After taking Yu Renwan’s body down, Xi Jueyun wrapped her in a blanket.
Though the whip marks covering her were unbearable to look at, they were not fatal. Upon closer inspection, there were several deep wounds on her body, all made by sharp knives.
She had died from blood loss.
Xi Jueyun was not weak; she could carry the girl by herself. After a brief cleaning, she carried Yu Renwan out alone.
Everyone followed silently.
“Isn’t she too light?”
After a few steps, Xi Jueyun suddenly stopped and turned to Xiao Congye.
“Hold her for a moment. Why is she so light?”
The girl was indeed very, very light. Xi Jueyun didn’t know if it was just her imagination or if it was really so.
Xiao Congye was startled. She clenched her fists, then slowly relaxed them. After a few seconds, a rare look of caution appeared on her face.
She took the girl in her arms, lowered her eyes, and felt for a while.
“She is a bit light.”
She forced a casual laugh. “The theater didn’t feed her well, not a bit of flesh on her. It’s embarrassing to say.”
But everyone knew that wasn’t the reason.
She was light because there was almost no blood left in her body.
Everyone had heard of it, even if they hadn’t seen it in the newspapers: the foreign soldiers had a torture where they would stab several holes in a person, then hold a large iron basin underneath to catch the blood, carrying out basin after basin until the person could bleed no more.
Then they would weigh the blood, and then the corpse, to see how much weight was lost after bleeding—to see if the difference matched the weight of the flesh and blood.
And that was considered a milder death.
Because after losing blood, a person quickly became unconscious and died, so the suffering was a little shorter.
Countless more brutal experiments were performed.
Like putting people in steam boxes to watch their body moisture evaporate, or freezing people and cutting off their limbs to observe the flow of blood inside.
Those beasts were coming; Lingren Village had to evacuate as soon as possible.
Before leaving the Wang residence, Xi Jueyun went to the side courtyard, where Master Wang’s concubines lived. Each was covered in wounds—most were refugees seized by force, forced to submit to survive, not daring to resist, not even daring not to smile.
As soon as Xi Jueyun pushed open the door, with a creak, the girls sitting in the courtyard reflexively stood up in panic, forcing bright smiles.
When they saw Xi Jueyun, they froze, standing awkwardly in place.
But the smiles did not fade from their faces.
They remained, strange and stiff.
Xi Jueyun knew why—these girls thought Master Wang was behind her. If they didn’t smile, they’d be beaten; if they weren’t happy, they’d be beaten.
“You’re free now.”
Xi Jueyun didn’t explain much, only said, “Hurry and pack your things. Master Wang is dead. We didn’t touch his money—divide it among yourselves and leave Lingren Village this afternoon.”
“It’s not safe outside either, so take knives with you when you go.”
With that, Xi Jueyun didn’t wait for their reaction, carrying the body out of the Wang residence.
But she didn’t return to the theater; instead, she headed toward the village gate.
There was still a patrol team there—Master Wang’s, the last group in Lingren Village that needed to be killed.
These men had abetted evil for years, beaten countless refugees to death, helped Master Wang seize countless young girls in their prime—they deserved to die long ago.
To reach the village gate, they had to pass through the shop-lined street.
Seeing Xi Jueyun alive, the shopkeepers were shocked, as if they’d seen a ghost. But when they saw the bloodstained blanket revealing an opera costume, some gradually realized what had happened, their expressions complex.
Xiao Congye stepped forward.
There was still some distance to the village gate, so her voice wouldn’t carry that far. She raised her voice and shouted, “By tomorrow night at the latest, foreign soldiers will invade our village!”
“All the masters in Lingren Village are dead now—some killed by us, some by each other. But they deserved to die, and die they should!”
“There is no plague outside—”
Amid the uproar, Xiao Congye’s voice rose even higher: “It was all a lie by the masters! They wanted to leave for a better life, but wanted us to die in Lingren Village. Now it’s over—everything is getting better, and will only get better!”
“Everyone, pack up and evacuate as soon as possible!!”
Because the patrol teams of several families had been secretly killed and fed to the flowers by Old Master Fang, and his own men had all been called back to prepare for evacuation, there were no patrols on the back mountain now. Anyone who wanted to leave could do so.
When Xiao Congye finished, the street fell silent for a moment, then sprang into action.
Some didn’t believe, but more did.
Everyone in Lingren Village knew what the masters were like, and everything Xiao Congye said was exactly what they were capable of.
And the theater held a special place in the village.
Many looked down on opera singers, thought them ridiculous for painting their faces, selling laughter, lowly to the point of shame, but even so, everyone knew Xi Jueyun and her people were unquestionably good.
But not all villagers were good people.
Some lowered their eyes, quickly slipping toward the village gate in the chaos; some deliberately shouted, “We’re free!” but were quickly stopped by others.
After living here so long, everyone knew who was a master’s spy, who was a lackey—everyone saw clearly.
The girl from the tailor shop swung her broom into the mouth of the shouting man, filling it with dirty debris. Still unsatisfied, she slapped him hard several times.
Smack, smack.
Someone kindly handed her a freshly used rag; the girl knowingly stuffed it into the man’s mouth, turning his face purple as he gagged.
A man trying to run to the gate to warn the patrol was also stopped.
The restaurant cook smashed two knives down on his shoulders, her hands shaking with anger. “People like you—people like you! You deserve to die!”
Then she turned to Xi Jueyun and the others. “Go on and butcher those beasts. There’s enough of us—we won’t let anyone get to the gate!”
“No one will send a warning!”
Xi Jueyun gave a slight bow, handed the body in her arms to the tailor shop girl, asking her to watch over it for a while. The girl, heartbroken, clutched the blanket tightly.
Half a minute later, the group headed for the village gate.
Because there’d been no warning, the patrolmen were still pacing outside. On the yellow earth outside the village sat a group of emaciated refugees, from war-torn regions, forced to pass through Lingren Village to escape, but refused entry.
They no longer had the strength to take another route, only sat silently waiting to die.
Jin Yuebai stood behind the village gate, carefully observing the men’s hands and pockets, confirming six had guns. Two were looting the corpses, four were walking around, and three with iron rods were of little concern.
After noting their positions, Jin Yuebai discussed the order of attack.
She said calmly, “I’ll climb the gate and kill the two looting—they’re farther back, and their sudden deaths won’t be noticed. The rest are in the open, so I’ll shoot the tallest, strongest one on the far left. Once he’s down, we’ll probably be discovered.”
“After that, we finish it quickly.”
“Yuebai, kill the shortest one on the right. Congye, you take the one facing the gate. I’ll handle the skinny one on the left.”
They acted as soon as they finished speaking. With experience, their teamwork was even smoother.
Jiang Yan and the others stood behind, ready to adapt as needed.
But there were no surprises.
Within two minutes, the patrol didn’t even have time to fight back—the battle was over.
Three people were helped down from the gate.
It happened so fast that those who’d come along looked dazed.
“We’re amazing,” Xiao Congye said, smiling.
“Yes, we’re strong,” Jin Yuebai replied.
After they spoke, the realization that the patrol had been wiped out finally sank in. Jiang Yan was the first to applaud, and soon thunderous applause erupted behind her.
Everyone was clapping; though most hadn’t done anything, they were all inexplicably moved to tears.
Xi Jueyun raised her hand to stop them, but just then, the sound of carts came from not far away.
She looked over and saw it was the girls Master Wang had taken home.
They pushed three carts piled high with food. The lead girl came over and said gently, “We found all this in the Wang residence. There’s too much for us to take—give it to the refugees.”
She’d thought it through: “These refugees are starving. If we let them in all at once, they might lose control and fight for food—my father was like that once, wanted everything, wanted to eat everything, and couldn’t be stopped.”
“Let them eat their fill before coming into the village.”
Xi Jueyun gave the girls a deep look, then turned to organize everyone to bring food outside the village.
The girl from the twins followed, anxiously searching the crowd until she spotted her parents under a dead tree. Her parents saw her too.
They leaned forward, rubbing their eyes, thinking they were seeing things.
But after a few blinks, the girl ran to them, and only then did they believe it. The girl’s mother began to weep, tears streaming down her dusty face, leaving streaks that looked almost comical.
But no one laughed.
It just felt good.
So good.
No one asked about the twin brother—they just hugged the girl tightly, holding on for a long time before letting go.
“She’s strong too,” Xiao Congye said, watching, then turned to Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan nodded firmly. “She killed Master Wang with her own hands—her fists are powerful.”
With the dust settled, Jin Yuebai came to say goodbye. “I’m going back to Flower Street. The sisters are waiting for me.”
Everyone said their goodbyes.
Jin Yuebai waved with a smile. “We’ll see each other soon. After I send them out of the village, I’ll come find the troupe leader.”
“Everyone can be a hero. Every sister can be one too.”
With that, Jin Yuebai walked away.
So much had happened today—in just half a day, Flower Street had suffered, the theater was devastated, sisters had died, the Fang and Wang families were finished. But Lingren Village had finally returned to the world, and at last, they had the future they wanted.
As she neared Flower Street, Jin Yuebai began thinking about how to explain everything to her sisters, how to arrange for them to leave safely that afternoon.
But as she got closer, her heart suddenly clenched.
Jin Yuebai faintly heard sounds of pain.
Those voices were exhausted, sounding like both crying and laughing. They tore at their clothes, smashed everything within reach, scratched at the walls, screaming hoarsely.
Jin Yuebai’s face went pale as she raced to Flower Street.
In the midst of these cries, the beautiful future she had imagined for her sisters collapsed in an instant.
She felt something being ripped from the depths of her heart.
Addiction.
On the road to escape, there is no need for addiction.