disappear in the blink of an eye?"

"I told you your eyes were blurry, and you didn't listen. See, now they really are blurry, aren't they?"

"Go to hell! My eyes are perfectly fine. If you curse me again, I'll gouge your eyes out and feed them to the dogs."

"Huh?" One of the Yunqin people looked down at the floor, as if he had noticed something was wrong.

"what happened?"

“Look at these straws, they look like they’ve been dragged. Someone has probably been here, or someone has hidden them here.”

"Search again carefully."

"Let's clean up the straw on the ground."

"to make."

As they worked, the straw at the cellar entrance was about to be cleared away.

Zhou Laowu bit his lip hard, but he was still trembling due to extreme fear and tension.

Even so, he deliberately moved his body, making a soft whooshing sound.

The sound was so quick and soft, it was as if it had never been heard.

But the two Yunqin people still managed to discern the specific direction.

They both stopped what they were doing and gathered around the bed.

Yun Qinren aimed his long sword at the head of the bed and stabbed it fiercely.

At the critical moment, Zhou Laowu rolled out and barely managed to avoid the danger.

He roared in anger, grabbed a dagger inlaid with various colored agates, and charged forward.

He and Mrs. Du found this dagger while strolling around the market town in early summer this year.

Zhou Laowu really liked this exquisite little dagger, which was inlaid with agate, and often kept it by his side to play with.

I thought it would just be a little toy for the rest of my life, but who knew it would become a tool for self-defense.

All I can say is that fate has its way with people.

If it were a one-on-one fight, he might have a chance of winning, but with two against one, and Zhou Laowu not being a martial arts practitioner, he quickly got injured.

After being injured, his movements slowed down, and as the blood drained from his body, his vision began to blur...

Finally, a knife was plunged into Zhou Laowu's abdomen.

He painfully, with all his might, swung the dagger in his hand.

However, not knowing martial arts is not knowing martial arts. Even though he unleashed astonishing power before his death, it was still dodged, and he was finished off with another blow.

Fresh blood gushed from Zhou Laowu's mouth, forming a stark contrast with his fair skin.

It hurts, it hurts too much!

He collapsed to the ground in agony, clutching his abdominal wound tightly.

Blood from his wound seeped through his fingers and fell onto the straw.

"Uh……"

Another cut, and Zhou Laowu's eyes widened suddenly in pain.

Through the dilapidated roof of the thatched hut, he could see the sky outside.

The weather is lovely today; the entire sky is a pale blue, without a single cloud, giving a sense of purity and freshness.

He seemed to have never seen such a beautiful sky before.

Sunlight streamed through the hole, warming him.

Zhou Laowu's blood dripped down the cracks in the wooden planks into the cellar, landing on their heads and faces.

The people below covered their mouths in anguish, but dared not utter a single sound.

Holding her child, Mrs. Du leaned weakly against the wall, trembling all over, overwhelmed with grief, and tears streamed down her face in large drops.

"died."

"This is good stuff."

"Hehe, it's mine now."

"Alright, alright, take it and go."

The people from Yunqin left, chatting and laughing.

Finally, the string in Du's head snapped, and she began to sob in anguish.

A quick-witted older woman reacted swiftly, forcefully covering Du's mouth, "Shut up!"

Tears streamed down Du's cheeks and across the old woman's hand.

The old woman's eyes also reddened, but she still dared not relax.

After a short while, the two Yun Qin people who had left returned.

One of them grumbled, "I told you there was no one there, but you just had to be so paranoid."

"Tsk, it's not like it's bothering you at all."

"Hmph, well, you're always making a fuss."

They left, grumbling and cursing.

After an unknown amount of time, and with no further sound coming from above, the old woman slowly released Du's mouth.

"Auntie, shall I go out and take a look?" someone suggested.

"No, let's wait a little longer." The old woman shook her head.

I don't know how much time passed, maybe three or four hours, or maybe a whole night.

Everyone huddled together crookedly, some even falling asleep from exhaustion, only to be woken up by hunger.

The old woman estimated the time and said, "I'll go up and take a look first."

As soon as she finished speaking, a young woman objected, "No, Auntie, I'll go."

"I'd better go."

"I go."

"Shut up!" The old woman's head was throbbing from the noise, and she frowned. "I'll go up there, and that's settled then."

Who among them wasn't younger than her?

She's old; how much longer can she live?

The old woman was about to leave when a voice came from above her head—

"General, there are people here."

It was a person shouting loudly.

Soon, the sound of synchronized footsteps could be heard.

"How is it?" seemed to be a leader asking his subordinate.

"It looks like he's been dead for three or four hours."

The general was silent for a moment, then spoke again, "Find a good place and bury the person."