"Is there no rule of law left? Is there no justice?"
When the East Wasteland Cavalry had ridden far away and the commotion in Xiang Village could no longer be heard, Yang Bairao felt as though he had been possessed by an online keyboard warrior, spewing out one righteous declaration after another.
Yet at that moment, not a single villager in Xiang Village paid him any heed. Downcast, they gathered up the dried meat scattered on the ground and quickly departed.
"You'd better leave quickly! You don't belong here."
Xiang Tian offered this word of warning.
Judging by Yang Bairao's demeanor and words just moments ago, Xiang Tian realized that this man was exactly as the village sage had described: if he stayed any longer, he would likely bring disaster upon the village.
"So I'm really leaving?"
Having finished his outburst of indignation, Yang Bairao watched the villagers of Xiang Village walk away. He also saw Xiang Die standing in a distant corner, gazing at him with an expression filled with apology, innocence, and distress.
With tears in her eyes, Xiang Die wanted to draw closer to Yang Bairao, yet she dared not approach.
Following the village sage's warning, she understood that she and Yang Bairao belonged to different worlds.
If they were to truly entangle themselves with one another, it would do her no good, and it would certainly bring distress to Yang Bairao. Better to simply bury that initial stir of maidenly affection deep within her heart; that alone was a form of protection for the one she loved.
Yang Bairao had no choice. He had already resolved to leave.
After what Xiang Dongliu had told him, he regarded Xiang Die only as a younger sister and felt it would be better not to disturb her. He turned around and waved his hand. After all, this passing acquaintance in his life would ultimately just slip past him.
That night, half a kilometer away from the river, Yang Bairao used the tall wild grass as his bedding. As he played on his mobile phone and looked at the photographs of his child in the album, a hopeful smile graced his face.
"Hanhan, Daddy is telling you this, but you must never, ever tell your mommy."
"Before Daddy met your mommy, I was a bachelor for many years. I was even shy when talking to girls, and my face would turn red if I accidentally touched a female classmate's hand back when I was in school. But you know what? Here, there's actually a girl who's only around junior high school age, and she actually likes Daddy. Hahaha..."
"No, no, Daddy won't do anything like that; that's a crime. Daddy is very devoted and will forever only like eighteen-year-old girls with black silk stockings and long legs. You must, must never tell your mommy!"
"You said that when you grow up and go to university, you're going to introduce six of your best girlfriends to Daddy—you have to keep your word on that, or Daddy won't prepare a dowry for you! Daddy is keeping the evidence, you know!"
"And what's more, I even have the signed handprint guarantee where you promised to buy Daddy a Bugatti! Daddy is keeping that evidence too!"
Yang Bairao acted silly; at that moment, all his longing for his child and his home was pinned on the photo album in his phone.
He flipped through it for a long time, but there wasn't a single photo of his wife. As for his own parents, there were only those two ID card photographs.
Suddenly, he realized that among the people in his life who loved him, they were the ones he had neglected the most.
"Miaomiao, I understand why you agreed to go on a blind date with me, but you brought Hanhan into my life, and I thank you."
"Dad, Mom, you're getting old, yet your son hasn't had the ability to show you filial piety at all."
"You even have to help shoulder the family's expenses. I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry. Your son thought a junior college degree was pretty good, but by the time I graduated, I realized... sigh..."
With no one around, Yang Bairao poured out the innermost thoughts he had buried for years. No matter how heavy the pressure was at home, he never spoke of it to his parents; he always reported good news and concealed the bad, simply because he didn't want them to worry and figured it was better for them to focus their limited energy on themselves.
At that moment, Yang Bairao emptied his mind, leaving his body and soul utterly at peace.
Putting away his phone, he looked up at the starry night sky, recalling the times he used to cool off in the summer with his parents during his childhood, a smile lingering at the corners of his mouth.
Just then, a wave of loud, chaotic noise erupted, accompanied by the sound of splashing water.
He was about to get up, but the commotion came and went just as quickly.
In the open grassland at night, the shouting of a crowd could be heard quite clearly, but the voices were too jumbled for Yang Bairao to make out.
Since it had nothing to do with him, he chose to mind his own business. Late into the night, seeing no other danger around except for startled birds, he prepared to go back to sleep.
Dozily, Yang Bairao faintly heard the sounds of battle, accompanied by the ceaseless weeping and wailing of women and children, punctuated by shrieks that lasted for a long time.
Awoken from the quiet night by this clamor, Yang Bairao was filled with anger.
"Which family is having a barbecue and making such a racket in the middle of the night? Is some drunk beating his wife again?"
Yang Bairao sat up angrily, only to find himself surrounded by grass, which made him remember that this wasn't the roadside apartment in the residential complex where he lived.
"Judging by the sound, the direction is Xiang Village. What's going on?"
Yang Bairao felt a mixture of surprise and suspicion.
Ever since he had transmigrated from the real world, aside from that harmless encounter with Xiang Die and her bow and arrow, he had never faced any danger.
Accustomed to a peaceful life, his perception of danger was extraordinarily dull.
Aside from finding it noisy, he couldn't think of anything else.
Since he couldn't sleep anyway, he grabbed his phone, too lazy to pack up his charger, intending to retrieve it tomorrow.
Then he walked toward Xiang Village, wanting to see if they were celebrating something tonight and holding a bonfire party.
As he drew closer, however, the commotion gradually died down. Only the sound of pounding beast hooves could be heard, growing further and further away from him.
Puzzled, Yang Bairao walked for nearly an hour under the bright starlight before nearing Xiang Village.
At that moment, Xiang Village was dead silent, with not a sound to be heard. This strange stillness actually gave the thick-skinned Yang Bairao an ominous feeling.
"Could it be that they knew I came back and hid because they don't welcome me?!"
Yang Bairao thought with some worry. But before he could dwell on it further, he saw a few villagers lying facedown on the outskirts of Xiang Village under the starlight. Beneath each villager was a pool of indistinct, dark liquid that gleamed faintly in the starlight.
No matter how inexperienced Yang Bairao was, at that very moment, a sense of foreboding rapidly surged in his heart.
Once a bad premonition takes root and a person grows nervous, they naturally become much more cautious.
He picked up his phone, turned on the flashlight, and shone it ahead.
Seeing no movement, he found a pebble on the ground and tossed it toward the figures lying there.
"They're dead! They're dead!"
Having lived this long, it was his first time seeing a dead body. He wasn't nearly as composed as people claimed to be; even though Yang Bairao usually boasted about his own boldness, at this moment, panic began to seize him.
"Call the police. Right, hurry up and call the police."
Yang Bairao was genuinely flustered and scared. With his thick nerves, he cautiously scanned his surroundings to prevent any criminals from lurking in the shadows and delivering a fatal blow.
He backed away slowly, his finger pressing the call button on his phone over and over, but no matter how many times he pressed it, it only gave a busy signal.
Panicked, he finally remembered that this was a transmigrated world, not the world he belonged to.
If killing people carried no punishment here, the criminals had surely already made a carefree escape.
Yang Bairao had managed to attend a regular junior college, which meant his IQ was up to standard—he wasn't stupid.
Gathering his courage, he walked slowly closer and happened to spot a broken stone knife on the ground.
He squatted down, picked up the stone knife, and gripped it tightly. Feeling that wasn't secure enough, he grabbed some ubiquitous wild grass and bound the stone knife to his hand so that if he panicked, he wouldn't drop the weapon and get killed with it.
"Hey! Hey! If you're not dead, make a sound!"
Yang Bairao gently nudged the villagers on the ground with his foot. Their bodies were covered in blood; if you didn't look closely, you could only make out dark patches.
Once he got close, he not only saw the thick, dark red blood, but was also hit by a wave of intense, nauseating stench that made him gag repeatedly.
Muster up his courage, Yang Bairao kicked every single body he came across.
By the time he reached the depths of the village, he discovered that everyone, young and old alike, had been slaughtered, with not a single survivor left.
"Xiang Dongliu? You're dead too."
Yang Bairao walked over to a thatched cottage. Its roof had been torn off, and Xiang Dongliu's back had been slashed open by a sharp weapon; he had been dead for a while.
Continuing his inspection, he found the deceased Xiang Tian and Xiang Xiliu, and finally discovered Xiang Nanliu, whose head had been severed. Xiang Nanliu's eyes were wide with terror, filled with lingering resentment before death.
He searched for a long time, but found no trace of Xiang Die or the other women in the village who, by modern standards, had reached adulthood.
This gave Yang Bairao a glimmer of hope, yet it was accompanied by an incredulous panic.
Walking deeper still, he saw several elderly people collapsed together, each killed by a single blow.
In another thatched cottage with its roof torn off, Yang Bairao saw a pregnant woman whose belly had been ripped open. The fully formed fetus, no larger than a fist, delivered a profound shock to his soul.
"Son-of-a-bitch Japs! You must be the ones who did this!"
Yang Bairao didn't consider himself a particularly helpful person, nor was he an idealistic young man burning with absolute justice. Yet at this very moment, the anger in the depths of his heart was fully ignited. Even beasts wouldn't commit such acts, yet here, in this transmigrated world, someone had actually done them.
As for Xiang Die and the other women, it went without saying that while they hadn't been killed yet, they were undoubtedly enduring something far more terrifying and helpless than death itself.
"Ah..."
His mind was filled with the desire to wipe out this group of villains, though as for *how* to wipe them out, he couldn't come up with a single idea.
After letting out a few fierce howls that met with no response in the silent village, Yang Bairao gradually regained his sanity.
He remembered the East Wasteland Cavalry collecting grain during the day, and he also recalled them mentioning that a band of robbers had arrived on the grassland, burning, killing, and plundering.
Connecting these dots now, and recalling the quick-to-come and quick-to-go commotion before he went to sleep, even an idiot could understand that Xiang Village had undoubtedly fallen victim to an attack by those robbers.
"These robbers have no humanity at all."
Having transmigrated to this world, Yang Bairao witnessed its chaos for the first time and truly faced the reality that the world he was in was not what he had imagined it to be.
He suddenly realized that although his own world had many flaws, the upper echelons were constantly correcting mistakes. At the very least, even if he carried a mortgage, he could still live and work in peace.
Looking at the pools of blood and corpses scattered across the ground, Yang Bairao's view of this world changed completely.
Though he hadn't spent much time with these people, Yang Bairao knew they were living, breathing lives. Even when they had driven him away, he had never harbored any resentment toward them.
While he hated those robbers, once his rationality returned, Yang Bairao had no thoughts of going after them to avenge the villagers of Xiang Village.
He understood that with his own abilities, he was okay at laying bricks, but wielding swords and spears was simply not his forte.
He could throw a few routine military boxing punches to look imposing, but to robbers, those punches were nothing more than flashy and superficial moves.
"Either arm yourself, or make yourself strong!"
Yang Bairao made up his mind.