Fei Yuan slowly fell on Longxia Ridge in Tianguo South County, and there were already people on the ridge who came to meet Xiang Meng.

"Noble, I'll send you here. This is the last village of Lianyun Seventy-two Village, and it is not our Lianyun Village's sphere of influence after Longxia Mountain. Noble, there is a long road ahead, please take care, there will be a period later. "Say goodbye to Chongsheng with a fierce hand.

"There will be a date later."

Descending along the winding mountain road, I unconsciously walked from the middle of the day to the evening, the red clouds surrounded the mountain, the warm sun set in the west, and the village in the distance lit up the smoke.

"Kurong, today we will spend the night in the village under this mountain, and we will go again tomorrow." Chongsheng felt a little tired.

Kurong nodded.

There is always a kind of lazy tranquility in the village after sunset, the breeze of returning home is walking on the tip of the wheat wave in the twilight, the rape flowers in the afterglow of the sunset can't keep the heartless bee butterflies, and the creek that quietly goes west carries the body fragrance of the girl who is only a young woman.

The beauty of the countryside is in a static word, a leisurely word.

"Zeyu Village, poetic village, poetic name." The boundary monument at the entrance of the village is simple, and a few steps further on, you can already see several low thatched houses.

"Anyone?" After entering the village, Wang Zuo shouted several times, but no one responded.

There were seven or eight thatched huts in succession, all of which had their doors open, but they were empty.

"Uncle, this is an uninhabited village."

"No, look at the smoke that is lit. Go further, "Counting the time is the meal, why are these peasant houses all empty, Chongsheng also felt strange in his heart.

"Help us! Help me. A faint gasp came from the large house not far away.

Chongsheng quickened his pace and walked towards the big house.

The moment he pushed open the door, Chongsheng was shocked, only to see dozens of people lying on the ground of the empty big house, and a pungent fishy smell came to his face.

These men and women were in ragged clothes, with scorched faces and as thin as wood.

"Help me." A skinny, dry hand gripped Chongsheng's leg tightly, this hand was pus and sores, and the maggots had already eaten up the flesh.

"What's wrong with you, sir?"

"Help me." The chapped lips were completely bloodless, the withered white was a long-rotten black, and the hollow eyes were sunk deep into their sockets, a look of despair and suffocation.

"Help us." The others lying on the ground also began to groan, faint and noisy, the boundless oppression overwhelmed Chongsheng, and the deep breath was a disgusting stench.

Chongsheng carefully looked at the person lying on the ground. He found that there were many dead corpses mixed in the crowd, and fat corpse worms crawled out of the mouths and noses of these dead corpses, and walked quickly on the bodies of the living.

After observing for a moment, Chongsheng placed his two fingers on the pulse of the withered hand that was clutching him.

"Plague." Chongsheng said and sighed.

"Childe, is there any salvation?" Kurong asked with concern.

Chongsheng shook his head, closed his eyes and gently broke free from the hand that was holding his leg, and withdrew from the big house.

"Uncle, those people?"

"Waiting to die." The feeling of joy before instantly turned into heaviness, and there was an indescribable depression and sadness in Chongsheng's heart.

Walking along the village road, there were more houses, but as before, all the rooms were empty.

"Uncle, not all the people in this village will ......" Wang Zuo didn't continue, the tragic scene just now made him feel palpitations.

The narrow village road in front of me gradually widened, and a clearing, an ancient well, and the big banyan tree next to the ancient well, were surrounded by hundreds of peasants at this moment.

"Uncle! Luckily, there are so many people alive! Wang Zuo's frowning brows relaxed.

Chongsheng didn't answer, and walked to the side of the onlookers with Kurong Rong. All of them were silent, with occasional coughs and moans.

It's empty under the banyan tree, so what are these people doing standing under the tree? Chongsheng was full of doubts.

"It's coming, it's coming!" There was a commotion in the crowd.

I saw a Taoist priest-like figure walking in front, and two peasants tied up a woman and a boy, pushing and shoving towards the banyan tree.

"Folks, ten years ago, our village was plagued by female plagues, and now the broom star plague god has come to poison everyone again! The female and the plague god are both in the same group. Everyone remembers this woman! The Taoist priest asked, pointing at the bound woman with a peachwood sword.

"Remember, when she burned the girl, she was the one who stopped everyone." The crowd said in unison.

"That's right, she is the Broom Star Plague God, the accomplice of the female squire, and she is the one who brought the plague to our village." The Taoist priest raised his eyebrows and said indignantly.

"Kill her! Kill her! "The crowd was excited.

"My ancestor Huangmei prophesied last night that as long as you sacrifice the evil seed of this female plague and share the meat of the female plague among the villagers, you can solve this plague disaster."

Hearing that human flesh was going to be eaten, the onlookers suddenly had a strange look, each swallowing saliva, their eyes lit up, and a kind of greed and hunger quickly spread among the crowd like an epidemic.

"Mother, I want to eat human flesh." A child still in his mother's arms looked at the bound woman in a daze, salivating from the corners of his mouth.

Chongsheng only felt a wave of nausea in his abdomen, the villagers behaved like this, could it be that this village had eaten people before?

The bound woman bowed her head and sobbed, she did not resist, she did not struggle, and the fear of being eaten in the face of utter despair was nothing more than that.

The boy next to the woman looked like he was only seven or eight years old, he had something in his mouth and couldn't speak, he just writhed vigorously, and the struggle looked so weak.

"The meat of this female plague needs to be eaten alive to cure the epidemic, I will cut this first knife first and dedicate it to the chief of the body." The Taoist priest said as he held a knife in one hand and ran the hair of the bound woman with the other.

The only brightly dressed, pot-bellied man in the crowd smiled and nodded to the Taoist priest.

"These brutes!" Ku Rong was angry and was about to draw his sword, but was pressed down by Chongsheng.

"The road is long, and slow!"

"Who is it?" The knife that the Taoist priest was about to swing stopped in mid-air, and following the sound, the crowd made way for a way, and Chongsheng and the Taoist priest looked at each other.

"You foreigner, do you want to be an accomplice to this female plague?"

"Nope! The flesh of this female plague is poisonous, and if you eat it, you will be infected with the plague, and this little boy is the son of the female plague, and he is sacrificed to the ancestor of Huangmei, I am afraid that it will make his old man unhappy. Chongsheng said with a smile on his face.

"You are here to bewitch the people, and it seems that you are also an accomplice of this monster, come on! Everyone tied him up and ate him raw! The Taoist priest's words seemed to have magical power, and after saying that, the three of them were surrounded by the villagers.

"Dao Chief, take a step to speak." Chongsheng didn't care about the villagers who came up from the siege, just walked towards the Taoist priest with a smile, and then whispered in the Taoist priest's ear for a moment, and a smile gradually appeared on the Taoist priest's face.

"Folks, it turns out that this is my fellow Daoist! It's all a misunderstanding, so don't be rude. The Taoist priest didn't wait for Chongsheng to finish speaking, and said loudly as if proclaiming.

The villagers dispersed and became deferential.

"My Taoist friend has great powers, and he is willing to give three oxen as sacrifices, and each family can get three taels of silver. Tomorrow, we only need to drive this female plague and demon boy out of Zeyu Village, and the plague will disappear. Before the Taoist priest could finish speaking, cheers were heard from the crowd.

"Fellow Daoist, it's getting late tonight, why don't you go to the chief guard's house with me to rest for the night?" The Taoist priest said to Chongsheng with a smile on his face.

"This female plague is inflicting scourge on the villagers, I want to watch it myself tonight and drive it out of the village tomorrow night." Chongsheng refused with a smile.

"Fellow Daoists, with the common people in mind, admire below. However, what did the Taoist friend say? The Taoist priest said, looking Chongsheng up and down.

Chongsheng took out a few silver tickets from his sleeve and handed them to the Taoist priest, who hurriedly put them in his arms and laughed: "Daoist, then let's disperse!" ”

Chongsheng nodded.

"Come, come, come, come and get the money from me!" The onlookers surrounded the Taoist priest and dispersed, leaving only the poor mother and son under the banyan tree.

Wang Zuo stepped forward to loosen the ties for the mother and son, and the mother and son knelt on the ground and kowtowed vigorously to thank them.

"Childe, why do you bother with these beasts?" Ku Rong said with some dissatisfaction.

"Do you want to kill all these villagers? Can the ignorance that has accumulated for a long time be changed overnight? ”

Ku Rong also knew the ignorance and inferior nature of these foolish people, and shook his head helplessly.

"Woman, get up. Can I spend the night at your house tonight? Chongsheng lifted up the woman who was still on the ground and thanked Dade.

"Benefactor, thank you for your great kindness. My house is not far ahead, and I'll take you there. The woman wiped away her tears and led the boy with her head bowed and bent down to lead the way.

The three simple grass houses, although the house is surrounded by four walls, are also cleaned up.

The woman settled Chongsheng and the three of them sat down at the bamboo table, and then went to the stove room to be busy with dinner. The child was holding a carved rabbit in his arms and playing happily at the bamboo table, and he seemed to have completely forgotten the pain of being tied up before.

After a while, the woman walked in with a large plate of roasted potatoes and a few bran buns.

"Benefactor, there is nothing to eat at home, you can make do with it." The woman's face was embarrassed and shy.

Chongsheng picked up the bran steamed bun and took a bite, frowning, how could he eat such omnivorous coarse grains when he was pampered.

"Childe, why don't I go out ......" Ku Rong knew that Chongsheng couldn't eat, and was about to go out to find something for Chongsheng to eat, but Chongsheng stopped him, and after hesitating, Chongsheng took a big bite of the bran steamed bun.

"I'm not afraid of benefactor jokes, the child's father left in a hurry a few days ago, and there is nothing left at home after the funeral." The woman sobbed as she spoke.

"Do you have a habit of cannibalism in your village?" Chongsheng finished eating a piece of steamed bread and drank a large sip of hot water and asked.

"What wasn't there before, it's only been there in recent years."

The boy stared at the potato on the table, Chongsheng smiled and handed him one, the boy happily picked up the potato and gnawed it, seeing this, Chongsheng really didn't feel good in his heart.

"Ten years ago, there was a drought in the village, and many people starved to death, so they started eating human flesh and barely survived the famine. Two years ago, a new county decree came to change the tax per acre to a poll tax, and no matter the old, weak, sick or disabled, they had to pay taxes, and the taxes were higher than in the previous ten draws. Years of natural and man-made disasters have eaten up all the wild vegetables that can be eaten, and some families have ...... under hunger."

"And secretly eat those old, weak, sick and disabled? Brute! Ku Rong shot the case and was furious.

Chongsheng's face was solemn, and he gave Ku Rong a look, and Ku Rong sat down angrily and bit the potato.

"Then you've eaten human flesh too?"

"No, benefactor, not every household in the village eats!" The woman was frightened by Kurong and lowered her head and muttered.

"I have long heard that under the heavy donation and harsh government of the country, the people have the phenomenon of cannibalism. I didn't expect it to be so serious. Chongsheng only felt that his chest was clogged and panicked, and he couldn't eat anything anymore.

"Ten years ago, during the drought, the child's father's cousin was eaten by the people in the village as a drought, and this was the first time that our village had eaten people. Now that there is a plague in the village, Daoist Wang said that I am a female plague and wants to eat me. The woman wept silently.

"This plague is probably caused by the cannibalism of the villagers, and I saw dozens of plague patients lying in a big house with no one to take care of them." Chongsheng remembered the tragic scene before.

"It was the house of Landlord Liu's family in the past, and after Landlord Liu's family died, the house was empty. When the plague broke out, the people of the village threw the people who got the plague inside and waited for death. ”

"If the plague is not controlled and treated, the whole village will die, and throwing the plague patients together to die will only aggravate the epidemic. Even if the people in the village don't know, the government doesn't care? Chongsheng changed his previous composure and became agitated and angry.

"What if you know? The people who have the money to see a doctor moved out a few days ago, and the rest except for Li Baochang have no money. Instead of starving every day, it is better to die, and perhaps death is a kind of relief. The woman laughed as she spoke.

"Then why didn't Bao Chang Li leave?"

"Li Baochang is in the horse business, the grassland in the back mountain of the village is good, and his hundreds of horses are raised there, how can he be willing to leave."

"But if the plague spreads, he will be dead." Chongsheng said, and suddenly heard a shout that shook the mountain.

"What's that sound?" Chongsheng listened attentively.

The voice grew from far to near, and gradually became clear: "Catch the drought!" "The village was beating gongs and drums.

Hearing the shouts, the woman looked alarmed.

"Dry, what's that?" Chongsheng looked at the woman and asked.

"I, I don't know." The panic in the woman's eyes could not be concealed.

"Brother." The boy who was eating the potato on the side said something inexplicably, and the woman quickly covered the boy's mouth.