"Big sister, why are you here?" When he saw the few young boys behind her, he was even more surprised, "Nonsense, big sister, why did you bring them too?"
"Ah Cheng..." At this moment, the woman clearly saw the situation in front of Wang’s village. Seeing her captured brother, she was shocked and panicked, running towards Liu Cheng without caring about anything else.
The young boys who came along also rushed towards their surrounded and injured family members. Even though they were scared, they still pushed away the people of Wang’s village around them and pounced to their family’s side.
The woman looked at the scars on Liu Cheng’s face, her eyes reddened with distress. Her gaze then turned to the crowd, finally fixing on the single old man being supported, the only elder around.
She walked straight to him and knelt down with a thud, "You must be the village chief. Please, be kind and release my brother. I came to take them back. I’m sorry, please, village chief, forgive us this once. We were forced to this... but I promise it won’t happen again. Just give us this one chance, I beg you, village chief..." Saying this, she started kowtowing.
"Sis..." Wang Cheng’s eyes reddened.
"Shut your mouth," afraid her brother would say something offensive, the woman sternly shouted.
Liu Cheng reluctantly closed his mouth. What he wanted to say was that his sister didn’t need to beg; they were originally just letting them leave, just had to suffer a bit.
The woman felt relieved seeing her brother close his mouth, then looked at village chief Wang with pleading eyes, knowing this elder was the one calling the shots.
"Sigh... get up. We were going to let them go anyway, but I hope you can keep your word... off you go." Seeing the woman’s cracked lips and the similarly parched young boys, village chief Wang couldn’t help but soften his heart, but just barely.
"Thank you, thank you," the woman said excitedly, kowtowing again.
"Eldest..." village chief Wang looked at his eldest son.
Wang Yichun glared fiercely at Liu Cheng. Despite his unwillingness, he still released him.
"Consider yourself lucky!"
"Sis..." Liu Cheng staggered as he ran to the woman.
"Thank you, thank you..." The woman glanced at her brother and thanked him again.
"Go..." she said, both to her brother and their other villagers.
"Shut up, let’s go..."
The woman looked sternly at him, taking his hand and heading straight for the village’s exit. Liu Cheng pursed his lips, turned back for a glance at the people of Wang’s village, his eyes dim but still following his sister’s lead.
There certainly wouldn’t be any more water today, and they had been out long enough to feel overwhelmingly hot. Staying outside any longer, they feared they wouldn’t make it back to the village.
"Dad..." Wang Yichun approached his father, looking at him with unwillingness, "Just let them go like that."
"What else, kill them all?" Village chief Wang looked at his son and asked back, then sighed, "It’s times like these... Liu Cheng didn’t really want to harm me."
Village chief Wang rubbed the shallow wound on his neck, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been such a small wound. Even what seemed like a heavy punch was actually restrained; otherwise, he, an old man, couldn’t have taken it.
His father’s words left Wang Yichun speechless.
"Sigh!" Village chief Wang sighed, looking towards the direction the stone was shot from, then stepped forward, with the others quickly following.
If not always confronting the people of Liu’s village, he couldn’t have resisted going to see who exactly had shot this life-saving stone.
In a rush, they all hurried over, but apart from bare trees and the occasional gust of hot wind, the surroundings were peacefully quiet, leaving only the sound of their footsteps, with nothing else.
Everyone looked towards the village chief.
Village chief Wang: "..."
Looking at everyone, feeling amused and helpless, "Alright, everyone go back. I don’t know either. This person probably doesn’t want to be known."
Anyway, it should be someone on our side, otherwise, they wouldn’t have helped us.
Knowing who they are is enough.
Meanwhile, Hua Jin and her father, who were part of their side, also quietly left the village following the woman’s departure, trailing behind their group.
After leaving Wang’s village, the usually bad-tempered Liu Cheng couldn’t hold back.
"Sis, why did you come?"
In this scorching heat, one should avoid moving if possible. Liu Cheng didn’t think his sister would chase after them without reason.
"Little brother, we have water now," the woman first glanced behind them, feeling they were far enough from Wang’s village before speaking to her brother in a tone she couldn’t hide her excitement, which was why she hurried over with a few young boys to find Liu Cheng and the others.
She wasn’t assured until she came to find her family. After all, Liu Cheng had taken all the men from the village!
Now that they had water, it was better to avoid conflict with others, as getting injured was very scary.
"Sis, are you dreaming?" It wasn’t that Liu Cheng didn’t believe her; it was just hard to. After all, all the nearby rivers and village wells were completely dry with not a drop of water. Where did sister’s water come from, except for in a dream-induced delirium?
"Whack..." The woman gave Liu Cheng’s arm a slap, "Do I look like I’m dreaming?" She seriously looked at her brother.
"Hiss," Liu Cheng drew a sharp breath, as the slap landed on his injured arm, although not directly on the wound, it still triggered pain in his wrist injury.
The woman immediately became anxious, forgetting about her brother’s injuries in her excitement. Feeling heartache, she lifted Liu Cheng’s hand for a closer look, her eyes reddening. If not for the severe water shortage, tears would have been trickling down by now.
"Why is it so swollen?"
"It’s fine, sis, it just looks swollen, nothing inside is hurt," Liu Cheng, tolerant towards the sister who raised him, quickly reassured her.
"This swollen and you say it’s fine? You..." the woman glared at her brother, exhaling her pain for him.
"Sis... are you really not dreaming? We really have water?" Liu Cheng quickly circled back to the topic, fearing his sister would start to cry.
"Otherwise, ask Zige and the others. It can’t be that everyone’s dreaming together, can it?"
Liu Cheng shifted his gaze and realized everyone’s expression mirrored his own disbelief, looking at the boys who had clearly shared the water news with them.
"Really?" Some man couldn’t help asking again.
"Really, uncle. Not only my family, but all the families in our village have all their water containers filled to the brim, even the bowls. If we conserve, it will last us a long time..." The young boy spoke about the water with eyes shining brightly, other children nodding along vigorously.
"Is it true?" Now Liu Cheng couldn’t help but believe.
"Otherwise, why would we rush over to find you?" The woman gave Liu Cheng a look, "Hurry up, you guys have been out for quite a while now, your body won’t hold up."
As she spoke, she quickened her pace, but held her brother even more carefully with both hands.
The news of the water raised everyone’s spirits, but at that moment, they really couldn’t afford to delay any longer, already feeling stiflingly short of breath. They needed to hurry home.