Chapter 15 Stealing Qin Xiangsong

Qi dragged the peasant woman to sit next to her without saying a word, acting as if she was determined to keep her.

"Nuannuan, your Third Aunt is just like that. Don't bother with her." Qin Wen saw Qin Xiangnuan's gloomy face and stepped out to smooth things over. "It's windy and rainy outside, so it's hard to chase her away. We have to set off again at dawn anyway, so we can go our separate ways. There won't be any more trouble. Just let her stay for one night."

Qin Xiangnuan sighed and looked at everyone in the general's mansion silently.

The Qin family was kindhearted and soft-hearted, unable to bear the sight of the people suffering. When they were in the capital, they would empty their warehouses and provide relief whenever there was a disaster. This was ingrained in them. Qin Xiangnuan knew that if she insisted, she would surely draw complaints from others, so she nodded and gave up.

The firewood made crackling sounds as it burned, and the flames shone on the person's face, flickering and making it impossible to see his expression.

Qi was chatting happily with the peasant woman, and Qin Xiangsong was sleeping soundly beside them.

In the second half of the night, because the bonfire in the house lacked oxygen, everyone was drowsy, squinting their eyes and dozing off against the corner of the wall.

Qin Xiangnuan stayed up for several nights, and finally couldn't help closing her eyes and taking a short nap.

The rain outside suddenly stopped, but a sharp scream was heard from inside the house.

"Song'er?! Where are you taking Song'er..." Qi's shouting woke Qin Xiangnuan. She opened her eyes to see the peasant woman carrying Qin Xiangsong on her shoulders, the baby boy in her arms, rushing towards the door. She was incredibly strong, probably stronger than an ordinary man. She shook off Qi's pull and bolted out the door, quickly disappearing.

Qi fell to the ground, her knees covered in blood, and she cried and slapped the ground.

This voice finally woke up everyone in the general's mansion. Qin Xiangnuan didn't have time to think, and directly grabbed Qin Feng and went out to look for someone.

When the officials saw that someone was missing, they were afraid that their superiors would find out and be implicated, so they ran out in the rain to look for him.

"What on earth is going on? Why did she take Brother Song away?"

Qin Feng asked breathlessly while running.

Qin Xiangnuan frowned, staring at the footprints left on the ground, analyzing the peasant woman's escape route, and ran towards the hill outside Cangliang Village, "Take her away? I'm afraid she's not going to steal her and eat her meat!"

"What?" Qin Feng stopped in shock. Seeing Qin Xiangnuan still running, he hurriedly caught up with her. "No way?"

Qin Xiangnuan recalled what had happened and finally remembered the details that had been overlooked.

There were several calluses on the palms of the peasant woman's hands, which were caused by people who held knives all year round. She had seen similar calluses on butchers who killed pigs before. She was not a poor woman who was powerless at all, but might be a murderer!

Qin Xiangsong is very dangerous.

"Over there!" Qin Xiangnuan and Qin Feng ran to the hillside and saw a thatched hut in the distance. They hurriedly said, "Adults, be careful!"

The officers followed closely behind, looked at each other, nodded, and rushed forward.

The officers kicked open the door of the thatched hut and rushed in, pressing all the people inside to the ground, including the peasant woman who had just left. Qin Xiangsong was frightened out of her wits, her clothes had been torn off, and she fell naked to the ground, with stains of dirt between her legs.

You can tell at a glance that he was so scared that he peed his pants.

Qin Feng hurriedly took off his coat and put it on Qin Xiangsong. After all, he was a child. After such a dangerous situation, seeing his relatives come to their senses, he hugged Qin Feng and burst into tears. Wiping his tears and snot, he pointed at the iron pot in front of him and said, "She, they said they wanted to boil me. They said that children are freshest when steamed or stewed, unlike adults who need to sprinkle seasonings and roast them."

"They also said...that I looked meaty and could be eaten for days."

Qin Xiangsong was so frightened that his face turned pale. He burped twice and still couldn't come back to his senses.

The peasant woman, pinned down by the officers, struggled to raise her head. Her strength was so great that two officers were required to watch over her. "How did you find your way here? If you were any later, just a little later, I would have killed him and eaten him!"

"How many people did you kill?"

Qin Xiangnuan stared at her, seeing the pile of bones next to the thatched hut and the blood-stained wooden table. She estimated that there were at least eight or nine, if not seven or eight. Qin Yi, Qin Wen, and the others arrived a little later. Seeing that Qin Xiangsong was alright, Qi rushed over and hugged him tightly, speechless.

Qin Wen walked in and looked around the room, looking in surprise at the figure that flashed by in the corner.

"village head?"

His voice startled Old Man Ge, who turned and tried to run. Qin Feng rushed over quickly, kicked open the small door hidden in the corner, and dragged Old Man Ge out. If it weren't for Qin Wen's good eyesight, he would have missed him.

"You...you are..."

Uncle San really couldn't imagine that the seemingly kind old man and the peasant woman were actually murderers, and he stuttered and couldn't speak.

Qin Xiangnuan looked at Old Man Ge and understood many things.

"Everyone in this village obeys your orders. If you see a suitable candidate, bring them to that courtyard and send her out to steal people, specifically children or trick weak people into leaving with her." Qin Xiangnuan speculated confidently, "If there are few people, she'll claim to be an orphan and beg someone to take her away. She's willing to be her concubine. Am I right?"

The peasant woman snorted coldly, turned her head and looked elsewhere without answering.

"Why would you do such a thing?" The chief constable, who had seen many murderers in the capital, but never such a scene, couldn't help but question. Old Man Ge's words struck a chord, his face etched with ferocity. He shouted, "How can we survive without cannibalism? We sent countless reports to the capital about the disaster, begging the higher-ups to intervene."

"But what do we get in return? Who will care about our lives?"

"The young and strong have all fled to the capital to make a living, leaving behind the old, weak, women, and children who can't go far, and some of the less capable ones, who can only wait to starve to death here!" Old Man Ge's eyes flashed with brilliance as he spoke frantically, "Everyone passing through here is a gift from God. We don't want to eat human flesh, but this is the only way to survive!"

In order to survive, he killed others.

Qin Xiangnuan shook her head in disdain at the perverse logic. Since Qin Xiangsong was fine, she didn't bother to deal with the follow-up and just handed it over to a few officials. She turned to leave when she heard the peasant woman behind her ask, "How did you know?"

"I thought I disguised myself very well and no one ever suspected me!"

She asked unwillingly, as if she regarded Qin Xiangnuan as an enemy and wanted to find an answer.