Survival [End Times]

Three thieves disappeared from the Zhou family, and no one in the village seemed to say that any family members were missing. Only Yu Heng and Ming Ming knew about the intrusion into the Zhou family, but he didn't know where Ming Ming hid the body, and he couldn't see if he recognized the three people.

The atmosphere in Laokang Village is getting more and more restless. There are more and more quarrels between neighbors. There are more and more cases of stealing and stealing. Every day, you can hear people yelling and cursing that the little thief should have exterminated his descendants long ago.

In a dark corner, someone was chewing the soaked rice fiercely, chewing more and more vigorously in response to the scolding outside, and humming: "I'm going to starve to death. I don't care if I have no descendants."

On the third night after the Zhou family's courtyard wall was renovated, a house in the west end of the village was robbed. Three people died and one was injured. The noise penetrated the darkness, and lights in one house were turned on, followed by candlelight in neighboring houses. Zhou Qingrong also turned on his flashlight and went to help. The hunt for thieves in the village lasted all night, but in the end only two were caught.

Dead people!

The village hated these two thieves very much. It was hateful to steal things, but it was even more unforgivable to steal things and kill people. The next day, the two thieves were tied up in the grain drying field. The residents of Laokang Village, which has a complicated personnel structure, shared the same hatred this time and felt that they had to kill for their own lives to scare the monkeys.

But there were more than just these two people last night. The two thieves were unwilling to tell who their accomplices were at first. They were so angry that some villagers punched and kicked them: "You bastards who have killed a thousand swords! Give me back my sister's life!"

"And my nephew, he is only eighteen years old! Die to you murderers!"

The victim's relatives and friends were filled with grief and anger, and other villagers did not dare to stop them. They only listened to the two thieves crying for help, and finally begged: "I said, I said! Don't hit me, don't hit me!" "I said too, woo woo, woo. I'm hungry and I didn't mean to do it..."

Seeing that the two were willing to recruit others, bystanders quickly pulled away the relatives and friends of the victim who were venting their anger: "It won't be too late for the accomplices to beat him after he speaks out!"

"You have to promise not to hit me, but also to let me go!"

A man angrily rolled up his sleeves again: "Then I'd better beat you to death first!"

After arguing for a long time, the two thieves finally said three names: "There are two others we don't recognize either. We met them on the way."

As soon as he finished speaking, two people among the onlookers shouted loudly: "Stop talking nonsense! My son/my brother can't be a thief!"

"Everything we said is true! It was Zhou Mingtai and Chen Suiyi who told us that they knew which house had the stuff! That's why we stole it! Chen Suiyi said that his neighbor had rabbit meat! He said it!"

Chen Suiyi and his eldest sister were crumbling in the crowd, gritting their teeth and yelling: "Don't slander me! My brother has been sick for several days and hasn't gotten out of bed! You are wronging him!" She looked at the crowd for help, "You all know who Suiyi is, Our siblings often came to my grandma’s house in the village when we were young. He is not a bad person! Aunt Zhou, you also watched Sui Yi grow up, you have to believe us!”

Aunt Zhou hesitated to say anything and suggested: "How about we go ask Suiyi? It's better to accuse a good person unjustly."

Another middle-aged woman also said: "My son has been in the town since yesterday afternoon. He said he was going to help build a house and get paid! He is not at home at all! You need to find out who bites anyone. I can also take you to the town." He must be at the construction site. The roads are difficult now, and my son won’t be able to fly back and forth all night.”

As for the third name mentioned by the two thieves, it seems to be from another village, and no one here knows it.

In the crowd, Yu Heng asked Zhou Qingrong in a low voice how much he knew about Zhou Mingtai and Chen Suiyi. Zhou Qingrong also whispered: "We are not familiar with them, but I saw Chen Suiyi snatching other people's prey when I went up the mountain. In fact, it's hard to say, as long as you Just ask someone to confront you."

Because it concerns Zhou Mingtai and Chen Suiyi, one of whom is from Laokang Village and the other’s biological mother is a daughter who was married off from Laokang Village, so the elders of Laokang Village decided after discussion to bring these two people face to face first. Confrontation, as for the other thief named Wu, who is from the next village like the two arrested thief, then let the villagers go to the next village to ask for him.

"Oh my god, the people in Wujia Village are so cruel now. No wonder the wolf pack went to their village that year instead of others. They are doing justice to God!"

"Shhh don't say that."

"Why can't you tell me? Just talk about the thieves caught in the past few years. Eight out of ten should be from Wujiacun, right? Our Laokang Village is also unlucky, but it happens to be the closest to them!"

The two thieves were tied up in the grain drying field, and the people dispersed a little. Yu Heng did not intend to continue reading, so he planned to go home. Zhou Jianye hurriedly said goodbye to the others and ran over. As he walked, he asked Yu Heng: "Second sister-in-law, what do you think we will do if we find him and refuse to acknowledge him?" Zhou Jianye was also in the discussion group of elders in the village just now. Now the oldest generation in the village is only Zhou Jianye. The only woman alive in this generation is Yu Heng, so Yu Heng can also intervene in the affairs of Laokang Village. It's just that he just arrived late and didn't squeeze in to Zhou Jianye's side. It's not surprising that Zhou Jianye came to him to ask for advice.

Yu Heng then told him what he knew, how to interrogate, screen, and determine whether the other party's "alibi" was false. Finally, if the evidence is conclusive, how to deal with the obstruction of the two families of Zhou Mingtai and Chen Suiyi in dealing with the thief.

"..." Zhou Jianye sweated as he listened, and finally sighed, "It's too troublesome." He also knew that even if the evidence was sufficient, neither Zhou Mingtai nor Chen Suiyi had the character to let their family members die. compensate? That's harder to pull.

Yu Heng said, "No matter what, the two people in the threshing ground are a done deal. You can do whatever you want."

The incident really ended without a beginning or an end. Since someone could escape at night, there was no way they would confess! Even if someone in the same lane later whispered to others, "I smelled the smell of roasted rabbit at Zhou Xiaomei's mother's house." The incident has passed. Besides, it was just the smell of rabbit meat. Can you say that the meat was stolen from the neighboring house?

However, Zhou Xiaomei, who had been married for many years and returned to her mother's house with her children and husband for refuge, was still isolated by her neighbors because of her son Chen Suiyi's incident. No one dared and no one was willing to be neighbors with such a cruel person. Even when neighbors were chatting outside and saw someone from Zhou Xiaomei's family coming over, they would immediately shut up, for fear that the other party would misunderstand what they said and think that their family had good things! It would be miserable if a thief broke into the house at that time.

And the two thieves who were caught on the spot were beaten to death by the victim's family. No one spoke up for them, saying "the crime is not punishable by death." Now... everyone acts like this.

The effect was also obvious. After that day, Laokang Village was peaceful for more than half a month. Not only did the villagers strengthen their defense, but also those with bad intentions were frightened.

Yu Heng was afraid that the two children, especially Zhou Haojun, would get used to this kind of scene, so he told him some legal common sense. He hoped that the child would have a scale in his heart. He must have awe of the law and adapt to this cruel era with broken rules.

We should not be afraid of evil forces, but we should also have a heart that respects life.

Zhou Haojun asked: "Grandma, if a bad guy breaks into our house to steal things and is caught by us without stealing anything, then we should not beat him to death, right? Then can I ask him to chop wood for us and "apologize"? Is that right, grandma?"

Yu Heng nodded with a smile: "That's good, Haohao is really smart."

More than half a month later, Zhou Qingrong decided to go up the mountain again. The last time he went up the mountain, he was forced down by the cold wave before he had any harvest. He still remembered that he caught a glimpse in the forest at that time, as if he saw a deer? Now it has been half a month since the cold wave, and he really wants to go up and take a look again. He had a beautiful dream: "Maybe they were frozen to death there, I'll go pick them up."

Yu Heng also wanted to go: "While my legs and feet are still good, don't persuade me. When I can't walk anymore, I'll have to rely on you at home and outside."

So he followed, and watched Zheng Han bring the children into Zhou Jianye's house, and the three of them went up the mountain with peace of mind. The mountain was very deserted. It seemed that the cold wave that day still frightened the villagers, and they were afraid that they would encounter a cold wave again when they went up the mountain and couldn't dodge it.

The mountain road, which was walked by many pedestrians, was covered with a layer of ice again. The three people walked and knocked on the ground, walking very carefully. When they arrived at the place where Zhou Qingrong accidentally glimpsed the deer before, Zhou Qingrong turned around and pointed to a place with certainty and said: "That's it. I just took a look and heard someone shouting. When I turned around again, the deer disappeared."

Deer, deer! That's a better prey than wild boars. Now they don't care about what kind of protected wild animals are, as long as they can be eaten, they dare to catch them. Yu Heng was also quite tempted, so he said, "Then let's go over and take a look, be careful." He was somewhat familiar with this place. He had been here before when he used a puppet to explore the mountain, so he remembered that there was a natural cave in the direction Zhou Qingrong pointed.

After going over, he saw a puddle of water with ice chips and sparse ferns growing on the ground. Zhou Qingrong picked up the ferns, and Yu Heng stepped over and went straight to the cave in his memory. He knocked on a mountain wall with a hammer, and the mountain wall in front of him fell into pieces, revealing the dark cave inside.

Zhou Qingrong was surprised: "There is actually a hole here! Mom, how did you find it?"

"I just knocked it casually." Yu Heng stood in front of the cave and did not go in. He pulled out a hair to make a straw puppet. The puppet staggered into the cave, making a crackling sound as it walked. Mingming was stunned by this method for the first time, so Yu Heng told Mingming again the trick he used to fool Zhou Qingrong before. "We'll wait here and go in if it's safe."

"No danger, I'll go in, you wait for me outside." After ten minutes, Yu Heng nodded and led the way in.

The cave was not deep, and the passage was narrow and tilted downward. At the end, he saw the puppet standing on a mass of ice. Yu Heng slowly broke the ice to reveal the deer corpse below. After pulling the deer corpse out, he found another corpse underneath, so he carried it out together.

Zhou Qingrong, who was waiting outside, called out as soon as he saw the female corpse: "It's Guang Yunting. She disappeared in the previous cold wave. Her brother went up the mountain several times but couldn't find the body. I didn't expect it to be here!"

Thinking of the scene when the female corpse curled up in the belly of the deer corpse just now, Yu Heng sighed slightly: "Let's go, send her to her family." When going down the mountain, Zhou Qingrong repeated several times: "I didn't see her! I just saw the deer! Alas!" This girl named Guang Yunting is only sixteen years old this year. From her age, you can tell that she has lived from the beginning of the cold winter to now, and her physical fitness is very strong. Among all the people who went up the mountain to hunt, Guang Yunting was the most eye-catching one—young and a girl. Such a good child was gone, even though Zhou Qingrong and her family were just ordinary neighbors, they still felt it was a pity.

As for the deer corpse, Yu Heng didn't carry it straight down, and put it in the storage ring first. If it was a wild boar, it wouldn't be so troublesome, and it wouldn't be a problem to sell it, but the deer meat was precious, and this one was not small. It could be stored for a long time after being cooked, and it could nourish the family.

The body was sent back to Guang Yunting's home. Her brother ran out upon hearing the news, wailing loudly: "Sister! Sister, wuwuwu, sister..."

People from the same alley gathered in the alley to watch the excitement. One said: "Once Yunting is gone, her brother will have a hard time." "It's also unkind of parents for such a young girl to support the whole family..."

The next day, the Zhou family heard that Guang Yunting had been buried. Such a lively and stubborn girl withered in the dead of winter, and the people around gradually forgot about her after a few sighs. In order to get more food and fill their stomachs, there was no time for them to feel sad. When Zhou Qingrong was chopping wood, he heard someone casually say that the Guang family had been smelling meat these days, but he didn't take it to heart. The fourth year of the apocalypse passed in chaos and disorder, and the fifth year of the apocalypse has arrived.

This year began, and the real winter arrived.