Ye Qi and Shao Qingge weren't real robbers after all. Seeing the man trembling with fear, Ye Qi comforted him, "Don't be afraid, we don't want to kill you. We're just starving these past few days, so we came to find something to eat." He glanced at the cellar and found that it had quite a lot of supplies, including several bags of sweet potatoes, pickled vegetables, and dried steamed buns.
Shao Qingge also saw this and couldn't help but smile and pat him on the shoulder: "You're quite good at managing your finances."
The man pleaded with a pained expression, "Since you're only looking for food, I'll give it to you. Please, you two heroes, spare my life! Leave me some, don't take it all..."
Shao Qingge said, "Don't worry, we can't take all this food with us. Besides, carrying all this stuff on the road would just be inviting other people to snatch it."
He pretended to be deep in thought, lowered his head and considered for a moment, then smiled and offered a suggestion, "How about this, my brother and I will stay and keep you company. If we encounter a robbery in the future, three people can handle it better. What do you think?"
The man froze: "Stay...stay?"
Ye Qi looked around the cellar with an appreciative expression: "My brother is right, it's quite spacious here. We're two outsiders with nowhere to stay, so we'll stay in the cellar with you." After saying that, he turned around to find a place, laid out some dry grass to make two simple beds, as if he was determined to stay here.
man:"..."
Not only did they break into his house and rob him, but they also tried to take over his place. These two people have gone too far.
But two fists can't fight four hands. Besides, the two men were clearly skilled in martial arts. They didn't kill him but just robbed him of all his food. They were much better than the bandits who smashed and looted his shop a few days ago. Maybe... he should just compromise for now?
The man's eyes darted around, clearly trying to figure out how to respond.
Shao Qingge initially intended to subdue him by force, forcing him to cooperate with the investigation. However, although this man was somewhat timid, he was very intelligent. If the two of them kept pressuring him, he might stab them in the back or escape in the middle of the night, which would backfire. To get him to truly cooperate, perhaps a different approach was needed.
For example, you could get him to treat them as friends and subtly extract information from them.
Thinking of this, Shao Qingge said gently, "Don't worry, we have no grudge against you and have no reason to harm you." After saying that, he took the initiative to release the other party.
Ye Qi and Shao Qingge were connected via Telepathic Connection, so Ye Qi knew Shao Qingge's thoughts and immediately cooperated, saying, "We grabbed you just now because we were afraid there were bandits hiding in this cave. After all, there's a famine everywhere, and many people are acting like madmen. The silver and food that my brother and I were carrying were all robbed by the people in your town."
Xiao Ye was clever; this gave her an excuse to investigate the location of the bandits in the town.
The man was stunned by what they said, but when he noticed their tone softening and that they didn't seem like brutal robbers, he resigned himself to his fate and stopped resisting. He gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, you can stay here with me for now, but don't go out and get discovered, or all the things I've stored will be stolen."
Ye Qi nodded: "I know. We're starving, could you find us something to eat first?"
The man turned around and went to find some sweet potatoes.
Because roasted sweet potatoes easily emit a rich aroma, he devised a makeshift stove in his cave, using stored coal to start a fire and boil the sweet potatoes in a pot. He would boil a large batch at a time, enough to last for several days. His courtyard was in a secluded location, and the cave provided cover, making it difficult for outsiders to notice him.
Seeing him busy heating sweet potatoes, Shao Qingge walked over and sat down next to him, asking, "What is your surname, brother?"
The other person 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 I always have to take your surname? Can't you just take the surname Ye?
Ye Qi's complaints were received by Shao Qingge via Telepathic Connection. The man glanced at him with a smile, showing no intention of changing his story, and continued to fabricate a tale with a straight face: "My brother and I are merchants from out of town. There's a famine everywhere this year, and our family was robbed of everything by a group of bandits half a month ago. We barely managed to escape, stopping and starting along the way, and when we arrived in your town, a group of people robbed us of all our silver and provisions."
Ren Yuan, his face full of sympathy, gritted his teeth and said, "It must have been stolen by those 'Hounds' gang!"
Ye Qi and Shao Qingge exchanged a glance.
—A crucial clue has finally emerged.
The Hounds, this organization was the same brutal group that made a living by robbing and eating human flesh twenty years ago. Chu Huaying asked a surviving homeless man in the town about it, and the homeless man also mentioned this organization.
Ye Qi immediately asked with interest, "Brother Ren, do you know where these people are? They robbed my brother and me of the package we were carrying. I want to get it back; there are many valuable things that Mother left us in there."
Ren Yuan hurriedly shook his head and said, "I advise you not to go. The Hounds are brutal and numerous. The two of you definitely can't beat so many of them. If you go, you'll just be captured and treated like human livestock..." At this point, he seemed to realize that he had said something he shouldn't have, and immediately shut his mouth with a pale face.
Shao Qingge raised an eyebrow and continued to ask him, " Human livestock? What's that?"
Ren Yuan gritted his teeth and refused to say more. He lifted the pot lid, took out two heated sweet potatoes, and said, "You two should eat something first. I cooked these last night."
Good sweet potatoes, and some dried radish, let's eat them together.
Since Ye Qi and Shao Qingge had established themselves as people who had been "starving for several days," in order to avoid arousing his suspicion, the two had no choice but to accept the food and pretend to be very hungry, swallowing it in large gulps.
Shao Qingge frowned as soon as he took a bite; this was the worst sweet potato and dried radish he had ever eaten.
The sweet potatoes were half-cooked, hard, and had no texture whatsoever. Moreover, because they had been sitting for a long time, they had lost the sweet and fragrant taste of normal sweet potatoes. The dried radish was even worse; it tasted like gnawing on wood.
Turning his head, he saw Ye Qi eating with relish. Recalling his experience of eating tree leaves alone in the Nightmare Secret Room, Shao Qingge felt a pang of pain in his heart—when would these days end? Opening his eyes, he might be faced with insects, zombies, or a pack of wolves, and now he had been transported to the world of Don't Starve.
Challenger feels like a pawn being manipulated, and that feeling is awful. He must find the answer to the puzzle and a way back as soon as possible.
With that in mind, Shao Qingge simply took out the card [ sapphire necklace ] from his pocket. A flash of light appeared at his fingertips, and an exquisite necklace appeared in his hand.
Shao Qingge handed the necklace to Ren Yuan and whispered, "Brother Ren, this is the only piece of jewelry we brothers have left. Our home was robbed, and we fled here. Our belongings and food were all taken by the bandits in Qingfeng Town. We are not heartless people. We ate your food and lived in your cave, so this is the only thing we can do to repay you."
Ren Yuan stared at the necklace in astonishment. It was a gem he had never seen before, shining brightly even in the dim light of the cave. It must be priceless. It seemed that these two brothers were originally from a wealthy family, but now they had fallen on hard times. Not only had their treasures been stolen, but they were also so hungry that they had to share sweet potatoes with him. How pitiful.
Shao Qingge noticed that Ren Yuan's expression had visibly relaxed, indicating that the sapphire necklace's "increase favorability" function was working. He had carefully copied the necklace before giving it to Ren Yuan in the Q Secret Room last time, and it was proving useful again.
Ren Yuan took Shao Qingge's necklace and asked curiously, "This necklace is so beautiful, it must be very expensive, right?"
Shao Qingge smiled and said, "My family is in the jewelry business. This piece of jewelry was made by our own hands. After the famine is over, Brother Ren can use it to exchange for some silver to renovate your shop."
Ren Yuan initially wanted to refuse, but then he felt that since he had saved the two brothers in distress, it wouldn't be unreasonable to accept some reward. So he happily accepted it.
Shao Qingge, a seasoned businessman, was adept at reading people. Seeing the other party's relaxed expression, he quickly followed up with, "By the way, what exactly did you mean by 'hunting dogs' and 'human livestock ' that you mentioned earlier, Brother Ren?"
Upon hearing the term " human livestock," Ren Yuan's face remained deathly pale. After a moment of silence, he lowered his voice and said in a trembling tone, "Brother Shao, this is a long story..."
Ye Qi hurriedly said, "Just tell us, we can't get out anyway, so we have plenty of time to listen to you. The more detailed the better."
Ren Yuan sighed and said, "This year there was a severe drought for three months, and the grain harvest was not as good as in previous years. Many people in the town are not able to get enough to eat. They barely survived for a few months by relying on their stored grain. They thought that the state would send disaster relief grain and that the town mayor would find a way. But after waiting for a long time, there was still no relief grain."
"Gradually, the town fell into chaos. At first, it was just a few scattered people robbing people, stealing food from vulnerable families like orphans and widows. Later, it got worse and worse. The robbers formed gangs, robbing most of the townspeople of their stored food, and then they went to the nearby mountain to become kings and even built a stronghold."
That mountain behind the woods? Isn't that Mass Grave twenty years from now?
The same thought popped into Ye Qi and Shao Qingge's minds at the same time—could this be the reason why the murderer lured all those people to Mass Grave when committing the crime?
Ye Qi asked, "The 'bandit' you're talking about, is it the Hound Organization?"
Ren Yuan shook his head: "No, this mountain stronghold was set up by a bunch of rabble, a chaotic mess, with no one respecting anyone else. Later, they even fell into their own chaos and started killing each other. It is said that not long after, a few people killed the bandits in the night and ran away with the gold and silver treasures, leaving corpses all over the mountain."
Shao Qingge asked, "What about the Hound Organization?"
Ren Yuan said, "That was a secret organization formed by some people in town a few days ago. They always wear masks when they go out, so no one can see their true faces. They will walk with a dog and find people by smell, so the people in town call them hunting dogs. They not only steal food and gold and silver jewelry, but they also kidnap people."
Ye Qi feigned surprise and said, "Arrest people? You mean... human livestock?"
"That's right. They arrested people and kept them in the biggest pigsty in town, eating their flesh and drinking their blood!" Ren Yuan said, his face pale. "That night, I went out to relieve myself and heard a child's scream coming from the alley outside. I peeked through the crack in the door and saw them take the child away with my own eyes. They even said they would cook the child for a drink when they got back."
Ye Qi and Shao Qingge: "..."
It seems that many of the survivors had heard about the brutal methods of this mysterious organization back then.
However, the members of the Hound organization also knew that this practice was heinous, so they would wear masks when they operated at night, and no one could clearly determine who these people were.
This is why the "vengeful ghost case" that began many years later was more easily accepted by the people in the town—after all, many people did do some beastly things during the famine, and survived by eating their own kind, so it seemed only natural that they would be retaliated against by vengeful ghosts.
so,
Even though many people in the town mysteriously disappeared on the eve of the Ghost Festival, no one bothered to find out the truth. They preferred to believe that it was a karmic retribution—retribution from vengeful ghosts.
Who will be the "vengeful ghost" 20 years from now?