vrcanaries Chapter 450: Discovery: It’s the wine that’s the problem
Chapter 450: Discovery: It’s the wine that’s the problem
"Village chief, who are these people who died from being possessed by evil spirits?" Yao Qingnian wondered if it had anything to do with these deaths. Someone did it on purpose, rather than being possessed by evil spirits. Although no signs of poisoning were found on those people, it seemed that something was related.
"There are more than ten in total, all of them died accidentally. The first one was Li Mei's husband, who fell into the river and drowned. But one of the women died in front of a grave with her head buried in the grave and suffocated to death. The others also died of various reasons."
Accidental death? The child, the child's father, the woman's grave?
Yao Qingnian had no idea for a moment, and followed the village chief back. As they walked, they suddenly smelled a strong aroma of wine.
"Village Chief, who is brewing wine here? It smells so good."
"You have a keen nose, girl. Here, almost every family will use old rice to brew some rice wine to satisfy their cravings. We can't compare with the city, but rice wine is hard to come by. After brewing, we will carry it to the town to sell. This is also one of the sources of income for the villagers in our village. Although it doesn't make much money, it is still enough to supplement the family income.
But unfortunately, after that incident, no one dared to buy wine from our village anymore. "The village chief took them past a house, and the man and his wife were just opening the lid of the old jar of freshly brewed wine. The aroma of the wine was so fragrant that those who loved drinking felt a little itchy when they smelled it.
After the wine is brewed, they put it into jars, put it on the fire, and burn it for a day and half a night, so that the taste will be more mellow.
"Village chief, where are you going? Would you like to try this freshly-made wine from my jar? It's been warmed over the fire overnight and it's very sweet!" When the man saw the village chief, he took a bowl and poured him some for him to taste, regardless of whether the village chief and the others agreed or not.
"Tsk tsk, Wangsheng, you've lied to me, an old man, again. Your wine is still as strong as ever, but it's very fragrant." The village chief took a sip and said with a smile. He couldn't drink much, and his family didn't like to drink, so he seldom brewed wine. But when the neighbors brewed wine, they would send him some, and he would keep it at home to entertain guests occasionally.
"Strong? I don't think so." Wangsheng touched his head and looked behind the village chief: "Isn't this the girl and the young man from last night? Alas! Thanks to you last night, otherwise my nephew might have gotten into trouble. We don't know what sin our village has committed to have such a thing happen. Come on, there is not much good stuff in our remote area. This is the only wine we can offer. Come on, have a taste." Wangsheng poured a bowl for each of them without saying a word.
"Good wine." Wang Wu drank the wine in one gulp and couldn't help but exclaim in praise.
"If you like it, take some back. This wine can't be sold now anyway, so just brew some for your own consumption. You can't finish so much." The man named Wangsheng brought a few wine jars and handed them to them.
"No need, it's embarrassing for us to drink and take at the same time."
"Don't be polite! You've helped us a lot, this is nothing." The man enthusiastically stuffed the wine jug into Wang Wu's arms. Wang Wu felt a little embarrassed, but he really liked the wine, so he simply took out a piece of silver and threw it to him, then ran away with the wine, fearing that the villagers would not take the silver.
"Hey, wait!" The villager looked at the silver in his hand and wanted to chase after him.
Yao Qingnian persuaded him: "Big brother, just take it. We can't take your things for free."
"This..." The villager looked embarrassed, and only after the village chief asked him to do so did he accept it.
Yao Qingnian and the others also took a few sips and found it tasted really good. They walked around the village again and then returned to the village chief's house. Based on the clues provided by the village chief and villagers today, they analyzed that this evil spirit must have been man-made and was related to the people in the village. Among these people, the most suspicious one was Li Mei, so Yao Qingnian asked Xuanfeng to quietly keep an eye on her to see if there was anything he found.
At night, Wang Wu took out the wine he had brought from Wangsheng today, and after asking Yao Qingnian if he could drink it, he happily started drinking with the village chief and the others. The village chief's wife prepared some snacks for them, but the village chief was not very alcoholic, and he couldn't drink anymore after just two glasses.
Zi Yexiu and the others ignored him, so Wang Wu had no choice but to drink a few cups and go back to his room to sleep.
After everyone went to bed, Xuanfeng came back angrily and said, "Miss, there is a situation."
"What's going on?" Yao Qingnian asked, looking at his angry look.
"You asked me to guard the door of Limei's house. After dark, I found a man sneaking into Limei's yard. At first I thought it was her lover, but she is not mentally ill, so how could he have a lover?
Not long after, I saw a man coming out. I wanted to go into the yard to check on the woman, but another man came in stealthily. In one night, three men took turns entering her house. They all seemed to be villagers.
He is simply not a human being! He is worse than an animal, actually bullying a mentally ill woman. But the strange thing is that I didn't hear the woman resist, so I didn't alert the enemy."
"Logically speaking, she should have protested loudly against this kind of thing..." Shan Wei said.
Unexpectedly, a woman like her would encounter such a thing. First, her son and husband died, and now she is humiliated by the villagers in turn. It is too miserable.
At this moment, Wang Wu's door opened. He thought they had woken him up because of their conversation, but Yao Qingnian looked at him with a strange look, so he shouted, "Wang Wu?"
Wang Wu seemed to have seen nothing and walked straight past them without any reaction.
"He seems to be possessed as well!" said Tornado as he looked at him.
Wang Wu walked out the door unconsciously. Yao Qingnian stepped forward and stabbed him with a needle. After a long while, Wang Wu finally recovered. He looked at the people who were staring at him in a daze and asked, "Miss, what's wrong with me? Why am I here?"
"You are possessed by evil spirits." Tornado reminded from the side.
"What nonsense are you talking about, you little brat? I was sleeping soundly in the room..." Wang Wu looked at them in a daze, but when he saw that he was indeed in the yard, he suddenly realized: "I know, miss, it's the wine that's the problem! None of you drank tonight, I drank the most!"
Yao Qingnian asked Wang Wu to give her the remaining wine. She took it into the space for testing and found the problem in the wine. The wine contained an unknown ingredient which was non-toxic but had hallucinogenic properties. Excessive consumption could cause people to lose consciousness and have short-term sleepwalking. Moreover, the onset of the disease usually occurred at night after people fell asleep and the drug's effect was short-lived, lasting only about two hours at most. This was why the doctors could not diagnose the disease.