Chapter 889: Always at the Wrong Time

In fact, Wang An's family did have fabric, and quite a lot of it.

Because the fabric he had bought by the bolt previously hadn't been used up yet.

However, the colors of that fabric were either black or gray; if used to make clothes for his two little sisters, they really wouldn't look very good.

It was still early, and Wang An wasn't riding very fast, so he just meandered his way back home.

Ever since Wang An had pushed that bend into a straight road, he hadn't encountered any more of those messy incidents here, so he assumed the place had finally quieted down.

After all, there was no longer a turn here; it was a very straight road, making it extremely inconvenient for anyone wanting to hide.

But many things in life are like that: the more you believe something is impossible, the more likely it is to happen; the more you think nothing will go wrong again, the more likely something will.

Fortunately, this time, the incident didn't happen to Wang An; he just happened to stumble upon it.

Just as Wang An was chewing on a classic Ice City cigarette, leisurely riding his sidecar motorcycle while continuously reminiscing about the various beauties of Fang Xiu'e's body, his eyes suddenly widened.

The reason for Wang An's reaction was that a woman had abruptly appeared in his line of sight.

This woman was stumbling and running from the woods on the front right toward the road.

The reason it was described as "stumbling" was that she would trip every now and then while running, then quickly scramble back up to continue, occasionally glancing back.

It was clear that the woman before him was being pursued.

As she got closer, Wang An noticed her appearance and state.

At this moment, the woman's hair was disheveled; as she ran, her quite long, beautiful hair fluttered naturally behind her in the wind.

The clothes on her body had several rips, and patches of white skin were exposed from time to time. It was unclear whether these tears were caused by tree branches or by human hands.

It had to be said that this woman's looks and figure were quite good. Most importantly, she looked very young, around seventeen or eighteen years old.

Of course, in a later era, she wouldn't be called a "woman" (niangmen); she should be called a young girl. If she were already married, she could at most be called a young wife.

There was no helping it; when someone is that young, calling them a "woman" is indeed a bit inappropriate.

While Wang An was observing her, the woman—whether she was a girl or a young wife—naturally saw Wang An as well. Thus, her direction of flight was very clear: she was heading straight for him.

Noticing this, Wang An instinctively squeezed the clutch and stepped on the brake. Once the sidecar stopped, he flicked the gear lever with his foot to put the motorcycle in neutral.

Just as Wang An was about to open his mouth to ask, the woman, looking back in panic and speaking with a voice full of tears, beat him to it

"Brother Wang An, please save me! They're trying to kidnap me and sell me!"

Although Wang An didn't know her, the fact that she could accurately call him by name and seek his help meant she must be from one of the villages near Kaoshan Village.

So, Wang An blinked and asked with a frown

"Where are you from? What's your name? What happened?"

To be honest, logically, Wang An should have taken her away from here first before asking these questions, but how could a man like Wang An take on trouble for no reason?

The key was that many acts of helping others were thankless tasks; often, the helper acted out of kindness, only to end up burdened with complaints and blame.

Although Wang An had spent half his previous life behind bars, many of the inmates who came in later had told him plenty about the outside world.

The most typical example, and the one that left the deepest impression on Wang An, was: "You didn't hit him, so why did you help him up?"

No exaggeration—when the fifty-something-year-old Wang An of his past life heard about such things, his entire worldview completely collapsed.

Wang An had thought he was inhuman enough, but compared to them, he was a mere amateur.

At the time, Wang An had lamented that the outside world wasn't much clearer or more honest than the inside of the fence!

Of course, the reason Wang An had such a mistaken idea was that he had stayed inside for too long and had become somewhat disconnected from society.

After Wang An finished asking, the woman, still trembling and looking back in fear, explained in a shaking voice

"Brother, my name is Li Xiuyu, from Sujia Village. Your brother-in-law, Mu Xueli, is my uncle's brother-in-law."

Hearing this, Wang An's eyes widened and rolled; he was suddenly completely bewildered.

This was truly unbelievable; he really could run into every kind of situation!

Mainly, during these past few days, Wang An had spent most of his time busy at home—mostly making furniture, leveling his backyard, or helping Wang Dazhu and the others build the courtyard wall.

During that time, he had gone into the mountains once with Wang Li and Mu Xueli to help each of their families hunt two wild boars.

There was no helping it; although there weren't many helpers for the house construction for those two families, and the various vegetables from the gardens had been harvested, it wouldn't be right if there was no meat at all in the food provided to the workers.

However, during that trip to the mountains, neither Mu Xueli nor Wang Li had mentioned Li Xiuyu, so Wang An hadn't paid any attention to it.

Thus, Wang An never expected that he would coincidentally run into Li Xiuyu here. Just how miraculous was this coincidence?

After recovering from his bewilderment, Wang An rolled his eyes and sucked on his teeth, then looked at Li Xiuyu with a face full of speechlessness and said

"Then... get on the bike first. We'll talk in a bit."

Li Xiuyu's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and she nimbly jumped into the sidecar seat.

Wang An looked at Li Xiuyu with a helpless expression, stepped on the gear lever, twisted the throttle with his right hand while half-releasing the clutch with his left, and the sidecar shot forward.

Only after passing Yangshu Village did Wang An slow down, then he frowned and asked Li Xiuyu

"What's going on with you? Why did you come charging out of the woods?"

It had to be said, this Li Xiuyu was actually quite a runner.

One must realize that from Sujia Village to Kaoshan Village was five or six li, from Kaoshan Village to Yangshu Village was about ten li, and from Yangshu Village to that bend was another ten li or so.

Added together, the distance was twenty-five or twenty-six li. He wondered just how long Li Xiuyu had been running.