Chapter 94: Counterattack in the Deserted Village

Wang Jiazhi's cotton shoes had long been soaked through by the accumulated snow; her foot slipped, and she fell heavily into the snow.

Cold snowflakes poured into her collar; she tried to crawl up, but just as she propped up half her body, she fell back down.

Despair filled her mind, and her voice carried a sob: "You run yourself! Don't worry about me... I really can't run anymore!"

He Yuzhu yanked her up, but pulled his own shoulder wound, the pain piercing; he gritted his teeth and said: "Don't give up! Walk another two li, there should be a village, once we get there I'll have a way!"

"What's the use of a village? There are so many of them, we can't beat them at all!" Wang Jiazhi's tears mixed with melted snow and flowed down, freezing on her cheeks, cold and painful.

"The village has walls for cover, cellars to hide in, and roofs to snipe at the enemy from above. In this bare wilderness, they have the numbers, we can't beat them." He Yuzhu pulled her along, running faster and faster, as if he had endless energy.

"But I really can't run anymore," she said, then went limp and collapsed.

He Yuzhu squatted down and, without a word, hoisted her onto his back.

She subconsciously wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her tears like broken beads, splashing onto He Yuzhu's cotton coat.

He Yuzhu ran through the snow with heavy, uneven steps, the weight on his back pressing against his wound, the pain piercing.

After running for another two-plus li, the faint outline of a cluster of houses finally appeared ahead.

Upon getting closer, they discovered it was a deserted little village of twenty or thirty households, mostly mud-brick houses; either the roofs had half-collapsed or the courtyard walls had fallen, only five stone houses in the center of the village still stood, with their perimeter walls intact.

He Yuzhu climbed onto a courtyard wall and placed Wang Jiazhi on the roof of a stone house, saying: "Contribute some residual heat, act as an observation post for me here for a while. I have a few things to do; as soon as they enter the village, you call me!"

He was just about to turn and jump down when he caught sight of Wang Jiazhi shivering all over, her lips purple from the cold.

He Yuzhu hurriedly fished a military blanket out of his backpack (which was actually his space) and wrapped her up: "Just stay for a while, I'll come get you when I'm done!"

Before his words had faded, he jumped down, landing in the snow and kicking up a mist of powder.

He Yuzhu didn't dare delay and immediately got to work.

He moved door panels and large stones, and brought over a pile of dry firewood, blocking the main gates of all four stone houses; then he took a gasoline drum from his space, sprinkled the gasoline on the firewood, and struck a match to light it.

The fire roared to life instantly; this would not only block the enemy from entering the courtyards, but the firelight would also illuminate the surroundings, exposing the pursuers while he hid in the dark to strike.

After doing this, he checked around the courtyards and finally found the cellar cover in the corner of a side room.

Lifting it to look, the cellar was large and dry; he couldn't help but mutter to himself: "Great! Hiding Wang Jiazhi here is absolutely safe!"

Afterwards, he took a Hammer from his space and smashed it hard against a mud-brick wall.

The mud-brick wall wasn't sturdy to begin with, and after a few blows, he smashed a hole through it.

He gritted his teeth and picked up the pace, soon chiseling gaps in the perimeter walls of all four courtyards; this way, he could shuttle rapidly between the four courtyards, leaving the enemy unable to guess his exact position.

If they split up to surround these four courtyards, He Yuzhu would defeat them one by one; if they concentrated on attacking one courtyard, he would counterattack with a Hand Grenade; if that didn't work, he could turn invisible and hide, waiting for the enemy to leave before ambushing them from behind.

"They've entered the village! They've entered the village!" Wang Jiazhi on the roof suddenly shouted, her voice full of tension.

He Yuzhu stopped immediately, walked quickly to the base of the house, looked up and shouted: "Slide down slowly, I'll catch you!" Wang Jiazhi grabbed the roof tiles nervously and slid down carefully; He Yuzhu reached out and caught her steadily, then pulled her toward the cellar.

He sent Wang Jiazhi into the cellar and covered the entrance with dry grass and wooden boards: "Stay here and don't make a sound, I'll come get you once I've dealt with them!"

"Be careful! If something happens to you, I won't survive either!" Wang Jiazhi shouted from the cellar, her voice filled with worry.

He Yuzhu responded, turned, and climbed onto the roof of the tallest house, mounting the Machine Gun on the roof with the muzzle aimed toward the village entrance.

In the wind and snow, more than twenty soldiers of the Bald Party held torches and marched majestically toward the stone houses.

He Yuzhu's eyes turned cold, and he pulled the trigger.

The "da-da-da" sound of the Machine Gun exploded in the silent village, and bullets shot toward the group of torches like raindrops.

"Ah!" Screams rang out one after another; four or five soldiers fell into the snow instantly, fresh blood staining the white snow, a shocking sight.

The remaining dozen or so people were scared out of their wits; they immediately dropped their torches and scrambled to hide behind broken walls and low houses, not daring to show their heads again.

Seeing the enemy cowering and refusing to come out, He Yuzhu's lips curled into a cold sneer.

He put the Machine Gun back into his space, jumped down from the roof, and using the cover of the walls, circled behind the broken wall where the enemy was hiding.

A soldier was just poking his head out to observe the situation when He Yuzhu raised his hand and fired a shot; the bullet hit him right in the temple, and he fell straight into the snow.

Another soldier was just about to raise his gun when He Yuzhu had already circled behind him; a cold flash of a Dagger cut his throat, and fresh blood splashed onto the snow, melting a patch of dark red.

The bearded captain hiding in the distance saw nearly half his men die and his eyes turned red with anxiety; he roared loudly: "Don't be afraid, there are only two of them! And one is a woman! Catch that woman, and we can all have some fun! She must be in the stone houses, charge in and take her alive!"

The dozen or so soldiers bit the bullet and charged toward the stone houses with their guns raised.

He Yuzhu immediately ducked back into the courtyards, shuttling back and forth between the four of them—like a shadow.

One moment he would fire a few shots in this courtyard, the next he would run to another, taking out an enemy when they weren't paying attention.

The soldiers were spun around by him, unable to figure out his position at all, and could only throw Hand Grenades and fire blindly at the empty courtyards.

The bearded captain watched his men fall one by one, his heart growing more and more panicked—in the blink of an eye, only he and two guards were left out of twenty-plus people! He couldn't hold on any longer, turned, and ran toward the village entrance: "Retreat! Retreat quickly!"

"Want to run? It's not that easy!" He Yuzhu emerged from a stone house, took the Machine Gun from his space, and pulled the trigger at their backs.

The "da-da-da" sound of gunfire rang out again, and the last three soldiers also fell into the snow.

He Yuzhu went up to check, confirmed no one was alive, collected all the corpses into his space, and used snow to cover the bloodstains on the ground, completely erasing the traces.

He returned to the cellar entrance, lifted the wooden board, and shouted: "Come out, Wang Jiazhi, it's safe!"

Wang Jiazhi climbed out of the cellar, her face still a bit pale, but much calmer than before.

She stepped forward and hugged He Yuzhu, her whole body still trembling: "You, you solved them all?"

"Mm, they're all dead." He Yuzhu patted her back.

The snow had stopped at some point, and a crescent moon hung in the night sky, casting down cold light, the North Star exceptionally bright.

"Eat something first, sleep here for the night, and we'll set off tomorrow morning."

He Yuzhu handed the heated Beef Canned Food and flatbread to Wang Jiazhi.

She, however, was placing her frozen-stiff cotton shoes over the fire; the ice on the shoe uppers melted, dripping onto the fire with a "sizzle."

Seeing the food He Yuzhu handed over, she held her shoes and said a bit embarrassedly: "I... I'm roasting my shoes! My hands are too dirty..."

"What time do you think it is, still being so fussy!" He Yuzhu said irritably.

As soon as Wang Jiazhi heard He Yuzhu mocking her, she immediately got angry; she threw her shoes hard onto the ground and glared: "You, you're just a little brat, yet you pretend to be an adult, and you even stick on a fake beard and fake eyebrows, really thinking you're something. Let me tell you! When you fainted after killing the wolf, half your beard and eyebrows fell off, and I was the one who stuck them back on for you; you should see for yourself how ridiculous you look!"

"I did that to keep people from recognizing me and bringing trouble to my family, not to guard against you!" He Yuzhu touched the fake beard on his face and couldn't help but laugh.

At this moment, Wang Jiazhi no longer had the demeanor of a noble lady from the past; her hair was a bit messy, and there was dust on her lapel, making her look like an ordinary young woman.

She had been mocked by He Yuzhu and also felt that she had been a bit pretentious; she took the flatbread, used a spoon to scoop the meat out of the can, rolled it into the bread, and began to eat in large mouthfuls, but because she ate too quickly, she choked and coughed incessantly.

He Yuzhu hurriedly handed over the kettle of hot water and helped pat her on the back.

Wang Jiazhi took a sip of the hot water, caught her breath, and then sighed comfortably: "In this environment, being able to eat a hot meal is such a blessing."

Looking at her exhausted appearance, He Yuzhu did not say anything more; he found a relatively intact stone house, lit a fire inside, and the firelight warmed the room.

He cleared a dry patch of ground beside the fire, took out two military blankets to spread out, and patted the blankets: "We'll sleep here tonight; you sleep first, and I'll keep watch—you can relieve me at four in the morning."