Chapter 216 [VIP]
Chen Qingyan said wearily, "Let's go inside first and talk."
As the group entered the house, Li's heart pounded in her chest. "What on earth is going on?"
Chen Qingyan took a deep breath before explaining in detail.
They originally planned to continue their journey today, as everyone was eager to return to Jizhou as soon as possible. However, when they reached the vicinity of Linzhao, the soldiers traveling with them suggested finding a place to rest for a day before continuing their journey.
After days of traveling, everyone was exhausted. Since it was Lunar New Year's Eve, Chen Qingyan wanted to let everyone rest for a day. So they decided to find an inn and have a couple of cups of hot wine to warm themselves up.
The group then changed their route and went to a nearby town. When they entered the town and asked about inns, the passersby hesitated and were unwilling to tell them.
At first, everyone thought the townspeople were just shy and that's why they were so indifferent. Fortunately, the town wasn't big, and they found the only inn in less than fifteen minutes.
The innkeeper was quite old, and probably hadn't had any guests for a long time, so he was exceptionally hospitable and offered to help with the horses and luggage.
Chen Qingyan chatted with him for a few minutes and learned that the inn was run by his family. His two sons cooked in the kitchen, his son-in-law handled the accounting, and he and his wife were responsible for cleaning the rooms and greeting guests.
"Thank you for your trouble, sir. It's New Year's Eve today. Please cook some extra meat dumplings for these soldiers, cut a few pounds of the best mutton, and bring five pounds of good wine." Chen Qingyan took out a piece of silver from his pocket and handed it to him.
"Alright, alright, alright, please wait a moment, sir/madam, I'll go prepare it for you right away!"
While his subordinates went to tidy up their rooms, Chen Qingyan, having nothing else to do, strolled around the inn's lobby. Since there was a heater in the room, it wasn't cold.
A five- or six-year-old child, dressed in a drab gray cotton-padded jacket, was playing with a cat servant while sitting in the corner, his nose running.
The kitten was only a few months old, and its meows were so cute and innocent that Chen Qingyan couldn't help but walk over and ask, "Is this your cat owner?"
The child was startled when he heard the stranger speak. He picked up the kitten by the head and turned to run away, but Chen Qingyan stopped him and said, "You can't hold the cat like that, you'll kill it."
"This cat was going to die anyway," the little boy said innocently, sniffling.
Why?
"Dad told me I could only eat after I strangled it."
Chen Qingyan frowned slightly, thinking that the family was out of food and wanted to kill the cat for meat. "This cat is so small, it would be better to raise it to catch mice."
“I don’t want to kill either, but Dad says we have to kill to have food.” The child wiped his nose with his sleeve and suddenly revealed a chilling smile. “You’re the same.”
"You brat, what are you doing over there?" The innkeeper suddenly came over, grabbed the little grandson and took him away. "Don't listen to this child's nonsense. Is there anything else you need, sir?"
"Please boil a few more pots of water for me. I've been traveling for so long and haven't had a chance to take a shower. It's the New Year, so I can finally get clean."
"Alright, I'll go burn it for you right away."
After the shopkeeper left, Chen Qingyan was about to go back to his room to rest when he suddenly noticed what looked like half a cat's tail next to the stove. He went over and kicked it, and it was indeed a cat's tail. A strange feeling of disgust immediately rose in his heart.
Back in the room, Chen Ju and Chen Zhan were making the bed. "How long has it been since anyone lived in this room? Why does it smell so bad?"
Chen Zhandong said, "Perhaps it's because this place is in a remote location that few guests come here."
"That's so dirty. I don't know how long it's been since these bedding were washed."
"Alright, we'll only stay one day and leave tomorrow, so don't be too picky."
After making the beds, the two went to tidy up the other rooms. Chen Qingyan had requested a total of five guest rooms. He would stay in one room, Chen Ju and Chen Zhandong would stay in another, and the remaining soldiers would stay in twos per room.
Perhaps because the boy's strange behavior had aroused Chen Qingyan's suspicion, she wandered around the room.
Suddenly, he noticed many dark brown spots splattered on the corner of the wall, which looked like bloodstains that had dried for a long time. In the past, Chen Qingyan might not have noticed this, but ever since he experienced a war in Liangzhou, he had become very sensitive to blood, and those dried bloodstains on the city walls looked just like that.
He picked off a small amount with his fingernail, crushed it into powder, and smelled it. It had no odor and seemed to have been there for some time, so he couldn't be sure if it was blood. However, it made Chen Qingyan wary; this place might not be as safe as he had imagined.
He locked the door and went into the experimental field first. There was a lot of food laid out on the table beforehand, which should have been prepared for him by Aying. He decided to have a New Year's Eve dinner in the experimental field. The dumplings he made himself tasted the best; he could tell at a glance that they were filled by Aunt Chen.
After finishing his meal and leaving the experimental field, Chen Qingyan found that the inn's food was ready, but he didn't eat any more since he was full.
He planned to question the child he had just met again, feeling that the child seemed to know something. When he arrived at the parking area in the backyard, he saw an old woman washing clothes. Chen Qingyan went up to her and asked, "Grandma, are you still washing clothes on such a cold day?"
The old woman raised her head, gave him a sinister look, and didn't say anything. Chen Qingyan felt that this family was even more strange. He looked down and saw the clothes in the old woman's hand. His pupils suddenly contracted. The clothes were made of brocade!
Ordinary people couldn't afford this kind of fabric. I heard that a single bolt is worth several hundred taels of silver. When they were in Jizhou, Madam Qin gave them two bolts, but Aying hadn't been willing to use them and had kept them in the experimental fields. How could they possibly have brocade?!
There's something wrong with this inn!
Chen Qingyan hurried back to the lobby and called out to Chen Ju and Chen Zhandong, "Come in first, I have something to tell you."
The two put down their chopsticks and followed Chen Qingyan into the house. "I suspect this is a shady establishment. Go tell those soldiers to try not to eat here, and to be on their guard. If anything seems amiss, leave immediately!"
The two men nodded solemnly after hearing this. The master must have discovered something, so they naturally had no doubts. They quickly ran out and whispered it to the soldiers.
The soldiers laughed and didn't take the two men's words to heart at all. Not to mention that they outnumbered the innkeepers, the old and young in the inn were thinking of robbing and looting. They were just making a fool of themselves.
"Better safe than sorry. Let's drink less today to avoid any trouble."
The leading soldier patted Chen Zhandong on the shoulder with a smile and said, "Don't worry, brother, I'll take responsibility if anything happens. We finally got a day off, let's keep drinking!"
Seeing that their advice was ignored, the two hurriedly returned to the house to report to Chen Qingyan. These soldiers were not Chen Qingyan's subordinates, but were temporarily assigned by Shanzhou, so there was nothing he could do.
"Perhaps I'm overthinking it. Let them drink first. There's still some dry food in the package. You two should go back to your rooms and rest. I'll call you if anything happens."
"Yes." Their rooms were right next to each other; they could hear each other if they called out.
They rested like that until night. Several soldiers, drunk, were sent to their rooms to rest. Chen Qingyan, worried about what happened during the day and wanting to see his family that night, didn't sleep.
Around midnight, he suddenly heard a series of rustling footsteps, followed by clanging and banging sounds coming from several nearby rooms.
Chen Qingyan suddenly sat up and quietly opened the door to look outside.
By the dim moonlight, he saw three or four people enter the soldiers' house, one of whom, with a slightly hunched posture, was the elderly shopkeeper from earlier that day.
They went inside for a moment, and then came out with several muffled groans from inside the room. They then came out carrying the soldier's head.
Chen Qingyan was so frightened that he trembled and accidentally bumped into the door panel with a thud.
Several people immediately turned to look at them.
Chen Qingyan instantly hid in the experimental field. The old man rubbed his eyes and saw that there was no one in front of the door. He thought he was seeing things and turned around to urge his son, "Hurry up and kill them. I'm afraid we won't be able to control these people once the drug wears off."
The two men went into two more rooms, and the knives plunged into the necks of the soldiers with a series of sharp, forceful thrusts. Blood splattered everywhere, and the six soldiers who had accompanied them died silently.
When they arrived at Chen Qingyan's room, the innkeeper knocked on the door first, "Sir, are you asleep?"
After waiting for a long time without any response, he had his son break down the door, only to find that there was no one inside!
The loud noise naturally woke up the people in the next room. Chen Ju and Chen Zhandong rushed out, wielding sticks, shouting, "What are you doing?!"
The shopkeeper said, "There are still two who haven't been drugged yet!"
His two sons, armed with machetes, immediately rushed forward. The two men were covered in blood, their faces contorted in a ferocious grimace, like demons from hell. Chen Ju was so frightened that he screamed and almost dropped his belongings and ran away.
Chen Zhandong was quick-witted and shouted angrily, "Do you know who we are? If you kill us, the authorities will definitely investigate!"
The old man scoffed, "I don't care who you are. Once you're here, don't even think about leaving alive. We'll eat your flesh clean, so how can the authorities find out?"
The other party was armed and they were no match for them in a direct fight. Just as they were about to despair, Chen Qingyan suddenly appeared out of nowhere, rushed over, and pulled the two of them into the experimental field.
The people outside were startled. "Ah! Ahhhhhh! Where is everyone? Where did they go?"
"Could it be that I've encountered a ghost?"
"Tch! Even ghosts have to stay. Search carefully for me!"
The two were still in shock sitting in the experimental field. Originally, Chen Qingyan did not want to use teleportation, but now he had no choice. The soldiers who escorted him were dead, and the carriages and horses were in the hands of these people. There was no way to go back on foot.
After a moment's thought, he activated the teleportation function of the experimental field, taking Chen Ju and Chen Zhandong directly back to their doorstep.
After hearing the whole story, the family was terrified. If it weren't for the experimental field, they would have been in serious trouble today.
Seeing that her husband's face was pale and his body was still trembling slightly, Wang Ying knew that he must have been terrified. "It's getting late, everyone go back to your rooms and rest. We'll talk again tomorrow."
"Yes, yes, I'm going to take a nap first."
Chen Ju and Chen Zhandong returned to their respective rooms first.
Wang Ying stopped Chen Qingsong, "Try to get your brother and the others a new entry permit tomorrow, so they don't give us any reason to complain."
"Why."
Back in the backyard, Chen Qingyan could no longer control herself and began vomiting uncontrollably. She had witnessed a murder and almost died herself, and she had endured it until now.
Wang Ying was heartbroken and patted his back, saying, "If I had sent you back earlier, you wouldn't have had to suffer so much."
“Those villains have taken countless lives… This matter cannot be left unresolved. I will write a letter to Shanzhou and ask them to send people over to investigate and prosecute these people!”
"I'm going to get some sleep first, I'll write again tomorrow!"
After washing himself clean, Chen Qingyan lay on the bed, his hand still trembling slightly as he held Wang Ying's.
Wang Ying sighed and hugged him. Only when they were close together did Chen Qingyan finally calm down. He said with a wronged expression, "I almost thought I wouldn't see you again today."
"Knowing I'm scared, I won't be so arrogant next time."
"Sigh... It's a pity those people wouldn't have died if I had discovered them sooner."
Wang Ying said, "Don't think about it so much. This wasn't your fault. It's really not easy for you to come back safely. Leave the rest to others."
Exhausted from days of travel, coupled with the terrifying experience just now, Chen Qingyan's tense nerves could no longer hold on. He relaxed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
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