When the sun was still shining, the three Alayanzong people finally arrived at the small village.

What puzzled Alayanzong was that there should be officers and soldiers guarding the intersections near every village, but no troops were found at the entrance of this small village, and the village seemed extremely quiet.

Except for a few chimneys belching smoke, no one was seen on the street.

The three of them dismounted and led their horses away. When they saw the door of a house at the head of the village was ajar, Ala Yanzong asked Wula Zhitao and Anla Xiaoer to wait outside the door with their horses, so he went straight into the courtyard.

The yard was very dilapidated, with almost nothing, and the three mud houses were low and dilapidated, almost on the verge of collapse.

Ala Yanzong shouted, "Is there anyone there?"

Didn't hear any response.

The door of the house was fastened with a wooden stick and the door hanger was fastened, and then it was discovered that this was an unoccupied house. Alayanzong pulled out the wooden stick and pushed the door open to enter the house. The house was completely bare, except for a few worn-out pieces of furniture, and only one was left.

The earthen bed is gone.

The house was full of dust, and it seemed that no one had lived in it for a long time. Ala Yanzong rummaged through the cupboards, but couldn't find even a bedding, so he left the house and said goodbye to the door hanging again.

As soon as he walked out of the gate, Ula Zhitao asked, "Is there anyone there?"

Ala Yanzong shook his head, "There is no one and nothing. Let's go to the next house and have a look."

The second family's situation was similar to that of the first family. When they reached the fourth family, Alayanzong saw someone, an old woman nearly seventy years old, sitting by the stove making a fire to cook.

Seeing someone coming, the old woman stood up and stared with a pair of frightened eyes. For some reason, a stranger suddenly came to the house.

Alayanzong saw that the old woman was skinny, hunched over, slow to move, her clothes were shabby, her face was wrinkled, and her cloudy eyes were listless. When he saw Alayanzong, he did not speak, but just stared at him blankly.

Ala Yanzong hurriedly stepped forward and bowed deeply, "Excuse me, grandma, we are here to stay overnight."

"Borrowing?"

The old woman spoke even more feebly. When she opened her mouth, she could see that there was not a single tooth in her mouth.

"Yes, the three of us passed by here and wanted to stay here for a night."

"Three people?"

The old woman looked surprised, her shriveled cheeks squirmed, and she had difficulty speaking.

"People in the village are running away to death. You are so brave. You dare to come to this ghost village. If I hadn't been too old to walk, I would have left long ago."

The old woman bent down and added a handful of firewood to the stove, then straightened up again.

"I can't accommodate the three of you here."

"Grandma, it doesn't matter if we can't live here. As long as we can find one or two beddings, we can stay in other people's homes."

At this time, Wula Zhitao and Anla Xiaoer led their horses into the yard. The old woman looked out the door and saw them.

"There is also a girl, who must have suffered a lot while traveling around."

Ala Yanzong took over the conversation, "Yes, I just plan to find a quilt for her. It doesn't matter to us two young men."

"Yes, yes, I have an extra one here, as long as you don't mind wearing it."

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. It's better to have something than nothing. Then thank the old lady." Ala Yanzong felt happy when he heard the old woman said yes, and quickly thanked him.

The old woman entered the house and quickly took out a quilt. The quilt was torn, gray and black. Not only was it patched, but the cotton wool was exposed in many places. The quilt was so thin that you could no longer tell what the surface of the quilt was.

What color? Alayan Zong thought: This is already very good, something is better than nothing.

Then he took out a silver coin from his pocket and handed it to the old woman, "Grandma, take this."

After taking the silver coin, the old woman shed a tear in her dry eyes. She opened her dry mouth and said, "Money is useless. You can't buy anything here no matter how much money you have. You might as well take it!"

Then he wanted to return the silver coins to Alayanzong.

Ala Yanzong stretched out his hand to hold the old woman's hand and said, "Grandma, take it first if it's useful or not. After all, we have used your quilt, so we should pay for it."

The old woman hesitated and finally accepted the silver coins, then said: "Ah, you haven't eaten yet? But I only made a little porridge here, which is only enough for one person. The three of you..."

Ala Yanzong said quickly: "Grandma, you don't have to worry about eating. We have brought dry food."

Hearing this, the old woman turned her face and muttered in a low voice, "There is actually dry food!" Then she turned around and said, "It's good that you have something to eat, it's good that you have something to eat!"

Ala Yanzong asked again: "Grandma, can you tell me why some residents have no one at all? I just heard you running around to death. What happened here? What is going on?

"

The old woman sighed, sat back on the wooden pier, and told the story of this small village.

A month ago, a group of people came from the south. At first glance, they were all poor people. Their clothes were ragged and weak, and they seemed to be sick. When they came to this small village, there would be a few people sitting at the door of almost every house, begging for food every day.

Some people had starved to death on the streets because they had no food to eat. Although the village was full of poor people, there were kind-hearted people who took dry food and gave it to them.

Even so, those people still gathered together to die. With the help of the villagers, all the corpses were buried in a mass grave in the south of the village.

In less than half a month, all these outsiders were dead.

What’s even more terrifying is that from then on, people in the village began to get sick, and some people began to die. Because the people in the village were poor, they had not received medical treatment. They usually carried the sick themselves, and they survived if they could not survive.

It was accepted by God.

The old woman said that there were only three or five people of her age in the village, and these few people had almost never been sick in their lives.

Some people began to be afraid, saying that the gang of outsiders had brought the plague to the village. When they saw that several families had indeed died, some people began to flee.

One family, two families... In the end, all the young people left, and these three or five old people were the only ones left in the village.

Because of this, the old woman said that this small village has become a ghost village.

But that's not all. Two days ago, another group of foreigners came. They were very similar to those who had been here before. They were also skinny and sickly. Just yesterday, someone died.

Even so, they did not leave the village because many farmers' homes were empty, so they stayed here.

I heard that they all brought some dry food, but not much, and could only last three or two days.

Perhaps because they were afraid of being infected by the plague, no one visited anyone else's house. They all stayed alone in the courtyard and resigned themselves to their fate.

The old woman said that she still had some food left at home, so she cooked some porridge every day, barely surviving, and living as long as she could. She had lived for so long and had no regard for life and death. God would take care of her when she would.

Ala Yanzong's heart was heavy after hearing this, "Grandma, you start cooking, we will arrange accommodation, and we will come back to see you."

"Ah... go ahead, go ahead! I won't keep you here anymore. There's no way to live in one room and one kang."

After bidding farewell to the old woman, the three Alayanzong people returned to the third house.

At this time, the sky had darkened. Allah Xiaoer and Wula Zhitao tied the horses to an elm tree in the yard. They found some straw in the corner of the yard, carried it under the tree, and let the two horses eat the grass in their mouths.

.

Ala Yanzong went into the house and found an oil lamp and lit it, and the room became brighter.

The three of them simply swept the earthen kang and spread the quilt on it, creating a temporary nest.
Chapter completed!