Looking at the hostile villagers behind the wooden gate who were emaciated because of years of lacking food, Xiao Tangqiu had an idea and approached the wooden door. “Of course we will not stay for nothing. We are actually food merchants. Right now, we still have some food at hand and we are willing to exchange it with you for the opportunity to stay here for one night. “

As soon as his voice fell, as expected, the villagers behind the gate hesitated. They looked at each other for a while, whispering, and finally gathered in front of the lady elder and discussed in a murmur.

After a while, the villagers dispersed again and the lady elder went to the wooden gate and looked at Xiao Tangqiu coldly, “You said you have food, is it true?”

“Of course it is true, It’s not something we can lie to you about.” Xiao Tangqiu nodded.

The lady elder said coldly, “Show us.”

Xiao Tangqiu turned around and returned to Shen Yuan, pretending to take a small bag of rice from behind Shen Yuan but actually taking it out of his space tool.

There were a few bags of rice, canned foods, and special items that could be quickly heated in each of the space tools provided by the Reincarnation Team in case of unexpected needs. He didn’t expect to use it for this.

Xiao Tangqiu returned to the gate again and showed the bag of rice to the lady elder.

The lady elder’s eyes lit up with greed and hunger and the villagers beside her also gained covetous looks. Although in their view, the colorful plastic packaging bag was very strange, they could still recognize the rice in the bag!

Rice! It’s rice! This was food!

The villagers subconsciously reached out and wanted to grab the rice from Xiao Tangqiu’s hands. Xiao Tangqiu quickly dodged back and the villagers could only stretch their arms from the gap of the wooden door. They looked like those images of prisoners reaching through bars asking to be let out.

At this key moment, the lady elder shouted in a low, hoarse voice, “Enough!”

The villagers finally calmed down but their eyes were still green with greed when they looked at Xiao Tangqiu, like hungry wolves staring at prey.

The lady elder stared at Xiao Tangqiu for a while, and asked gravely, “This kind of food… how much do you have?”

The corner of Xiao Tangqiu’s lips raised, knowing that the goal is half-achieved, and he replied in a serious voice, “We will each hand over such a bag of rice in exchange for staying at Hundred Ghosts Town overnight.”

More than one bag of rice! The lady elder’s eyes also became greedy, “No! One person for two bags!”

Xiao Tangqiu said lightly, “One person per bag for one night. If we stay for another night, we will pay with another bag of rice.”

The lady elder’s eyes flickered in the swaying flames of the villagers’ torches.

The villagers’ eyes are constantly fixed on them. Although they were still full of vigilance and hostility, there was more to it than before…

It was a gaze that could be called a tiger’s gaze.

The lady elder’s voice was low and hoarse, “Give us food first…”

Xiao Tangqiu smiled, “We can pay you a bag of food first as a deposit for the accommodation tonight… If we give all the food to you now, what if you change your mind and drive us out of the village in the middle of the night?”

The lady elder stared at Xiao Tangqiu for a while and then said in a deep voice, “Alright. Someone come, find them an empty place.”

At the order of the lady elder, several villagers immediately gathered around. One took the rice that was in Xiao Tangqiu’s hands and the other nodded to them to guide the way.

Xiao Tangqiu the others glanced at each other before he said, “We’ll be troubling you.”

The man turned around and walked towards the end of the village. Xiao Tangqiu and others followed. He quietly observed the villagers as he walked. Other than the few villagers who led the way, the others stayed standing motionless by the gate, watching Xiao Tangqiu and the others leave. Their expressions under the flickering light of the torch looked unnatural and extremely creepy.

It was not until the villagers disappeared from sight that Xiao Tangqiu turned his head to look at the rest of the village. Last night, the village was completely dark and he couldn’t see anything. Now, with torch lighting, he could vaguely make out the village.

There was no doubt that this village was very poor. Every house was a thatched-roof wooden hut, there were no buildings that looked better. Every one of them was dilapidated and the windows were all paper, unable to block the cold wind at all.

Because the men were out, the women and the children were cautiously hiding inside, only pairs of vigilant eyes were revealed in the slightly opened door gaps. Although they were curious at the sight of Xiao Tangqiu and others, there was more hostility and vigilance.

A slightly more daring little girl opened the door. She stood boldly at the door and looked at the passing Xiao Tangqiu. She was very plainly dressed in dirty clothing and her eyes were full of curiosity.

Xiao Tangqiu saw the situation inside through the open door. There was no furniture in the room, not even a wooden bed, only a straw mat on the floor, and a worn quilt on the straw mat.

A woman rushed towards the door, she screamed and pulled the little girl, “Come back!”

Soon, the door was slammed shut.

Xiao Tangqiu looked away and shook his head.

After a while, the people who led the way stopped before a thatch-roofed wooden hut. This hut was also dilapidated and old. It was really not a comfortable temporary place to stay, but they had already realized that all the wooden buildings in this village were the same after going through the village. Even if they asked to change to another one, it would be about the same.

The man didn’t enter, only staring at Xiao Tangqiu and them.

Xiao Tangqiu thanked him and entered the hut with the others, but those who led the way still did not leave, just standing at the door and staring closely at the people inside.

Xiao Tangqiu frowned and slammed the door shut, but the feeling of being stared at did not disappear. Duan Hongzhen also looked at the door with his arms crossing his chest. After a while, he said, “Those people are gone.”

Xiao Tangqiu finally let out a breath and turned to look at their accommodation for the night. Naturally, it was not a good place to live. It is even worse than the wooden house they were in last night. That wooden hut at least had one bed. There was nothing in this hut, no candles, and even the paper that was stuck over the windows was missing.

But it made sense, this village is so poor and this house was unoccupied, even if there were some furniture such as beds, it would have definitely been moved away much less any candles and window papers.

“It’s so dirty, how are people supposed to sleep here!” Duan Hongzhen looked disgusted.

Xue Junli spoke lightly, “You can sleep outside and keep watch.”

“What keep watch? The villagers in this village are ordinary people that I can kill just by moving my fingers.” Duan Hongzhen disagreed.

Xue Junli, “Don’t take it lightly, I think they are not so simple.”

Tang Mianmian pulled on Xiao Tangqiu. “Qiuqiu! You were so handsome just now! You actually thought to use rice to trade! Really clever!”

Xiao Tangqiu smiled and didn’t speak. In fact, this was not difficult to think of. This village was so poor that nobody could eat their fill. There must be a great demand for food. Other players should also be able to think of this point. It was just that the average player probably wouldn’t carry as much food as them. It was important to keep alive in the instance so it was good enough to just have enough food to not starve. Who still had the leisure time to cook?

Duan Hongzhen’s thoughts shifted, “When they saw the rice just now, their eyes turned green with greed. Do you think they would try to take something in the middle of the night?”

Xue Junli’s look darkened, “Not impossible.”

Yu Fuling frowned, “I keep feeling that the villagers are a little strange…”

Sai Lulu snorted, “It would be strange if the villagers aren’t strange in this creepy village!”

Duan Hongzhen yawned, “Who cares, right now I just want to sleep! Yesterday, I fought zombies for the whole night. I’m practically dead!”

Xiao Tangqiu asked, “Aren’t we going to investigate the village?”

Xue Junli pushed up his glasses, “The village naturally needs to be investigated, but sleeping is also necessary. Although the medicine can eliminate our fatigue, our body still needs real rest, otherwise, there will be problems.”

“We can be divided into two teams. One group investigates during the first half of the night and rests the second half, one group rests the first half of the night and investigates during the second half.”

The seven people had to be divided into two teams. Xiao Tangqiu originally wanted to group with Tang Mianmian, but that was dismissed by Duan Hongzhen with a sneer. “You two weak chickens together would drag down the group you’re in! Forget it, this kind of carrying, one per group is enough. Even if the two of you and the boss are in one group, the boss cannot take care of both of you at the same time. “

As burdens that dragged down the team, both Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian lowered their heads, their expressions quite embarrassed. In instances, just being useless is already a sin. Since they are two rookies that even a big god-like Shen Yuan couldn’t lug around, why double up to drag each other down?

…Forget it, it’s better not to!

So in the end, the teams were divided into Xue Junli, Yu Fuling, Sai Lulu, and Tang Mianmian in one group and Shen Yuan, Duan Hongzhen, and Xiao Tangqiu in the other. The two deadweights were evenly distributed.

Xue Junli’s team went out to investigate the village first while Xiao Tangqiu’s group got the chance to rest the first half of the night. Although there was no bed in the hut, they fortunately had everything in their space tools and were able to take out a sleeping bag each to sleep in.

Xiao Tangqiu was suddenly frozen awake in the middle of the night. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the thatched roof was not sealed. The wind had blown it loose. He curled up tightly and went back to sleep. Then it started raining.

Xiao Tangqiu was frozen awake again and he looked up while trembling only to discover that he was sleeping right under the leak. Everyone else was fine, only his sleeping bag was wet.

…No matter what kind of circumstance it was, the traits of an African bloodline would still vividly stand out!

Xiao Tangqiu rubbed his frozen face expressionlessly. At this moment, a soft knock suddenly sounded outside the door.

Boom, boom, boom.

The knock on the door was soft and gentle, like rain landing on the door.

TN: I made a Patreon! I’ll be offering the right to read a chapter ahead starting from next week’s post amongst other posts of things I’m translating (including a higher tier with early access and poll rights for translation fun projects outside of GLS). If you’re interested in supporting me and also getting to read things a little earlier, please check it out 🙂 Take note, the offer starts next week! I’ve set up instant payment so that means you pay the moment you click to support and as this is currently the end of the month, if you hit that support it will charge you immediately and charge again at the beginning of next month.

Just an FYI, I’m completely new to Patreon, so if I set up some stuff weirdly or wrong, please let me know in either the CG discord server or @canontotally on Twitter. I’ll do my best to learn and fix any issues.