Shao Qingge hid near the courtyard, straining his ears to listen carefully to the sounds inside.
Han Ningshuang was dragged to a corner, where a young man brandished a sharp knife in front of her and asked with a smile, "Little girl, should I cut off your left hand or your right hand first? Or maybe I should cut off your ear first?"
Han Ningshuang was so frightened that tears streamed down her face. She knelt on the ground with a thud, shaking her head desperately, "Don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I swear, I won't tell anyone!"
A woman beside him said coldly, "Since she has seen what we look like, why don't we gouge out her eyes first?" The woman gently lifted Han Ningshuang's chin and smiled, "These eyes are truly beautiful."
After she finished speaking, she made a move to gouge out Han Ningshuang's eyes.
Just then, a little boy suddenly lunged forward and bit the woman's hand hard: "Let her go!"
The woman's hand was bitten, leaving a row of bloody teeth marks. Enraged, she kicked the boy aside, grabbed his collar, and slapped him several times, yelling, "You brat, are you a dog? How dare you bite me!"
The young man said, "Fourth Sister, if we don't teach this child a lesson, it seems they won't listen."
The woman snatched the knife from his hand and, with a single, clean stroke, severed the little boy's finger.
"Ahhh—"
The piercing screams of a child echoed from the courtyard.
Seeing the bloodstains on the ground, Han Ningshuang seemed stunned. She cried out, " Qi Ran, your hand!"
The woman called "Fourth Sister" clapped her hands and said coldly, "Take these children away, chop off their hands first, then their feet, and let them taste the consequences of offending us."
Just then, the old woman suddenly rushed over and hugged Han Ningshuang tightly, saying, "Don't kill them! They have contracted a strange disease, and you will catch it if you eat them."
The woman paused, then turned to look at her: "Strange illness?"
The old woman said, "These children have many red spots on their bodies, which may be smallpox."
Upon hearing the word "smallpox," the faces of the people changed drastically. Those who had been holding the child immediately released them and scurried away as if avoiding a plague. The grandmother went over and lifted Han Ningshuang's clothes, and sure enough, she found many large and small spots on the girl's back.
The old woman choked back tears as she said, "These children have been orphans since they were little, and now they've contracted smallpox. They certainly won't survive. Let's just find a place to bury them. Please, don't eat their flesh, or you'll catch the disease..."
The fourth sister and the young man exchanged a glance, then said with a look of disgust, "Go, find a place and bury these three sick brats alive. As for this old woman... she might still be of some use."
The young man, seemingly worried about getting infected, simply covered the three children with a burlap sack.
The old woman was dragged away.
Han Ningshuang struggled inside the sack, shouting, "Let me go! You beasts will get your comeuppance!"
Her words enraged the young man, who began punching and kicking the sack. Whether Little Girl was knocked unconscious or not, the sack gradually quieted down until it was completely still. Only then did the young man call a few men, who carried the three sacks to a patch of wasteland in the center of town, dug a large pit, and buried the three women alive.
...
Shao Qingge witnessed the tragedy that occurred twenty years ago and was at a loss for words.
These beasts have truly lost their humanity; no wonder the murderer was so ruthless as to wipe out their entire family.
Ye Qi sensed Shao Qingge's anger and said dejectedly, "It's a pity we can't stop all of this. If we had intervened, Grandma would have been saved, the murderer would have stopped seeking revenge, and the world of murder cases twenty years from now might not exist anymore. Professor Xiao and the others might never have been able to leave this locked room..."
The butterfly effect is terrifying; if they interfere in historical events, it will indeed affect their other teammates. Ye Qi and Shao Qingge dare not act recklessly. However, watching the tragedy unfold without being able to stop it left both of them feeling heavy-hearted.
Shao Qingge changed the subject, asking, " What are the plans of that Little Girl who ran away, and Ren Yuan?"
Ye Qi said, " The little girl's name is Zhou Xiaoyun. She has calmed down and plans to go to the yard to rescue people after dark tonight. Their plan is to set the yard on fire and rescue the grandmother and the other three children in the chaos."
Shao Qingge paused for a moment, then analyzed in a low voice: "Four children, Qin Feng, Qi Ran, Han Ningshuang, and Zhou Xiaoyun. Among them, Qi Ran had one of his fingers chopped off by those people while protecting Han Ningshuang; Grandma said they had smallpox, which is probably a lie. The red spots on Han Ningshuang's body look more like marks left from chickenpox. The other three children have already been buried alive in sacks. Since Qin Feng is still alive after twenty years, someone must have saved them."
Ye Qi said, "Could it be that Ren Yuan and the escaped Zhou Xiaoyun discovered they were buried alive and rescued them?"
Shao Qingge shook his head: "People buried alive underground, lacking oxygen, will suffocate and die in just a few minutes. Since Ren Yuan and Zhou Xiaoyun had agreed to set fire to the place at night to rescue them, and they didn't know the three children were buried alive, it's impossible for them to have rescued the three children so quickly. I'm more inclined to believe that someone else rescued these children."
Ye Qi praised, "That makes sense, CEO Shao, your reasoning skills have improved a lot!"
Shao Qingge laughed and said, "Having followed Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang for so long, you've learned to imitate them."
Even so, you can learn something basic.
Ye Qi asked, "Are you with them?"
Shao Qingge was currently hiding on the roof of a nearby house, his gaze fixed on the spot where the three children had been buried alive. He said, "Yes, I've been watching from here. I can't go and rescue them myself, but someone will rescue them eventually. This person is also crucial."
Almost as soon as Shao Qingge finished speaking, a suspicious young woman appeared nearby. She took an iron shovel, dug up the mound of earth that had just been buried, jumped into the pit, and laboriously dragged up three burlap sacks.
When the sack was untied, the three children's faces had turned blue from holding their breath.
Han Ningshuang groggily opened her eyes and looked at the woman in front of her, saying, "Qing... Aunt Qing?"
The woman made a "shh" gesture to her lips, waking the other two children as well. Then she filled the pit with soil to make it appear as if it had been filled in, and hurriedly led the three children toward Ren Yuan's residence.
Shao Qingge mentally notified Ye Qi: "The rescuers have arrived and are heading towards Ren Yuan's residence. Be careful and stay hidden."
Ye Qi hid in a corner of the courtyard and eavesdropped. Before long, he saw the woman come looking for Ren Yuan with three children. He immediately retreated into the shadows and thought to himself, "I saw her. Who is this woman?"
Shao Qingge said, " Han Ningshuang calls her Aunt Qing, so I guess she was raised by Granny Sun, just like Ren Yuan. These kids seem to know her very well."
Soon, the sound of several people talking could be heard from the eavesdropping device.
Ren Yuan asked excitedly, "Aqing, why are you back? When did you get back?"
Aunt Qing said, "I was originally in Yue Prefecture. When I heard there was a famine here, I wanted to come back and see you. I didn't expect that when I came back, I would see several people stuffing Ning Shuang and the others into sacks and burying them alive. Fortunately, I arrived in time and saved them."
After Han Ningshuang regained her breathing, her complexion gradually returned to normal. She choked back tears as she grasped Qi Ran's hand and said, " Qi Ran, how's your hand? I'll bandage it for you right away..."
Qi Ran calmly said, "It's nothing, just one finger."
Qin Feng looked at them, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping himself.
After a moment, he whispered, "My mother-in-law was taken away. What if they...?"
Han Ningshuang angrily said, "Those beasts will definitely chop up Grandma and eat her! Didn't you see them cooking human flesh? They've gone mad!"
Zhou Xiaoyun asked timidly, "Sister Shuang, what should we do? Should we go save Grandma?"
Ren Yuan said, "They outnumber us and are highly skilled in martial arts; we are no match for them. Why don't we act tonight?"
Qi Ran said coldly, "If we go tonight, Grandma might already be dismembered."
Qin Feng also said, " A-Ran is right, we should save people as soon as possible."
After a moment of silence in the cave, Aunt Qing finally made a decision: "How about this, you four children stay here, and Brother Ren and I will try to rescue them." Ren Yuan agreed: "Okay, let's set a fire and see if we can rescue them in the chaos."
After discussing it, the two quickly arrived at the courtyard.
However, when they arrived, they found that the old woman's hands and feet had been cut off, and she had already died from excessive blood loss.
The old woman's body was left on the side of the road like trash.
Ren Yuan was furious, wiped away her tears, and took her mother-in-law's body back to the cave.
When the four children saw their grandmother's miserable state, they rushed to her body like madwomen, crying out, "Grandma!"
Shao Qingge and Ye Qi felt a pang of sorrow as they listened to the heart-wrenching cries coming from the eavesdropping device. For these orphans, their grandmother was their only family; now, she had been brutally murdered, her limbs severed, while protecting them…
This is like punching a hole in their hearts that can never be filled.
Zhou Xiaoyun cried herself unconscious. Han Ningshuang, halfway through her crying, suddenly gritted her teeth and said, "We must avenge our mother-in-law!"
Qi Ran said coldly, "Let them pay for their crimes in blood!"
Aunt Qing choked back tears as she stroked the children's heads and said, "Silly children, we can barely protect ourselves right now. Let's focus on surviving first. Qingfeng Town is no longer safe. How about this, you come back to Yue Prefecture with me?"
Ren Yuan said, "But wouldn't it be more dangerous if so many of us acted together? In this world, nowhere is safe. I encountered two outsiders today and they were robbed on the road."
Aunt Qing asked, "What do you suggest we do?"
Ren Yuan's gaze swept over the food in the cave. After a moment of silence, he said, "How about this? Qi Ran is injured and it's inconvenient for her to travel long distances. Xiao Yun isn't feeling well either. Qi Ran and Xiao Yun will stay here with me, and I'll take care of them. The food I've stored should be enough for the three of us to survive. Ning Shuang and Qin Feng, you take them to Yue Prefecture. There are fewer people there, so it'll be easier for them to move around."
Aunt Qing readily agreed: "Then it's settled. If everyone survives, we'll meet in Yue Prefecture."
That night, Aunt Qing took Han Ningshuang and Qin Feng away from Qingfeng Town. She somehow got hold of a horse, and the three of them rode it all night, quickly escaping the area of Qingfeng Town.
Qi Ran and Zhou Xiaoyun, who were injured, stayed in the cave with Ren Yuan.
Ren Yuan bandaged Qi Ran's finger, cooked sweet potatoes for the two of them, and told them not to go out in the future.
Ye Qi thought to himself, "Aside from Qin Feng, the other three children could be the murderer. Who do you lean towards?"
Shao Qingge said, "I think it's possible that it's Qi Ran. A severed finger is such an obvious feature, yet we haven't encountered one in a world twenty years in the future."
The person who severed the finger was very well hidden. Of course, Han Ningshuang and Zhou Xiaoyun could also be guilty, especially Han Ningshuang; her eyes were full of hatred, and when she left with Aunt Qing earlier, she kept saying she would come back for revenge.
Which of the three options is the correct answer?