The queen must start from the head

Chapter 197
Li Mei, Chef Li from the public canteen of Wushuang City, opened her eyes, her face was slightly pale.

In the test on the second floor just now, she encountered the thing she was most afraid of, but fortunately, she finally walked out of the shadow of the past.

She looked around and found that she was already on the third floor of the Pagoda of Seven Emotions and Six Desires.

The white light shining around the tower is far less bright than on the first and second floors, probably because the number of candidates has decreased again.

At this time, a handsome man wearing a blue robe fell from the sky.

Everyone on the third floor cheered up one after another. They knew that this person must be the third floor's assessment judge.

The man in blue glanced at most of these people who looked hopeful, and said, "First of all, I have to congratulate you, because you only need to pass this hurdle to get the second hurdle of our faction's general election." Qualifications. But I also have to remind you. On the first floor, you had 1 people. On the second floor, there are still more than 5000 people, but now, there are only 1000 people left. These three levels are not easy. "

Among the crowd, a young man in a Confucian uniform saluted the man in blue, "I also ask the referee to give me some advice."

After hearing this, the man in blue curled his lips into a smile, stretched out his right hand holding a pitch-black folding fan, and tapped the ground where everyone's feet were with the tip of the fan.

In the next second, large circular circles overlapped one after another and appeared at the feet of everyone, which shocked them a little bit at a loss.

Just listen to the man in blue say, "The test on this third level is very simple. Everyone finds a circle and stands in it. You only need to stand for half an hour and then come out. This level will be considered passed."

Many candidates were surprised, so they just found a circle to stand in, and then came out after a while?
Is the assessment at this level so simple?
No, judging from such a cruel elimination rate in the first level, there must be a mystery in this circle.

Yan Beiyue, who was in the crowd, looked at the big circle that appeared under his feet, raised his feet and stepped into it.

She suspected that this level might still be a phantom array.

Think about it, if you have already passed the last level, why should you be afraid of what kind of tricks will come out of this phantom formation?
Just when Yan Beiyue stepped into the circle, Gu Gehan also walked into the circle.

He was cheering himself up in his heart, Brother Han, work harder!

As long as you pass these three levels, you will be able to enter the next round of assessment, and you will be one step closer to joining the Wushuang faction by then!

Not far away, a man in a Confucian uniform grabbed his robe and stepped into a circle.

Li Mei looked around and found that the circles around her had been taken over by others. She went to a remote corner to find an empty circle and stood on it.

Not long after entering the circle, her eyes suddenly went dark.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a simple kitchen.

A large pot and stove, a pile of firewood, and an old wooden table padded with stones, with a few plates, bowls and chopsticks.

As if out of some instinct, she searched around the kitchen for ingredients.

When I opened the big rice vat, there was no rice in it.Looking at the tank filled with water, the water in it has bottomed out.

She searched the kitchen for a long time, but couldn't find anything edible.

At this time, her stomach suddenly let out a gurgling sound, which was the stomach protesting the hunger.

Li Mei thought for a while, since there is no food in the kitchen, let's go out and find something to eat.

Wild vegetables in the fields, small fish and shrimps in the water, as long as you go out and look around, you can always find something to eat.

With that in mind, she walked out of the kitchen door.

Outside the kitchen is a small yard, and there is a simple thatched hut in the yard.

She pushed open the door of the thatched hut, and found that it was empty, with nothing in it, and it was a real barren house.

The ground in the yard was potholed, and a few clumps of weeds grew sporadically.

Li Mei walked out of the house, she felt that the hunger in her belly was stronger, and she had to find something to eat.

After leaving the small courtyard, there is a crooked dirt road outside, leading to a high slope ahead.

On both sides of the dirt road, on the left is a dry pond. In the dry mud, you can still see small silver fish that have died of thirst and dried in the sun. A group of flies and insects are circling around these foul-smelling dead fish.

On the right is a field that has been burned by fire, a color mixed with yellow and gray.

Li Mei walked into the field, stretched out her hands and picked up the black ash that looked like straw after burning, trying to pick out the missing wheat or rice grains from the ashes.

However, under the black ashes, there was not a single grain of food.

She stood up slowly and glanced at the big sun above her head.

There is nothing to eat here, so she has to find another place to continue looking.

So she walked up the high slope along the dirt road.

She found that on both sides of the high slope, many trees had been stripped of their bark.Those trees with edible leaves were all cut down and taken away.

Famine, these two words popped up in Li Mei's mind instantly.

There is a famine here.

She moved on, and at this moment, she saw a scene that she would never forget.

In a big rough tent set up by the roadside, there were several people with thin limbs and protruding abdomen lying in disorder.

Some of them are young and strong, and some are children, but they all have their eyes closed.

Flies that smelled of decay were constantly flying on them, sometimes stopping on a child's face, sometimes stopping on a young and strong chest.

Li Mei knew that these people became like this because of hunger, if they had nothing to eat, they would die soon.

Just as she was about to step forward to check on these people, two clerks who were dozing nearby noticed her and immediately surrounded her.

A small official came up to her and asked, "Are you here to fetch someone? Have you brought everything?"

She just wanted to see if these people could be saved, did she need to bring anything?

"I just wanted to see..."

As soon as she said this, the little official knew that she was not here to lead someone, so he waved her away directly.

Li Mei was puzzled and was about to ask questions when a thin, yellow-faced village woman led a boy with a big head and a small body to come over.

Another petty official stepped forward to ask the same question just now, "Are you here to collect people? Have you brought everything?"

"Bring it."

The woman spoke weakly, and then handed in a document with her fingerprints on it.

Li Mei stood next to the woman and glanced at the document. It seemed to be something like a letter of commitment.

After the woman handed in the document, the little official accepted the document, took out a heavy cloth bag from a bamboo basket behind him, and handed it to the woman to take it back.

Li Mei fixed her eyes on the bamboo basket behind the little official, she suspected that it contained food.

At this time, the little official was still telling the woman, "Don't talk nonsense when you go back. Your family didn't starve to death, but got edema, you know? If you dare to talk nonsense, don't blame the master for cutting off your family's rations." !"

"Yes, yes, yes, I know, I won't talk nonsense. My husband died of illness, not starvation..." The woman took the heavy cloth bag and muttered to herself. .

At this moment, Li Mei saw the right opportunity, and rushed to the bamboo basket with lightning speed, and opened the hemp cloth bag all at once.

As far as I could see, it turned out to be a piece of yellow millet!
"Stop! Brave woman, what are you doing!"

Another petty official who was resting on the ground saw Li Mei's strange behavior and immediately came over.

Li Mei grabbed a handful of millet with her hands, looked at the two clerks in front of her with disbelief, and asked sternly, "What is this? Tell me what is this? You obviously have a pile of grain here." , why not cook it for those people who are about to starve to death next to you? Why?!"

A petty official yelled back with a blushing neck, "Don't talk nonsense! Who said these people are going to starve to death? This is edema, and if you get this disease, you will die, not from starvation! If you keep talking nonsense, be careful of us. Arrest you and put you in prison!"

Another small official also said in a cold voice, "Which family in this village are you? You didn't lock the door and talked nonsense. Your family is out of rations today, do you know?!"

Li Mei was so angry that the two people trembled all over. At this moment, she wished she could smash the millet in her hand directly on the faces of the two.

But she couldn't, just the handful of millet in her hand might be able to save a person's life.

Since these two people are unwilling to save others, then she will come to save them!

She took off her outer robe and ran away after pocketing a pile of millet. The two little officials followed her and chased her all the way. They found that this woman was running faster than a rabbit, so they had to go back cursing repeatedly.

Seeing that Li Mei got rid of the pursuers, she was about to turn back to her home.

On the way home, she saw three sallow and emaciated men carrying a dead body wrapped in a thin mat and walking slowly on the road.

Through the holes in the mat and the high bulge in the middle of the stomach, Li Mei knew that this was another person who was starved to death.

She wanted to stop these three people to see if the people in the mat were really dead or still alive.

However, after the three men found her, they raised their heads to look at her in unison. Their eyes didn't look like they were looking at people, but like some kind of animal that had been hungry for a long time and wanted to eat people.

Li Mei's heart trembled, and when she sensed the danger, she immediately turned around and fled, and the three big men behind her also chased after her.

The three of them shouted feebly while chasing, "The big girl in front, don't go!"

"Don't run away! You don't run away!"

Li Mei knew that the three of them didn't have a good idea for her, how could there be any reason not to run away?

When she fled, she unknowingly fled to the official road.

In a pavilion on the official road, two middle-aged men dressed as officials were pushing cups and changing dishes. They ate a few meat and vegetables from time to time, and then said a few words.

"Brother Lin, you have figured out the situation here, right? There is no such thing as starving to death. They are all caused by edema... Sigh, pity the people in my county..."

As he spoke, the man wiped his eyes with his sleeve, making a look of embarrassment.

Brother Lin immediately comforted him and said, "Brother He, don't be sad, edema is a natural disaster, not a man-made disaster. Let me just say, Brother He, how could you do something to make the people suffer from hunger? There was a severe drought in the north of the Yangtze River last month. Didn’t the hundreds of thousands of shi of grain be donated from your Taiping County? Starved to death, brother He, where did you get the food to donate?"

Hearing the other party's words, the official surnamed He said with a dry smile, "It's extremely, it's extremely, or Brother Lin is right and sees it clearly..."

"Come on, brother Lin, let's have another drink. You should try this secret crispy duck as well. This is a local speciality, and a lot of rare game is added in it. It's a supplement!"

"Okay, okay, I must try a few more pieces."

In the grass beside the official road, Li Mei watched with her own eyes the two officials who were still feasting.

And right behind her at this moment, there are countless hungry villagers who will die at any time.

Those petty officials just guarded the food and forced the living to claim the "corpse"!
It is obvious that the person was starved to death, but insisted that he died of edema!
Heaven, please open your eyes and take a look!How can there be such a truth in this world that confuses right and wrong, and does not distinguish between good and evil!
There was a sharp pain in Li Mei's heart, she gasped for breath, and at the same time stretched out her hand to cover her violently beating heart.

How could she forget, how could she forget how her parents died during the famine?

How could she forget why the child who survived so hard tried so hard to become the best cook?Because she wants to personally send those greedy and heartless people to the road to hell!
In the pavilion, the attendants who were guarding around heard the sound of breathing from the grass.

"Who is hiding in the grass!"

"come out!"

They soon found Li Mei, and drew their shining swords on her.

But to their surprise, this woman dressed as a village woman showed no fear of the weapons in their hands.

She even reached out and untied the two kitchen knives hanging from her left and right waists.

The attendants couldn't help laughing.

"Did you see it? This stupid woman in the country is actually carrying two kitchen knives with her? What does she think she can do with these two kitchen knives?"

"It's normal in a small place in the countryside. There are too many fools like this..."

"I'd like to see if she will perform juggling for us with a kitchen knife..."

Listening to the mocking voices of these people, Li Mei's expression was unusually calm.

She said coldly, "People in the world think that my two kitchen knives can only be used to butcher cattle, chop bones, and chop vegetables, but they don't know that they can also kill people!"

As soon as she finished her words, the two kitchen knives swung up quickly, and directly chopped up the people in front of her cleanly. Each knife was cut just right, and it fell right into the gaps in the human bones.

When she retracted the knife, these people were separated from their flesh and bones, and turned into a large mass of meat, without the belt and bone at all.

The movement here quickly attracted the attention of the two officials in the pavilion.

When they stood up and looked at the woman walking towards them with a kitchen knife still dripping blood in both hands, both of them were so frightened that they could not speak.

In the next second, the light of the knife lit up, and in a short while, the two people also turned into a pile of meat.

Li Mei put away the kitchen knife, quietly wiped off the blood on the knife, and then reinserted the two kitchen knives into the cowhide scabbards on the left and right waists.

At this time, a voice sounded in the dark, as if it came from the sky.

The other party asked her, "Have you thought about the path you will take in the future?"

"Think clearly. From now on, I will cook and kill people."

Her heart told her that this was the way she would go in the future.

As Li Mei finished speaking, when she opened her eyes again, she found that she was already outside the Tower of Seven Emotions and Six Desires.

She was startled. Could it be that she failed the third-level assessment just now?
　There are many historical events that should not be forgotten
　　
　
(End of this chapter)