Heartbreaker

On the second day after Lemon left, Barbara opened the door, looked at the other villagers outside in amazement, and said, "Excuse me, what do you want?"

"That dirty boy who came to see you yesterday." The old village chief with a goatee standing in the front said, "We suspect that his identity is not simple, so please tell us the truth."

Barbara said, "He was just a friend of mine. He's gone. He's never coming back."

"A friend?" The old village head's sunken eyes flashed, "You are lying. We know that you are someone who escaped from Vulture City. That boy must have some secrets. Since you are about to become a member of my village, that person As the village chief, I have the right to know all the truth."

Barbara said coldly, "Then I also want to ask you, why do you want to know his identity and background?"

"This village will soon belong to the Twilight Empire."

The words nailed Barbara in place.Behind the old village chief stood a group of stern-looking villagers, and said, "We don't want to have any hidden dangers until the empire registers the village's personnel."

Barbara said, "What if I don't tell?"

"If you don't say it, then please leave here. We will not allow a person of unknown origin to live in the village." The village chief said, "If you insist on refusing, we will use force to ask you to leave."

Barbara sneered and said, "This really opened my eyes. I am a lonely woman, pulling a dozen orphans, but you are talking nonsense about threats, and you even want to use force to force us to leave."

"You are not the only woman in the village, and you are not the only children in your house. I am responsible for my villagers." The village chief snorted coldly, "I didn't force you, but you forced me. I Said, tell me about the red-haired boy, I can let you stay..."

"I'm so sorry," Barbara said. "I'm taking the kids now."

****

"Mom, where are we going?"

Barbara wiped the hot sweat from her brow, walked on the wet soil where the ice and snow were melting, and kept an eye on each child to make sure no one was left behind.

The northern border has probably entered spring. Even though the ice on the high mountains is still thick, the snow on the wasteland is melted by the warm sunlight, exposing the dark black soil and low rocks.

"We're moving away from the North," Barbara said softly. "Over that mountain, we'll be in a warmer place."

A child asked, "Aren't we going back to the city?"

"I won't go back." Barbara said, "We will have a new warm home and a new and happier life."

She turned around and couldn't bear to lie to those innocent children anymore.warm home?happy life?The truth, the woman thought with tired eyes, was that they were now wandering without food and clothing.

Barbara walked in the uneven mud puddles, and the corners of her skirt were splashed with sewage.Looking at the children struggling to move forward, she suddenly felt a trace of regret.

She probably did something wrong. She shouldn't have told the village chief to leave the village on the spur of the moment.Since they want to know Lemon's identity, she can make up a fake story to get away with it - so what if she really reveals her identity?Lymon probably already left the northern border, and they couldn't catch him.

Once she tells the whole story about Lemon, she can live a stable life with other children...

【no. 】

Barbara dragged her tired steps, rubbed her dry eyes, and felt her hands and feet were cold.Even though reason told her that it might be the best way, another voice from the bottom of her heart said, you should not betray and betray your friends, and that village will belong to the Twilight Empire, who knows what will happen? ? ...

In the end, Barbara did not return to that village, and made the matter of Raymond public.She felt relieved for a while, and felt relieved that she did not have to bear the burden of betraying her friend.

only……

She looked at the children who were following her again, and suddenly the tip of her nose twitched, and she almost shed tears.

[I'm sorry for you. 】

As the sun set, they walked from noon to dusk, and the dry food bought with a few coins had bottomed out. It was estimated that they would have to trek long distances tomorrow with hungry stomachs.Barbara looked at the giant mountain, which was still far away from them, as if it would never end.

The night has come to an end, if you walk in the dark, you may encounter danger.

"Children, let's go here today." Barbara said, "Let's stop for a while and continue walking tomorrow."

The other children responded wearily. The youngest of them was only five years old, but he was very obedient at a young age, and never cried or made trouble for her.Barbara looked at those obedient children, and almost shed tears in sadness, thinking that she was using her own emotions to make the children homeless, and she was really not worthy of being their guardian.

They managed to light a fire, and told stories for a while around the faint light of the fire. Sleepy and tired, the children soon fell asleep.Barbara stayed by their side, trying to stay awake despite her sleepy eyelids, grabbing a handful of cold snow from time to time to drive away the drowsiness.

The night is dark.

blah blah blah blah blah

A burst of crisp hooves of a horse trampling on the mud awakened the woman.In a trance, Barbara thought that the one riding the horse would be Lemon heading for the Bone Swamp, but when she took a closer look, she couldn't help crying secretly.

"Hey! Look at the people over there, it's dark, it seems that there are quite a few!"

"Hey, there seems to be another woman."

A few bandits in ragged clothes sat on tall horses, with fleshy faces and evil smiles, riding their horses towards the fire, each of them holding a scimitar with a cold light in their hands.

"Children, get up! Get aside!"

Barbara shouted, stepping on the fire pile in a hurry to wake up the children sleeping on the ground.Hearing the sound of the horseshoes, the children hurriedly fled in all directions. Barbara was about to carry the youngest child to escape, but suddenly a leather whip was wrapped around her neck, and she screamed and fell to the ground!

"Mommy mommy!"

The five-year-old boy screamed with his arms around Barbara's neck, and was roughly dragged aside by the dismounted bandits, crying and struggling under the man's rough hands.

A bandit lit the fire again, and his face looked ugly and hideous in the firelight.He laughed harshly, "Hey, there are a lot of brats, and they want to play hide-and-seek with us! You two just have fun with them!"

The woman screamed, "Don't hurt them! Please, don't hurt them!"

Another bandit yelled, "Your mother's dream, wanting to monopolize that woman? No way!"

The bandit sneered and said, "What are you afraid of? Anyway, this woman has already fallen into our hands. Don't be afraid of her running away. Let us all have a good time!"

"Let go of my mother!"

At this time, from somewhere in the darkness, a boyish and angry cry suddenly came from the boy!An eight or nine-year-old boy rushed forward, like an angry little beast, and rushed directly at the bandit who grabbed the woman by the hair——

"Hey." The bandit said, "Little brat, I chopped up your bones and made soup!"

The boy clenched his shriveled fist, and was about to slap it at the bandit's face angrily, when a cold light burst out in the dim light, and his chest was immediately pierced by a sharp machete!

"Ah!!" Barbara yelled in horror, "Will! Will!!"

She was held by a bandit by the hair and couldn't move.The other four bandits laughed and pulled the other children out of their hiding places one by one. The children were arranged in a row like prisoners on execution, and the girl's frightened crying could be vaguely heard.

"Mother……"

They sobbed and hugged each other.At this time, the children who were kneeling on the ground suddenly jumped up, and some of them punched the bandit directly. Some of them wanted to take the opportunity to snatch the scimitar from the bandit's hand, and some girls threw themselves at Barbara. Beside, bite the man's arm!

"Fuck, these little bastards are like bedbugs, what a nuisance!"

The bandits killed three more boys in the blink of an eye, and the girls who rushed to Barbara's side were pushed to the ground, either stabbed to death with machetes, or kicked to death by those bandits.

Barbara's eyes widened in despair, seeing the bloody scene in front of her, she burst into tears!She wanted to beat up the strong bandit behind her, but she was only thrown to the ground with a lewd|smiling smile, and the corner of her mouth was bleeding after a few slaps.

The moment the back of her head hit the ground, Barbara's mind went blank, and she suddenly felt really lucky.It turned out that it was not because of how powerful she was that she was able to escape from the bloody storm in the past, but because her companions were very strong and had been secretly protecting her.

If I……

The woman thought in a brief absence, if only I were that ugly dwarf who disgusts anyone who looks at it...

"Ahhhhh!!"

The wailing and screaming of those children still echoed in the night, and Barbara grabbed the bandit's arm and shouted disheveledly, "Please, please don't kill them! I will do what you want, do what you want How to do it! Just let these children go!"

Those bandits laughed wildly when they heard this, gathered the surviving children together and put them near the woman.Barbara was dragged by the hair of the nearest bandit and staggered. Seeing the other party laughing and trying to untie her belt, she said panickedly, "Please...let those children go..."

The thieves laughed and said, "Bitch, I don't care what you do with those little bugs, I'll talk about it after I make them happy!"

Barbara was slapped to the ground by the bandit beside her, her nose was bruised and her face was swollen, and she cried in despair, "Please...at least not in these children..."

Her voice stopped suddenly.She opened her eyes wide in the faint firelight, looking at the children around her.

"You are not allowed to touch our mother...we are not allowed!"

Some of them were panting tiredly, and some were trembling with fear.However, no matter what mood they were in, at this moment, under the ferocious gaze of those bandits, all the boys and girls raised their arms to protect the scarred woman behind them, forming a thin human wall.

The words just now were said by the boy in charge. Although he was extremely afraid of the gangster's knife point, he still straightened out his thin chest and stood upright in front of the woman.

"Heh, a bunch of clucking chickens, hahahaha!" The bandits were silent for a second, then burst into laughter, "See if we don't chop your chicken heads off—"

Barbara cried out, stretched out her arms with tears in her eyes, embraced all the children standing in front of her, and waited for the blade at her neck——

"How dare you fucking move them!"

There was a loud bang, as if a thunderbolt had been struck from the sky, striking heavily on the grinning head of the knife-wielding bandit!The sharp and hoarse laughter stopped abruptly, and before the other bandits even realized what happened, they were already splashed with brains from their companions!

The figure said, "Heh, the new hammer is easy to use."

Barbara looked at the limp headless corpse on the ground in astonishment, and looked at the place where the familiar voice came from.A hazy black shadow gradually came out of the dark night, and the broken-armed Emu let out a fierce breath, and swung a brand-new chain hammer full of silver light, smashing the dull air, and slammed into the dull air. The bandit who was stunned on the ground shouted, "Bullying women and children, fuck|you|fucking bastards, watch if I don't smash your heads!"

After the bandits came back to their senses, they immediately bared their teeth and drew their knives, rushing towards the crippled man with the broken arm.Armless E'Mu swung the chain hammer with ease, his muscles were knotted, and he knocked down the three of them with a swing of his arm.Not long after, the bandits lay on the ground moaning and moaning. With a sneer, Emu stabbed the two of them to death with a machete, and angrily smashed their heads with a hammer.

Everything happened within a few minutes.

The air was filled with the smell of blood, and the mud of the wilderness was mixed with dirty blood, and it was covered with broken boots that leaked air.After killing all the bandits, Broken Arm Eminem squatted on the ground and remained silent for a moment, rubbed his eyes with his big palm, turned around and said, "Are you okay, Barbara?"

"Em..." Barbara hugged the nervous children in her arms, her eyes flushed, "I...I'm fine..."

Amu with the broken arm lowered his head silently, picked up the corpses of other children on the ground with difficulty, and put them together.He stroked the cold foreheads of those children to confirm whether they still had a chance of life, and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry for letting the children see the picture of the dead... But I feel that if I don't do this, the consequences will be even worse."

"No, it's okay...thank you, Eminem..." Barbara choked out, "thank you..."

****

"The dragon's teeth chewed me,

The dragon's saliva sets me on fire,

The scales of the dragon tore me apart,

The dragon said, I will bite you, burn you, hurt you,

Why are you still alive..."

Broken Arm Eminem cremated the bodies of those dead children, and tore the newly purchased overcoat into squares of appropriate size, and temporarily tied them into a dozen small packages.Barbara sat beside him, with tears on her cheeks, and with her arms around the only five children left, she hummed the song with a light and lively melody deep in her memory.

"You don't have to worry about these children being left unattended after death." Broken Arm Amu said, "My elder brother and Ai Er are also in the sky, and they will definitely take good care of the children."

Barbara said, "Well. They will."

Emu, with the broken arm, stared at the body that had been reduced to ashes, and said in a deep voice, "Stop singing that song "The Dragon Wants Me to Die". It sounds creepy."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Barbara stopped singing immediately and whispered, "I'm used to it... Whenever I can't hold on, I will hum this song. The interesting thing is, as long as I hum tune, I don’t seem to be so scared in my heart.”

Broken Arm Eminem remained silent.Barbara wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and asked, "Why are you here, Eminem?"

"I've just come from a small town a few miles away," he said. "I had the blacksmith strike a new hammer, bought a horse, had a good meal, regained my strength, and set out on my journey."

"I didn't expect to meet you."

Barbara murmured, "God bless us..."

Broken Arm asked, "Where are you going? Why don't you stay in the village?"

Barbara told the other party the reason in detail, and deliberately concealed the fact that the village chief asked to reveal the identity of Lymon, only saying that the other party suspected that his background was impure and drove them out.

"Fuck it, a bunch of dogs." Broken Arm Amu cursed, "Kicking women and children out of the village, they can do such immoral things!"

Barbara said, "What about you? Where are you going?"

Amu with the broken arm pointed to the package beside him, "Brother and Ai Er are dead, and I will carry their ashes. I want to go back to my hometown and let them be buried safely."

Barbara looked at the two wooden boxes with exposed corners, her eyes were astringent, and tears almost welled up in her eyes, "I'm sorry..."

"There's nothing to be sorry about." Broken Arm Amu said, "Anyway, when they are buried, I will die with them."

Barbara was shocked and said mournfully, "Em?! You—you really think it through? God, how sad it would be for Raig and Eyre to find out! Eminem, you really Not consider……"

"Stop talking, Barbara." Broken-arm Emu turned around indifferently, and said, "I've made up my mind."

Barbara stared at his slumped back, choked up and wiped the corners of her eyes, and breathed in, "Then...well..."