章 17: DISPOSITION (2)
This was fourth month after she was forcefully labeled as widow and shifted to his make-believe husband house.
The family was good toward her in initial days, after few days they openly said that she was only a burden for them and they only took mercy on her family to bring her with them.
If she wanted to eat and drink in this house she needed to work hard in the fields to support her and this family because their son was murdered so the source of their income also shrank with his murder.
She worked household and then in the fields to rise crops.
She was pretty girl of seventeen but in these four months she was treated like miserable servant. Ying Jun was working in the light of full moon in the fields, her attire was muddy from bottom and she was sweating with the labor.
She made small waterway for the crops to water them.
She was tired and sat on the edges of soil path. After completing her work for today she walked toward her house with the tools in her hands and sweating due to overwork.
Her clothed were also dirty and muddy she tried to remove her hair from her face which were drenched into sweat a mud dot got pinned on her tired face.
She dropped the idea and walked forward.
She was on some distance from her house when she saw some men advancing toward her village, they were veiled, she was familiar with Fangs raid now, she was sure that Fangs were here to snatch some food, they advanced toward village store rooms of houses.
She changed her path and ran in the opposite side of village; she knew that there was small camp of soldiers.
Wan Hu had arranged many small camps for the whole fifty villages' safety on every few kilometer away.
She was running breathlessly, she saw camp on distance; she gathered her courage and wildly ran toward the camp.
Ten soldiers were given charge of this camp and their incharge was sitting inside the camp with his fellow men, two men were outside the camp to guard it. They were talking random topics just to shun their boredom.
"Did you hear that Prince had ordered construction workers to fast their pace and after his order its pace is really fast," the others nodded in unison and one of them asked with reverence, "After all it's already one year, I am missing my family all of them are missing as well, though this was not the intention of Prince," he said with composure.
"Prince wanted to do it fast because it is danger of Fangs, it could be possible that Fangs might use their full force in this crucial period of ForteBi construction," other fellow said with grave expressions. They were all thinking on the same line but they had no idea when would it happen, they could only hope that it might sustain for the time.
She could not scream out loud to get the attention of the guards of the camp due to her tired day work and her running.
The incharge of the camp came out of the camp and started to walk in front pathway and then moved toward back of the camp front and back met two opposite pathways of two opposite villages.
He looked straight and saw a slender figure was running toward the camp in his direction. When she saw someone standing and looking toward her direction, she mustered her courage and ran with last strand of her strength.
She was girl that made him worried, why she was running like this, was there anything urgent, his head tallied and he ran to help her.
She was out of her strength now she could not support herself anymore; meantime incharge of the camp approached her and helped her from fall.
He cleared her face from drenched hair, "What happened to you?" he asked urgently, she pointed in the direction where she came right now and looked at him with half opened eyes, "Fang Men" these words and she collapsed in his arms.
He looked in the direction and shouted his men, he brought her in the camp and ordered his two guards to stay and all others ran to help the villagers.
They reached in the village and their swords clashed Fangs.
They had shifted half of the food and were here to carry more, they were sure that before any help could reach for the village they would be gone far away.
This plan of their worked for few months, they steal small quantity and without any commotion and before any commotion they usually disappeared from the scene.
Today however these soldiers caught find somehow.
Few were able to run and few met demise during fight with these soldiers.
Villagers when got this commotion they were already on the verge but thanks to the timely appearance of these soldiers, they were saved from any casualty.
Soldiers wiped up their bodies from the village. Incharge Chen left three men there to guard in case and came back in his camp.
Two soldiers who were left to guard the camp were of the temperament of their incharge, they stood away from the camp to guard it.
They don't want to indulge in any evil moral activity and got doomed by the incharge. He saw his two guards standing away from the camp in two opposite directions toward the two villages, he nodded in satisfaction.
Soldiers stayed out and dressed up their wounds and small injuries. Incharge went in the camp and checked the pulse of the girl, he don't know which house of the village she belong if he knew he would immediately brought her to her house but he don't know where she lived.
He decided to wait until she regains her conscious then he came out.
All the soldiers brought their sleeping sheets out from camp and lay there for rest.
Incharge came out and sat their checking his injuries, "Hey Chen! Who is she?" he was close friend of incharge so he asked this question.
"Through her I came to know that village was being raided by Fang men, she came here for help but she fell unconscious," she was not living well in her family, he could tell to look at her condition but he did not uttered this in front of his soldiers.
He did not sleep all night just to ensure her safety.
-- 贈り物
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