Chapter 28 Vine Armor

When strangers showed up, everyone in the wilderness became nervous and stayed inside their shacks. Someone in their shack hollered:”We don’t have food! We don’t have any valuables either! This hero, please leave us a chance for survival!”

More people just stayed silent, trembling inside their shacks.

Lin Yuan had thought there would be more people in the wilderness. The truth is it is extremely desolate. Because it is winter the trees are all bare, on the ground though there are human faeces and Lin Yuan must be careful so that he won’t step on these ‘surprises’.

The people in the farmstead at least know to dig a hole and bury their wastes and then use it as fertilizer later.

The people here don’t even bury it.

Lin Yuan shouts towards the people in the wilderness:”I require people to carry heavy objects. Everyday there will be mixed grain buns and bean curd cakes. There will be houses for shelter too. Those who want to come step out from the shacks.”

Silence.

Lin Yuan repeated it again but still no one appeared.

They hide inside their shacks and examine the new arrivals.

After waiting nearly 2 hours and as Lin Yuan was about to give up, a woman who is carrying someone on her back came out. Her hair oily and knotted, she timidly walked forward, looking up at Lin Yuan:”Are women acceptable? I can carry things.”

She also says:”I won’t waste food, I can do two people’s work for just one person’s food ration.”

She looks at Lin Yuan with desperate hope:”Is that alright?” Lin Yuan looks at the person she is carrying.

The woman immediately says:”This is my young lady, my young lady……my young lady knows how to read and write!”

Lin Yuan:”What is your name?”

The woman says immediately:”I am called Yun Niu!”

Lin Yuan nods, “Yun Niu, wait behind me.”

Yun Niu carries her young lady and walks to the back behind Lin Yuan. She stands in the middle of tall and big men, appearing even smaller and pitiful. Her face still shows anxiousness, she doesn’t know what the future holds but she knows that with the winter on them she won’t be able to even use her body to exchange for food anymore.

In fact, she herself could become food.

“No more people?” Lin Yuan asks a final time.

This time he did not wait long, finally someone left their shack as well.

Most who live in the wilderness are men, there are some women but other then the women who has the protection of their husbands, most single women are like Yun Niu and sell their bodies for food. They are barely covered in rags and walk out barefoot, their bodies even have wounds——some men rely on hitting women to vent their emotions.

The people who came out are about 1/3 of all the people in the wilderness.

In Lin Yuan’s eyes this is not a lot but those unwilling to come out he can’t help it either. It’s not like he can force them to come work for him?

So he says to the people who came out:”Follow me.”

On the way back, Yun Niu carries her young lady, gritting her teeth in order to not fall behind. On the side one of the men who came out with Lin Yuan from the farmstead offers:”I can carry her, don’t end up falling.”

Yun Niu says alertly:”I can still carry, there is no need.”

The man did not insist:”That’s fine, when you can’t anymore just let me know.”

Yun Niu did not reply, she also cannot reply, following the others without falling behind is already taking up all her strength.

When they finally arrive at the farmstead, this group of people with timid and numb eyes finally seem to have some light in them.

They see farm fields, even with bok choi planted in the soil. They are all of farmer origins so seeing the farm fields they could barely move their eyes.

The land is the source of the people’s livelihood, the people’s roots.

“First bring them to go wash up.” Lin Yuan says to the women waiting on the side, “one set of clothes per person.”

The women smiles:”Understood, Boss.”

With smiles on their faces, they lead them to wash up and shave their hair so that they don’t bring lice into the dormitories.

Yun Niu is also pulled away by a woman. The woman wears clothes that look thick, not shivering at all in the winter winds. She is also very clean, no dirt at all on her face. Her hair is also pulled up with a wooden hairpin, and look very respectable.

“I am called San Hua, what are you called?” The woman asks Yun Niu.

Yun Niu says quietly:”I am called Yun Niu, this is my young lady.”

San Hua brought them to a crowd of shacks. The shacks are much more sturdier than the ones seen in the wilderness. At least it does not have cracks to let in the wind. Inside the shack are a few buckets of water. This world does not have the conditions for showering, using warm water to wipe at is already very good.

“You…..have always stayed here?” Yun Niu asks San Hua carefully.

San Hua smiles:”No, we were bought and brought here. They bought my dad and my dad took me and my mom along.”

San Hua shaves Yun Niu’s hair and says:”Don’t be afraid, after coming here everything will be alright. As long as you work there will be food to eat. Boss does not hit people.”

Yun Niu asks curiously:”What kind of person is Boss?”

San Hua’s eyes had hope and yearning in them:”Boss is a good person, it is the first time I’ve ever seen such a good person like Boss in my whole life.”

On the other side another woman shaves the hair of Yun Niu’s young lady, she teases:”San Hua wants to be Boss’s servant girl.”

San Hua blushes:”Who said that? Don’t say nonsense.”

Yun Niu slowly relaxes, she says to her young lady when the women left to pour out the water:”Young lady, the Boss seems to be truly a good person, there are so many women here.”

The young lady coughs twice, her face smiling.

Even a cripple like herself he is willing to bring back, who but a good person would do that.

“In total we brought back 30 people.” Lin Yuan sighs, “men 22, women 8. And it’s a whole number, not even one more.”

Yang Zi’an says:”Not bad, I had thought not even one would be brought back.”

Lin Yuan thinks that strange:”What do you mean?”

Logically speaking, with a chance for survival those people should not be so unmoved?

Before there had even been a brave horse caretaker who sneaked into the people belonging to the human trafficker, just to have a chance at surviving.

Yang Zi’an:”I hear that there are some bandits who have already started killing people and cutting their flesh.”

Lin Yuan:”…….Cannibalism?”

Yang Zi’an nods:”That’s right.”

Lin Yuan fell silent, after a while he stands up:”I’m afraid we must speed up the work this winter.”

“Strive to finish building the wall by next summer.”

He wants to have more people stay alive. Perhaps the heavens brought him to this era is so that he can do this very thing.

Lin Yuan looks at Yang Zi’an:”Second brother, the bandits have weapons right?”

Yang Zi’an pauses, and immediately understands Lin Yuan’s meaning, smiling:”Of course.”

Lin Yuan:”And we lack weapons.”

Yang Zi’an and Lin Yuan make eye contact, both blinking their eyes at each other, and then letting out loud laughs.

Lin Yuan:”In the winter, they lack food and don’t have much warm clothes. We can take advantage of winter and rob the bandits in the area.”

“But before that, we need an important object.”

“Vine armors.”