Shen Tang inquired, "What are they spitting out?"
Zhai Le, with a handsome visage, softly explained, "It's possible that when you buried the corpses, nearby villagers witnessed it. So, just as you left, they came and dug up the bodies..."
In her drunken state, Shen Tang failed to grasp the situation immediately.
"What purpose do we have for bringing them back?" she questioned.
Zhai Le's demeanor changed from his usual casualness; even his peach blossom eyes, usually filled with smiles, dimmed, with a hint of sorrow at the corners, as he spoke words that sent shivers down one's spine, "They are too starved. Do you think they can serve any purpose?"
He was blunt, causing Shen Tang to widen her eyes suddenly.
For a moment, she was rendered speechless.
"But... but they are people..." Shen Tang, now looking perplexed and helpless, murmured softly, "How can... it's not right! They are people, like us, buried in the ground..."
Gong Shuwu accompanied Shen Tang all the way to Xiaocheng, taking a less remote route to gather information more easily. Every couple of days, they would encounter villages or towns. The lives of the common people were difficult, barely scraping by, just holding onto the most basic necessities.
Shen Tang knew of such circumstances but had never witnessed them firsthand.
However, it was different for Zhai Le.
Zhai Le and his cousin Zhai Huan had set out from the southeast. With their agility and seamless coordination, they dared to explore anywhere along their journey. They had cleared out several bandit dens and dealt with many groups of vile individuals. As Zhai Le put it, they upheld justice and righteousness, acting as chivalrous heroes.
Though villains were easy to dispatch, their bellies were hard to fill.
Zhai Le and his cousin had once passed through a village with only thirty-six households, mostly consisting of the elderly, women, and children, as the able-bodied men had been conscripted for war.
One day, an elder in the village passed away peacefully. Zhai Le and his cousin stayed in one of the farmers' houses, and as night fell, they overheard conversations outside in the courtyard. Curious, Zhai Le peeked through a crack in the window and saw the village head, thin as a skeleton, going from house to house, offering bowls of meat soup.
With his keen eyesight, he also noticed the pained expressions of the farmers.
There were few edible roots nearby.
At first, Zhai Le didn't know what kind of soup it was, so he asked his cousin. To this day, he still remembers his cousin's expression, half of his face tinted red by candlelight, the other half obscured in shadow, the flickering flame casting intermittent shadows.
He even had a terrifying illusion—there lurked a ferocious beast drenched in blood, ready to pounce at his cousin's command, devouring him whole, reducing him to a pulp.
The oil lamp sputtered.
His cousin's expression remained indifferent: "The living are always more important than the dead. The dead are already gone, but the living must continue to live."
Zhai Le still didn't understand the deeper meaning behind those words until the day they left the village, where another family was holding a funeral.
As Zhai Le rode away on horseback, he turned back inadvertently and saw the relatives of the deceased burying the body in a pre-dug grave. Yet, before they could seal the coffin, the village head arrived with a group of people to negotiate.
The distance was too far, and Zhai Le couldn't hear what they were saying clearly, but from their heated exchange, almost escalating into physical conflict, it was evident that both parties were unhappy. Eventually, the body was removed.
Suddenly—
His cousin's words echoed in his mind.
He finally understood what had happened.
Zhai Le, who had never flinched at killing, nearly fell off his horse that day and vomited up the rations from the day before.
"Co-co-cousin..."
"Such incidents have never been uncommon," his cousin said calmly.
Zhai Le: "But..."
Zhai Huan's expression remained indifferent: "Before you have the ability to spare them from starvation, never criticize their actions or intervene. Unless—you possess the sacrificial courage of a bodhisattva, willing to offer yourself in their place. Shen Tang, they need to survive..."
Zhai Huan's tone remained as gentle as ever, yet it conveyed a sense of helplessness that Zhai Le had never felt before, seeing his cousin, whom he had always admired since childhood, powerless.
Zhai Le's emotions sank, "My cousin said these people want to live more than anyone else, but the world wishes for their death more than anyone. They're not harming the living; they're just corpses. What right do outsiders have to call them cruel and inhumane? It's unjust..."
Upon hearing this, Shen Tang stood still, gazing at the three severely decomposed and mutilated bodies at her feet, stunned and unable to regain her composure for a long time.
After a moment—
She spoke, "Indeed, Guan Zhong once said, 'When the granaries are full, one knows about propriety and protocol; when one's attire and food are sufficient, one knows about honor and disgrace.' But these villagers, not to mention being 'full granaries' or 'sufficient attire and food,' their very organs are empty. They can barely scrape together enough for a family, let alone talk about propriety and disgrace."
In this situation, to comment on their behavior using propriety, honor, and ethics would be the height of arrogance.
Zhai Le noticed that Shen Tang seemed off and reached out to push her arm, attempting to shake her out of her trance.
Shen Tang took a deep breath and waved her hand, "I'm fine."
"Shen, how do we deal with them? All of them..."
Zhai Le looked at the shivering thugs and raised his thumb, making a swift horizontal motion at his neck.
Upon witnessing this scene, some of the thugs vaguely guessed their fate and immediately dropped to their knees, banging their heads against the ground, producing a resounding thud that even made bystanders feel phantom pain in their skulls. Tearfully, they begged, "Mercy, kind sir!"
But there were also skeptics, such as the leader of the group, a burly man.
He didn't believe that Shen Tang and Zhai Le had the guts to do it. Even if they knew about his connections to the bandit den's second-in-command and dared to kill him, as Shen Tang claimed, challenging a bandit den was something they couldn't accomplish.
He knew the size of the bandit den well.
Shen Tang said, "I intended to kill them."
Zhai Le raised a knife, ready to act at Shen Tang's command, to swiftly dispatch the thugs.
But Shen Tang added, "However, killing them all would be a waste."
Zhai Le asked, "A waste?"
Shen Tang chuckled, "While alive, they can still do something. Dead, they can only enrich the soil. But letting this bunch live makes me feel uncomfortable. Zhai, how do you intend to handle this?"
Zhai Le: "Just kill them, we can't take them along."
Today, it's not just the two of them who have offended this group of thugs, but also that white-haired old man who stepped forward, along with those onlookers who were drawn into the situation. While they can handle themselves fine this time, the ordinary people might suffer.
Shen Tang asked, "What do you mean... take them along? How would that work?"
But Zhai Le interpreted it differently.
In astonishment, he said, "Shen, are you planning to recruit them?"
Killing and burying them would solve the problem easily, with almost zero cost, but recruiting them would be a whole different story; it would be a massive headache.
Shen Tang fell silent.
When did she ever suggest such a thing???
Zhai Le looked troubled, "I didn't mean to hit a nerve, Shen, it's just that one person equals one mouth. With two or three dozen people here, that's two or three dozen mouths to feed every day. Even if you, out of kindness, recruit them, would they be willing to pledge loyalty?"
Shen herself was as poor as a church mouse.
She was so poor that she had to resort to selling drinks at a stand!
How could she afford to recruit and support these thugs?
Shen Tang's mind was still in a daze.
She didn't know how the topic shifted to recruiting thugs; she was simply curious about Zhai Le's mention of "taking them along."
"Wait a moment, let me think it over."
Before she could come up with a coherent thought, the leader of the thugs, with a sneer, spat on the ground and said, "Dreaming of having us serve some pretty boy? Dream on! When the boss finds out, you'll all—"
Pfft—