With this in mind, Cheng Hao understood.
This time, Cheng Fengtai and Li Datou went in to search, leaving only Cheng Hao to scout at the entrance. He waved his hand, letting Xiao Wu Zi, Xiao Liu Zi, Lai Fu, and Jia Wang pick any house to enter, as he would stay behind.
Su Miaomiao surveyed the surroundings, "This entire village becoming so quiet is quite frightening."
The empty old houses, the surrounding silence, with almost only the sound of the wind remaining.
It was indeed eerie.
Cheng Hao also frowned, feeling that the current situation was quite dire.
Things were not going smoothly.
Just as the two of them thought they might return empty-handed, footsteps suddenly came from afar. Su Miaomiao immediately moved closer to Cheng Hao, "To the east, there are at least eight or nine people. Can we defeat them now?"
Cheng Hao looked at his weak body and thought, how could he possibly win?
He gave Su Miaomiao a look that said, "Are you kidding me?"
Then,
He added, "We'll act according to the situation." He hadn't expected anyone to actually show up.
Su Miaomiao raised an eyebrow and didn't reply. The group of people approached not slowly, and they deliberately concealed their footsteps, even refraining from communicating with each other.
They maintained a consistent pace.
Cheng Hao quickly went to knock on the doors of two courtyards and said, "People are coming."
Cheng Fengtai and Li Datou thought Cheng Hao was joking, saying such alarming words so calmly. People are coming? People are coming?!!
Xiao Wu Zi, Xiao Liu Zi, Lai Fu, and Jia Wang all gaped.
Their expressions were blank.
Immediately afterward, they leaped up, remembering to cover their mouths to swallow their cries of surprise.
In a flurry, they rushed towards their young master and young mistress. They had seen clearly that to live well, they had to follow their masters.
Whatever their masters told them to do, they would do.
At a time like this, the best course of action was to get to their masters' side immediately.
Although Cheng Fengtai and Li Datou were separated by a wall, they were clearly not as in sync as the youngsters. One froze in place, while the other shouted, "What? People are coming? What should we do? Should we run?"
Cheng Hao remained calm. At this point, there was no need to struggle. From knowing to seeing the villagers' figures, it took less than a minute. There was no need to run, and running would truly be admitting guilt.
Moreover,
They genuinely needed to understand the situation and were in urgent need of essential supplies like salt.
The hurrying villagers were initially startled by the few people they saw and almost tripped. Upon realizing they were just a few ten-year-old boys and girls, they breathed a sigh of relief and hurried towards them, shouting, "Whose children are you? Why are you standing by my doorstep!!"
Cheng Hao observed the villagers' patched clothing and thin bodies, like bamboo poles, but fortunately, they seemed to have good spirits.
They walked with great speed.
To avoid conflict,
Cheng Hao took the initiative to politely say, "We are passing through! We wanted to enter the village to trade or buy some food, but we didn't expect there to be no one in the village..."
Seeing that they were just a group of children, the villagers' guard lessened.
Hearing their reason,
They shouted, "Food, food, where can we find food to trade with you? Our entire village is starving. Go ask elsewhere!"
Cheng Hao said humbly, "We really had no other choice, so we ventured in. If there's truly nothing, we will leave immediately and not disturb you."
The young man who had spoken first said even more emphatically, "Indeed! With the war breaking out, who has surplus food to trade with you?!"
He spat, clearly showing strong hostility towards outsiders.
Hearing this, Cheng Hao learned that the villagers were clearly aware of the war, which explained their wariness of outsiders.
He indicated that they would leave.
Unexpectedly,
An elder, who was leading the villagers and had been silent all along, spoke up, "Young man, wait a moment." He seemed to want to say something to him.
The impatient young man immediately interrupted, "Grandpa Chen!! This is not an ordinary time. If you want to be kind, you can be kind. You can take in orphans, give food to widows, all of that! But what time is it now? They are not two or three-year-old toddlers. They have hands and feet, their clothes are better than ours! They are stronger than us. You want to take care of them?!"
This was clearly dissatisfaction that had been brewing for more than a day, and the young man erupted at this moment.
Some people around scolded him, "Chen Sheng! When is it your turn to be wild? Uncle Chen is the most senior elder in our village, and you dare to yell in front of him? If your parents were still here, do you think I wouldn't discipline you?!" "Uncle has his reasons for whatever he does!"
The three middle-aged men all spoke this way, clearly siding with the elder.
The remaining three young men all pulled Chen Sheng, urging him to stop talking.
The elder glanced at the defiant Chen Sheng, sighed, and did not dwell on it for the moment, only saying, "The child is ignorant, please forgive us for any offense."
Cheng Hao replied that it was nothing and asked if the elder had something to say to him. His demeanor was neither humble nor arrogant, and his bearing was indeed striking.
Elder Village Chief Chen then said, "I observe that you, young man, are not from an ordinary family. Although you are in distress, your demeanor and etiquette are not something ordinary families can achieve..."
He directly asked if he was a noble family fleeing from the Fengcheng area, and he stated that he had no ill intentions. He simply knew that these high officials and nobles knew more, and he wanted to understand what had happened.
"Since someone passed through here non-stop the other day, we learned that the enemy soldiers had broken through two cities and would inevitably come to us sooner or later..."
Therefore,
He discussed with the villagers, and they all moved into the pre-prepared hidden shelters. Whether it was in the mountains or underground, he stated that he could not reveal this, but they were lacking certain things.
"Young man, you can also tell us what you need. All we can offer is the cotton we grow ourselves. This area is famous for its cotton, and if you need some, we can trade it with you. As for food, we truly cannot trade any more."
The village chief was genuinely kind. He wanted to get news and also trade for things the village needed, so he could only show his sincerity.
However, such a person would find it much more difficult to survive in troubled times.
It was no wonder young Chen Sheng was so agitated. He was extremely vigilant, and at this moment, he was like a little wolf cub, staring at them from over there.
Cheng Hao and Su Miaomiao exchanged glances. Both had practiced some interrogation skills and could discern from micro-expressions that the elder's intentions were indeed sincere.
"I heard that younger brother call you Grandpa, so I will shamelessly call you Grandpa Chen as well. Since you are so sincere, we will naturally treat you with sincerity."
"We did indeed come from the direction of Fengcheng, and it is true that the enemy soldiers have broken through two cities. It is truly wise of you to have evacuated so quickly..."