CHAPTER 321: CHAPTER 4: THE EERIE TOWN (PART 2)

The townspeople’s clothing was all very old-fashioned... Such attire is no longer worn in the present-day Shuzhou Region, except in some tourist-oriented ancient towns and villages, where such retro clothes are sold under the name of "handicrafts."

Sun Hang glanced around the street, three men and four women, plus two little girls, a total of nine townspeople... To the naked eye, they looked completely normal humans, with no signs of physical mutation.

However, Sun Hang quickly noticed something unusual: all the villagers, whether male or female, looked sallow and emaciated, except for the two little girls, who were plump and rosy, forming a sharp contrast with the adults.

"This town... is there a food shortage?" Sun Hang wondered, "But why is there such a stark difference between ’adults’ and ’children’?"

As he walked, he pondered, brushing past a "middle-aged woman" who was too preoccupied counting the things in her basket to even glance at Sun Hang.

Not just her, all the townspeople in the street showed no obvious reaction to Sun Hang’s presence... as if Sun Hang was originally a "person" living in this town.

The two little girls were playing, one holding a rattle drum, the other a kite. Sun Hang glanced at the toys in their hands — the strings of the rattle drum had snapped and the beads used to strike the drum were missing; the kite paper, glued onto a bamboo frame, was tattered and could no longer soar in the wind.

Sun Hang did not actively engage in conversation with the townspeople, instead silently continuing forward until he stopped at a stall.

There wasn’t much for sale at the stall, but it was a mix — cartoon-shaped hand-cranked pencil sharpeners, a few crudely made glass marbles, a pair of old straw sandals, a knife with peeling paint, and an oil paper umbrella.

All these items shared a common feature: they were "damaged."

The pencil sharpener’s crank was broken, the glass marbles were full of nicks, the sandal straps were frayed, the knife blade was bent and couldn’t retract into the handle... as for the oil paper umbrella, even though its canopy was relatively intact, at least twenty of its twenty-eight ribs were broken...

"Is this shop dealing in junk?" Sun Hang turned to look at items outside other stores and found similar offerings — things that could only be described as "rubbish" — and what bothered Sun Hang the most was that none of these shops sold "food."

"A food shortage? But if that’s the case... why did the ’old lady’ share ’food’ with me?" Sun Hang was puzzled, "Since the town’s shops don’t sell food, why did the ’old lady’ give me money?"

"No, from the gate ’old man’s’ words I can confirm that food is indeed available in town... Perhaps I just came to the wrong place, and the stores selling food are elsewhere?"

Sun Hang squatted by the stall, looking inside the shop.

The door was ajar, leaving only a palm-width gap. The shopkeeper seemed to be sitting behind the gap, holding something crafted from a section of bamboo, and as the shopkeeper "slurped" water tobacco, the flickering light of the pipe’s ember seemed to breathe.

The sound of smoking ceased, and a somewhat hoarse voice came from inside the gap: "Fair prices, no deceit, say if you fancy something."

"Boss, may I ask if you accept goods?" Sun Hang inquired.

"Accept?" The shopkeeper’s tone was a bit odd, "What do you want to sell?"

"Food." Sun Hang took out the container with "rice cakes" and placed it on the sieve.

The shopkeeper said nothing, but Sun Hang could hear "his" breathing become rapid, and with a creaking sound from a stool, the shopkeeper seemed to have leaned close to the gap, scrutinizing the item inside the container up close.

Yet even so, Sun Hang still couldn’t see the man’s face.

The darkness inside the house didn’t seem like optical darkness, but a substance capable of flowing, filling the entire room and covering the shopkeeper.

Before the shopkeeper could speak, an abrupt voice sounded behind Sun Hang.

"Such beautiful bait blocks."

Sun Hang turned to look, and it was the middle-aged woman he had brushed past earlier, having somehow "teleported" to Sun Hang’s back, her somewhat clouded eyes glinting with fervor, repeatedly swallowing her saliva.

"Bait blocks... so this ’rice cake’ is called bait block." Sun Hang noted internally.

"Is there food?"

"What? Where?"

It wouldn’t have been a problem if the middle-aged woman stayed silent, but as soon as she spoke, all the "adult" townspeople in the street were instantly drawn over... except for the two plump little girls, who continued playing, indifferent to what was happening here.

"What are you doing? Get away! All of you get away!" The shopkeeper’s voice came from inside, tinged with slight anger, "This bait block is being sold to me! What does it have to do with you all!"

"Have you paid?" The middle-aged woman edged closer, "No money means not sold yet!"

"I’ll buy it now! Just name your price!" The shopkeeper said hurriedly, seemingly afraid the bait block would be snatched away by the other townspeople.

As Sun Hang considered naming a price, the middle-aged woman lunged forward, reaching for the container!

In a flash, the darkness inside the shop surged from the door gap, engulfing the middle-aged woman’s arm, pulling her firmly into the shop!

The middle-aged woman’s face twisted, her mouth open wide, she let out unintelligible cries... Yet no matter how much she struggled, she was slowly dragged inside.

When the darkness finally devoured her last exposed foot, her cries vanished.

The surrounding townspeople immediately showed fear, retreating... and soon scattered away.

"She deserved it for not following the rules." The shopkeeper said angrily, "These cheap bones, spoiled them... They really think they’re something..."

Sun Hang: "Uh..."

"Name your price." The shopkeeper urged, "Just keep it within a range I can accept."

Sun Hang actually wanted to ask about the acceptable range, but he changed his mind and asked another question.

"Are you... hungry?"

"Hungry? Heh heh heh... heh heh heh..." A soft, eerie laugh came from the gap, "You’re stating the obvious, aren’t you? In today’s world, who do you think has a full belly? Locust plagues, droughts, floods... every year there’s famine, every year people starve to death... Who isn’t hungry? Go ask anyone on the street, who’s not hungry?"

"Famine... Is it a drought this year?" Recalling the cracked earth in the wilderness, Sun Hang asked instinctively.

"Isn’t it? With such scorching sun, any crops planted are baked dead... Even the landlords have no surplus grain." The shopkeeper responded.

Sun Hang looked up, at the pitch-black sky, devoid of any sun.

He had previously used a mirror to observe the sky, which was equally black in the mirror.

"Is there still enough food in the town?" Sun Hang asked again.

"If you ask if there’s enough, of course there’s not enough." The shopkeeper suddenly chuckled oddly, "Heh heh... But if you ask if there’s enough, then there is enough."

"Uh? What does that mean?" Sun Hang was puzzled, "Is there enough or not?"

"If you want to fill every mouth, there’s definitely not enough food. But as long as enough people starve to death... then eventually the food is enough, heh heh, maybe even some to spare!"