trial

Mingyu continued to search to see if there were any other relevant documents. The only ones left were some bills for over-budget medicine purchases, proving that the city lord had made efforts when the disease first spread.

But it is difficult to support the situation alone without any external assistance, and with the entire city under heavy load, no one knows what happened afterwards, leading to the current situation.

"At least we know that the city lord was solving the problem before he disappeared." Mingyu put away the bill in his hand and prepared to take it away later. He looked up and saw Yu Tongan looking at the reply letter in a daze.

"What are you thinking about?"

"What a huge mess it is." Yu Tongan sighed.

Mingyu fell silent. If the neighboring cities of Sulou County were ultimately unwilling to offer assistance...

There were no new clues here, so Yu Tongan picked up the lamp again: "Don't think about it, let's go."

However, the main task now is to investigate the main reasons for the current situation in Sulou County.

Mingyu put the document into his pocket and left the study.

The city lord's mansion is located at a high point in the entire city, and you can overlook the entire city as soon as you leave the mansion.

The lights were dim and a cold mountain wind blew in my face.

"Wait, look over there." Mingyu stretched out his hand to stop Yu Tongan from moving forward, and gestured for Yu Tongan to look at the faint light moving near the city.

Two or three spots of light were slowly moving towards the market stalls. Under the current circumstances, no one was out doing business, not to mention that it was already late at night.

"What are you doing?" Yu Tongan also saw it.

Finally, the light spot kept approaching the edge of the city, and finally climbed over the city wall, went out of the city, and disappeared into the mountains.

"Is there anything in the mountains?"

Mingyu and Yu Tongan looked at each other.

"Let's go and take a look?" Yu Tongan suggested first.

It was exactly what Mingyu wanted.

"Walk."

…

The city wall next to the market was surrounded by a pile of miscellaneous items, and carts and wooden boards were piled up randomly against the wall.

After searching for a while, I finally found a hole half a person's height behind the debris. I could just bend over and pass through it.

There was a patch of grass outside, which just covered the entrance of this remote cave from the outside.

After helping the bigger Yu Tongan to squeeze through the hole, Mingyu squatted down and carefully identified the traces of the grass being pressed down.

"This way."

Thanks to the warm climate in this area, the grass did not disappear completely even in winter, which made it convenient for them to find the way along the indentations.

There were lights flickering in the forest. Mingyu glanced at Yu Tongan, who understood and immediately blew out the candles. The two hid behind a tree to observe the person coming.

The two walked side by side, remaining silent. The atmosphere was a bit solemn. If you looked closely, you could see that one of them had red eyes.

"Brother, father won't..." As he said this, the man choked up.

The elder brother comforted his younger brother, but his words revealed a sense of powerlessness, and it seemed more like he was trying to convince himself.

"No. Mom is taking care of Dad, so he'll be fine."

My brother couldn't help sobbing.

"Don't cry." The elder brother took a deep breath to suppress the sourness in his nose, and whispered a few words to coax his younger brother who was still young in mind, and took him back to the city as soon as possible and not to be discovered.

After the two walked away, Mingyu lowered his voice and approached Yu Tongan.

"Follow? Or keep going forward?"

"Follow them. We can come back here later, but if we lose them, we'll need extra time to find these two brothers."

"Okay." Mingyu stood up and marked the tree with his sword. He turned around to look at the direction his brothers came from the forest, which was full of darkness.

It seems that the patient is in this forest.

…

I quietly followed the two brothers all the way to the city, and it turned out to be not far from where they lived, just around the corner.

Just as I saw the two men about to close the door and was about to go over to intercept them and ask what was going on, I saw several people rushing out from the corner of the street and heading straight for the yard rented by Yu Tongan.

Seeing that his home had been robbed, Mingyu was stunned for a second, then picked up his sword and rushed out.

Yu Tongan didn't react at all and thought Mingyu was going to look for the two brothers until he saw her running towards the corner of the street.

He really just left himself behind.

He had a general idea of ​​who had broken into their yard and was not too worried. He believed that Wu Ren and Wu Pi could deal with a few civilians who only had brute force.

Yu Tongan smiled silently, glanced at the two brothers who had already entered, and quickly followed the direction Mingyu left.

It’s the same question again, what would happen if a few outsiders with a lot of supplies came to a place where supplies were scarce?

The answer is that they will be looked down upon and snatched away by everyone.

Mingyu knocked a man unconscious with the hilt of his sword from behind.

There were five or six gangsters. One of them fell to the ground and the others reacted immediately. They wanted to kill Mingyu who attacked from behind, but they were pounced on by Wu Ren who was on guard.

Together with Wu Pi and Yu Yao who came after hearing the noise, they quickly subdued the six people.

"Where is the young master?" Wu Ren had just finished speaking when he saw Yu Tongan walking out of the darkness with an extinguished lantern.

"Here." Yu Tongan handed the lantern to Yu Yao.

"What about that?" Mingyu responded, putting away his sword.

"How could you leave the young master behind?" Wu Ren tied the gangster's hands and tightened them hard, as if the man under his command was Mingyu.

Mingyu glanced at Yu Tongan. Yu Tongan didn't look angry. Ben was observing the gangster and turned his head to curiously see what Mingyu had to say.

"How can this be called falling? This is called clearing the way for you, clearing the way for you. Imagine if you came here surrounded by swords and knives, what would happen if you got hurt?"

"They are just a few ordinary people, how could they possibly hurt you?"

"Be careful when doing things. Don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be prepared for the worst."

"Is the girl hurt?"

"No." Mingyu ignored Wu Ren's tantrums and responded to Xueliu's concern. He looked at Yu Tongan and asked, "Did you ask them to keep watch today just to prevent this?"

Yu Tongan didn't deny it: "I'm just a little worried. I didn't expect it to happen so soon. It seems that there aren't many supplies left in the city."

Mingyu looked at the tied-up people, recalled the stares he received when he walked in the city today and the two brothers he had just met, and suddenly thought of something, and his heart skipped a beat.

"Yu Tongan, have we seen any old, weak, sick or disabled people today?"

The people present looked at each other.

"When we entered the mountain, we were told that no one was coming in or out of the road..." Wu Ren hesitated.

One reason may be that there was more food than originally ordered.

And the reason for the extra food is not only because people died from illness, but also because they not only drove out people with illnesses, but also drove out vulnerable groups and occupied their food and medicine?

"Yuyao, you came two days earlier than us. Have you seen him?" Yu Tongan turned and asked Yuyao.

Yuyao thought for a while and shook his head affirmatively.

"No."

…

The next day, Mingyu got up before dawn. Three meals a day for everyone here were prepared by Xueliu and Yuyao, mainly Xueliu.

When Mingyu arrived, the others had just arrived at the main hall. There were some things that needed to be dealt with early. Someone had already broken into their yard, and there would only be more to come.

After swallowing the bread in his mouth, Mingyu asked, "Shall we go to the courtyard for interrogation first?"

"Well, I'll go find those two brothers later."

When they arrived at the yard, the tied-up criminals were woken up one by one.

Yu Tongan looked at them and said, "Who is the boss?"

The two of them unconsciously looked at the person next to them.

Wu Ren deftly took the cloth off the man's mouth. The man moved his jaw and glared at Mingyu.

Although he was the leader, he walked to the end and was knocked unconscious by Mingyu first. Now he was attacking Mingyu fiercely.

"Humph, you bitch, you're still showing off." The man spat, "In a few days, you won't even know where you're going to die."

Mingyu just found it funny that everyone in the room was picking on her to take their anger out on.

The man looked at Mingyu with a ferocious expression. He looked him up and down and said in a condescending tone, "I urge you to hand over all your food and water and beg me to let you go. Perhaps I can still protect you."

Those who didn’t know would think that the people who were tied up were Mingyu and the others.

Yu Tongan frowned and stood in front of Mingyu to block the other party's malicious gaze.

Mingyu looked back, found the stick beside him, pushed Yu Tongan away, and hit him hard.

"Of course I beg you." He hit the other man on the back with the stick again, "I beg you not to die."

After hitting him with the stick a few times and seeing that the other person's eyes had become a little gentler, he handed the stick to Wu Pi.

"I ask questions and you answer them."

The other person's face was distorted with pain, but after hearing this, he straightened his back as much as possible and said, "Who do you think you are, bitch? I should cooperate with you obediently? Are you dreaming?"

"You really don't understand. There's no government here, and the disease is spreading. If I kill you, I'll kill you." Mingyu glanced at the other five people. "If you die, there are still them. If I beat them one by one, they will eventually cooperate before everyone is killed."

"You think I'll be fooled?"

Mingyu sighed.

"Wu Ren. Drag him out the door and beat him." Mingyu instructed, "Start with his hands and feet, breaking them up bit by bit, then move on to his buttocks, little by little, until he stops breathing."

Wu Ren glanced at Yu Tongan, who didn't say anything and hesitated a little: "Are you really taking it long?"

"Drag it to the door, that's the best. That way no one will dare to come and steal our things."

Wu Ren gritted his teeth, stood up, and dragged the frightened gangster leader, whose face turned pale, two steps outside.

Finally, the other party couldn't help but yell, "Ask! Ask!"

There was some hesitation on Mingyu's face.

"Oh, but I don't really like you and don't really want to talk to you." Mingyu chuckled and gestured towards Wu Ren, signaling him to continue dragging him out. "It's better to find someone else."

"Please don't! I don't want to die!"

Seeing the other person crying and the other five people also looking pale, Mingyu felt that it was enough and spoke.

"Okay, I'll give you a chance. Let's have a good 'chat'."

Mingyu glanced around, feeling a bit disappointed at the lack of chairs. He leaned against the wall and asked, "Where have the elderly, the sick, and the vulnerable in the city gone? What's the current situation in the city?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the room became a little tense. The other person had tears and snot on his face, but his eyes were a little evasive.

Mingyu sighed and stood up straight.

"I'll tell you!" the gang leader lowered his head. "There's not enough food in the city, and then the neighboring city won't let us get close to buy food, saying we'll make them sick."

As he spoke, he spitted out a mouthful of disgust, looked up at Mingyu's expression, and continued, "Then the old people in the city offered to leave the city and leave food for us. The others agreed, and they left just like that."