Chapter Nineteenth The Village Government Office

  Li Guoting followed the people who were escorting Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei in a southwest direction.

  Ma Fei, who had been shot in the arm, walked to the front of a village, covering his bleeding arm and shouting in pain, stopped in his tracks.

  A small-headed man, with a cigarette in his mouth and a black, somewhat tattered top hat on his head, carrying a long gun on his back, walked up to Ma Fei, looked at him sideways, and roughly saw that the arm Ma Fei was shot was bleeding profusely, staining half of Ma Fei's sleeve red with blood. Ma Fei was in so much pain that he couldn't help but hum continuously. He said: "Let's go, take them to the village first, find a doctor to bandage him, and then take them to town."

  Several men pushed Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei towards the village ahead.

  "Let us go, grandfather. We are all children and have done nothing wrong. Please." Zhao Erhu shouted to the people escorting him as he walked.

  "Shut your stinking mouth, you little brat! If you shout again, I'll beat you to death!" As he spoke, the sturdy rural policeman beside him swung his hand and slapped Zhao Erhu across the face.

  This slap was really vicious, and in an instant, five finger marks were printed on Zhao Erhu's face. He was so dizzy that his eyes blurred, and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.

  "What are you doing? Why are you hitting me?" Zhao Erhu yelled, his head raised and eyes wide with anger as he glared at the rural policeman who had hit him.

  "Damn it, hit you, how dare you. You still dare to be defiant, watch me not beat you to death." As he spoke, the rural policeman raised his palm again.

  "Hey, brother, forget it. What's the point of arguing with a kid?" The villager next to him, who was carrying a large knife on his back, reached out and grabbed his raised hand, glancing at Zhao Erhu, who had an angry face beside him, "Leave him alone, we still have to collect our reward money in town."

  The rural policeman who raised his palm to hit Zhao Erhu, after hearing what his partner said, put down his hand. He glared at Zhao Erhu and said: "Let you be tough, when we get to the township government office, let's see if you're still tough or not. Move. Get out of here." As he spoke, he raised his foot again and kicked Zhao Erhu.

  The crowd of people escorted Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei into the village with curses.

  It was at this time that the villagers heard that the patrolmen from the county government had caught two bandits in the woods ahead, and they all ran out of their homes to see the excitement. Some were discussing it, others were cursing them. And some saw Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei's age, saying something pitiful, sympathetic words.

  They walked to the village office, where the village chief came out to greet them. Then, he found someone to call the only doctor in the village to bandage Ma Fei's injured arm.

  The doctor carefully examined the wound on Ma Fei's arm and said, "The bullet has entered the flesh, we need to operate to remove it. If not, it will become inflamed."

  The little head who escorted Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei heard the village doctor say that he wanted to operate on Ma Fei, so he walked over from the village chief's side and came to the doctor's face, asking: "You see, can you just bandage it? As long as he doesn't die, it's okay, as long as we can take him to town."

  Lang Zhong took another look at Ma Fei's wound. At this moment, Ma Fei saw him and shouted in pain again.

  "Oh no, it hurts so much, it hurts so much! Master, save me, save me!" Ma Fei shouted, his body shrinking to the ground. The hand deliberately pinched the injured wound on his arm with force. Every time he pinched, he would cry out in pain and more blood would flow from the wound. The pain and bleeding made Ma Fei's face lose its color, turning pale like a dead person. His facial muscles twitched due to the pain, forming several ridges.

  Old Lang shook his head and said to Xiaotou: "It's not going well, the girl has lost too much blood. If we don't operate soon, I'm afraid she won't make it halfway."

  The village chief also walked over, took a look at Ma Fei's wound and advised: "Captain Liu, look at that kid bleeding like that, let the doctor treat him. If he dies, there will be no one to testify."

  Xing Liu's captain looked at Ma Fei sitting on the ground again, gritting his teeth and asked Lang Zhong: "How long will it take?"

  "It's hard to say, at least half a day." Lang Zhong shook his head and said.

  "Go ahead and give him treatment." Captain Liu said.

  Lang Zhong went home to fetch something. Zhao Erhu was tied up in the room next to Ma Fei's. A rural militiaman stood guard at the door, carrying a long spear on his back.

  The rest of the village heads followed Liu Xing and had tea in the village office.

  Without much ado, Lang Zhong slung a bag over his shoulder and brought along an apprentice to rush to the village government office. Before long, in the room where Guo Ma Fei was lying, he began operating on Ma Fei to remove the bullet that had been shot into his arm.

  Li Guoting followed them from a distance, all the way to the edge of the village. He was about to enter the village when he found that many villagers had come out to watch the commotion. Thinking of his outsider identity and accent, if the villagers recognized him, they would be caught like Zhao Erhu and others. If he wanted to rescue Zhao Erhu and others, it would be a failure. Who knows, he might also be taken to the town and recognized as the one who assassinated Chen Guangfu, then he would be done for.

  Thinking of this, Li Guoting didn't dare to enter the village. He circled around the village and found that this village was like the villages in Chuannan, with a bamboo forest behind it. The village wasn't big, but very neat, one household next to another, living on both sides of the village road.

  In the south of the village, there is a stream flowing slowly towards the south.

  Li Guoting wandered around the village entrance for half a day, but didn't see the group bringing out Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei, so he felt something was off. Looking at the sun already past its peak, he estimated it was already past noon, and he circled the village again, still not seeing them come out. Li Guoting was perplexed, thinking to himself, could it be that these people are actually from this village?

  It's strange that they don't have any grudges with the people in this village, so why did they catch Erhu and Ma Fei? Oh, I see, maybe Ma Fei has some grudges with the people in this village, it's possible.

  Li Guoting was also lost in thought and couldn't guess what would happen next. So he decided to hide in the bamboo forest first, and wait until nightfall before doing anything else.

  It's getting dark, and from the edge of the bamboo forest, looking towards the village in front, Zhao Erhu and Ma Fei still haven't come out. Li Guoting is getting anxious, his stomach has been empty for a whole day, and he's so hungry that his front heart is about to stick to his back heart. No way, I have to go in and take a look, what exactly happened.

  Taking advantage of the darkness, Li Guoting followed the rice fields and quietly slipped into the village.

  In the village, people were just starting to cook dinner, and wisps of grayish-white smoke emerged from the chimneys of every household. Li Guoting did not dare to be careless, he walked forward with his head down, pretending to be a child in the village, while paying attention to the situation on the side of the road.

  He walked to the center of the village, next to a rice field, and saw a courtyard with a large gate that didn't look like those of ordinary villagers. On the gate hung a plaque. Li Guoting couldn't read characters and didn't know what was written on the plaque, but based on experience, he guessed it must be a government office (he also called the village office a government office).

  "Right, Zhao Erhu and his men must have been locked in here by that group of people." Li Guoting thought.

  Taking advantage of the darkness, there was no one in front of the village office either. Li Guoting quietly went around to the west side of the village office wall, he looked up and found that next to it was a soapberry tree, on which many mature soapberries were still hanging after the leaves had fallen. One sturdy branch stretched over the high wall of the village office compound.

  Climbing trees is just a game for Li Guoting. He has climbed all sorts of trees since he was little, and this is nothing for a mountain-born kid like him.

  Li Guoting glanced around and saw no one, then crouched down, hugged the tree trunk, and climbed up with a "whooshing" sound. Before long, he had climbed onto that thick branch extending into the village office.

  Hugging the tree trunk, crouching on a branch, Li Guoting carefully looked into the courtyard. He found that the village public house was a quadrangle courtyard with three rooms in the east and four rooms in the north. Among them, the three rooms near the east were lit up, and a noisy sound came from inside. The four rooms close to the north, where the two westernmost rooms were lit up. At the door of the westernmost room, a soldier stood guard with his back against the gun.

  Li Guoting quietly bent down from the branch, grasped the branch with both hands, looked at the wall with his feet, and gently let go of his hands. He jumped down and landed on the wall head. Fortunately, the wall head was very close to the branch, and Li Guoting fell down lightly, making only a slight sound, which did not attract the attention of the sentry.

  Li Guoting crouched down, walked quietly along the wall to the north side of the four rooms, climbed down from the wall and crept to the bottom of the window. He put his ear against the window and listened inside, it seemed like someone was sighing. Li Guoting moistened the window paper with his tongue, carefully tore open a small hole with his hand, and looked inside through the hole. He saw that in one corner of the room, Zhao Erhu was bound by his hands behind his back, sitting on the ground, with a white cloth stuffed in his mouth, still humming incessantly.

  Li Guoting wanted to call out to Zhao Erhu, but then thought better of it. If the guards outside heard him, he'd be done for.

  Thinking of this, Li Guoting left the window and went around to the front corner. Hiding in the dark corner of the wall. Li Guoting took a peek forward and found that the sentry was not tall, slightly taller than himself, and relatively thin. Estimated to be easy to deal with, he prepared to make his move.

  Just then, the sentry stretched and yawned. He must have been sleepy. He shouted towards the row of brightly lit houses in the east: "Hey, are you done eating? I'm still hungry. It's time to switch shifts."

  Someone from the house over there replied, "You just wait and see, we're eating now, just wait a bit longer."

  Li Guoting thought, this group of people are taking turns eating. This is a good opportunity, they still have to eat for a while, if they can take down the sentry in front of them now, they can rescue Zhao Erhu. If it's late, those people will finish eating and there will be no way to save him.

  Thinking of this, Li Guoting gritted his teeth and plucked up the courage to take action. He took off his belt from his pants, pulled them together, stuffed them into his waist, held the belt in both hands, and quietly stood at the corner of the wall, staring intently at the village guard standing watch, waiting for an opportunity to make a move.

  Perhaps he didn't take his sentry duty seriously, and the rural policeman was numb, so he turned around, took out a pinch of tobacco from the tobacco pouch he carried with him, and began to rub it between his hands.

  Opportunity came, Li Guoting took advantage of the moment when the rural policeman was bowing his head to rub tobacco, and quietly walked behind him, stretched out the belt in his hand, and put it around his neck. He used all his strength, with both hands desperately pulling tight the belt that was wrapped around the rural policeman's neck. Soon, the rural policeman struggled a few times, didn't shout out loud, kicked his legs wildly a few times, stretched out his hands, and his body went limp.

  Li Guoting was still uneasy, so he made a few more efforts to pull him, feeling that he really didn't move, and then hurriedly dragged him to the dark corner of the wall.

  Just then, someone in the room eating dinner heard some noise and shouted: "Can't you just hold on for a moment? We'll be done soon. Then it's your turn."

  The shout from the room scared Li Guoting, who hastily dodged and hid in the corner of the wall. He looked up at the several rooms with bright lights on that side, but didn't see anyone coming out.

  Li Guoting wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, turned around and returned to where Xiang Ding's body was lying. Borrowing the faint light coming from the front yard, he saw that Xiang Ding was still motionless on the ground, so he took the rifle off Xiang Ding's body and slung it over his own shoulder. Lowering his head, he noticed a dagger tied to Xiang Ding's leg, which he also removed and tucked into his waistband. Then he turned around and came to the doorway where Xiang Ding had been standing guard earlier, slipped inside, and entered the house.