The little grasshopper, who was cursing, suddenly felt himself enveloped by a huge shadow.
As he turned around, a tight pectoral muscle appeared in front of his eyes.
He swallowed his curses back, slowly looked up, and saw a face.
A word appeared in the young grasshopper’s mind: ruthless.
After a while, Tian Yang pulled up the grasshopper’s hair, picked him up and then threw him out. The grasshopper became a meteor in the sky in a blink of an eye.
Rong Yue poked his head out from behind Tian Yang, knocked on the door, and shouted, “Silkworm Girl! We want to order!”
After a while, the door creaked and opened a crack.
An eye appeared through the crack, smaller than normal, looking a little fierce and scary.
Seeming to confirm that the grasshopper was no longer there, the silkworm woman pushed the door all the way open, revealing her full face, and said in a low voice: “Come in.”
Rong Yue slowed down to follow her, observing her face.
There was no problem with the shape of her features, her eyes were larger than normal, the eyes were smaller than normal, then black spots were all over her face.
The Silkworm lady led them to their usual living place. There was nothing in the stone house, but there was a wooden table and two wooden benches.
She let Tian Yang and Rong Yue sit down, then she went to the next wooden box and took two pieces of cloth samples out, put them on the wooden table, and said coldly: “Just these two, take your pick, but you have to wait for some time before they are available.”
Rong Yue touched the cloth sample in front of her, it was slightly cool to the touch and very soft.
Although it wasn’t as good as his outfits, but in the barbaric continent, it was already a top-notch material, so he thought it would be very comfortable to use for underwear.
Rong Yue put down the cloth sample and didn’t have much to say. First, he asked the Silkworm Girl a question: “You must have enough food. What do you want more than food?”
Silkworm Girl just showed a strange expression.
“I… What I want, you can’t give it.”
“Tell me about it?”
She shook her head, then poured them two cups of cold water, “I want my tribe back.”
“Your tribe?”
“Yes, the tribe I was born into is called Shenmu. It was destroyed a year ago.”
That made Rong Yue and Tian Yang sit upright at the same time.
The silkworm girl described her real name as Sang Lu, an ordinary silkworm girl of the Shamu tribe.
Shenmu tribe on the other side of the Xingye wilderness, she went through the wilderness before coming to this place, She lived and slept in the open air for more than half a year. Because the silkworms were dying, she settled in the Salt tribe.
As for why the Shenmu tribe was destroyed, destroyed by who, she wasn’t willing to say more.
Hearing the word Xingye, Rong Yue paid more attention. Originally, he had a better attitude towards craftsmen, but it was obvious that Silkworm Girl was very useful and couldn’t be ignored.
“It’s impossible to rebuild your tribe for the time being. Let’s change the request.”
“…… who the hell are you?” Sang Lu frowned.
“The leader of a very good tribe,” Rong Yue pointed to Tian Yang: “and the sacrifice.” And pointed to himself.
Sang Lu was a little surprised: “Then why didn’t you stay in your tribe?”
“To find capable and brave artisans like you!”
Sang Lu: “……”
She blushed and whispered, “Do you want me to move to your tribe?”
Sang Lu finally spilled out her inner most desperate hope: “I want a place to live where I won’t be harassed.”
Rong Yue: “Is that it?”
Sang Lu nodded vigorously.
Everything else was good in the salt department, and the cloth she wove could be quickly exchanged for food without having to hunt hard on her own. But the downside was that there were just too many people who wanted to marry her.
The the grasshopper man today, was just one of many suitors, when she first came to the Salt tribe, there were people guarding the door even at night.
Sang Lu spoke sadly, “It’s okay if they just pursue me, once I refuse, they still call me ugly ……”
That was outrageous!
Rong Yue clapped his hands: “Don’t be afraid, the chief of our Xingyue tribe is very strong!”
……
That afternoon, the people of the salt tribe were surprised to find that in the middle of the bazaar, where the earthen medicines were exchanged in the morning, there was a two-person high wooden pole with a man tied to the top!
The man was a poor man in the tribe, unable to find a woman to form a contract, and not active in digging, so he didn’t have enough to eat from time to time, and was thin.
His face was covered with black spots, at first glance he looked very scary, his mouth was gagged and he let out tiny whimpers.
The scariest thing was that so many people were obviously sitting or walking in the bazaar, but none of them saw how he appeared there!
It was as if someone had thrown the wooden pole with the man tied to it out of thin air and stuck it firmly in the ground!
Some enthusiastic people shouted to put the man down, but out of the chaos came a strange voice…
“Whoever puts him down will be the next one to be tied up tomorrow!”
The crowd hesitated in their steps.
“Who’s talking!?”
“Even so, you can’t tie people up!”
“Then go release him?”
“What did he do ah, he has black spots, is it the silkworm woman ……”
“You’re crazy, silkworm woman is a woman, how can she tie him to such a long pole and throw him here?”
“I heard that in the morning he called her ugly.”
“Who knows if that black spot on his face will wash off.”
……
“Ah Chuan?”
A stout man returned to his senses and continued walking.
Walking behind him was a young man with a high ponytail, slightly shorter and thinner, with a striking red scar on his forehead: “I wonder who did it?”
The stout man with little expression and the same scar on his head as the man behind him retorted, “It’s none of our business.”
The two walked half a block in silence and pushed open the door of carpenter sledgehammer’s house, and a moment before entering, the stout man said, “Xiao Le, don’t think about it.”
Xiao Le opened his mouth and closed it again.
Sledgehammer’s house was also very busy today, but they didn’t know why. In the middle of the yard stood a piece of wood half a person tall. Sledgehammer was bending down and using a stone to chisel it.
“Sledgehammer!”
Ah Chuan shouted.
The fat man straightened up, rubbed his stomach, and shouted back: “What’s up! Speak!”
“Salt Cave, the pickaxe! Is it ready?”
“Ah! There’s only two left! Take the others back first!”
The courtyard was too noisy, so they had to shout loudly. Ah Chuan got a response and took Xiao Le to a room on the left. There were many things scattered in it.
They rummaged around for a while before they found five brand new stone picks in the corner.
Of course, the picks weren’t made by the sledgehammer, but by the stonemason, who gave them to sledgehammer and then he had them embedded with wooden handles.
At first, the inlay was good, but then it became more and more sloppy, and now Ah Chuan stared at the pickaxe handle in his hand, clutching and shaking it.
It was a little loose.
Before they started using it, it had already loosened, Ah Chuan’s expression darkened, but he couldn’t say anything.
“Ah Chuan ……” Xiao Le called out to him sadly, Ah Chuan patted his shoulder in comfort, he held the stone pickaxe, ready to leave.
Before leaving he took another look at sledgehammer, who was fiddling with the pillar.
He had free time to do this, but there was no heart to make something as important as a stone pickaxe.
If it were him, he would definitely not order anything from Sledgehammer again.
Unfortunately.
In this life he wouldn’t have the opportunity to make a decision again.
Ah Chuan and Xiao Le walked back with the stone pickaxe in their arms, and when they passed the wooden pole, they found that the number of people watching had grown. As they came closer, Bao Shu arrived with a group of warriors.
Ah Chuan pulled Xiao Le and took refuge in the shadows.
Bao Shu shouted: “Who did it! Who did this?”
“Damn it, when I find out who did it, I’ll skin him!”
He slammed the spear in his hand on the ground and stomped on it twice.
Only then did the two warriors put the tied up man down.
“What’s wrong with you! How did you get tied up? And what happened to your face!?”
The cloth was pulled out of the grasshopper man’s mouth, and only then did everyone see that his face, covered with black lumps, was still swollen from the beating.
Grasshopper Man opened his mouth with a missing tooth and cried out, “I don’t know! I don’t know anything!”
Bao Shu kicked him in annoyance, “Where’s the water!”
A bucket of water was brought in from the crowd, and two soldiers pushed the grasshopper man’s head into the bucket, then rubbed it hard and found that it wouldn’t come off!
People shouted in horror: “Is this a disease?”
“How can there suddenly be spots!”
“Oh my God, he’s sick!”
Bao Shu’s expression changed and he took several steps backwards.
“Roll roll roll roll! Lock him up and put him near the salt cave!”
Two soldiers obeyed the order and carried the crying man away.
Bao Shu turned twice in place and took the remaining warriors with him, looking terrified and seemingly wanting to go wash his face.
Ah Chuan and Xiao Le then came out of the shadows.
Xiao Le timidly asked, “Ah Chuan, what’s going on …… how come there are black spots that can’t be washed off?”
Ah Chuan shook his head.
The two men continued to move forward. Some of the houses on both sides of the road were closed and some were open.
Ah Chuan looked straight ahead, but Xiao Le liked to look around. Suddenly, he shrugged his nose: “Achuan Achuan, do you smell it? It smells good…”
“……” It was very fragrant. Ah Chuan thought, it was a fragrance that he had never dreamed of.
The two couldn’t help but look in the direction where the scent came from, it was a stonemason’s house, and Ah Chuan didn’t talk to the owner of the house.
After a while, the scent dissipated much, they both had walked ahead, but heard the door slam behind them.
“Is it ready?”
“It’s all ready, Abba, do we really have to go?”
“Go, let’s go, such delicious food, we can eat every day ah ……”
“Can we really eat it every day?”
Xiao Le couldn’t help but glance back.
It was a young woman talking to the stonemason.
The last sentence before closing the door was, “Even if I can’t eat it every day, once a month I would like to ……”
……
Xiao Le felt unprecedented restlessness.
“Ah Chuan, Ah Chuan.” Almost to the salt cave, he finally couldn’t resist and poked the back of the person in front of him.
Ah Chuan grabbed his hand: “Don’t be naughty, speak.”
Xiao Le whispered in his ear: “Do you feel that the tribe in the past two days has been strange?”
Ah Chuan thought to himself, you have found it. If I didn’t find it, I would be more stupid than you. But he said, “No.”
Xiao Le was anxious: “But, but …… The person with spots on his face, food that smells good, sledgehammer is also doing strange things, and the stonemason said to leave, on, it’s all very strange ……”
A few dozen steps away from the salt cave, Xiao Le should have shut his mouth.
But he looked at the ghastly hole that trapped him and Ah Chuan, and his heart suddenly surged with a trace of resentment.
Xiao Le stopped in his tracks and murmured very, very softly: “If the tribe is in chaos, do we have a chance to escape?”
Ah Chuan quickly turned around, he raised his hand and punched Xiao Le!
Xiao Le covered his stomach and fell down, tears silently fell.
Ah Chuan clenched his fist and his nails embedded in the flesh, making blood spill from his fingers.
He gasped, seeing Xiao Le’s tears wetting the ground. Ah Chuan’s vision blurred abruptly for a moment, and then he hurriedly closed his eyes.
“Xiao Le, don’t speak, don’t think.”
Ah Chuan’s voice was horribly quiet.