Chapter 99
~ 98
With a trembling hand, Mu Qing touched the noses of the fallen Tiger Tooth, his partner, and Da Wu, one by one.
They were no longer breathing.
They were only guarding themselves against a night attack, thinking that the enemy would raid at night. No one had expected that Gang Tu would lead an attack on the settlement during the daytime.
Mu Qing suddenly hated herself in this moment.
She felt like she should have thought of that possibility, but she didn’t think about it either.
As she was wiping the weeping Youyou’s face with her hand, she realized that she was also crying tears as well.
Chapter 99
(31.4)
“Save them …… Save them ……”
Youyou kept repeating those words.
Mu Qing suddenly snapped back to her senses. The earlier she let Li Mang and the others outside know that something had happened here, the higher the chances of rescuing the captured women and reclaiming their stolen ressources would be.
But how to let them know? There was still a long afternoon left before the usual time of their return in the evening.
Beads of sweat kept flowing down her forehead, converging and dripping down the tip of her nose.
A few moments later, a large fire started in the open space, and Mu Qing kept throwing water-dampened firewood into the fire. The smoke went straight up into the sky.
Recalled by the surging black smoke that arose in the direction above the settlement, Li Mang and the men of the tribe were greeted by the sight of Da Wu and the two warriors guarding their homestead lying in a pool of blood. Women and children had been taken captive, and the cellar stockpile meant for the winter had been plundered. Beside the fire that was still emitting black smoke, Mu Qing and Youyou’s faces, blackened by the smoke, were streaked with tears.
The roar of vengeance rised up into the air above the settlement along with the black smoke.
People from the jungle were good at tracking. From an early age they had to learn to use their keenest eyes, their sharpest noses to track and find prey. Now, it was the enemy they were tracking.
That night, only a few sentry guards were left on guard. Still basking in the ecstasy of the pillage that had passed, Gang Tu and the men of his tribe were snoring in their camp when Li Mang and his companions quietly approached.
Gang Tu died with a look of disbelief on his ugly face. Even as he died, he could not figure out how Li Mang and his clan could have gotten the news and arrived here so quickly. According to his estimation, at night by the time they should have come back and learn of the news, the trail left by his own group would have already been swallowed up by the darkness. They should have traveled at least a night slower than him.
The women and children and their plundered ressources were recaptured. Before the sun rose, they were back to the settlement.
But no one could laugh, not even the children.
It was even more so for Li Mang.
He knelt in the middle of the open space, looking ahead, in a daze. There, the women were wailing around the bodies on the ground. Naonao was crying even harder.
His chief and two valiant men of the tribe had died in their homestead. Because of his carelessness.
“That woman is a scourge! It’s her, she invited disaster upon us! Drive her away!”
A shrill voice suddenly rang out, drawing everyone’s attention.
Mu Qing looked up in bewilderment and saw that that old woman who hid herself somewhere before was currently walking towards her, the pottery bells on her cane were clashing against one another, emitting a dull ringing sound. Mu Qing only then realized in astonishment that the one she was talking about was herself.
She subconsciously took a slight step back, but quickly stopped as she found that someone was standing behind her as well.
After a brief moment of dead silence, she then realized that almost everyone’s eyes were on her.
She looked towards Li Mang.
Li Mang slowly stood up from the ground and walked towards her.
Many years later, when Mu Qing was by her children’s side, watching them frolicking and playing carefreely, she couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if Li Mang hadn’t wanted her back then, but had instead wanted his tribe and that feathered crown on top of Da Wu’s head.
It was a fateful conjecture that was hard to answer.
But no matter what, he wanted her. So at that very moment, she told herself that in the days to come, she would make sure not to let him have the chance to regret the steps he took as he walked towards her that day.
Translator : Laura
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