After finally leaving the spirit medium, they just so happened to come across someone who had fallen from their horse and was pinned beneath a carriage.

Ordinarily, the three Li siblings wouldn’t have just turned a blind eye and walked away, but they certainly wouldn’t have braved the frost and rushed over to save someone, either.

But Li Hua was with them. As soon as she heard the cries for help, she acted as if she’d heard a reward being offered and recklessly rushed down to the scene.

And the moment she arrived, before she had even seen the person’s clothes or face, the first words out of her mouth were, "Don’t be afraid, sir!"

At this point, even if Li Shan and Li Shi were the biggest fools on earth, they would have realized something was amiss.

And since they were far from foolish, they naturally read more into the situation.

’Could it be,’ they wondered, ’that their sister’s whole scheme was to save this particular person?’

’But how would she know this person would fall from their horse at this exact moment?’

’How would she know they would have an accident right here?’

’Did she hear about this from someone else? Or was this all part of her own grand design?’

But the two brothers quickly dismissed the latter possibility. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

’Our sister isn’t that capable,’ they thought. ’She’s just a woman from a farming household; she couldn’t orchestrate such an intricate plot.’

That left only the first explanation.

’She must have heard from somewhere that someone was planning to ambush a passing merchant here. She might have even found out the approximate time the merchant would pass by. Was she hoping to pick up the scraps, which is why she orchestrated this whole affair?’

This theory seemed the most plausible.

But as for whether that was actually the case, Li Shan and Li Shi had neither the time nor the inclination to dwell on it right now.

What the two of them were thinking was that the person pinned under the carriage had to be either rich or noble. If they could save him, they would be set for life.

With fortune and glory just within their grasp, how could the brothers possibly let the Chen family ruin their plans?

Using all their strength, one brother tackled Chen Lin and threw him aside, while the other gave a vicious shove, sending the old lady toppling straight into a ditch.

Chen Dachang dove to grab the old woman, but he was dragged into the ditch along with her. Chen Lin clutched his lower leg, screaming and crying in pain.

The three members of the Chen family were instantly taken out of the fight. Li Shan and Li Shi seized the opportunity to run over and help Mrs. Li.

After they overturned the carriage and hauled out the person pinned beneath it, the three siblings ignored the luxurious vehicle and the fine steed with its broken leg. They scrambled out of the ditch, moved the person onto their ox-cart under the cover of darkness, and then sped off toward the county town like the wind.

By the time the three members of the Chen family came to their senses, the vast wilderness was empty. All that remained was the evidence of the raging wind and the sound of it WHOOSHING through the locust grove. There was no trace of the three Li siblings to be found.

After much struggle, Chen Dachang finally managed to lift the old woman out of the ditch, only to find that the fall had knocked her unconscious.

Looking at Chen Lin, they saw his lower leg was bent at an unnatural angle. He had, without a doubt, injured it again.

If Chen Lian hadn’t been woken by the cold just then, Chen Dachang wouldn’t have known how he was going to get everyone onto the ox-cart. But with Chen Lian’s help, they finally managed to lift the old woman and Chen Lin onto the cart.

As they prepared to return to the city, Chen Lin pounded on the cart. BANG! BANG! "We can’t leave! If we go now, this whole trip will be a huge loss. Li’an, Dad, I have a fire-starter here. Make a torch and search in the ditch and inside the carriage. Even if we only find a single piece of broken silver, this trip won’t have been for nothing."

Chen Lian’s face was covered in tears, and his legs were trembling in fear.

He had no idea why, after being unconscious for so long, he had woken up still in this very same locust grove.

And it wasn’t just that his father was injured; his grandmother had fainted, too.

’What on earth happened while I was unconscious?’

’If I’d known things would end up like this, I never would have crashed into the ox-cart on purpose.’

Chen Lian didn’t want to get down from the cart. He just wanted to take his father and grandmother home as quickly as possible.

But Chen Lin insisted, so he and his grandfather had no choice but to rig up a makeshift torch. Grandfather and grandson linked arms and headed down below.

Down below lay a horse with a broken leg. It was unclear if it had fainted from the cold or the fall. In this weather, without prompt medical attention, the horse was doomed.

But they could hardly take care of their own people, so how could they find it in themselves to save a horse?

While Chen Lian shed tears for the horse, Chen Dachang picked up a money pouch from the ground.

He then hunched over and squeezed into the carriage. No one knew what all he found, but when he came out, he was holding a high-quality folding fan. The pendant hanging from it was inlaid with gold and jade and looked exceptionally valuable.

"This is all I could find. Let’s go, we need to hurry home."

On the way home, they encountered two drunks.

Chen Lian and Chen Dachang were in no mood to deal with them. They just cracked their whip—CRACK! CRACK!—urging the old ox to hurry home.

The cold wind blew over the two drunks. They let out a loud belch, and the alcohol’s effect seemed to lessen slightly.

Looking around blankly, both men grew a little frightened.

"I... I think I just saw an ox-cart..."

"I didn’t just see the ox-cart, I think I saw a horse-drawn carriage too. There were people on the carriage, and people on the ox-cart... WAHHH, we must have run into ghosts!"