The sounds in the room quickly quieted down, leaving only slight sobs and whispered comforts.

Pei Mengqing shook her head and continued walking forward. Unexpectedly, she heard a similar conversation again within a hundred meters.

Basically, the father wanted to sell the child, but the mother disagreed, saying that the husband was an alcoholic, and then they started fighting and crying.

What's going on? Have so many people reached the point where they don't even have anything to pawn?

And why are there so many drunkards?

This question was quickly answered. After walking three hundred meters, Pei Mengqing saw a wine shop.

The wine shop is so magnificently decorated that if you didn’t know better, you would have thought it was some kind of big hotel.

When I got closer, I looked up at the plaque, which read "Ye Family Winery" in large letters. The words were painted in gold and the plaque was rimmed in gold.

After thinking for a while, Pei Mengqing remembered that this was the largest wine shop in Liangzhou County.

Yejia Winery comes from the prosperous land of Yecheng in Jizhou. It is also a good place where aristocratic families, wealthy businessmen, and officials gather. It is said that the headquarters of Yejia Winery is in Yecheng.

He thought for a while and walked into the wine shop.

In the wine shop, the aroma of fermented grain wine was strong and tangy. Even Pei Mengqing, who hated wine for ruining his previous life, said it smelled good.

Contrary to what he thought, there was no such thing as the kind of clerk who disliked the poor and favored the rich and ridiculed him when he saw his shabby clothes. Instead, he enthusiastically introduced him to the good wines in the store.

"I can just look at it myself, no need to trouble you." Pei Mengqing declined politely and began to walk around the wine vat in front of the store.

The smell of wine was rising inside the store, and from time to time a clerk would take out a sample of the wine and hand it to the customer.

As far as the eye can see, not all the customers in the store are rich and wealthy, there are also many poor people like Pei Mengqing, wearing shabby clothes and patches all over their bodies.

When there is a food shortage in the entire county, and countless people are crowded into pawn shops and selling their most precious things on the "blood donation cart", there are countless fine wines brewed from grain. This is really a magical reality.

Finally, Pei Mengqing saw a notice in the store:

Children under the age of seven can exchange for half a year of fine wine. Except for the highest-grade wines, other fine wines can be chosen. Two children can exchange for one year and one month.

Pei Mengqing's pupils shrank, and a cold sweat broke out from behind.

What is this? Human trafficking? Even if this is the case, no one reports it to the government?

No wonder that along the way, so many families were thinking of selling their children, but they didn't expect to trade them for wine.

I just don’t know why this Yecheng wine shop buys children under seven years old? Is it to train dead soldiers from an early age?

I heard that the eldest son of Taizu, the founder of the dynasty, once secretly raised three thousand dead men, which played an important role in Taizu's usurpation of the highest power in the dynasty.

Pretending that nothing happened, Pei Mengqing walked out of the wine shop with an expressionless face, holding her sword and looking poor.

"System, are you there?" Pei Mengqing called in her heart.

In times of turmoil, food is scarce, wine shops are flourishing, and children are procured. No matter how you think about it, it is not a normal thing.

【Yes, how can I help you?】

"Is there no problem here?"

【some.】

When we encountered problems twice before, the system issued tasks as if some trigger condition had been met. But now that we know there is a problem, why didn't we issue tasks?

"What's the problem?"

Pei Mengqing thought of many situations, many of which were bloody and contrary to human ethics.

[Since the host is currently too weak, please do not get involved.]

"But since I have chosen to practice swordsmanship, shouldn't I vow not to kill evildoers forever? This is the description of the first mission you issued to me."

[Yecheng wine shops are not completely evil.]

"Not completely? What do you mean?" Pei Mengqing asked.

[Please host to work hard to improve your strength, and after reaching the Shenxuan realm, go to Luoyang to find the truth. 】

"well……"

It seems that the system knows something important, but it cannot say it to myself now, for fear that I will be impulsive and fall into an irreversible predicament.

Thinking about it, Pei Mengqing turned to the street behind the wine shop.

Coincidentally, a large car driven by an unknown force was driving out from behind the wine shop and heading south.

"Strange, the south is Yingchuan Road. Could it be that because Yuanshan Road is blocked, there is no way to enter Sili directly from Chenliu County? So it takes a detour to Yingchuan? Or is it that the destination of this car is not to Luoyang, but to Luoyang?

Yingchuan?"

Pei Mengqing tried to follow the big car, but the speed of the big car was faster than he thought, and the road requirements were not high. It seemed that, converted to the speed he was familiar with, it was still 60 kilometers per hour.

Now he can't catch up even if he runs on two legs and smokes.

"Forget it, let's go to Lianggu Road first to see what's going on with the mutated tiger. I hope I can beat him."

Lianggu Road is at the southern end of the town, passing through a village.

After leaving the village, Pei Mengqing saw a wide road with barely passable road conditions. It was very convenient for driving, marching, and transporting grain.

After entering the road and walking forward, Pei Mengqing thought for a moment, pulled out the sword, and with the energy flowing in her body, she cut off a large tree that was not too thick with two or three swords.

Then cut off the branches, cut out a few boards of suitable size, and tie them to the chest, back, and legs with dry and tough vines.

Without affecting flexibility as much as possible, a simple armor was built.

This is somewhat of a guarantee.

It's not that he doesn't want to get armor, it's just that he doesn't have the financial strength. What's more, the Zhou Dynasty is similar to ancient China. Private possession of armor is a capital crime.

There was no one on the road, and the insects and snakes that usually roamed the aisles had long since hibernated. Before the news about the mutated tigers came out, there was news about wolves.

After walking for a few hundred meters, the surroundings gradually became quiet. The branches of the woods on both sides collided with each other. Tree towers were hung on the pine trees. Occasionally, squirrels would come out and pick off the tree towers and take them back to their nests for the winter.

It's quite scary to walk on this kind of road alone. It's no wonder that traveling merchants and people visiting relatives all walk together in groups.

The cold wind passed through the forest and blew over the back of Pei Mengqing's neck. A coldness clung to his neck, which was very uncomfortable. It made him shiver and he subconsciously circulated his breath to drive away the coldness.

"No, we can't dawdle, we have to go faster. If we continue like this, the physiological changes caused by the psychological pressure will consume a lot of energy."

An ordinary person would have walked slower and slower and started to retreat. The fact that he could think of speeding up and solving the problem quickly shows that Pei Mengqing still maintains his sanity.

I quickened my pace and after walking a few dozen meters, something different finally appeared on the road.

A cart with a broken shaft was lying across the middle of the road, and the animals pulling the cart had long since disappeared.

Surrounding the cart, there were more than a dozen corpses with dried flesh and blood lying around. Because it was cold in winter and there was a lack of microbial decomposition, there was no stench to the sky.

Pei Mengqing was on alert. This was where the accident occurred. Maybe the mutated tiger was hanging around here on weekdays. If it suddenly jumped out of the forest and knocked him down, no matter how exquisite his swordsmanship or the sharpest blade, he wouldn't be able to defeat it.

A beast that weighs at least five times his weight.
Chapter completed!