Chapter 61: The System Makes the Little Jap Learn to Goose-Step

Not far away, Jiang Jing acutely sensed that Gozaburo Koizumi intended to make a move. His heart skipped a beat, and without a moment's hesitation, he sprinted toward the courtyard.

The very instant he stepped into the courtyard, what met his eyes was a pitch-black gun barrel aimed squarely at Xiaxia.

A wave of chill surged straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Without a second thought, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Xiaxia, get down!"

The moment Jiang Xiaxia caught that piercing, chilling murderous intent, she intended to dodge to the side instinctively.

However, a dark figure lunged toward her with ferocious speed—so fast, in fact, that it was several times quicker than her own evasive movement.

In the blink of an eye, she was shielded by this dark figure.

Jiang Xiaxia instinctively looked up, only to see Lanzi's face as pale as paper, staring fixedly at her.

Those eyes were filled with utter astonishment, as if even Lanzi herself found her own action incomprehensible.

"Xiaxia!"

After his comrades rushed up behind him, Jiang Jing didn't waste a single second. With near-brute force, he shoved Gozaburo Koizumi into Wang Lianjun's arms and bolted toward where Jiang Xiaxia was.

He shoved Lanzi, who was slumped over Jiang Xiaxia, roughly aside. The sight of blood entering Jiang Jing's field of vision caused his entire body to tremble uncontrollably.

His hands shook as he lifted them, wanting to touch Jiang Xiaxia yet fearing he might hurt her. He could only repeat anxiously, "Are you hurt? Are you? Tell Uncle quickly, does anywhere hurt?"

Jiang Xiaxia slowly shook her head, her gaze fixed straight upon Lanzi, her eyes filled with complete incomprehension.

At this moment, Lanzi's pupils had already begun to dilate, and her life force was fading bit by bit.

The System couldn't understand: wasn't she just disliking and despising her moments ago? Why save her now?

Lanzi didn't understand either. She only knew it was freezing—so cold that it felt as if she had been thrust back into the heavy snow of the year her stepmother sold her. It had been just as cold that day. Back then, she had been just like this silly girl in front of her, foolishly holding a corn cob, naively thinking her stepmother was finally starting to be good to her and that she had a mother.

Yet what awaited her instead was being sold deep into the mountains to serve as a breeding tool for a family of brothers.

It wasn't until she was eighteen, when an old crone in the mountain village declared that she could no longer bear children, that the villagers decided to kill her.

To survive, she had led in the educated youth who had once extended a helping hand to her.

After that, she ate the first truly satisfying meal of her life.

Yet clearly, it was such delicious white-flour steamed bread, so why did it taste so bitter going down?

Lanzi's pupils gradually lost focus; she couldn't even feel the cold anymore. She simply stared blankly and foolishly at the little fool who had stared blankly at her, and with her last remaining strength, she whispered silently: Educated Youth Xie, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

When Wang Lianjun walked over to Lanzi, she had already stopped breathing.

"Why?"

Jiang Xiaxia tugged at Jiang Jing, whose face was still etched with lingering fear, and asked in bewilderment, "She hated me, so why did she save me?"

"Maybe that last shred of a conscience finally kicked in!"

The moment Jiang Jing had seen that woman use Xiaxia as a human shield earlier, he had wanted nothing more than to slaughter her on the spot.

Yet none of them had expected that at the very last second, she would throw herself forward to save Xiaxia.

"None of you are getting out of here alive!"

Escorted by others and on the verge of stepping out of the courtyard, Gozaburo Koizumi flashed a look of grim resolve and madness in his eyes. With a sudden burst of strength, he broke free from his restraints. He instantly whipped out a match and hurled it fiercely toward a nearby stack of firewood, a near-demented expression contorting his face as he shrieked hysterically, "You're all going to die!"

That crazed roar echoed through the air, turning sharp and piercing toward the end, perhaps due to the inhuman torture he had just endured.

Upon seeing Gozaburo Koizumi's action, the soldiers in the courtyard acted without a moment's hesitation: each scooped up two children in their arms and sprinted outward.

Only...

"There are no landmines!" Xia Lin, tucked securely over his older brother's shoulder, bounced up and down with his brother's rapid stride. His stomach churned violently, making him feel so nauseous he was on the verge of vomiting, yet he endured the discomfort and yelled at the top of his lungs, "That woman just said so! There are no landmines, the money was all spent!"

"Yeah, none!"

Xia Lin's voice didn't make Jiang Jing halt his strides, but upon hearing Jiang Xiaxia's voice, he paused for a fraction of a second, lowering his head to look at the little girl: "None?"

Jiang Xiaxia nodded very earnestly: "Mm-hmm! Heard it!"

Earlier, when she was picking up money outside the door, she had heard Lanzi whisper to Xia Lin: Don't be afraid, there are no landmines here at all! That money had long since been spent by her.

Jiang Jing let out a breath of relief. Seeing his comrades still maintaining their vigilant stance, he couldn't resist reaching out to flick the little girl's forehead: "Why didn't you say so earlier!"

"You didn't ask!" Jiang Xiaxia wriggled out of Jiang Jing's hold, rubbed her forehead, and let out two disgruntled huffs. "Going back, telling Grandma!"

Bullying people!

After huffing twice at Jiang Jing, Jiang Xiaxia walked over to Wang Lianjun, who was personally guarding Gozaburo Koizumi. Looking up at him politely, she pointed at Gozaburo Koizumi and said, "Borrowing him for a moment!"

After a moment of thought, she pulled a piece of candy from her pocket and handed it to Wang Lianjun as a borrowing fee.

Wang Lianjun happily accepted it, but still rejected Jiang Xiaxia: "This punk is a lunatic, Uncle can't lend him to you. What if he runs away again?"

Jiang Xiaxia pondered for a moment, her eyes suddenly lighting up: "Easy!"

Jiang Jing watched the little girl's suddenly sparkling eyes, and a wave of vigilance instantly rose in his heart.

So when he saw the little girl leap up into the air with her fists clenched, he immediately stepped forward and caught her mid-air, wrapping his arms around her.

"What are you planning to do?"

Jiang Jing looked expressionlessly at the little girl who was about to stir up trouble again.

Jiang Xiaxia looked at him with an utterly innocent face: "Break his legs, then he won't run!"

The corner of Jiang Jing's mouth twitched: "No! He cannot be injured!"

After a brief pause, Jiang Jing added another sentence: "Neither his hands nor his feet, and not his head either! Understand?"

She didn't understand!

Jiang Xiaxia pouted. The System had already agreed with the big brother earlier: the money belonged to her, and the person was to be handed over to the big brother so he could vent his anger. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair.

Grandpa had always said that only fairness prevents trouble.

"Understood!" Though she didn't understand it in her heart, Jiang Xiaxia dutifully nodded upon meeting her uncle's chilly gaze.

Yet the very second Jiang Jing set her down, the little girl shot forward like an arrow released from a bow. Pushing off the ground with her little feet, she tucked her knees mid-air and slammed fiercely toward Gozaburo Koizumi's most vulnerable spot.

At that exact moment, every soldier in the courtyard fell silent. Some of the younger ones even instinctively pressed their legs tightly together.

Gozaburo Koizumi suffered another devastating blow. The agony was so intense he couldn't even scream, reduced instead to gasping out pathetic wheezes: *Uh-uh-uh...*

Jiang Jing: "..."

Well, that was a new life experience. First time hearing a Japanese person learn how to imitate a goose.

And... it sounded pretty decent, actually.

Jiang Xiaxia didn't feel she had done anything wrong. She turned her head to look at her soldier uncle and her young uncle, and said cheerfully, "He won't run anymore!"