Chapter 77：

Ming Tan couldn't react, he bit his chicken leg and raised his head, looking at him ignorantly.

How did she get into trouble?

But before Jiang Xu could explain, she heard footsteps coming from outside the ruined temple. Those footsteps were chaotic and hurried, some were light and some were heavy.

Ming Tan seemed to understand something: "Here, did the innkeeper bring someone here?"

When they came to Tonggang Town today, they seemed to have only met the innkeeper. Could it be because they knew the true face of the inn and brought someone here to kill them?

But this...it shouldn't be. The people in the town are clearly aware of what the inn is doing, otherwise no one would have gone straight there, so whatever they did, they would provoke people. Come to silence?

Ming Tan didn't want to understand for a while.

But she couldn't figure it out, but her body reacted quickly. She hurriedly put down the chicken legs, and hid behind Jiang Xu cowardly. Fearing that Jiang Xu would lose, she tugged at Jiang Xu's sleeve, trying to hide behind the Buddha statue with him.

Jiang Xu glanced at her, but said nothing.

The footsteps outside were getting closer, and Ming Tan was getting more and more nervous, and the hand holding Jiang Xu's sleeve was sweating.

But what she didn't expect was that the footsteps were approaching menacingly, but they all stopped outside the temple, and then there was a painful cry of falling to the ground outside the temple——

"Ouch!"

Ming Tan belatedly remembered, oh yes, there are two hidden guards outside who can cut firewood and buy chickens, and talk less than the husband.

She felt a little more at ease.

Half a moment later, the dark guard **** all the people outside tightly, carried them one by one, and threw them in like sandbags.

One, two, three...

ten.

When the tenth one was thrown, Ming Tan was stunned for a moment, his eyes fixed on the man, and he didn't move or blink for a while.

She had seen that person before, it was the little beggar who looked very pitiful during the day, and she gave him a bag of pastries and an ingot of broken silver.

Why is it him?

"How is this going?"

She looked at Jiang Xu puzzled.

Jiang Xu didn't answer, he got up and condescendingly glanced at the man lying on the ground who was the first to be thrown in.

Without saying a word, he just stretched out his foot, stepped on the left side of the man's face, and ground him slowly.

"Ahhh! My lord, spare your life! Forgive me!" The man screamed, his face was deformed by the trample, and the corners of his mouth were bleeding.

Seeing this, the others were frightened and knelt on the ground, begging for mercy.

The little beggar who had been given charity by Ming Tan before was even paler, trembling, tears pouring out uncontrollably.

He humbly moved forward to Ming Tan, and didn't dare to get too close, so he kept kowtowing in fright, his voice was small and whimpering: "Sister, sister! I was wrong! Please forgive me! Sister, I Kowtow to you! Spare me, spare me!"

After a while, he kowtowed until his head was bleeding. The blood on his forehead was mixed with the dust and tears on the ground, as if he was unconscious.

Ming Tan knew that this matter had something to do with him, so it could be seen that he was small and pitiful, so he still couldn't bear it: "Stop knocking!"

She suppressed her anger and asked again, "tell me, what's going on?"

The little beggar wanted to say something, but before he opened his mouth, he couldn't help but look at the man trampled by Jiang Xu, and flinched inexplicably.

Ming Tan sensed something was wrong, squatted down, and asked patiently: "Tell me, what's going on?"

The little beggar was trembling with fear and nervousness. After a while, he whimpered cowardly: "Sister, I don't want to hurt you, but if I don't obey, he will beat me."

he?

Ming Tan looked at the man trampled by Jiang Xu.

The man seemed to want to say something, he struggled a bit, but he was still unable to move, and he couldn't open his mouth. Jiang Xu's feet seemed to be a little heavier. The man was in so much pain that he couldn't bear it, and passed out directly. .

There was a faint guess in Ming Tan's mind, she handed a clean handkerchief to the little beggar, her voice could not help softening, even a little gentle: "Don't be afraid, speak slowly."

Seeing that the man passed out, the little beggar was greatly relieved. I don't know what scruples he had, he hesitated for a while, but finally he mustered up the courage and stumbled to talk about the ins and outs of the matter.

It turned out that the little beggar was named Xiao Shitou, and he was kidnapped from another village to Tonggang Town. The person who kidnapped him was the man Jiang Xu stepped on, Chen Wu.

Chen Wu, Li Si, and Wang San Mazi often abducted children from the villages near Tonggang. When they got a group of abductors, they took them from Tonggang to a more affluent town nearby.

Those who have joints over there will specially train them to be swindled beggars, and not everyone can be a swindled beggar. They have to be nimble and quick-witted, otherwise they will only be short of arms and legs. Selling miserably and begging.

The small stones will be taken away in two days. Today, they happened to meet these two foreigners on the street. Chen Wu pushed him out to beg. It was not enough, and I gave back ingots of broken silver!

Seeing that there were only two of them, Chen Wu thought that they were both incompetent, so he couldn't help but have a bad idea, and followed them all the way secretly during the day. fiscal.

What Xiaoshitou said was not too different from what Mingtan thought, but when she heard Xiaoshitou say that those who can't do the job of cheating and abducting will be directly cut off their hands and feet, she couldn't help but gasped.

They are all children, why are they so cruel?

She suppressed the uneasiness in her heart, stretched out her hand gently, and brushed away the **** messy hair of the small stone: "Do you still remember where home is?"

Xiao Shitou choked with his head down, and said in a small voice, "I remember."

Ming Tan almost wanted to blurt out, "Then sister will take you home", but thinking of the purpose of this trip, she swallowed the words again.

Just when she was about to ask Jiang Xu if the dark guard could send these children back, Xiao Shitou sniffled again and kowtowed to Ming Tan, his voice full of fear and humbleness after the disaster: "Sister, You are a good person, we don't want to harm you, can you spare us?"

"Stop knocking." Ming Tan couldn't help but give him a hand, "Sister, let someone take you home, okay?"

Hearing this, Xiao Shitou raised his head to look at her, his nose bubbled out of joy, "Thank you sister, you are such a good person!" He wiped his hand, glanced at Jiang Xu, and lowered his voice involuntarily, " I can go back by myself without bothering my brothers and sisters."

This child is so sensible that it makes people feel distressed.

Ming Tan glanced at the other children who were also yellow, emaciated and gray, and felt very uncomfortable. She got up, took out all the broken silver and dry food in the bag, and divided them among them.

Jiang Xu let her move without stopping her.

Those who came tonight, besides the children who were brought in as helpers, were also Chen Wu's companions, Li Si and Wang Sanmazi, but Li Si and Wang Sanmazi were more capable outside before, so they naturally suffered from the hidden guards After a heavier blow, he passed out long before being thrown into the ruined temple.

After Ming Tan finished distributing things to these children, Jiang Xu ordered the dark guard to send them away from the wilderness, and then asked the dark guard to remove the arms and legs of the unconscious trio and throw them into the mass grave.

The ruined temple returned to silence.

The unfinished chicken legs were cold.

Ming Tan was not in the mood to eat anymore.

She sat with her knees hugged beside the lingering fire, and after a long moment of stupor, she asked in a daze, "Did my husband know that I would get into trouble if I gave something?"

Jiang Xu opened his hem and sat next to her, his voice was quiet: "People who have been hungry for three days, when they see pastries and silver, how can they not move pastries to bite the silver."

Ming Tan recalled the scene in the daytime, hesitantly said: "Can we infer from this? Maybe he needs money for emergency, or maybe he wants to take the pastry back to eat with other people, it's not...not necessarily?"

Jiang Xu lowered his eyes and said indifferently: "You haven't been hungry for three days, it's normal if you don't understand."

When Ming Tan heard this, he couldn't help turning his head to look at him, his eyes were full of surprise.

"Husband, have you been hungry for three days?"

She asked the question without thinking, and after asking, she suddenly remembered that her husband said before that he almost died of thirst while marching.

He has had the experience of almost dying of thirst, and the experience of almost starving to death may not be uncommon for him. Husband is a dignified prince, what kind of life did you live in the past? Ming Tan felt even more uncomfortable.

But Jiang Xu didn't respond, he just took her shoulders and let her lie flat on his lap: "You are tired, go to bed earlier."

Ming Tan wanted to say something else.

Jiang Xu lowered his head and brushed the broken hair off her face: "Go to sleep."

Looking at it from this angle, the contours of the husband's face seemed to be much softer than usual, and even his voice became hoarse and gentle.

She looked at Jiang Xu without blinking for a while, and said suddenly: "Husband, A Tan will treat you well in the future."

Without waiting for Jiang Xu's reaction, she hugged Jiang Xu's waist, arched inward, and closed her eyes with peace of mind.

Jiang Xu was slightly startled, and a very faint warmth flashed across his eyes.

The night fell.

Tonight is fine, the moon is shining like a wash, everything is quiet, only unknown birds and beasts are crying intermittently in the mountains and forests, it sounds a little lonely.

After studying these days, Ming Tan has fallen asleep peacefully in this harsh environment.

Seeing that she was fast asleep, Jiang Xu gently placed her on the straw mat, gave the dark guard a look, and melted into the boundless night outside the ruined temple alone.

…

Under the **** of a hidden guard, Xiaoshitou and his group of children safely left the ruined temple in the wilderness and returned to their residence in the town.

Seeing the dark guard leave, the children fell silent for a while.

Suddenly, Xiao Shitou said, "I don't know what happened to Chen Wu, Li Si and Wang Mazi. Let's go to Hehua Town tonight, lest they wake up and tell us, and those people come to trouble us again."

The children listened to him and nodded.

Little Stone's previous cowardice was gone, replaced by a maturity that didn't quite match his age: "I'll go outside first to see what's going on, hurry up and pack up your things, and pack up all their valuable things. "

After speaking, he got up, patted the ashes on his buttocks, and walked out quickly.

Late at night in Tonggang Town, the streets are very quiet.

Little Shitou walked all the way to the intersection without seeing anyone. It seemed that the man who sent them back had really left, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But when he turned around, he suddenly stopped.

Under the cold moonlight, a man dressed in black came down from the roof. He had no expression on his face, his eyes were very indifferent, and it seemed that a pool of still water had sunk inside.

"Where do you want to go?"