Pollution throughout the territory

Following the old man into the house, Xia Ren saw candles on the table against the wall, but no light bulbs.

Only then did he understand why he couldn't clearly see the scene inside from the window just now. With such dim candlelight, even if he walked in, he would have to let his eyes adjust for a while before he could see clearly.

Then, by candlelight, the indoor scene slowly appeared in front of Xia Ren's eyes. The dark furniture standing stiffly in the room was mostly made of wood and seemed to be covered with a layer of black pulp. They were definitely not this color originally. It’s just that I don’t know how many years of ravages it took to become what it is today.

Based on the style of the furniture, Xia Ren speculated that they were at least more than a hundred years old.

After a cursory look around, there are many such ancient things in the house, and there is a cave-like fireplace built on one wall. You must know that as early as 500 years ago in the New Era, the world structure was completely stable, and the other countries disappeared, leaving only During the Supreme Alliance government, this thing quickly disappeared from every household. Unless those particularly wealthy families still insisted on using it, ordinary people would never build such a troublesome thing in their own homes.

Above the fireplace, there is an oil painting hanging. It can be seen from the wooden frame alone that the age of this painting is no younger than other items in the room. However, due to the angle, the candlelight can only illuminate the lower part of the oil painting. Half of the painting allowed Xia Ren to see clearly that it was a figure painting, but the appearance of the figures in the painting was hidden in the darkness and could not be known.

What surprised Xia Ren even more was that there was a spinning wheel next to the fireplace. An old lady wearing the same loose robe as the old man who opened the door was busy working on the spinning wheel. She wore a hat on her head with the brim of the hat pressed down. Very low, he was continuing the movements of his hands without saying a word, as if he was deaf to anyone entering the room.

Not to mention the 500 years since the New Era, even when the New Era just started, no one would have used such a backward tool.

There seemed to be a lot of moisture in the room. Xia Ren felt a little tight in his chest and his breathing was not comfortable. He wanted to find where the window was, but he saw a high-backed bench facing the window on the left, with heavy hangings hanging on the window. The curtain completely blocked the faint snow light outside.

He looked at the high back of the chair, always feeling like someone was sitting on it, but as soon as he recalled the many black figures he had vaguely seen outside the door just now, the idea of ​​going forward to check was strangled in the cradle.

Everything in this room felt extremely gloomy, and the fear that Xia Ren had just suppressed began to spread uncontrollably in his heart.

However, Yu Chen was not affected at all. He was still looking around at the furnishings in the house with curious eyes. He didn't know that his father-in-law was already fighting, and he almost wanted to leave first.

"that……"

Yu Chen opened his mouth to speak when he suddenly realized that the old man next to him was mute.

Fortunately, the other party's ears were still very useful, so he took out a pen and paper and wrote: "Dear young master, do you have any questions that need to be answered?"

Yu Chen smiled apologetically and said hesitantly: "I received an invitation, saying that I wanted to participate in a family ceremony, but there doesn't seem to be any ceremony going on here."

The old man still looked expressionless and wrote: "The ceremony is about to begin, and you will witness everything tonight."

"Cough, cough——"

Xia Ren didn't dare to talk to the old man directly, so he reminded Yu Chen with his eyes.

The latter immediately understood and said, "I forgot to introduce you. This is my father-in-law. He came with me. Can I bring him to the ceremony?"

The old man turned his head and glanced at Xia Ren and wrote: "Please understand, dear young master, this ceremony is very important and can only be attended by people of this tribe. Your father-in-law had better stay in this room and wait for the ceremony to end. This is also For your father-in-law’s sake.”

Yu Chen looked at Xia Ren with a troubled expression.

"fine."

Xia Ren shook his head.

Yu Chen then asked: "Can you prepare some food for us? And water."

"Please wait a moment."

After writing this sentence in his notebook, the old man turned around and walked out of the room. Only the father and son and the old lady who was busy silently in front of the old spinning wheel were left in the room.

Yu Chen didn't expect that the planned family gathering would turn out like this. There was no warm hospitality, no lively crowds, no waves of clan members coming to recognize their relatives, only this ancient house and the mute servant.

Xia Ren pulled him aside and said, "I will attend the ceremony with you later."

"ah?"

Yu Chen was a little surprised: "But the person just now said that only clan members can participate."

Xia Ren imitated Bill Corleone's demeanor, glared, and said, "Who can control me when my legs are on me?"

Yu Chen lowered his head and hesitated for a while: "But..."

Xia Ren sighed and said, "From the time I got here to now, I haven't even seen the other members of your tribe. If I don't understand, how can I trust you with my daughter?"

As soon as these words came out, Yu Chen could only remain silent.

After a while: "Then... okay, I will communicate with him later."

"Need not."

Xia Ren shook his head: "He will definitely not agree, so I will go secretly by myself."

He then thought about it again. After all, he was his son-in-law. Although he only had an identity in Gu Meng, he seemed to be a good young man. He would help if he could, so he said: "I don't think your people are good people. "

Speaking of this, Xia Ren glanced at the old lady in front of the spinning wheel. After seeing that she didn't respond, he continued: "If I feel wrong tonight, I will call you. We must leave here no matter what. We can't let it go." My daughter lost her lover at a young age.”

Yu Chen was moved for a moment, thinking that he was so poor, how could his father-in-law recognize him so much, and his nose suddenly became sore.

Xia Ren thought for a few seconds and then said: "Just calling you to run away may cause trouble. Let's set a secret code. When you hear the secret code, just respond so that I can know your location."

"Um!"

Yu Chen nodded heavily: "But what secret code should I use? The king of heaven will cover the tiger of the earth?"

Xia Ren touched the beard on his chin, thought about it again and again, and suddenly came up with an idea: "This way, if I say Waibi Waibi, you will reply Waibi Babu."

"Waibi, Waibi, Waibibabu..."

Yu Chen repeated it, keeping it firmly in mind.

Although this code was a bit awkward and its meaning was unclear. I don’t know how his father-in-law came up with it, but he didn’t care about it.

After nearly half an hour, the old man, covered in wind and snow, brought some food from outside and returned to the house, handing it to Yu Chen.

Yu Chen took the food and brought it to Xia Ren, asking him to eat first.

Xia Ren looked at the things on the plate in front of him. They were obviously meat taken from birds or other beasts and simply roasted over fire. There was still smoke and dust on the surface of the food, which looked very suspicious.

But they hadn't eaten since noon, and they were already starving after walking so far on a rugged road. This food smelled like meat, at least it was something that could be eaten.

Xia Ren took a few pieces, put them in his mouth and chewed them twice. They were dry.

Thinking that it might take a lot of energy at night, he forced himself to swallow.

After finishing the dinner with difficulty, the old man pointed to the other corner of the room and motioned for them to sit on that chair.

In front of the chair was a table with a large number of books piled on it. After that, the old man wrote "Please wait patiently for a few hours" in his notebook and then left the room.

Xia Ren walked to the table, picked up a book and looked at the cover.

It says: Corpse Eating Ceremony