"All dead?" Zhang Youxiong asked in a tone. It was unbelievable. He remembered that there were sixty or seventy people in this village, and they were all dead in just two days?
He Xiaoren had tears on his face, his expression was slightly numb, and he murmured: "Yes, they are all dead. Sixty-eight people came out, and there are only seven of us left."
"Were they attacked by ferocious beasts?" Zhang Youxiong saw that the injuries on the seven people looked like they were bitten by wild beasts.
He Xiaoren nodded and said: "First we were attacked by a big insect. The big insect was like a monster. It was bigger than two big bulls put together. More than half of the sixty-eight of us were killed by the beast in the blink of an eye. , maybe it thought it had eaten enough, so it stopped chasing us, but misfortunes never come singly. Before we could catch our breath, we were attacked by two black panthers again. We had no power to fight back and could only escape. In the end, we had no choice but to escape. There were seven of us left. We didn’t want to stay in this horrible place, not even for a moment, but we lost our way and couldn’t find the exit of the canyon. We walked and walked, looking and looking, until we found it from last night until now. I didn’t dare to rest for a moment, I didn’t dare to close my eyes, I was terrified, for fear that some wild beast would come out and attack.”
"Hey, get up quickly." Zhang Youxiong felt compassion and stepped forward to help He Xiaoren.
The anger of Zhang Xiaozu and others also dissipated. Sixty-one of the sixty-eight people died, which was really pitiful.
"Maybe this is the retribution for doing bad things." Zhang Xiaozhu thought in his heart.
No one noticed that as He Xiaoren narrated, the other six people in Daqiao Village stopped crying one after another, as if they were interrupted by He Xiaoren's words. Logically speaking, they should cry even more sadly when the tragedy was mentioned again, but they didn't.
There was still half a pot of bone soup left in the big pot, which was reserved for the people of the two villages to eat tomorrow morning. Seeing that the seven people of He Xiaoren were hungry, he couldn't help but feel pity, so he filled a bowl for each of them, and then gave it to each of them. Two tortillas per person.
The seven of them devoured a bowl of soup and two cakes in the blink of an eye. They were not polite and ran to the big pot to refill the bowl. Finally, they simply sat down around the big pot, one bowl after another. A bowl, half a pot of soup and a few pieces of meat and bones inside were not left at all.
These few meat bones were not eaten by the two villagers, so they were reserved for soup base.
"Can you give us some dry food so that we have the strength to walk back to the village? You know that our village is far away and the mountain road is difficult to walk. If there is nothing to fill our stomachs on the road, we will definitely starve to death in the mountains." After eating and drinking, He Xiaoren wiped the grease stains from the corners of his mouth, ran to Zhang Youxiong and asked, without any embarrassment, as if everything was taken for granted.
Although Zhang Youxiong felt uncomfortable, but as the saying goes, a good man will go to the end to send Buddha to the West. Since he has already helped, he should just help to the end. He took out more than ten corn tortillas from the ration bag and took a small empty cloth bag. After pretending, he handed it to He Xiaoren and asked: "Why, you are leaving now? Why don't you take a good rest and wait until dawn before leaving?"
"Well, let's leave now. We don't want to stay in this hellish place that eats people without spitting out their bones for a moment longer." The seven of He Xiaoren seemed to be frightened too much. They nodded repeatedly, eager to leave the black forest.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" The champion slapped He Xiaoren's hand away, and the man actually reached for their dry food bag.
"Look at how much dry food you have, give us a little more. The seven of us are covered in injuries, our energy is exhausted, and our bodies are in urgent need of replenishing our strength. These corn cakes are not enough. Give us more, give us more. We still have meat and bones. Do you have any? I’ll give you a few bucks by the way. We are all fellow villagers, so you can’t just ignore them!” He Xiaoren said with a shy face, not knowing the word “shy” at all.
"Why don't you come with us? There is strength in numbers, so we can have someone to look after us on the way."
"Yes, let's go together. This dark forest is too dangerous. There are man-eating beasts everywhere."
"Let's go together."
Several other people in Daqiao Village looked coveted, hoping that people from Zhang and Liu Village would go with them.
"Haha, are you looking after you on the way? Will you take care of your stomach with our dry food?"
"Half a pot of broth, eight or nine pieces of meat and bones, you ate them all without asking. Do you know that those were saved by us because we were reluctant to eat them, and they are our food for tomorrow? Just eat them Just eat it, and you won’t even get the word ‘thank you’ in the end.”
"Are the people in your village as shameless as you?"
The people in Zhang and Liu villages finally couldn't stand the shamelessness of He Xiaoren and the other seven, and couldn't help but scold and ridicule them.
He Xiaoren's seven people had a rare blush on their faces, but they still muttered dissatisfiedly: "If you don't want to, just don't want to, why bother to say it so unpleasantly."
"Boss Zhang, please do me a favor and give me a little more. This is really not enough." He Xiaoren still begged Zhang Youxiong shamelessly.
Zhang Youxiong sighed helplessly, then took out seven more corn tortillas from the dry food bag, handed them to He Xiaoren and said: "There are no more. If you think it is too little, you don't have to take it. Go slowly, I won't give it away!"
"Hmph!" He Xiaoren snorted displeasedly and waved to the other people: "Let's go, so as not to be an eyesore."
"Isn't it just a pot of broth and a dozen corn tortillas? After the disaster year, we will pay them back twice as much. We don't owe them this."
"A bunch of selfish people, they only give us so much food despite having so much food."
"Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi. When they ask us for help, we will show off to them."
The seven people, muttering with extreme dissatisfaction, disappeared into the night.
"What can you say to a person like this?" Zhang Youxiong shook his head and smiled bitterly.
"If I didn't see how pitiful they were, I would definitely go up and beat them up."
"I hate it so much that my teeth itch."
"This kind of person is a typical white-eyed wolf. If you give him your heart, not only will he not be grateful to you, but he will also be thinking about eating your liver. So, when you meet this kind of person, you must stay away from him. The further away the better.”
The people in the two villages could only complain helplessly. They couldn't be ruthless enough to take the corn cakes back and let the seven He Xiaoren people starve to death.
"It's annoying, but they still brought us very useful information. There are extremely vicious beasts deep in the black forest, so we must not go deep." Zhang Youxiong said with a serious expression.
"Yes." Everyone nodded with a heavy expression. There were seven people left dead in Daqiao Village. The depths of the black forest were really scary.
"We can just do our activities here. The materials in the surrounding areas are also very rich. As long as we don't waste or waste, and live frugally, these materials will be enough for our two villages to survive this drought."
"After dawn tomorrow, we will find a place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack, such as a cave or something, and build a base. If we are attacked by wild beasts, we will hide in it."
"good idea."
…
The seven of He Xiaoren went to the exit in the direction pointed by Zhang Youxiong. The seven of them walked in a hurry, tripping over branches and falling from time to time, but after getting up, they still strode quickly, as if there was a ghost chasing behind them.
"Uncle He, why didn't you tell them that we were besieged by wolves?" After walking far away, the youngest of the seven people suddenly asked curiously. They were obviously attacked and hunted by a pack of wolves, but He Xiaoren He told the people in Zhang and Liu villages that he was attacked by a tiger and leopard. He thought about it for a long time and didn't understand why he was lying.
He Xiaoren snorted coldly and said: "If we tell them that we are being targeted by wolves, will they still dare to take us in? Our scent will bring them there. If the wolves come after us, they will definitely find them." "
"That's it." The young man suddenly realized, but immediately made a bitter look on his face, scanned the surrounding darkness, couldn't help but shuddered, and said: "I don't know if those evil wolves will catch up again. ?”
"Haha, don't worry, it won't happen anymore. I secretly left the wolf cubs in the camp of Zhang and Liu villagers. I think the wolves will find them soon. After the wolves finish killing them, we will have returned to the village long ago. ." He Xiaoren said happily.
"Wolf cub? What wolf cub?" the older He Qiguang asked with a frown.
"Haha, it's nothing." He Qiguang laughed.
Unexpectedly, He Qiguang suddenly became angry and threw He Xiaoren to the ground. He punched He Xiaoren twice in the face. He gritted his teeth and asked word by word: "He Xiaoren, please explain it clearly to me. What does wolf cub mean? Did you steal the wolf cub, so the wolves are chasing us? Tell me!"
