The Secret Chamber of the Card Game

After all, Ye Qi and Shao Qingge were not real robbers. Seeing the man trembling with fright, Ye Qi comforted him and said, "Don't be afraid, we don't want to kill you. It's just that I've been starving these days, so I came here to find something to eat." Scanning the cellar, I found that there was quite a lot of stock in the cellar, including several bags of sweet potatoes, pickled pickles, and dried steamed buns.

Shao Qingge also saw this, and couldn't help but patted him on the shoulder with a smile: "You're pretty good at living."

The man said with a bitter face: "You, since you are only looking for food, I'll just give it to you. I beg the two heroes to spare my life! Leave some for me, don't take everything away..."

Shao Qingge said: "Don't worry, you have saved so much food, neither of us can take it away. Besides, walking on the road with these things on your back, isn't it tempting other people to fight for it?"

He pretended to be contemplative, lowered his head and thought for a while, then smiled and made a suggestion, "How about this, our brother stays with you as a companion. If someone robs you in the future, the three of you can handle it easily, what do you think?"

The man froze: "Stay, stay?"

Ye Qi looked around the cellar, with an expression of admiration on his face: "My brother is right, it's quite spacious here, we two foreigners don't have a place to live, so we can live in the cave with you." I also turned around to find a place, spread some hay to make two simple beds, quite the meaning of "staying here and not leaving".

man:"……"

Not to mention burglary, but also to occupy his nest, these two people are too much.

But two fists are no match for four hands. Moreover, the two of them have martial arts at first glance, and they didn't want his life to grab all the food. It's much better than the bandits in the town who came to his shop a few days ago to smash and loot. ...to compromise first?

The man's eyes rolled around, obviously thinking about how to deal with it.

Shao Qingge originally wanted to subdue him violently and force him to cooperate with the investigation.However, although this person has a shy personality, he is very smart. If the two keep pushing him, maybe this guy will stab him in the back or run away in the middle of the night, which would be self-defeating.If you want him to really cooperate, maybe you can change the way.

For example, let him treat them as friends and talk quietly?

Thinking of this, Shao Qingge said softly: "Don't worry, we have no grievances with you, there is no need to kill you." After finishing speaking, he took the initiative to let go of the other party.

Ye Qi and Shao Qingge had a good understanding, of course they knew what Shao Qingge was thinking, and immediately cooperated and said: "Just now I caught you directly because I was afraid that there might be some bandits hiding in this cave. After all, there is a famine everywhere, and many people are like crazy. It’s unreasonable to say the same thing, and all the silver and food that our two brothers brought were also robbed by the people in your town.”

Xiaoye is witty, in this way, he can find an excuse to investigate the location of the gangsters in the town.

The man was taken aback by what they said, but when he noticed that their tone was softening, and he didn't seem like a brutal robber, the man resigned to his fate and stopped resisting, gritted his teeth, and said, "Okay, you two will stay temporarily." It's here with me, but don't go out and be discovered by others, otherwise, these things I saved will definitely be robbed."

Ye Qi nodded: "I know. We are going to starve to death, can you get us something to eat first?"

The man turned around and looked for some sweet potatoes.

Because roasted sweet potatoes are easy to give off a strong smell, he tried to make a temporary stove in the hole, lit a fire with the saved coal, cooked the sweet potatoes in the pot, and cooked them more at a time. a few days.The remote location of his yard, coupled with the cover of the burrow, made it difficult to attract the attention of outsiders.

Seeing that he was busy making sweet potatoes, Shao Qingge went to sit beside him and asked, "What's your name, brother?"

The other party said: "My name is Ren Yuan."

Shao Qingge smiled and said: "My name is Shao Xiaoge, and this is my younger brother Shao Xiaoye."

Ye Qi: "..."

Why do you have to give me your last name every time?Can't your surname be Ye?

Ye Qi's complaints were received by Shao Qingge with a heart and soul. The man smiled at him and had no intention of changing his words. He continued to make up stories solemnly: "Our brothers are doing business in other places. There are famines everywhere this year. It was also robbed by a group of thieves a month ago. We escaped with difficulty and stopped and stopped all the way, but when we reached your town, our silver and dry food were also robbed by a group of people."

With a look of sympathy on Ren Yuan's face, he gritted his teeth and said, "It must have been robbed by the 'Hound Dog' gang!"

Ye Qi and Shao Qingge looked at each other.

——The key clue finally appeared.

Hound, this organization was a brutal organization that robbed houses and ate human flesh 20 years ago. At that time, Chu Huaying asked a surviving homeless man in the small town, and the homeless man also mentioned this organization.

Ye Qi immediately asked with interest: "Brother Ren, does he know where these people are? They snatched the parcels that my brother and I carried with us. I want to get them back. There are many left by my mother there." valuables."

Ren Yuan shook his head hastily, and said: "I advise you not to go, the Hound's people are brutal, and there are too many people, you two will definitely not be able to beat them, if you go, you will only be caught as a human sacrifice... …" At this point, he seemed to realize that he had said something he shouldn't have said, and immediately closed his mouth with a pale face.

Shao Qingge frowned slightly, and continued to ask him: "Human sacrifice? What is that?"

Ren Yuan gritted his teeth and refused to say more. He lifted the lid of the pot, took out two hot sweet potatoes, and said, "You two should eat something first. These are the sweet potatoes I cooked in the middle of the night last night, and some radishes Come on, let's eat together."

Since Ye Qi and Shao Qingge set themselves up as "starved for several days", in order to avoid arousing his suspicion, they had no choice but to take the food, pretending to be very hungry, and swallowed it.

Shao Qingge couldn't help frowning as soon as he took a bite, this was the worst dried sweet potato and radish he had ever eaten.

The sweet potatoes were undercooked, hard and tasteless, and because they had been stored for a long time, they did not have the sweet taste of normal sweet potatoes; let alone dried radishes, it was like eating wood.

Turning his head to look, Ye Qi was eating with gusto.Thinking of his experience of eating leaves alone in the nightmare chamber, Shao Qingge couldn't help feeling a tingle in his heart - when will these days end?Open your eyes, there may be bugs in front of you, zombies, wolves, and now you are being transported to the world of famine.

The challenger is like a pawn at the mercy of others, which sucks.The answer to the puzzle and the way back must be found as quickly as possible.

Thinking of this, Shao Qingge simply took out the [Sapphire Necklace] card from his pocket, and with a flash of light on his fingertips, an exquisite necklace appeared in his hand.

Shao Qingge handed the necklace to Ren Yuan, and said in a low voice: "Brother Ren, this is the only piece of jewelry left on our brother's body. Our home was robbed, and now we have fled here. All the parcels and dry food were given by the gangsters in Qingfeng Town. Take it away. We are not ruthless people, we can only use this thing as a reward for eating your food and living in your burrow."

Ren Yuan looked at the necklace in amazement. It was a gemstone he had never seen before, and it shone brightly even in a dimly lit cave. It must be priceless, right?It seems that this pair of brothers were originally from a rich family, but now they are in such a difficult situation, not to mention their treasures being robbed, and they are so hungry that they eat sweet potatoes with him, it is really miserable.

Shao Qingge found that Ren Yuan's vigilance was obviously relaxed, and the function of "increasing favorability" of the sapphire necklace seemed to have an effect.Last time in the Q secret room, he carefully copied one before sending out the necklace, and it is now in use again.

Ren Yuan took Shao Qingge's necklace and asked curiously: "This chain is so beautiful, it must be very expensive?"

Shao Qingge smiled and said: "Our family is in the jewelry business, and we made this piece of jewelry by ourselves. When the famine is over, brother Ren can exchange it for some silver taels to redecorate your small shop."

Ren Yuan originally wanted to decline, but he also felt that it would not be too much to get some reward for saving the pair of brothers in trouble?So he happily accepted it.

Shao Qingge had already been in the business field, and he had a strong ability to read words and demeanor. Seeing the other party's expression relaxed, he immediately asked: "By the way, what does Brother Ren mean by hunting dogs and human sacrifice just now?"

After Ren Yuan heard the word "human sacrifice", his face was still pale. He was silent for a moment, then lowered his voice and said tremblingly: "Brother Shao, this matter is a long story..."

Ye Qi hurriedly said: "Just say it, we won't be able to get out anyway, we have plenty of time to listen to you, the more detailed the better."

Ren Yuan sighed, and said: "This year there has been a severe drought for three months, and the grain harvest is not as good as before. Many people in the small town can't eat enough. Everyone barely survived on food reserves for several months, thinking that there would be disaster relief in the state. The mayor will find a way to distribute the food, but after waiting for a long time, there is still no relief food."

"Gradually, the town became chaotic. In the beginning, a few scattered people came out to rob, and went to the homes of orphans and widows who were easy to bully. Later, it became more and more excessive, and the robbers formed a gang. They robbed most of the food stored in the small town, and then went to the nearby mountain to occupy the mountain as king and built a cottage."

That mountain behind the woods?Isn't it the mass grave 20 years later?

A thought popped into Ye Qi and Shao Qingge's mind at the same time - could this be the reason why the murderer led all those people to the mass grave when he committed the crime?

Ye Qi asked: "The copycat you are talking about is the Hound Organization?"

Ren Yuan shook his head: "No, this cottage was established casually by some mobs. It was a chaotic mess, and no one would accept anyone. Later, they all messed up and killed each other. It is said that not long after, several people killed each other at night. Hacked these gangsters to death, ran away with gold and silver treasures, and corpses were everywhere on the mountain."

Shao Qingge asked: "What about the Hound Organization?"

Ren Yuandao: "That was an organization secretly established by some people in the town a few days ago. They would wear masks every time they went out. No one could see their true colors. They would lead a dog and smell it to find them. People, so the people in the town call them hounds. Not only will they rob food and gold and silver jewels, but they will also take people away."

Ye Qi pretended to be surprised and said: "Arrest people? That is what you said...human sacrifice?"

"That's right. They arrested people and kept them in the largest pigsty in the town. They ate human flesh and drank human blood!" Ren Yuan said with a pale face, "That night, I, I went out to have a urinate, and heard the sound of blood in the alley outside. There was a child screaming in pain, I peeked through the crack of the door and saw them take the child away with my own eyes, and said that they went back to cook wine at night."

Ye Qi and Shao Qingge: "..."

It seems that many people who survived have heard of the brutal methods of this mysterious organization.

It's just that the members of the Hound Organization also know that this practice is devoid of conscience, and they will wear masks when they act at night. No one can clearly determine who these people's real identities are.

It is precisely because of this that the "ghost murder case" that started many years later was easier for people in the town to accept - after all, many people did do some things that were worse than animals during the famine, and survived by eating their own kind After coming down, encountering the revenge of the ghost seems to be a matter of course.

Therefore, even if many people in the town disappeared inexplicably on the eve of the Ghost Festival, no one went to find out the root cause. They were more willing to believe that it was a retribution of karma—retribution from ghosts.

Who will be the "Ghost" 20 years from now?