The door was shut behind them as they were taken into the village chief’s house. In the courtyard, grapevines and fruit trees were hung with dark red lanterns, their dim light distorting faces into something sinister.
The large pot they had seen in the kitchen had now been moved into the courtyard. The black iron cauldron—over a meter in diameter—gurgled and bubbled, steam rising continuously. Villagers each held shiny iron basins, standing around it in anticipation.
In the middle of the night, a group of people were not sleeping but gathered around a pot, waiting for hot water?
Heh. It was definitely not that simple.
The village chief they had met two hours earlier was now sitting in a redwood chair, happily gnawing on a meat bone, grease all over his mouth.
If the evening tea had been elegant, then this was outright vulgar.
Li Ge and Xi Zhou had their hands tied as Qin Yi and the others brought them before the village chief.
The chief glanced at the boiling water in the pot. “Why are you back so early today?”
Qin Yi suddenly dropped to his knees, pleading. “Village chief, two people came from my family—please let Yongzi go home.”
“Alright. You can take Yongzi back later. Just make sure he stays home and doesn’t go out.”
The village chief agreed readily.
“Brother, what nonsense are you talking about? Yongzi is already beyond saving. Why bother with him?” Qin Bo said impatiently, smacking Qin Yi on the head.
“You’re talking nonsense! If something happens to Yongzi, how do we face our dead parents?”
Qin Bo ignored him completely and spoke directly to the village chief. “Village chief, don’t listen to my brother. Keep Yongzi here. Skip my family in the next round.”
After arguing back and forth, they ultimately followed Qin Bo’s suggestion. Li Ge, still bound, watched as they completed their “transaction.”
And the “goods” in this deal… seemed to be her and Xi Zhou.
Heh. A village chief whose home had become a bandit’s den—it was nothing more than a reflection of a collapsing social order.
She quietly glanced at Xi Zhou beside her. The big shot stood there indifferently, completely detached as if it had nothing to do with him.
Li Ge nudged him with her chin. Qin Bo immediately noticed and shot them a gleeful glare.
“Just accept your fate. No talking, no shouting.”
Tch. When had they ever made noise?
The village chief seemed to notice something odd. Unlike the people they had captured before, these two were not crying, shouting, or begging for mercy. There wasn’t even a trace of panic on their faces.
He looked at them with curiosity. “You’re not afraid?”
Nonsense. Was fear useful?
Under the cover of night, Li Ge quietly used a knife behind her back to cut the rope bit by bit.
The hemp rope was thick, and she was weak from earlier—she needed time. Hopefully it would be enough.
Xi Zhou shifted his gaze away from the water vat, his tone unreadable. “It’s already too late to be afraid. Might as well accept it.”
“You’ve got guts. Too bad that doesn’t work anymore. You’ve got three days. Cry all you want—cry before you die.”
Xi Zhou tilted his head slightly. “You want to kill us?”
“You’re already dead. No need for me to act. See that water in the vat? Anyone who drinks it for three days is done for.”
The village chief put down his bone, wiped his mouth, and stood up, looking down at Xi Zhou from above. The stench from his mouth was noticeable even from afar.
Li Ge frowned, a bad feeling rising in her chest.
“Is that so?”
The man suddenly let out a low laugh. His voice was cold, rising from deep in his throat, and in an instant, frost seemed to cover his striking face.
So he was angry.
Since someone kept talking, Li Ge sped up cutting the rope. Only one-third remained when she suddenly stopped.
“Take them to the backyard and lock them up. They’ll behave after three days of drinking water. Break their legs if they resist.”
The village chief waved his hand. Several men dragged them to the back courtyard.
What they called a “backyard” was actually just a hole smashed through the wall between two houses. Whether it had ever been two separate homes was questionable.
It was a three-story building. On the first floor, each room had a guard standing outside. They were taken to the third floor, and after the door was locked, someone was also left outside.
After cutting the rope, Li Ge flexed her sore wrists. The red marks were glaringly obvious.
“This courtyard has just over ten people, and more than forty in total including the other place. With your ability, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Flames burned through the rope. The man’s silhouette flickered in the firelight. “Mm. Killing them would be easy.”
More than forty people—some of them likely ability users—yet he said it so lightly. Li Ge didn’t doubt him.
“No need. They won’t stay on guard forever. We can go later and avoid trouble.”
A faint scent drifted into the room. Xi Zhou pulled over a chair and sat down.
“You’re surprisingly merciful. But you’re right—it’s not urgent. Why don’t we guess what they’re eating?”
How boring.
“Definitely not hot water.”
The man casually pulled open the curtain behind him. A thick, rich smell of meat immediately seeped through the gap.
Li Ge instinctively took a deep breath. In the next moment, she caught the faint curve at the corner of his lips—an unreadable expression.
“Meat.” It didn’t seem like he was waiting for her answer. He asked and answered himself, “They’re eating meat. My guess is they’ll eat there first, then use the basins in their hands to take some home.”
So the large pot in the courtyard might really be used for cooking meat—but where would they possibly get enough meat to feed thirty or forty people?
Something in her mind gradually became clear. Li Ge suddenly pulled the curtain shut, her expression turning extremely unpleasant as she went to open the door.
Just as her fingers touched the doorknob, a cold hand stopped her with force.
“Why are you stopping me?” Li Ge’s face turned cold. “You already knew, didn’t you?”
What “simple and honest villagers,” what “peaceful village”—it was all a façade. The apocalypse was just as cruel as she remembered.
Xi Zhou leaned lazily against the doorframe. “I’m a zombie, not a god. It was only a guess before. I only confirmed it after hearing what they said just now.”
There was no point discussing it now. Even though Li Ge considered herself selfish, she still couldn’t bring herself to do something so inhumane.
“So we’ve become their emergency food supply?” she said, barely suppressing her anger.
“If you want to know, just ask them yourself.”
As soon as he said that, Xi Zhou—who had just been stopping her from opening the door—casually pulled it open instead.
The man guarding outside was yanked straight into the room by the force, not even managing to cry for help.
“You—you two?”
His hands trembled as he widened his eyes, pointing at them. Instinctively, he was about to shout.
A piece of torn cloth from who-knows-where was shoved into his mouth, and in the next second, a gleaming knife pressed against his neck.
“If you dare make a sound, I’ll cut you down,” the girl said flatly.
Seeing that his opponent was just a weak-looking girl, the man swung his fist without hesitation.
His wrist bone shattered instantly. A piercing scream was forced back into his throat by the cloth, and a streak of blood appeared on his neck where the blade pressed.
Xi Zhou and Li Ge moved almost at the same time. The man writhed in pain, eyes rolling back—but he quickly stopped struggling and went still.