Chapter 102 - Returning Without Success
Qiao Liu’s wife welcomed Qiao Mu to come inside and said with a bleak and bitter smile, “Qiaoqiao is considerate, are you here to visit your Sister Xiao Ya again? She is inside the house, but she’s still not that willing to see people.”
The events that happened in Qiaotou Village’s plaza were still vivid in people’s minds.
Twelve-year-old Qiao Ya had been humiliated by a hyena in public, and all of her clothes were nearly ripped into shreds and revealed a good portion of her skin to the onlookers.
Although she was a victim, in the eyes of the backward villagers of Qiaotou Village, Qiao Ya was an impure woman already. Two days ago, there were a few ignorant village women who were noisily petitioning for Qiao Ya to be burned to death to purify Qiaotou Village. She truly did not understand what was crawling around in those people’s minds.
During this period of time, Qiao Ya did not dare to go outside at all. She was neither able to face the villagers’ condemnation and disapproval nor was she able to confront that humiliating experience.
Qiao Mu sighed. If Qiao Ya was too afraid to move on herself, no one else could help her.
The current society might be fairly kind to women, but that only applied to women who are mystic cultivators, and Qiao Ya was merely a normal person.
Qiao Liu and his wife were nice people. When Qiao Mu’s family was lacking in clothes and food, Qiao Liu’s wife would frequently help their family a bit, so now that it was the dawn of a zombie outbreak, Qiao Mu wanted to help them however she could.
As for the other villagers, she truly could not manage that much at her age. Even if she currently knocked on every family’s door and earnestly advised them to leave, they would simply think she was crazy and might even think she was possessed by a demon and want to burn her.
Everyone had their own fate, their only choice was to fend for themselves.
“Qiaoqiao, come sit.” Qiao Liu’s wife wiped her hands on her apron and pulled Qiao Mu to sit. “Your sixth uncle went to pick vegetables and hasn’t returned yet. Qiaoqiao, these two horses of yours are?”
Qiao Liu’s wife was inevitably confused by the horses in Qiao Mu’s hands.
Qiao Mu finished tethering the horses in the courtyard before speaking to Qiao Liu’s wife. “Sixth Aunt, our family is leaving Qiaotou Village the day after tomorrow. Why don’t Sixth Uncle, Sister Xiao Ya, and you leave with us? Perhaps Sister Xiao Ya’s mood would improve after leaving Qiaotou Village.”
“Why are you moving?” Qiao Liu’s wife could not help but be surprised before promptly shaking her head with a bitter smile. “Qiaoqiao, Sixth Aunt and Sixth Uncle have lived in this village for several decades, where else could we move to? Don’t worry, your Sister Xiao Ya is merely burrowing herself into a dead end. She will quickly recover if I console her more.”
Qiao Mu was not so optimistic. She was well aware of how fragile normal people like Qiao Liu and his wife were when faced with zombies.
Those things will take their family’s lives!
She could not resist trying to persuade Qiao Liu’s wife once more, but the woman merely comforted her and told her not to overthink it. She said that their family will certainly improve after they cross this critical trial, but she also showed zero intent to leave Qiaotou Village.
Qiao Mu sighed, at her wit’s end, and left the two horses behind as back-up for their family, jolting Qiao Liu’s wife to furiously wave her hand and decline it. Qiao Liu’s wife might be uneducated but she knew that the price of a normal horse was typically around 20-30 taels. How could she accept such a generous gift from Qiao Mu?
To her surprise, Qiao Mu did not wait for her to finish speaking and merely dashed out of her house with a wave of her hand.
Qiao Mu’s mood was still heavy by the time she reached the entrance of her own home—an indescribable seriousness in her emotions.
She looked up at the sky and found that twilight had dawned on the village, gray clouds hanging far in the horizon. It looked like… it would rain later.
Rumble, rumble!
The sound of thunder was accompanied by raindrops the size of beans loudly clattering against the wooden window frame.
When Qiao Mu pulled down the window partition to close it, she uncontrollably looked up at the sky, which was pitch-black like the deep sea. Vaguely, she saw a giant bird flapping its gigantic wings sliding across the horizon.
Qiao Mu started, something flitted across her mind like a flash of lightning…