Rebirth: Living in Wilderness with My Superpower
Chapter 356: Bringing the Wolf into the House

Chapter 356: Chapter 356: Bringing the Wolf into the House

Once bitten by a snake, one fears the well rope for a decade. With more incidents, people inevitably gain experience.

They quickly shut their doors when they saw outsiders, while the more aggressive villagers wielded hoes and shouted threats, demanding that they leave immediately or be killed on the spot.

Although this was somewhat like condemning the innocent along with the guilty, the villagers had been terrorized by looting, and this became their helpless response.

At that time, Li Wenli and Bai Junjun were utterly confused. They had thought the villagers would be simple and hospitable, especially in the prosperous Eastern Land. Yet, how had the local customs become so fierce, almost rivaling the Ownerless Land?

It wasn’t until they passed through a melon field where an old lady was weeding that saw six strangers. She was so frightened that she fell on her butt into the melon field, looking as terrified as if she’d seen bandits from Mighty Hall.

"..." Bai Junjun.

"..." Li Wenli.

Both were completely speechless, reading a mutual sense of helplessness in each other’s eyes.

The old lady trembled and covered her head, saying, "Sirs, these melons won’t be ripe for another month. Please spare them and don’t bring disaster upon them."

Bai Sasa, hearing about the melons, curiously poked her head out to take a look.

She saw that there were many watermelons next to the old grandma, many of which were cracked open.

Clearly, they were not yet ripe.

"Granny, you have so many melons. Why did you pick them before they were ripe?" Bai Sasa couldn’t help but ask.

The old lady had been trembling, but upon faintly hearing a girl’s voice, she slightly opened her eyes and saw a girl in tattered clothes but with a clean face.

Behind her, there were two more little heads, curious just like the girl, their faces full of wonder.

Their eyes held the innocence of children, unlike the fierce and evil bandits.

Finally, the old lady calmed down, looking at them with a complex expression, "You... you are refugees too, aren’t you?"

"Uh, we sort of are," Bai Sasa seriously scratched her head, "but also not really. We are seeking refuge, and we still have enough food, not lacking much."

"?" the old lady looked up, her face full of questions.

She had thought they were bandits when she saw them approaching and had crouched down covering her head in fear, only now realizing that they were just children, not the fierce-looking bandits.

The eldest of the children was barely an adult, and the youngest was only three or four years old.

Their clothes were neat, their faces clean, very much unlike the bandits she usually saw.

The old lady breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness, she has scared this old woman to death."

"Granny, what’s going on? The villages up ahead either shut their doors or yelled and screamed at us as soon as they saw strangers. They wouldn’t even listen to our explanations." Li Wenli began to converse with the old lady.

The old lady studied the young man, noticing his crimson clothes and scholarly aura. She then answered with somewhat softened tone, "Recently, Prince Dong kindly allowed refugees to come in. It was originally out of pity for the homeless refugees to shelter them, not knowing it was like letting the wolf into the house.

Instead of cherishing this rare peace and working on farming, they started robbing homes. This in this remote rural area, in the past half month, there have been lootings and burnings. How could the villagers look kindly upon strangers?"

Upon hearing this, Bai Junjun was somewhat puzzled, "Don’t you report this to the authorities?"

"What’s the use of reporting to the authorities? There is already a mass conscription in the Eastern Land, with scarcely any able-bodied men left in or out of the cities. Nowadays, the County Yamen are too busy looking after themselves, managing to keep the cities from chaos is already challenging enough, let alone caring about us."