Chapter 483: He Yushui's Happy Life

Kajia sat in the passenger seat, and catching a glimpse of He Yuzhu's reddened eyes, she teased, "Teacher He, are you sad because that little girl didn't come to see you off?"

He Yuzhu shook his head without explaining.

Trying to explain the subtle emotions of the Chinese to a Russian girl was something she could not understand.

He remained silent, his mind entirely occupied with calculating what methods An Daiyuan would use next—the other party did not have many men, so they might not dare to stage an ambush; the most likely tactic was some underhanded trick like poisoning, which would not be surprising.

Liu Erhei rode his horse, occasionally trotting up to He Yuzhu's vehicle to ask for a cigarette or a piece of candy, acting particularly smug and proudly whistling.

He Yuzhu got angry just looking at his foolish, smug expression, so he rolled down the window and shouted, "Captain Liu, please pass on an order: tell everyone that they are not allowed to drink the spring water by the roadside, and they are not allowed to pick up anything to eat!"

"You got it!" Liu Erhei finally found his purpose; he tugged on the reins and rode his horse, weaving through the convoy and shouting from time to time to show off his superb horsemanship.

It had been sunny for days, and although the mountain road was bumpy and difficult to travel, they had not encountered any accidents.

As evening approached, the setting sun dyed the horizon a deep orange-red, and the mountain ranges were shrouded in mist, looking very much like an ink wash painting.

Just as the convoy rounded a bend, He Yuzhu suddenly discovered that the mountain road ahead was covered in large rocks, along with a dozen trees that had fallen in a jumbled mess.

He Yuzhu slammed on the brakes, and a series of harsh screeching sounds followed behind him.

He jumped out of the vehicle and walked quickly ahead to inspect.

The rocks had been pushed down from the hillside recently, still carrying the raw scent of earth, and the trees had also just been chopped down.

He Yuzhu furrowed his brows, staring at these obstacles, his mind calculating rapidly: What exactly are these damn secret agents trying to do? Delaying time? Setting an ambush? Or is there some other plot?

Seeing everyone gathering around, He Yuzhu raised his hand and ordered, "Don't just stand there, hurry up and start clearing it! We must get through this section of the road before dark."

Everyone immediately got to work, and the sounds of work chants, axes, and saws instantly broke the silence of the mountains.

He Yuzhu did not participate in the clearing work; he needed to figure out the enemy's purpose for doing this.

He quickly climbed up a high slope nearby and took out his Telescope to look ahead—the outline of a small town could be seen a few kilometers away, and beyond that lay a gentle plain.

Could the other party be trying to force the team to spend the night in the small town just by relying on this pile of road obstacles? That idea was far too naive.

But other than that, He Yuzhu could not guess their intentions for the moment.

He stayed on the mountain for a long time, and only after seeing that the workers had almost finished clearing the road did he come down from the slope; he suddenly noticed a clear spring flowing by the side of the road, and someone had even carefully built a small pool with stones, the water in which was clear enough to see the bottom.

He Yuzhu understood immediately: so this is where they were waiting.

After the group had worked hard to clear the road obstacles, drenched in sweat and parched with thirst, who could resist drinking a few mouthfuls upon seeing such a pool of clear spring water?

To verify his guess, he calmly took a few Little Lobsters from his space and put them into the water.

Before long, those few lobsters floated up, stiff and dead.

He Yuzhu's gaze turned cold; they were indeed vicious enough. He did not immediately make a scene, as he wanted to see how many people would take his previous order seriously.

Another half hour passed, and the road obstacles were finally cleared away.

A few workers caught sight of the pool of water, shouted "There's water!" in excitement, and rushed over, leaning down to cup the water to drink.

"Are you bastards looking for death? Did you treat what I said earlier as wind in your ears?" He Yuzhu blocked their path.

One worker straightened up sheepishly and said dismissively, "It can't be, Captain. To poison such a large pool of water, how much arsenic would that take?"

He Yuzhu did not say much; he turned around, grabbed a basket of Little Lobsters from the vehicle, and threw a dozen or so into the pool.

Before long, the lobsters turned belly-up and died one by one.

The worker was stunned, muttering, "This... this is too poisonous!"

For a moment, everyone was a little scared; if not for the Captain, most of them would probably have been poisoned this time.

He Yuzhu's gaze swept over the crowd, his tone sharp: "I will reiterate one more time: from now on, whoever does not listen to orders and gets poisoned will be responsible for themselves; don't count on me to send you to the hospital!"

Liu Erhei hurriedly followed up by shouting, "Everyone listen up! The Captain has repeatedly told you not to drink water or eat things randomly; he isn't trying to harm you, he's doing it for your own good!"

He Yuzhu grabbed a crowbar from the vehicle and destroyed the small pool in a few swift moves, causing the water to gush out and flow into the mountain stream.

He then stuck a wooden sign next to it and wrote eight large characters with a charcoal pencil: The mountain spring is poisonous, drinking is prohibited!

The convoy set off again.

When passing through the small town ahead, He Yuzhu did not stop.

Shaoguan was not far away, so it was better to travel for a few more hours and rest there with peace of mind.

Two hours later, An Daiyuan emerged from the depths of the mountain forest with three subordinates.

Seeing the destroyed pool and that glaring wooden sign, he stomped his feet in anger: "Damn it, is there someone in this convoy who can predict the future? How could he have anticipated every step?"

A burly man in black came over and asked, "Major An, what should we do next?"

An Daiyuan looked into the distance and said, "We are going to Pingshi Town to call back the remaining brothers; they must have rushed to Shaoguan overnight, and we... don't have time to set up anymore."

The weather in Si Jiu Cheng grew warmer day by day, people took off their unlined garments, and the willow trees by the roadside quietly sprouted tender yellow buds.

He Yushui, Xiaomi, Dahua, and Xiaoqi, four little girls, had just finished school and were walking in the alleyway, chattering away with their schoolbags on their backs.

He Yushui swung her schoolbag onto her shoulder and suggested, "Let's go, let's go eat barbecue today!"

"Yes, yes!" Xiaoqi clapped her hands and jumped up first.

Xiaomi whispered a reminder, "We just had barbecue the day before yesterday... eating too much lamb causes internal heat; why don't we go to He Ji Restaurant instead?"

"No," He Yushui shook her head, "they always refuse to take our money, it's not appropriate."

Ever since He Daqing left, He Yushui had been living quite comfortably.

He had left money at home, and Chen Xueru often stuffed meal money into her hands.

She had plenty of money on hand and did not skimp, so every few days she would take her little friends out to eat at restaurants.

The few little girls also benefited from this and were happy all day long.

Just as they were laughing and talking, five half-grown boys suddenly darted out from the alley ahead, blocking the road in a line.

The leader was the famous "little bully" of Hongxing Primary School, Xu Xinghai.

Although he was only in the fourth grade, the same grade as He Yushui, he was already fifteen years old—his schoolwork was truly too poor, and he was at the bottom of every grade promotion exam, which resulted in him being held back year after year.

Teachers all said he was not very bright, but when it came to bullying children and playing little tricks, he was not bad at all.

Xu Xinghai spat on the ground, pointed at He Yushui, and cursed, "Money-losing goods, what are you showing off for? I've long found you an eyesore! Isn't it just singing a couple of songs? Only actors howl every day! Today I'll make you learn your lesson!"

He Yushui threw her schoolbag onto the ground with a "slap" and rolled up her sleeves: "Baldy Xu, I can't stand you either! When my brother was your age, he had already killed many devils, but look at you—when I was in first grade, you were in fourth grade, and now that I'm in fourth grade, you're still in fourth grade. You're shameless, and you dare to waylay people? See if I don't beat you until you're looking for your teeth all over the floor!"