Chapter 62: Forget Worry Wine
The huge clock on the roof of the manor made a few ding-dong sounds, and Xie Liang and the others gradually woke up.
"Hmm... I had a really comfortable sleep." Xie Liang stretched.
It was already dusk, and the sky was filled with large orange-yellow clouds. "It's six o'clock, we have to go back." Xie Liang said, standing up.
Hong Guo stood up and dusted herself off. "I didn't do anything today. I feel really guilty."
She helped the still sleepy Long Qingye to stand up: "Brother Ye, do you want to come here tonight to see if there are any clues?"
Long Qingye yawned and said, "Let's go back first and gather at the old place."
People in the field gradually walked towards the manor. The sky darkened quickly, and soon the sun set below the distant mountains.
Xu He walked in front holding Xie Liang's hand.
Not long after they left, they heard several shouts from behind:
"Sister Hong! Brother Ye! Wait for us!"
"Sister Hong! Brother Ye!"
After a while, two acquaintances of Long Qingye and Hong Guo - Liu Hao and Zhang Minghui caught up with them.
They gradually caught up with Xie Liang and Xu He, and the group walked together, chatting intermittently.
Liu Hao said to Long Qingye: "Brother Ye, each of us is in a different group, this..."
Zhang Minghui: "Yes, Brother Ye, we searched every team's flower garden this afternoon, but couldn't find you. I wanted to ask you what to do about this."
Long Qingye asked, "What's the matter?"
"No way, Brother Ye, didn't you hear what that middle-aged man in a suit said? Only one of the four teams can pass the assessment of the manor. We are all in different groups. What should we do?" Zhang Minghui said.
Hong Guo interrupted and asked, "How are the flower gardens of each of your teams doing?"
Liu Hao stretched his sore shoulders and said, "It's the same old thing. There's a guy named Dai Tian on my team. He really thinks he's the boss and ordered me around all day. If they didn't outnumber me, I really want to kill him."
When Xie Liang heard Dai Tian's name, he leaned over and asked, "Dai Tian? What did he tell you to do?" He had the impression that Dai Tian looked gentle and courteous.
"Pulling weeds, catching insects on the flowers, loosening the soil, this kid has tried everything he can think of. He even plans to steal the tool buckets of the gardeners to see if they can be of use," said Zhang Minghui.
Long Qingye lowered his head and thought for a moment: "You two don't have to worry about the flower garden." After that, he murmured softly, "The gardener must know more or less about the questions in the assessment, so we should start from that aspect."
Liu Hao and Zhang Minghui only heard the first half of the sentence and said:
"We'll listen to you."
"Brother Ye, I will listen to you too."
Xie Liang seemed to know what he wanted to do and reminded him: "You can take action now. You have had enough sleep anyway."
"I did get enough sleep, but I'm not sure if it's too late. We have to gather to get our bread."
Xie Liang glanced at the pointer on the roof and said, "The bread was distributed at about seven o'clock last night, so twenty minutes is enough."
"What are you two talking about? I don't understand a word you say." Hong Guo asked Long Qingye.
Long Qingye said: "Nothing."
Xie Liang looked at him, and they both fell silent tacitly.
After walking for more than ten minutes, the group returned to the open space in front of the pear blossom fence.
"Everyone go back and get some bread first. This is our only source of food. We can't go without food forever." Hong Guo said to everyone.
Xie Liang felt hungry after hearing her say that. However, the bread was very hard. Last night, he and Long Qingye sat on the iron bed and gnawed it until their teeth almost fell out. In the end, they just soaked it in water to dissolve it before eating.
Zhang Minghui had been busy all day and was already starving. He wanted to go back and get some bread to fill his stomach. "Sister Hong, we'll be leaving first."
Liu Hao also agreed: "Sister Hong, Brother Ye, let's go first."
After a while, they walked away in different directions.
"Xiaoliang." Xu He called softly.
Xie Liang retracted his gaze upon hearing this and said to him, "Brother He, we plan to kidnap a gardener and take him back to ask questions about the assessment in three days. If possible, you two can also kidnap one and take him back to your place to ask questions. We will gather here after dark."
Xu He looked at him worriedly when he heard that.
Xie Liang patted Xu He's shoulder and said, "Don't worry. If you don't trust me, don't you trust Long Qingye? Besides, if you can't beat us, just run away."
"Okay, it's almost time." After saying this, Long Qingye pulled Xie Liang away without caring what Xu He thought.
Xie Liang and Long Qingye picked a lone gardener who looked easier to deal with.
Xie Liang took advantage of the gardener's unpreparedness and rushed forward to cover his mouth, while Long Qingye took a large boulder and knocked him unconscious.
The two men worked together to abduct the gardener to the dormitory, tied him up, and then went out to queue up for bread. They planned to come back after getting the bread, splash water on the gardener to wake him up, and then question him thoroughly.
"It gets dark so slowly here. It's still light at around seven o'clock." Xie Liang said as he opened the door of the dormitory.
"Tsk, there's not even a light." Long Qingye turned on the flashlight, dragged the captive gardener out from under the bed, grabbed half a bowl of water from the small table and poured it into the man's face, "Hey! Wake up!"
The gardener was splashed with water and slowly woke up.
Long Qingye pulled out the rag stuffed in his mouth and asked, "How long have you been here?"
The gardener looked confused and started struggling. Seeing him struggling, Long Qingye punched him and knocked him unconscious again.
Xie Liang: "No, how can you ask if you knocked him unconscious?"
"Who knew he was so weak?" Long Qingye said indifferently.
"You are using such force that you can even knock a cow away. Don't you see his physique?" Xie Liang shook his head speechlessly, took out the two loaves of bread and started eating with the water in the kettle.
“Is it really that delicious?”
"Even if it doesn't taste good, I can't not eat it."
The two of them sat on their respective iron beds and ate for a long time before finally finishing two palm-sized pieces of black hard bread.
Xie Liang raised the kettle in his hand and waved it towards Long Qingye: "Water, do you want to drink it?"
Long Qingye waved his hand with a look of disgust: "I can't drink anymore, I'm about to vomit..." He stood up from the iron bed and paced back and forth in the small room.
Seeing that he didn't drink it, Xie Liang poured the remaining water on the gardener's head.
When the gardener woke up, he looked panicked and about to scream. Xie Liang was quick to pick up the rag on the ground and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Don't scream, we'll just ask you a few questions." Xie Liang shook the gardener's shoulder and said softly.
The gardener was still struggling uncooperatively. Long Qingye squatted down beside him impatiently and said, "If you don't cooperate, I'll kill you and then tie you up with someone else."
He pulled a very thin steel wire from his sleeve and wrapped it around the gardener's neck. As the gardener struggled, the wire gradually cut into his flesh, causing blood to seep out. The gardener was so frightened by the pain that he dared not move.
Xie Liang tugged at Long Qingye’s sleeve: “Rude, let go.”
After Long Qingye withdrew, Xie Liang said to the gardener, "He's just like that. He doesn't have much patience. Don't be afraid. We'll ask a few questions and then let you go."
Seeing the gardener's eyes widen, Xie Liang continued, "If you agree, just blink."
After a while, the gardener slowly blinked a few times, and Xie Liang pulled the rag out of his mouth.
The gardener was still trembling with fear. Xie Liang patted his back and said, "Don't be afraid. We have no ill intentions. We just want to know how to pass the test."
After hearing this, the gardener seemed to remember something terrible and shivered, "They are all lies! You'd better leave quickly... the farther away the better... it's a hell on earth in there." After he said that, he fell to the ground and curled up in fear.
"What hell on earth?" Xie Liang patted the gardener on the back. "Don't be afraid. Tell us everything."
Xie Liang helped him up from the ground, and seeing that he was no longer struggling, he untied the rope on him.
The gardener stared at his untied hands, stunned for a moment, then whispered, "You were also tricked into coming here by a high-paying job offer, weren't you?"
"Uh..." Xie Liang's mind immediately turned, "Yes, the person who brought us here said the salary here is very high."
"That's all a lie. There's no village or shop here. Once you come here, you can't escape. Run away now before you are marked..." said the gardener dejectedly.
"What mark?" Long Qingye asked with a frown.
The gardener looked up at him when he heard this, as if he thought he was a bad guy and didn't want to pay any attention to him.
Xie Liang explained: "He's not a bad guy, he just wants to scare you. We just feel that this place is weird, so we thought of asking someone."
The gardener seemed to have heard it, but also seemed not to care.
He whispered, "There are many people like me in there, most of whom have already lost consciousness. They are addicted to the taste, and no one would hesitate to pay any price just to have a sip of that wine."
Xie Liang was confused: "What kind of wine?"
"If you drink too much of the wine made from morning dew and roses, you will gradually turn into a monster. A rose will appear on your waist, and you will gradually lose your human thoughts and become a complete supporter of flowers."
After saying that, he lifted up the clothes around his waist, revealing the bright and tempting rose around his waist.
Gardener: "Go away, there's nothing you want in there."
Xie Liang sighed: "My lover was tricked into going in..." His expression became sad as he spoke, "I came here to find her this time."
Seeing that he looked sad, the gardener told him everything he knew.
It turns out that this estate is famous for its rose wine "Forget Me Not".
The rose wine produced here is so delicious that you can't forget it from the first whiff. A sip of it is so addictive that it makes you forget all your worries and drift off to sleep. Many people would even spend their fortunes to buy it.
The price of a bottle of "Forget Worry" wine is equivalent to the family expenses of an ordinary person for ten or even twenty years. No one knows its secret recipe or where it comes from.
Until one day, when the gardener was traveling with a few of his companions, they accidentally found the recruitment information posted by this winery at the corner of an alley.
The salary was attractive, so they waited at the designated place according to the information, and soon someone brought them to the place.
After coming here, they realized that everything was fake.
Even before the test, many people were killed for violating the rules. On the day of the test, the flower garden their team was responsible for failed to bloom, but the gardener was lucky enough to answer the questions asked by the man in the suit correctly and passed the test.
Hearing this, Xie Liang asked: "What question is he asking?"
"Why are the flowers so red?" The gardener's voice was very soft.
Xie Liang couldn't help but repeat: "Why are the flowers so red?"
"Yeah." The gardener nodded. "I only passed by luck. The person in front of me answered incorrectly and was stabbed in the neck. His blood was all over the floor, and my shoes were stained red with his blood.
"I was so scared that I stared at the blood at my feet and didn't dare to look up... I kept saying 'blood... blood...' and then I was pulled to the other side where they had to pass through."
Xie Liang nodded and then asked, "Then why do you say it's hell on earth?"
The gardener glanced at Xie Liang and asked, "Can I have a drink of water?"
Upon hearing this, Xie Liang took out a bottle of water from the sink outside from his bag and handed it to the gardener.
After drinking the water, the gardener felt much more relaxed and began to tell his story.
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