Chapter 112.1
The village shrouded in the darkness of night was completely silent. There was not even chirping of insects and birds, as if there were no living creatures other than them within a hundred miles.
Xiao Tangqiu rummaged through the room again, but only found some miscellaneous daily items, not important plot items and clues. Of course, he also did not find any food in stock. The middle-aged man hadn’t lied to them. There was no sustainable food on the island.
“There should be no shortage of water resources on this island,” Xiao Tangqiu turned his head and looked at the enamel cup which still had water in it, “Maybe there is a river or groundwater.”
“But we didn’t see a river when we came. If there is a river, it might be deep in the island,” Xiao Tangqiu hesitated before continuing to say, “…but it’s too strange. Since the sea here has no buoyancy, how did the outsiders come? I initially thought that they drifted to this island after a shipwreck.”
Tang Mianmian thought about it for a while and said, “Maybe it was an airplane crash? They landed on this island after the crash?”
“Unless the plane crashed exactly onto this island, it would have sunk in the waters nearby,” Xiao Tangqiu shook his head. “This island is not big. If a plane crashed here from a high alt.i.tude, the island would be gone.”
“d.a.m.n, I should have continued interrogating that guy just now! Actually let him get away!” Duan Hongzhen was a little rueful, “We should have left someone to watch that guy.” They haven’t suffered from this kind of thing for a long time.
“Forget it, hindsight is useless,” Xue Junli frowned, “They can’t really disappear into thin air. Just look again.”
“Clearly, that guy said that he can’t go out after dark, why is he gone then?” Duan Hongzhen curled his lips, “Including the whole village too!”
At this moment, Xiao Tangqiu suddenly turned over a photo on the bed. Of course, it was said to be a “bed”, but it was actually just a simple wooden plank made with a few bamboos. Even the “quilt” was just a heavy, worn-out cotton coat.
He just picked up the big cotton-padded coat when a photo fell out.
He picked it up and saw that it was an old yellowed photo. The photo was a picture of a young couple. A young man and a woman smiled happily at the camera. The wife’s abdomen was slightly raised, obviously pregnant.
“What photo?” Tang Mianmian leaned over to look and suddenly discovered something, “Who is this man? Why is it so like that middle-aged man? Is it a photo of him when he was young?”
“No, this photo is not very old. It should have only been taken a few years ago. Even if the middle-aged man was once this young, it was at least twenty years ago.” Xiao Tangqiu shook his head, “A photo from twenty years ago would not be so new.”
“Then that’s his son? His son and daughter-in-law?” Tang Mianmian touched his chin, “No, no matter how similar a father and son look, they won’t look exactly the same. Even the mole under his mouth is in the exact same place.”
Other than the large age difference, the young man in the photo looked exactly the same as the middle-aged man, even down to the mole.
Xiao Tangqiu squinted and said, “…I think it should be the same person.”
“But the age is wrong! The man in the photo is only in his twenties, the middle-aged man is at least in his forties,” Tang Mianmian said, touching his chin. “The photo shouldn’t look so new no matter how well protected it is.”
Xue Junli suddenly said, “It shouldn’t have been twenty years. Although the electric kettle has broken down, if it is really used for twenty years, the level of wear and tear will definitely not be like this.”
The handful of newbies were befuddled, and finally, one newbie couldn’t help but ask, “What do you mean? What the heck are you guys talking about?”
Xiao Tangqiu took a look at the newbie and said lightly, “a.s.suming that these outsiders really landed on this island because of a shipwreck or a plane crash, we are speculating how long they have been here. Based on the photo and the things he brought, He should have only lived on this island for a few years. But his current age does not match the age in the photo.” Even if a few years pa.s.sed, the person in the photo should be in between twenty and thirty, but he was actually forty to fifty.
“So what?” the newbie said casually, “maybe he aged very fast on the island. He can’t eat or sleep enough and had a rough time surviving.”
Another newbie couldn’t help but interject, “No matter how aged, he can’t age to forty or fifty years old, right? A guy in his twenties looks older than my dad!”
Tang Mianmian couldn’t help but think down a rabbit hole, “Is the time flow rate on the island different from the normal time flow rate of our body?”
Xiao Tangqiu frowned, “If this woman is his wife, what happened to his wife?”
Tang Mianmian guessed, “Maybe already dead? Died in that plane crash or shipwreck?”
“No,” Yu Fuling suddenly said, “There are some used feminine products in this room. I think his wife should not be dead… at least not from some crash.”
“Maybe we just haven’t seen her yet?” Tang Mianmian continued to guess.
“By the way, what about that piece of meat?” Xiao Tangqiu suddenly remembered something, “Where is the piece of meat he brought back?”
“It’s gone. Did he eat it?” Tang Mianmian casually said, “It’s such a big piece of meat, props if he actually finished it in a few minutes… or he took it with him.”
Xiao Tangqiu collected the photo, “Let’s search another house.”
So they divided the work and searched all the houses in the village, but they still found nothing.
“Forget it, it seems that there is really no clue. Let’s go to the Sacred Tree.” Xue Junli said lightly.
Xiao Tangqiu nodded. They really couldn’t waste too much time here. They only had one day, after all.
Seeing that they were about to leave the village, a newbie couldn’t help but ask, “Can you really not bring us with you?”
Duan Hongzhen raised an eyebrow, “We won’t stop you if you want to follow us, but if you encounter danger, we won’t care.”
The newbies looked at each other, and in the end most of them chose to stay. Only one newbie silently followed Xiao Tangqiu’s group.
Xiao Tangqiu looked back and saw that it was the young man who wanted to save the drowner earlier. He raised his eyebrows and said nothing.
At this time, the sky was dark, and the woods under the night sky was gloomy and mysterious. From a distance, the densely growing trees with dark bark looked like black beasts with teeth and claws.
After everyone went deep into the jungle, Xiao Tangqiu realized that the surrounding area was getting colder and colder, and the trees were getting denser. The thorns also seemed to be getting more and more dangerous. His back felt cold, and he even felt the illusion of countless eyes staring at him in the woods.
At this moment, a scream suddenly sounded.
“There’s someone!”
Xiao Tangqiu blurted out subconsciously. .
“It’s impossible!” Yu Fuling frowned, “I didn’t detect any signs of living people!”
Tang Mianmian paused, “…Maybe it’s not a living person.”
Duan Hongzhen sneered, “Go and see first!”
Everyone immediately rushed towards the place where the screams came from.
Soon, they saw a shocking scene. A tree was eating people!
A black bark tree covered with thorns was eating someone. A huge cracked bud-like mouth protruded from the big hole in the center of its trunk. The mouth was covered with jagged teeth, which had almost swallowed half of the man!
Xiao Tangqiu r hit the weird tree with an arrow without hesitation. The magical arrow was extremely lethal and it pierced three parts into the trunk of the tree at once!
But then, the strange tree suddenly screamed!