“Is the Advanced Zone better?”
“The Examiners in the Advanced Zone have better taste, not like the Primary Zone with its moral tales and brain-dead mini-Games…” Chu Tianshu frowned, “Ah, I miss the Advanced Zone where I could solve all Instances with brute force…”
Before Lin Huai could retort, the street suddenly fell silent.
All the villagers who had been gossiping shut their mouths and turned their gaze in the same direction. Curious, Lin Huai and Chu Tian also looked over.
At the entrance of the alley, a tall, thin boy appeared, catching everyone’s attention. His hair was long, seemingly uncut for a while, and his frail body exuded a sickly aura. The boy kept his head down, clutching a bundle, and quickly walked down the street. As he passed, everyone stepped back, as if afraid to catch his misfortune.
Perhaps everyone has experienced this at some point: when you unintentionally enter a lively, noisy place, and the chatter suddenly stops because of your arrival. This deathly silence is even more unsettling than whispers.
In this eerie silence, the boy walked through the street. As he passed a corner, a woman rushed out.
“Monster! Trash!” she screamed, “Get out of the village!”
With that, she hurled a handful of rotten vegetables at the boy, who couldn’t dodge in time and was hit squarely in the face.
Lin Huai recognized her face—she was the woman who had fainted crying at the grave the first day.
After pelting the boy with rotten vegetables, the woman still wasn’t satisfied. She rushed forward and shoved Ren Qiu to the ground. The contents of his bag spilled out—a few potatoes and some vegetables rolled across the ground.
Faced with the woman’s kicks and punches, Ren Qiu neither fought back nor spoke. He just curled up, trying to protect himself from further harm. Dozens of villagers stood on the street, witnessing the scene, but no one stepped in to stop it.
Finally, the woman tired herself out. Panting heavily, she spat and turned back to her yard.
The onlookers gradually dispersed, each returning home. A few quick-witted ones quietly picked up the items that had rolled to their feet and left. Ren Qiu slowly got up, dusted himself off, and began picking up the fallen items.
Eventually, he made his way to Lin Huai.
A potato rolled to Lin Huai’s feet, and he picked it up, brushing it off. Ren Qiu watched his actions nervously, muttering, “I…”
Just as Chu Tianshu thought Lin Huai would return the potato to Ren Qiu, Lin Huai curled his lip and said in a disdainful tone, “What kind of rotten potato is this? It’s moldy. Is this even edible?”
With that, he casually tossed the potato into the distance.
Witnessing this, Ren Qiu: “…”
He lowered his head and turned to leave, but his path was blocked by a foot. When he looked up, he saw a handsome young man looking down at him. In the sunset’s glow, half of the man’s face was in shadow, the other half in light. The man said in a casual tone, “Hey, what’s in your bag? Let me see.”
Before Ren Qiu could respond, the bag was snatched from his hands.
After a rustling search, he heard Lin Huai’s disdainful voice, “This fruit is bruised, throw it away. This bunch of greens is wilted, throw it away. This sweet potato is brown, throw it away…”
Chu Tianshu chimed in, “…Sweet potatoes are supposed to be brown.”
After emptying the bag, Lin Huai shook it out and tossed it back to the stunned Ren Qiu, clapping his hands, “Hey,” he said in a cheerful tone, “Want to eat something good?”
“Huh?”
Ren Qiu, with a hand on his shoulder, was completely at a loss.
He had never expected to be treated like this. No questions about his sister, no veiled insults about himself. Throwing away the potato wasn’t to humiliate him, but to…
Eat something good?
Then he heard Lin Huai’s voice, “Come on, let’s get some food from the village brothers.”
With that, he boldly led Ren Qiu through the street, heading straight for the houses where the items had been taken.
At the first house, Lin Huai knocked on the door, “Uncle, you dropped something.”
Half a minute later, a middle-aged man with a sharp face opened the door. He looked at Lin Huai, confused, “What did I drop?”
Lin Huai grinned, “Your conscience.”
Then he pushed the door open and marched in with Ren Qiu. The middle-aged man, unable to stop them, shouted angrily, “Get out, get out! Who the hell are you, bringing this jinx into my house…”
Ignoring the man’s curses, Lin Huai scanned the yard. The man’s family had come out of the house, standing under the eaves, watching them warily. Without much effort, Lin Huai spotted the corn the man had secretly taken, sitting on the table.
“You have so much food at home, yet you still take from a child. Shameless,” Lin Huai said disdainfully. Then he turned to Ren Qiu, “See anything you want to eat here? Take whatever you like.”
Ren Qiu: “I…”
He looked completely stunned. When Lin Huai threw away the potato, stopped him, and emptied his bag, he thought it was the start of another round of bullying.
But instead…
Seeing Ren Qiu hesitate, Lin Huai walked over to the chicken coop in the corner, grabbed the most spirited hen, and asked while holding it by the neck, “Want some chicken?”
Ren Qiu: “…”
“No answer means yes,” Lin Huai said, “I could go for some chicken soup too…”
With that, he knocked the hen unconscious. Swinging the lifeless chicken, he turned to the middle-aged man, who was being held back by Chu Tianshu, “This hen seems overheated, not lively anymore. I’ll take care of it for you. How about we make… hm, stewed hen?”
After looting the house, Lin Huai left with the hen and a bag of bamboo fungus.
Of course, he didn’t forget to leave the corn the man had taken. After all, he wasn’t a villain who robbed houses, but a sincere player who believed in fair exchange.
The door of the second house wasn’t as easy to open. Perhaps having witnessed the fate of the first house, this family had firmly closed their door. Lin Huai frowned, handed the unconscious hen to Ren Qiu, and rolled up his sleeves, “Step aside.”
Then he was about to kick the door open when Chu Tianshu stopped him, “Don’t be so violent.”
Lin Huai: “Huh?”
“Use tools,” Chu Tianshu said seriously, pulling out a chainsaw from his bag.
At the second house, they looted sweet corn, tomatoes, oranges, and other fresh fruits and vegetables. Before leaving, Lin Huai noticed the family’s suppressed anger and asked, “You seem to have a lot to say?”
The family, eyeing the chainsaw in Chu Tianshu’s hand, swallowed hard, “No…”
“Thought so,” Lin Huai patted their shoulders, smiling, “We’re all neighbors, should help each other out. Thanks for the voluntary hospitality.”
At the third house, they got more corn, dried goods, and a fat rabbit… After looting the fifth house, Ren Qiu finally stammered from behind, “Enough, enough, I can’t carry any more.”
Lin Huai regretfully glanced at the trembling pig in the sty, but considering the difficulty of driving it, he decided to leave it. Seeing Ren Qiu and Chu Tian outside, he stopped at the door and said, “I forgot something, you two go ahead, I’ll catch up.”
With that, he closed the door, leaving the two outside to exchange puzzled looks.
“What’s he…” Ren Qiu looked to Chu Tianshu for help.
The response was a warm hand on his shoulder.
“Let’s wait here, he always has some trick up his sleeve,” Chu Tianshu said lightly, “Don’t worry, we’re reasonable people, we won’t cause any deaths.”
Ren Qiu: …I’m worried they’ll cause your deaths.
Lin Huai returned to the third house, where the family was on the phone, seemingly furious. He glanced at the house’s decor, confirming this family was one of the more affluent and influential in the village.
Seeing Lin Huai return alone, the family stood up. The man at the front roared, “You dare come back, you…”
“Had to come back,” Lin Huai smiled casually, “I dropped something.”
Then, to their stunned silence, a head fell to the ground with a thud. Lin Huai asked, “Have you seen my head?”
After ensuring the family was too terrified to cause trouble for the Ren family, Lin Huai rejoined the group. The three returned with their spoils. Passing the house of the woman who had beaten Ren Qiu, Lin Huai said, “Hold on.”
Then he turned to Ren Qiu, “What exactly was the deal between your sister and that Liu Quan?”
Ren Qiu walked ahead, lips sealed. Lin Huai casually remarked, “Was your sister his mistress? But she’s dead now, and this family still has no grace…”
“Lin Huai!” Chu Tianshu scolded.
“My sister, my sister…” Ren Qiu lowered his head, finally looking up with red eyes, “My sister wasn’t like that!”
As he spoke, Lin Huai suddenly felt an intense chill, as if a dangerous predator had locked its eyes on him. Lin Huai shrugged, deliberately provoking, “It’s no use telling me, that’s what everyone says. They also say your family was ungrateful, took the village’s help, won the lottery, but didn’t repay the villagers. Instead, you opened a shoddy flour mill to exploit them. And your sister, she didn’t behave well either, hooking up with men in the city, and still hooking up with men when she returned to the village…”
