However, calling her an old lady is not quite accurate. She is probably only in her forties or fifties, which is the age of a middle-aged woman in modern times. It's just that her eyes are particularly old, as if she has experienced the vicissitudes of life. Unlike the other villagers who are dressed simply, she is wearing an exceptionally gorgeous kimono.
However, it doesn't seem quite accurate to call it gorgeous. It's just that the kimono is embroidered with intricate and mysterious totems.
She looked at the person outside the door with her weathered eyes and asked in a deep voice, "Who is coming?"
Xue Junli replied, "We are just a few passersby. It's getting dark and the journey is difficult. Could you please allow us to stay here for a night?"
The female elder stared at Xue Junli for a long while before slowly replying, "Please leave. Outsiders are not welcome in Baigui Village."
Xue Junli naturally wouldn't be dismissed so easily. He frowned and pretended to be distressed, saying, "It's so dark now, and this area is so desolate, we don't know if there are any wild animals. We just heard wolves howling on the way here, and we're really worried about our lives, so we want to find a place to stay temporarily. We can guarantee that we are definitely not bad people. Can you reconsider?"
The elder woman repeated, "Don't think about it. Outsiders are not welcome in Baigui Village. Please leave."
Her attitude was so resolute and hostile that the villagers around her raised their weapons in a demonstrative manner, which were basically hoes used for plowing the land.
Xiao Tangqiu didn't expect that they would encounter such a tough bone to chew. This village chief-like figure simply wouldn't move... Is it really that they can only force their way in?
Looking at the villagers behind the wooden door, whose eyes were filled with hostility but whose bodies were emaciated from years of hunger, Xiao Tangqiu suddenly had an idea. He walked up to the door and said, "Of course we won't stay here for free. In fact, we are grain merchants. We have some grain on hand, and we are willing to trade it for the opportunity to stay here for one night."
As soon as he finished speaking, as expected, the villagers inside the wooden door began to look hesitant. They looked at each other for a while, then whispered to each other, and finally gathered in front of the female elder and started discussing in whispers.
After a while, the villagers dispersed again. The female elder walked to the wooden door and looked at Xiao Tangqiu coldly: "You said you have food, but is that true?"
"Of course it's true, I can't fool you." Xiao Tangqiu nodded.
The female elder said coldly: "Show us."
Xiao Tangqiu turned around and returned to Shen Yuan, pretending to take out a small bag of rice from behind Shen Yuan, but actually he took out a small bag of rice from his own space props.
The Reincarnation Team equipped each of them with space props that contained several bags of rice, canned instant food, and special props for quick heating, in case of emergency. They didn't expect that they would be used in such a way now.
Xiao Tangqiu returned to the iron gate and showed the bag of rice to the female elder.
The elder woman's eyes suddenly lit up, and her eyes flashed with greed and hunger. The villagers next to her also began to look green. Although the colorful plastic bag looked very strange to them, they still recognized the rice in the bag!
Rice! It's rice! It's food!
The villagers subconsciously stretched out their hands, trying to snatch the rice from Xiao Tangqiu's hands. Xiao Tangqiu quickly shrank back, and the villagers could only stretch their arms through the gap in the wooden door, just like the prisoners in the prison shouting "Let me out!"
At the critical moment, the elder woman shouted in a low, hoarse voice: "Enough!"
The villagers gradually calmed down, but their eyes were still green when they looked at Xiao Tangqiu, like hungry wolves staring at their prey, which was particularly terrifying.
The elder woman stared at Xiao Tangqiu for a while, then asked in a deep voice, "How much of this kind of food do you have left?"
Xiao Tangqiu raised the corners of his lips slightly, knowing that this deal was most likely done, so he replied in a deep voice: "Each of us will pay a bag of rice like this in exchange for the opportunity to stay in your Hundred Ghosts Village for one night."
There's more than one bag of rice! The elder woman's eyes also turned greedy: "No! Two bags per person!"
Xiao Tangqiu said calmly, "One bag per person for one night. If you stay another night, we'll pay another bag of rice."
The elder woman's eyes flickered in the flickering light of the torches in the villagers' hands.
After a moment, she looked at Xiao Tangqiu with her half-bright and half-dark face, her voice low and hoarse.
"Open the door!"
The big wooden door slowly opened, and Xiao Tangqiu and others were welcomed in by the villagers - but the word "welcome" was actually more like "monitoring".
The villagers' eyes were fixed on them. Although their gazes were still filled with vigilance and hostility, they seemed to have something more in them than before...
It was a gaze that could be described as a fierce look.
The elder woman's voice was low and hoarse: "Give us the food first..."
Xiao Tangqiu smiled and said, "We can give you a bag of food first as a deposit for tonight's accommodation... If we give you all the food now, what if you change your mind in the middle of the night and drive us out of the village?"
The female elder stared at Xiao Tangqiu for a while before she said in a deep voice, "Okay, come on, find them an empty room."
At the command of the female elder, several villagers immediately gathered around. One took the rice from Xiao Tangqiu's hand, and another nodded to indicate that he would lead the way.
Xiao Tangqiu exchanged a glance with the others and said, "Thank you for your help."
The man turned around and walked towards the end of the village. Xiao Tangqiu and the others followed him. As he walked, he quietly observed the villagers. Except for the few villagers who led the way, the other villagers stood motionless at the village gate. They watched Xiao Tangqiu and others leave, their expressions flickering in the flickering light of the torches, looking particularly inexplicable and weird.
It was not until the villagers completely disappeared from his sight that Xiao Tangqiu turned around and looked at the village. It was pitch dark last night and they could not see anything in the village at all. Now with the lighting of torches, he could barely see the situation in the village.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
