1940s: I supported my wife and sister-in-law by hunting.

In those days, the villages in Northeast China were in chaos due to war. It was commonplace for bandits to come down the mountain to smash kilns, rob people and their families, and harm the local people.

With the world in such chaos, it's not easy for anyone to survive.

The villagers were lucky if they could even keep their own lives; nobody dared to confront the bearded man head-on.

If you risk your men's lives to save someone, that's not worth it at all.

These bearded bastards are inhuman, ruthless, and merciless killers; they're capable of any despicable act.

Just now, there was a lot of gunfire outside; every household in the village heard it.

At first, no one dared to go out. They all locked the gates tightly, crouching behind the cracks to peek out, their hearts pounding, afraid that Beard would come back into the village.

After a while, when there was no more noise outside, a few of the braver men finally dared to slowly push open the courtyard gate and look out.

Upon closer inspection, they spotted an unfamiliar young man standing on the south side of the village.

The young man was carrying someone on his back and a large gun on his shoulder; he looked quite intimidating.

When the person got closer, upon closer inspection, it turned out that the person on the back was none other than Liu Hongying, the daughter of the Liu family.

The villagers were still a little scared. Seeing this unfamiliar, burly man with a gun, they were somewhat intimidated. But when they saw that Hongying, who had been taken away by the bearded man, had actually returned safely, they mustered up their courage and tentatively shouted out.

"Hongying, is that you?"

Liu Hongying, who was lying on Chen Gaoshan's back, finally regained some energy.

Upon hearing a familiar voice, she immediately struggled twice on Chen Gaoshan's back.

Chen Gaoshan stopped and put her down from his back.

The little girl's eyes were red and swollen from crying, and her eyelids were swollen like walnuts.

"Aunt Zhao, it's me! This older brother saved me! He beat those three bearded men to death. I... I have to hurry home. My house is on fire, and so are my parents."

All the bearded men have been killed! Now, whether they have big tufts or small beards, as long as they have guns, they dare to rob food.

They immediately split into two groups.

A group of people followed Liu Hongying to her house to put out the fire and rescue people.

Another group, following what this older brother said, went to the entrance of the village and brought back the three dead horses and the four sacks of grain they had seized.

The Liu family suffered a devastating tragedy tonight, resulting in the extermination of the entire family.

Liu Laogen was an honest and upright man who spent his whole life raising his only daughter, Hongying, and living a simple and honest life, never offending anyone.

But tonight, once the bearded man comes down the mountain, he'll leave them no way to survive.

The bearded man ransacked the house and stole all the grain.

Qiu Sheng, the farmhand in the house, heard the commotion and rushed out with an axe. He was shot down by the bearded man as soon as he opened the door.

The most despicable one was Hongying's mother, who was directly beaten. When Old Man Liu saw his wife being violated and killed, he risked his life to stop her, but he was also shot dead by the bearded man.

In the end, they even took Hongying away, keeping her to play with at home.

Before leaving, these wicked fools weren't satisfied with just that, so they set a big fire in the Liu family's courtyard and house, intending to burn the house to the ground.

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By the time Liu Hongying stumbled back to her front door, flames were already leaping high from the entire house, and thick smoke was so thick that it was impossible to open one's eyes.

The house was completely burned down on one side, and my parents and Qiu Sheng were all trapped in the fire.

The little girl's mind went blank, and she didn't care about anything else. She rushed into the fire like a madwoman, wanting to go in and save her parents.

Aunt Zhao, who was standing nearby, reacted quickly and grabbed her tightly, pulling her back with all her might.

"Silly girl, don't go, you can't go. If someone dies, you'll just be throwing your life away."

Several older women rushed forward and held her tightly, preventing her from taking her own life.

The men in the village all worked desperately to put out the fire, splashing water and pressing it down with soil. After working for most of the day, they finally managed to extinguish the fire.

After the fire was extinguished, everyone carried the bodies of Liu, his wife, and Qiusheng out of the ruins.

The three people were perfectly fine, but they were burned black by the fire, their skin and flesh charred and half-cooked, and they were unrecognizable.

Seeing her parents' miserable state, Liu Hongying could no longer hold back. She knelt on the ground and cried her heart out.

A perfectly good family was torn apart and its members killed overnight.

She cried for a long time, but the little girl knew that crying wouldn't solve anything.

She raised her hand to wipe away the tears and snot from her face, and her eyes immediately became much calmer.

He turned to look at Chen Gaoshan standing to the side.

She walked over, arranged the four bags of grain, handed one bag to Chen Gaoshan, knelt down, and kowtowed three times.

"Brother, thank you for saving my life. This bag of grain is my way of thanking you for saving my life."

After saying that, she pointed to the remaining three bags of grain.

"These three bags of grain are all for you. Please, brother, have mercy and help me bury my parents and my brother Qiusheng."

Chen Gaoshan sighed. "I agree, get up."

The bearded men of Tazishan would come down the mountain to smash kilns, not choosing a day, but looking for a family with resources and honesty, and they would wreak havoc on them.

In the blink of an eye, the once-thriving Liu family was completely ruined.

The main house was burned down to the point that the beams fell off, but half of the side rooms remained.

Don't be fooled by the small size of the village, with only about twenty households; the people there are quite a mixed bunch.

There were those who genuinely pitied Hongying and were willing to lend a helping hand, but there were also those who secretly harbored ulterior motives and were waiting to take advantage of her.

The most calculating and cunning people in the village were undoubtedly the He family.

Seeing Liu Hongying standing alone in the dilapidated courtyard, the old woman's eyes lit up instantly, and she started making plans in her mind.

Old Liu's house burned down, and his parents were all dead. The thirteen-year-old girl was all alone and helpless, making her the perfect time to take advantage of.

Back when Liu Laogen was alive.

There was a farmhand named Qiusheng in the family. He had grown up in the Liu family since he was a child. In name, he was a farmhand who carried out the work, but in reality, he was a child son-in-law kept by the Liu family.

Liu Laogen's plan is to let the two children get married when Hongying comes of age, and find a son-in-law to live with them so that the Liu family can continue its lineage.

No one expected that Beard's trip down the mountain would shatter all of the Liu family's hopes.

The He family immediately set their sights on this incredible bargain.

She has a son named Liangzi, who is eighteen years old this year. He is a tall young man, but he was born with a cleft lip.

He Er's mother often complained about her second son's wife, saying that when she was pregnant, she ate rabbit meat because she was craving it, which is why her grandson was born with a cleft lip.

These days, it's already difficult for poor villagers to find wives. Good young men have a hard time finding wives, let alone someone like Liangzi with this problem.

No respectable girl in the surrounding villages wanted to marry into her family. She was already eighteen years old, and there wasn't even a matchmaker in sight. This worried He Er's wife to no end.

He Er's wife was secretly chatting with her husband, He Er, behind her back.

"Dad, do you see? This girl from the Liu family is completely unruly now."

"She's so pretty at such a young age. In a couple of years, when she's all grown up, she'll definitely be a beautiful girl."

He Er took a couple of puffs of his dry cigarette.

"He's a good person, but he's had a tough life. His family just suffered a major disaster. If we get involved now, the villagers will gossip about us behind our backs."

He Er's wife immediately nudged him with her arm, glared at him, and muttered under her breath.

"You're carrying a clove of garlic head, can't you even use your brain?"

"Now we can get her under control. Once she's starving, she'll have no choice but to obey us."

"Let's bring her home, give her a meal, and in two more years when she's old enough, we can consummate our marriage with Liangzi. Then Liangzi will never have to worry about finding a wife, and our family line will continue."

She became more and more engrossed as she spoke, her smile almost reaching her ears, and then she continued to make plans.

"Think about it, how cunning are those bearded guys from Tazishan? They won't get up early for nothing, why would they come all the way to our lousy village just to smash up Old Liu's house?"

"It must be that Liu Laogen has amassed a lot of wealth. His family used to be landlords. Although the Eighth Master's crooked men distributed his family's property to everyone, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, you know?"

"She's the only one in the Liu family, so she knows the most. Once she becomes our daughter-in-law, all those funny things in the Liu family will belong to the He family."

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