at the same time.

Xie Jinyu and the others stared dumbfounded at the man who was hanging upside down with his hands tied around his neck, and were so shocked by what was written on the sign that their jaws almost dropped.

He said his name was Yamamura Honro

He said his name was Tsuno Atomu.

He said his name was Dong Ming.

《……》

《……》

They lowered the man down again and tied him up. The soldiers, all with identical bruises, broken arms and legs, and holding guns with wary expressions, looked at each other speechlessly.

Who was this powerful person who did this?

"Isn't Xiao Yue's team clearing gold mines on the next mountain? Could they know what's happening here?"

"What do they know? Apart from the dozen or so people on guard duty, the rest have all gone down into the mine, and they're not even close by. What could they possibly know?"

Xie Jinyu carefully observed the traces around her, and the more she looked, the stranger her expression became.

Besides the messy footprints, there were also crawling marks on the ground, which looked like the tracks of snakes or other crawling animals.

Thinking of this, Xie Jinyu looked at the vines binding these people with her clear, phoenix-shaped eyes, a thoughtful look flashing across them.

Having crippled both of them, Gu Zuozuo bent down and darted into the nearby cave entrance. She flew over without touching the ground, and just as she was about to fly out of the cave, the flying board hidden outside the cave appeared. As she jumped on it, it carried her up a height and quickly retreated.

She had barely left when Xie Jinyu arrived. Seeing the two human figures hanging there, he wasn't surprised at all.

However, this time is different.

One of the dolls didn't have a tag on it, but had a long piece of paper pasted on it, covered with dense writing, but it looked like it was printed out.

"Go and inform the division that something terrible has happened! Drive there yourself; don't call or send a telegram!"

Looking at the dense list of names and information, even the usually calm and cold-blooded Xie Jinyu couldn't help but change his expression. If this were true, the entire officialdom across the country would probably be plundered several times over, and who knows how many more people would suffer. This matter was already too big for him to handle.

Having just returned to the educated youth settlement after going through a long detour and not even having a chance to catch my breath, I heard a commotion in the village, and faintly heard many cries.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

"Did a fight break out? I heard something happened in the village today, and a lot of soldiers came."

People from the educated youth settlement popped their heads out, craning their necks to look in the direction of the village.

"Let's go! Let's go take a look!"

When Zhu Xiaoxiao saw Gu Zuozuo leave the house, she grabbed her hand and ran towards the village. Gu Zuozuo had been cooped up in the house all day and was about to get some fresh air, or she would rot away.

Gu Zuozuo didn't struggle and let her pull her out of the educated youth settlement.

"Sweetie? When did you two get back?!"

As soon as she arrived at the village entrance, Gu Zuozuo unexpectedly saw the two people who were holding their luggage and looking helpless, and ran over to them with delight.

When Meng Tian saw Gu Zuozuo, she breathed a long sigh of relief and quickly pulled her to her side.

"What's wrong, Mengmeng? Are you crying?"

Meng Tian sighed helplessly and pulled Gu Zuozuo, who was on the verge of exploding with anger.

“No one bullied her. She was made to cry by the aunties in the village. She cried because she saw them crying.”

"I... I'm easily moved to tears. Seeing them crying like that, I couldn't hold back..."

Gu Zuozuo turned to look at the people crying in the wheat field, wondering what serious thing had happened.

The wheat field in Malutun is used to dry wheat, beans, and millet during the busy farming season. When it's not busy, it's only used for holding large meetings or eating communal meals. The five wild boars we had last time were slaughtered here and used to make a pig-slaughtering feast.

Because of the heavy snow, very few people come here in winter, except for children who like to ski. Today is the busiest day here, and it is estimated that almost everyone in the village has come.

"What's wrong with them? Why are they crying like that? Did someone in their family pass away?"