God's Gift

Emma shook her head and looked at the gray sky over the village with a sad expression.

After listening to the village chief's story, everyone was moved and looked sad.

Only Lu Keming and Yu Youyou.

Lu Keming listened to it without changing his expression, then sneered contemptuously, with some barely perceptible disdain in his eyes.

Yu Youyou lowered her head, not knowing what she was thinking. When everyone was silent, she suddenly looked up at Emma.

"Sister, isn't the crazy son you mentioned very thin, with hair..."

Yu Youyou pointed at her messy hair and said, "It's like a chicken coop, her clothes are torn, and she keeps telling stories."

Emma looked at Yu Youyou in surprise, "That's indeed him, have you seen him?"

Yu Youyou nodded vigorously and said in a crisp voice, "He even asked me for steamed buns last night."

Emma smiled and said, "Yes, he often walks around the village, so it's normal for you to have seen him."

Shen Minghua and Ye Li looked at each other and realized that there might be something they didn't know.

"Sorry to bother you, madam. Let's go and take a look before making a decision." Shen Minghua spoke first and replied politely to Emma.

Fang Ziang stepped forward and took Yu Youyou away, "Why are you so familiar with everyone?"

Yu Youyou was held by the collar, with her head tucked into her clothes. She turned back with difficulty to pull Fang Ziang's hand away.

"We just met yesterday."

"Fang Ziang." Shen Minghua looked at Fang Ziang's actions and warned him with his eyes.

Fang Ziang put Yu Youyou down and snorted.

"Youyou, did you meet the village chief's son last night?" Shen Minghua felt helpless when he saw Fang Ziang's willful look. He sighed and looked at Yu Youyou.

Yu Youyou nodded, "Yeah."

"Then what did he say?"

"It tells the story of the village chief saving the village." Yu Youyou thought for a few seconds and then said, "It also says that the village chief used his treasure to exchange the lives of the villagers..."

Lu Keming, who was walking beside him, paused and looked at Yu Youyou meaningfully.

But everyone's attention was on what Youyou said, and no one noticed Lu Keming's glance.

"His treasure exchanged for the lives of the villagers?" Ye Li's eyebrows were twisted into a knot, "What does this mean... What is the treasure?"

"And the words about exchanging the villagers' lives, are the villagers in any danger?"

"Yes." Yu Youyou started to turn over the sugar in her bag after she said that. When she heard Ye Li's doubt, she naturally responded.

Several people looked at Yu Youyou.

“Didn’t a lot of people starve to death?” Yu Youyou raised her head and looked at them as if it was a matter of course. “That is of course also a danger faced by the villagers.”

Shen Minghua's expression changed a little. "Youyou means that the village chief used treasures to exchange the lives of the villagers, which was to exchange for fertile land and water to save the villagers from famine..."

"But why can soil and water also be exchanged? This is very different from the story we heard."

Suddenly there was a laugh from the side, Shen Minghua turned around and saw Lu Keming standing there and laughing.

Lu Keming turned the dragon ring, and the sapphire inlaid on the ring reflected a faint and cold light.

"Why? Either the story is false and what we know is not true, or the story is not complete."

“After all…” Lu Keming raised his eyes and glanced at Yu Youyou, his voice full of interest, “How did the village chief find fertile soil and water after falling off the cliff?”

"If those things really exist in this place, why has this place been deserted for so long? Why does he need to come and look for them?"

After hearing what Lu Keming said, Ye Li instantly understood what he meant.

"You mean, the water was not originally there and was later found by the village chief. Instead, it was the village chief who exchanged those things from the beginning?"

Lu Keying stroked the blue gem on the ring and nodded to Ye Li.

"This is what the village chief meant by exchanging treasures for the lives of the villagers..." Ye Li was a little dazed, glanced at Shen Minghua, and realized that it was unreasonable.

"What is that treasure? Who did he exchange it with? Is it related to the fire of hell?"

Shen Minghua also felt confused at this time, unable to figure out the key points, "But the fire of hell was ignited many years later."

"Is there something else here?" The more Fang Ziang listened to the two people's analysis, the weirder it seemed.

If it is really related to the hellfire, why didn't the hellfire burn at that time, and why could the hellfire provide water to the village chief.

"No!" Fang Ziang thought of the grass and trees growing in the flames he saw in the forest. A light bulb went off in his head and he shouted in sudden enlightenment.

"What makes the land grow crops is not fertile soil and water, but the fire of hell!"

As soon as he said this, Shen Minghua and Ye Li immediately looked at him and figured out the key.

What they saw that day was that the plants in the flames continued to grow, and even if they were burned by the flames, they could be resurrected immediately, as if they had powerful immortal life.

"The fire of hell can bring dead monsters back to life, and it can also bring plants back to life."

When Fang Ziang figured this out, he suddenly felt a chill on his back. If this was the case, then those things that died in the fire would never truly die.

"As long as the fire of hell is burning, there will never be peace here!"

When Lu Keming heard Fang Ziang's words, there was no surprise on his face. He was so calm as if he had known about this for a long time.

Yu Youyou was still taking out her bag and didn't notice what others were saying at all. She was out of tune with the others.

"Hey, why is it gone?"

After searching for a long time, she didn't find a single candy. Yu Youyou lifted up the bag and shook it, but nothing came out.

She stared with her round, dark eyes, her mind full of doubts.

Lu Keming glanced at Yu Youyou, who was holding her bag and looking at it stupidly, and closed his eyes speechlessly.

"If this is true, it means that the Hellfire has existed in this place for a long time, and it... is inseparable from the village chief." Ye Li's face was heavy, and he looked at Lu Keming hesitantly. He didn't expect that this time Lu Keming did not deceive them.

Lu Keming raised his eyebrows and smiled at Ye Li.

Shen Minghua also looked at Lu Keming, his eyes still defensive and cautious, "Let's go find the village chief to verify first."

Ye Li nodded and agreed to Shen Minghua's suggestion.

"Let's go."

The group continued to go to the village chief's house.

After walking a few steps, Lu Keming stopped, folded his arms and looked at Yu Youyou, who was standing there with her head buried in the bag, completely unaware that the others had left.

Lu Keming walked up to Yu Youyou who was carrying the bag, twisted the bag with his fingers, and took it down.

The originally dark world became bright again, and Yu Youyou looked at Lu Keming who was standing in front of her holding her small bag.

"Lu Keming, what's wrong?" Yu Youyou looked at Lu Keming with confusion.

Lu Keming pointed at Ye Li and the other two who had already gone quite far away.

Yu Youyou suddenly realized what was going on. She stood on tiptoe to take the bag from Lu Keming's hand and slung it neatly around her body.

"Thank you!"

Lu Keming had a cold face, turned around and walked straight forward.

Yu Youyou trotted beside him, fiddling with her own things.

The village chief's house is in the farthest corner of the village. The surrounding houses are empty and no one lives there. The atmosphere is a bit eerie.

Shen Minghua walked to the village chief's closed door and knocked.

The old, worm-eaten wooden door dropped some sawdust as the knocks vibrated. An unknown insect living in the corner of the door crawled out and quickly fled along the wall.

The air smelled of dust and mold.

Shen Minghua coughed and when no one responded, he shouted in a gentle and polite voice:

"Is the village chief here? We are new to the village. We heard about your heroic deeds, so we came here to visit you."

There was still no response from inside the door.

"What's going on? Could he have died in there a long time ago?" Fang Ziang yelled with some dissatisfaction.