C45 (1/2)
Qiao Mu immediately understood and said to Yang Jie: ”Superintendent Song called the police.”
Yang Jie's face was in pain, she did not dare look anymore.
”If there were only five corpses here, they would most likely be wiped out.” Qiao Mu guessed.
In Qiao Mu's mind, a scene instantly appeared: a group of police officers from the police station recklessly broke into the Flower Snake Village without being on guard. As a result, they were ambushed by Toad Man and cadaver, resulting in heavy casualties.
In the end, Qiao Mu sighed and said: ”Forget it, forget them and go to Small Snake Island first.”
Sun Erke understood Qiao Mu's meaning and continued to row.
When Qiao Mu and the rest left on the boat towards the Small Snake Island, Zhou Yang and Zheng Huili was still trapped in the pit with the corpses.
With the passage of time, the inside of the pit became stuffy and hot, the environment full of corpses and stench became unbearable for Zhou Yang and Zheng Huili. Furthermore, they did not eat any water for a long time, so the two of them almost fainted.
In fact, from the start, the movements outside the corpse pit had disappeared, but they were not sure if the strange eyeball worms were still there, but if they continued to stay inside the corpse pit, it would be equivalent to waiting for death, so Zhou Yang decided to give it a shot.
”Let's go out and take a look. Follow me.” Zhou Yang whispered.
Zheng Huili had the same thought, and agreed lightly.
Zhou Yang then used his hands to hold onto the two corpses, he moved the corpses away and slowly peeked his head out, immediately feeling a refreshing feeling. Although the air in the burrow was dirty and humid, and it was still near the corpses, compared to the inside of the burrow, it was like a paradise.
In the darkness, Zhou Yang and Zheng Huili climbed out of the corpse pit. The surroundings were completely silent, they guessed that the strange worms had already left.
After walking down the pile of corpses, Zhou Yang successfully touched the torch that he had hidden away, and lit it with the lighter once again. The moment the flame was ignited, Zhou Yang suddenly realised that many eyes were staring at him from all directions.
The two of them were so scared that their faces drained of blood, and Zhou Yang even subconsciously retreated back to the pile of corpses. At this time, he saw that behind the corpse pile, there was a relatively deep hole filled with dried branches and leaves.
Just as the monster bugs were gathering towards Zhou Yang, a strange idea popped into his mind like lightning. Therefore, he quickly passed the torch to Zheng Huili and shouted: ”Take it, quick!”
Zheng Huili received the torch in a daze, and immediately turned and jumped into the pit. The Eyeball Beetles crawled into the pit then used their sharp black thorns to pierce through Zhou Yang's skin and cover his entire body.
Zheng Huili rushed up to the pile of corpses, seeing Zhou Yang's terrible appearance, she panicked and screamed again and again, but Zhou Yang shouted with all his might: ”Throw the torches into the pit, burn them, hurry!”
It was only then that Zheng Huili understood that Zhou Yang wanted to die together with the eyed monster bugs!
”Quickly! At least you still have a chance to escape, otherwise, both of us will die! ” Zhou Yang shouted crazily.
Zheng Huili cried bitterly as she shook her head, her heart was in turmoil, but in the end, she still threw the torch into the pit.
The flames instantly ignited, and very quickly, burned all of the Eyeball Monster Worms, and also burnt Zheng Huili's heart …
Sun Erke was extremely familiar with rowing, and before long, Qiao Mu could already vaguely see the shadow of the Small Snake Island.
They were almost at the Small Snake Island.
Qiao Mu and the other two could not help but become nervous. After all, once they stepped onto the Small Snake Island, it was unknown whether they would be able to leave or not.
At this moment, the surface of the lake was calm. It was unknown if the wind had stopped blowing or if there was no wind.
Su Qin was sitting at the stern of the boat and chatting with Sun Erke. Qiao Mu and Yang Jie, on the other hand, were standing at the bow of the ship, listening to the gurgling water, each of them thinking about something.
Suddenly, Yang Jie asked Qiao Mu softly, ”Brother, I have a question. Why do you think of the reason why Sun Erke is the only one in the village with so many people?”
”I've thought about it, too, don't you?” Qiao Mu asked Yang Jie.
”If Zheng Huiling let us wait here, would it be that Zheng Huiling protected him?”
”No, Zheng Huiling still isn't that capable. Otherwise, there's no need to use her husband, Su Hong, to exchange for the lives of two of her daughters.”
”Then what happened?”
”I actually feel that... It should be because of Sun Erke himself. ” Qiao Mu looked at Sun Erke who was smiling mischievously at him.
”What's the reason?”
”You see, he is a fool, to put it more scientifically, there is something wrong with his intellect. However, the poison of decay first has to be in control of one's consciousness, but his consciousness is extremely chaotic and uncontrollable. Perhaps because of this, he became an exception. For example, he was like a fish out of a net, escaping from under the eyes of a rotting corpse. ”
”Yeah.” Yang Jie thought about it and felt that Qiao Mu's deduction was reasonable. ”Then … Sister Su Qin is not the only one with an exception.
”Yes, indeed.”
When he answered, Qiao Mu had a premonition that these two special characters would be the key to resolving this matter.
Just as they were discussing, Qiao Mu's phone suddenly rang.
The caller indicated that it was Miao Yue.
”Hey, Miao Yue, have you found anything?” Qiao Mu asked.
”Yes, I've found all the information!” Miao Yue's voice that was on the phone was excited and anxious.
”Tell me, what happened to General Zhao?”
”Alright, don't be in such a hurry. Listen to me slowly tell you!” In fact, Miao Yue was just about to leave her teacher's house and take a taxi home, but in order to discuss something with Qiao Mu, she decided not to take the taxi and directly walked home. This way, they could talk while they walked.
Miao Yue cleared her throat and said: ”Just now, I specifically went to my teacher's house to search for this information. In the beginning, I couldn't find anything, but I almost gave up trying to call you. In the end, my teacher found some historical records in a book and finally found out about General Zhao's background.
”Mm, continue.” Qiao Mu said unhurriedly.
”Alright, let me introduce General Zhao. His full name was Zhao Zhiyou, he was a commander stationed at the borders of Taiyuan Palace during the Song Xia war, similar to a military camp's commander, who was around a thousand years old. General Zhao had done a lot of meritorious military service while he was still alive, and he was fighting valiantly, but his end was very miserable. So it turned out that his Deputy Commander, who was also his subordinate, Yang Xin, had betrayed him. ”That Yang Xin first joined the Western Xia Army, and then led the Western Xia Army into the army camp, torturing General Zhao to death …” Miao Yue said as he paused and swallowed his saliva.
”Then, where was the Taiyuan Palace today? Have you checked the map?” Qiao Mu asked.
”Of course, it's around the location of Flower Snake Village. According to the records, General Zhao was executed by Yang Xin near the military camp, and before the execution, Yang Xin tortured him for three days and three nights. He even sent two old women with long fingernails to dig out a pair of his eyeballs. In the end, when he was on the verge of death, Yang Xin threw him into a lake called Bamboo Lake. ”
After listening to Miao Yue's narration, Qiao Mu's heart trembled because he realized that in two crucial places, one was the eyeball that the old lady had dug out with her long fingernail before she died, and the other was the bamboo lake.
Qiao Mu thought: The Bamboo Lake was probably an ancient name. Since it was called the Bamboo Lake, it was possible that the lake water was originally green. It seems like there is a high chance that the lake water was connected to the Great Snake Island through Flower Snake Village.
”Uncle Qiao, are you listening?” Qiao Mu's absent-mindedness made Miao Yue a little anxious.
”Yes, yes, please continue.” He stopped thinking.
”Yes, the historical information I just told you was written by a civil official in the imperial court. There is also a portion of historical data, and it was spread among the common people. It belongs to the wild history of the common people, and can explain why Yang Xin betrayed him. Do you want to hear it?”
”Of course. Tell me everything.”
”So, the reason why Yang Xin betrayed him was because of a woman.”
”Women?”
”Yes, this story is quite complicated. It was General Zhao. He had once kidnapped a commoner girl to be his concubine. His name was Tian Yu'e. It was said that Tian Yu'e was as beautiful as a flower and was loved by General Zhao. He even had to bring her along to war. At that time, Tian Yu'e was also living in the army camp. On the other side, Yang Xin had an illegitimate child in the army. He was a coachman and had a very handsome appearance. As time passed, the coachman and Tian Yu E actually looked at each other, it would be said that one of them was handsome, the other was beautiful, it would be no wonder that he liked the other, it would be a pity that Tian Yu Er was Zhao Zhiyou's concubine, under normal circumstances they would not have been able to obtain any results, thus after a very unlucky incident, the two of them ran away! ”
Miao Yue paused for a moment, walked across a street, and continued:
”What a pity, their elopement did not succeed and was quickly discovered by General Zhao. Quickly, ride the horse and capture them alive.” Naturally, General Zhao was extremely furious. He burned the coachman alive and tortured Tian Yu'er. Then, he twisted her body into a bloody mess with his dagger and threw her into the bamboo lake. ”
Bamboo Lake again, he thought. Was it a coincidence that she was the same as Zhao Zhiyou?
In addition, the four words ”flesh and blood” made Qiao Mu think of something.
The news of General Zhao disposing of the coachman and Tian Yu E immediately spread out. Yang Xin knew that his son was killed and was both grieving and angry, but General Zhao did not know anything about the relationship between Yang Xin and the coachman. Later on, in order to avenge his son, Yang Xin immediately conspired against him. Not only did he destroy all the defenses of the military camp, he even led the Western Xia Army to sneak attack the military camp. ”Then it was what I told you before. General Zhao was tortured by Yang Xin and was thrown into the bamboo lake …”
”I threw it into the bamboo lake …” Qiao Mu mumbled again.
”What's wrong? Is there a problem?”
”No, no problem. Is that all? ”
”Mm …” ”Yeah, that's about all the information I can find.”
”There won't be any mistakes, right?”