"Madam Gu, please don’t say that. No matter what, Youyou still bears the Gu surname. She has been taken care of through many years of illness, and now that she has recovered, you will still enjoy her blessings in the future!"
"Humph... enjoy blessings? Forget it, this old woman doesn’t have such luck. I just hope that debt-collecting ghost stops plaguing us!"
After a good deal of bustling, everyone finally settled down.
The village chief arrived, and the villagers who had been working in the fields also returned.
For Lotus Village, this was not just about Gu Youyou being kidnapped by the wild man; it also concerned the safety of everyone in the village.
The village chief was a man in his fifties, who spoke with a strong and powerful voice.
"Now it’s one person who has been taken, but this wild man, though he carries the word ’human,’ is much like the beasts in the mountains—wolves, tigers, and leopards—he lacks humanity. After taking one, there will be a second, a third, countless more. This wild man in the mountains threatens the safety of our entire village. If we don’t take action now, he will surely intensify his actions and come to kidnap more people.
So we must form a team to comb the mountains, and even if we can’t catch that wild man, we need to scare him, right? We can’t let him think we have no way to deal with him. Isn’t that right?"
Below, a hunter quickly responded: "Yes, many men from our village go hunting in the mountains during the slack farming season. If there’s always a wild man snatching people there, how can we continue to hunt?"
Organizing a hunting party to deal with the wild man was met with unanimous response, and soon several teams of men from Lotus Village were ready to head into the mountains while the sky was still light.
Jin Zijin was in the mountains and only realized something had happened when he heard the collective shouting from below upon his return.
He hurried down and grabbed a villager to ask, "Why are so many of you heading into the mountains? Has something happened?"
The villager quickly replied: "Oh, Hunter Jin, you don’t know? There’s been trouble. Your wife was taken by a wild man, Shunzi saw it with his own eyes. That’s why we’re all going up to help you search!"
Jin Zijin’s expression darkened, and his face showed little change as he simply asked, "Where’s Shunzi?"
"At the Gu Family’s house. Old Master Gu fainted when he heard about it."
"Hmm, thank you!!" Jin Zijin gave a nod of thanks and continued to head down the mountain with his gear.
The group of villagers he encountered along the way was secretly amazed; they shook their heads and sighed as they watched him walk away.
"I told you, Hunter Jin didn’t marry that sickly girl for love; he was after her dowry. It’s said that everything Gu Youyou brought into Jin Zijin’s thatched hut as a dowry has been sold by him."
Another person added, "That’s right, that’s right. It’s rumored that he even grabbed the silver the Lin Family brought, and when the old lady from the Gu Family went to ask for it, she got a good scolding!"
"Sigh, what a shame for Gu Youyou, having recovered from her illness only to end up with such a heartless man. Look at him, hearing that his wife was taken by a wild man, he had no reaction at all, just keeps going down the mountain as if nothing happened. I bet he wishes Gu Youyou were dead!"
"Exactly, it’s really disheartening!"
"Come on, let’s hurry up the mountain while it’s still early!"
Gu Feng had already woken up, and the rest of the Gu Family had been called away by him, leaving only Jin Zijin.
Worried, Gu Feng’s already aged face seemed even older now. His eyes had begun to grow cloudy, making it difficult to discern objects right in front of him, let alone make out Jin Zijin’s face.