Evening had arrived, and the village of Golden Leaf slowly slipped into darkness. And only the flames in the Qiao family's compound are bright.

The torches crackled with fire, and the dim light of the fire shimmered against the grim faces of the villagers. Nearly 80 people gathered in the courtyard, which was the only remaining villager in Jinye Village.

They formed a big circle facing Qiao Ye's house, and Qiao Ye stood on the steps in front of the house, his hands on his hips, and his eyes looked coldly into the circle.

Two handfuls of firewood were piled up in the circle, and two wooden pillars were erected in the middle of the firewood pile, on which Ah Fang and Lu Xiaoyi were tied respectively.

Lu Xiaoyi's face was lifeless, her eyelids drooped, her eyeliner had been spent, and black traces flowed down the teardrops. The long hair that was smooth and shiny before was also messily draped on his face at this time. The helpless struggle and hoarse cries for help have exhausted Lu Xiaoyi, and now she is only left with despair, waiting for death to come, it is so quiet and sudden.

And Ah Fang on the side was indeed smiling stupidly, looking up at the shadowy crowd below. The firelight shimmered with an eerie glow in her black pupils.

Qiao Ye closed his eyes and recalled the scene of the harvest and abundance in the village before. As the sun sets, dandelions flutter peacefully with the breeze, and people laugh and laugh in the golden wheat fields. A small stream is babbling with crystal clear mountain springs, the fragrance of flowers everywhere, and the livestock everywhere. The chirping of frogs and cicadas seemed so casual in this dusk, and as a line of geese flew by before the rising day, Qiao Ye slowly opened his eyes, and unconsciously a line of tears flowed down.

Now that my wife is gone, my son is gone, and there is only a group of villagers in front of me. Among them, there are young and old, and most of them have not yet recovered from the pain of their loved ones. An old woman was holding her baby in her arms, tears already drying on her old, wrinkled face. No one wants to think about what happened to the child's parents, because death is commonplace in this hellish village.

In this isolated and distant village, it is almost forgotten by the world. The villagers who chose to stay were not at all envious of the people who had fled before, because they knew that on the way to escape, there was no traffic, there was no human population within a radius of hundreds of miles, and they might need to walk through a jungle full of poisonous insects and beasts, and they might need to climb dangerous poor mountains and rivers, and if they couldn't find food on the road, they would end up staying in the village.

What's more, all the people here have lived in the village for generations, and the attachment to this village is incomprehensible to others, and most people would rather starve to death at home than risk the wilderness of corpses. As the leader of the village, Qiao Ye is even more pathologically paranoid about this place.

In a situation where he could not do anything, he pinned all his hopes on this solution. He opened his arms and shouted to the few dozen people left in the village: "Everyone present, including me, is suffering from the loss of their loved ones!" Disaster struck our hometown a few years ago, with streams drying up and crops dying. This has not happened to us in generations! But after a child was born that year! We've gotten worse and worse since that day, do you think it's just a coincidence?! ”

"And the person who gave birth to this child is her!" Qiao Ye pointed out his index finger angrily, and the spit star also followed the splash.

Ah Fang, who was tied to the pillar, smiled evilly and stared directly at Qiao Ye.

Ah Fang's sister, Xiufen, stood in the crowd and bowed her head powerlessly. At this time, she couldn't bear to continue looking, and quietly left the courtyard. Because of the guilt that has kept her living in the gloom lately, she has made a final effort. So far, I can only sigh that the fate of my sister and the child is not good.

Qiao Ye lowered his arm and turned his gaze to Lu Xiaoyi. "Recently, a few outsiders broke into the village, and they attacked and killed many of our compatriots! We caught one of the intruders today! There is no end to the road! And the evil woman Ah Fang also threw herself into the net and let us arrest it! Now let's put these two men to death who threaten the village! To comfort the souls in heaven! Return the prosperity of the village of Kaneba! ”

Qiao Ye said with a wave of his big hand, and a villager holding a torch next to the firewood nodded and gestured, and with a throw of his arm, the torch rotated a beautiful light trail in the dark mid-air.

In Lu Xiaoyi's desperate pupils, the light of the torch got closer and closer. She slowly closed her eyes, and the glamorous and happy fragments of the past swirled in her mind.

It turns out that experiencing death is what it feels like... All kinds of love and vanity in the past, and people who have been hurt by their own deception, flashed one by one at this moment. The admiring eyes of women, the admiring eyes of men, those times when they wore gold and silver lights and wine and green seemed so insignificant at the moment of death. I used to think that money could solve everything, until in this village, that despair and powerlessness completely shattered all ridiculous misconceptions.

Try to recall the appearance of my father, that familiar face, but at the moment I can't make it clear in my mind, only a black figure sitting in the office chair. More clips are of arguments, with broken bottles and cans on the floor.

Before she died, she could not recall the faces of the people she loved the most, and she regretted that she had spent her previous days with her father in vexatious quarrels. Her father is her only relative, and he is also the one who dotes on her the most. Perhaps also the person she hurt the most.

Father... Daughter, I'm sorry for you...

Lu Xiaoyi's last tear crossed between her eyelashes.

"Poof!"

Flames rose from the torches.

It's just that it didn't burn in the pyre at Lu Xiaoyi's feet.

Lu Xiaoyi opened his eyes and found that the torch had been imprisoned by a short-handled axe on the trunk of a tree in the courtyard. Just as the torch was thrown into the air, a sudden axe intercepted it.

The villagers looked around in astonishment, only to see three figures standing at the gate of the courtyard.

Qiao Ye squinted, and two of them were actually young people who had appeared in his courtyard before. The villagers who had fought Applejack before and fled looked at the faint light of the fire, recognized it and shouted, "That person is the one who killed several of our brothers!" ”

"Hahahaha!" Qiao Ye suddenly laughed, his expression suddenly sank again, and he said with a fierce gaze: "It's just in time!" All self-defeating! Good! Good! Burn them all to death tonight! ”

Jia Shengtao, cold, and Ajie faced the villagers who gradually surrounded them, and their backs slowly leaned together. Nervous sweat dripped from Jia Shengtao's forehead, there was originally a plan, several people divided labor to rescue, Ajie was responsible for attracting the attention of all the villagers, and then he and Leng Jue found a chance to save Lu Xiaoyi, but the plan couldn't catch up with the changes, I didn't expect Qiao Ye to order them to be burned so quickly, so that Ajie didn't have time to think about it at all, so he made a move.

But there is no way to do it, if you take a step slowly, Lu Xiaoyi will already be buried in the fire. But now, although she has temporarily saved her life, it is difficult to protect herself now.

Leng Jue pursed his lips and looked around at the villagers holding weapons, and spread his hands helplessly. "We don't have a plan for this scenario yet, right?"

Lu Xiaoyi, who was tied to the pyre, saw that it was Applejack, and hope rekindled in her eyes, and at this time, Applejack also cast a resolute and affirmative gaze.

"What else is planned?! One way now! Fight your way out! Applejack growled as she pulled out the knife she had prepared at her waist.

When Jia Shengtao heard this, most of the hope in his heart was extinguished, not to mention whether he could cope with the enemy unarmed, but after all, these villagers were also innocent and had no enmity with him, and they were all fresh lives, so how could they do it? And the number of villagers is simply overwhelming, and now I regret following this impulsive Applejack. If there is hope, negotiating with the leading Qiao Ye is the only way out.

Qiao Ye didn't give a chance at all, and continued to encourage people's hearts from a high point, "Everyone don't have to be soft!" Kill these people directly! Your relatives are dead at their hands! Raise your weapons! For our loved ones... Poof!! ”

A mouthful of blood suddenly spurted out of Qiao Ye's mouth, and while he was shouting, Qiao Ye felt a chill in his chest. His gaze shifted down to his chest, and he saw a steel knife piercing his ribs from behind, straight through his chest.

Qiao Ye looked at the blade sticking out of his chest in disbelief, and blood was still dripping downward. There was a suffocating feeling of pressure in the chest, and with each breath, I felt a hot current churning down my trachea and esophagus, and my nasal cavity was filled with the smell of blood.

Turning his neck behind him with difficulty, a terrifying face came into view.

A man with the hilt of a knife in his hand, his round eyes staring at him, was also looking at him at the moment.

The man's face was especially oozing under the firelight, the rotten flesh on his face exuded a foul smell, the tendons at the junction of the chin and cheekbones were faintly visible, and the upper and lower lips were almost none, revealing two rows of yellow teeth, like a skull hanging from rotten flesh.

The person could no longer see the existence of the expression, and the row of crooked teeth could not tell whether he was laughing or angry at the moment, only a pair of bloodshot and cloudy eyes stared straight at him.

"Hehehe, does Qiao Ye still remember me?" The Rotten Face let out a hoarse laugh, his upper and lower teeth colliding as he spoke.

Qiao Ye's eyes began to blur, "Yes... You?! Just saying two simple words was extremely difficult, and the blood in his throat made it difficult for him to make a sound.

"You.. Ahh Grunt... Not dead? ”

Without waiting for Qiao Ye to react more, the rotten face man sneered a few times behind him, and with the force of his hand, the entire steel knife also rotated in Qiao Ye's body.

"Poof!" A mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth again, and he only felt the organs in his chest wrapped around the blade, and his consciousness instantly seemed to sink into the abyss of the sea, and the whole person fell to the ground.

The villagers who were besieging Leng Jue and the others heard the movement and looked up the stairs of the house, and found that Qiao Ye was already lying on the ground at this time, with a knife stuck in his body, and a black figure behind him stood there motionless.

"Joe! Qiao Ye was killed! The two villagers next to the house witnessed what had just happened, and the villagers below were also stunned by the sudden situation.

Who is this person who assassinated Qiao Ye...?

Leng Jue and the others don't know why, at least now that they have the opportunity, Applejack slammed into the crowd and ran towards the pyre, but just as he arrived, a little girl with a crooked neck suddenly stood in front of her.

Applejack's terrifying look makes Applejack shudder, what the hell is going on... Is this a human or a ghost!? Then he looked at the figure next to Qiao Ye's corpse, and slowly walked down the steps, gradually illuminating his face as the fire approached.

Applejack instinctively took a step back, "Who are you?!" ”

I don't know when, the rope that tied Ah Fang had already been untied by the little girl, Ah Fang walked to the little girl with a sharp smile and put her arm on the girl's shoulder.

And the rotten-faced man who was slowly walking down the steps said slurred words from between his teeth:

"Everyone here! There was blood on his hands! All saddled with our family's debts! So, none of you can leave today, all! Division! Get! Die! ”

As soon as the words fell, the rotten face man took off a torch, and without looking at it, he swiped it hard, and the torch spun and hit the courtyard wall on one side, and then bounced on the pile of dead grass under the wall, and the flames rose instantly.