Exile at the start? Milkball filming, hoarding billions of resources

Chapter 52 The Cave?

Shen Zhaoning found an empty room and took off the mascot costume she was wearing.

Once the mascot costume was off, I felt much more relaxed.

Shen Zhaoning breathed a sigh of relief, folded the mascot costume and put it back in the bag, then skipped off to find her brother.

When she left, everyone was fine, but unexpectedly, the atmosphere became much heavier after she changed her clothes.

Shen Zhaoning turned her head in confusion.

"Brother? Did you two have a fight?"

Shen Zhaoning blinked and whispered her advice.

"Grandpa Zhou is old, don't take it to heart. We children should be magnanimous."

Qin Su coughed and spoke.

"We came here to find food, what are you all standing around for?"

Then everyone set off to search the mountain stronghold.

They searched the entire mountain stronghold but found no food.

There are only about ten kilograms of sorghum in the kitchen.

Ten or so kilograms sounds like a lot, but the Zhou family has a lot of people, so this amount of rice is only enough for one meal for the Zhou family.

Zhou Shouren looked at the rice in the kitchen and slumped to the ground.

"How could there be so little? That's impossible!"

"Each household has stockpiled over a hundred catties of grain, and the clan's large granary has at least a thousand catties stored up. How could there possibly be only this much!"

Shen Zhaoning's expression was serious.

"Could it be hidden?"

Zhou Shouren's face showed bitterness.

"I've already led my men and searched the entire mountain stronghold."

"I should have kept some of the bandits alive instead of killing them all."

A member of the Zhou clan echoed this.

"Yes, we searched the entire mountain stronghold thoroughly, inside and out, top to bottom, but we really couldn't find it."

Shen Zhaoning tried hard to use her little brain.

"Could it be...could it not be hidden in the mountain stronghold, but somewhere else?"

Shen Zhaoning's eyes lit up when she thought of the cave they had encountered on their way here.

"Did you go to that cave?"

"A cave?" The Zhou clan members looked at each other, bewildered. "We didn't see any cave!"

Qin Su also looked surprised.

"Is there a cave?"

Shen Zhaoning nodded and pointed to the large bowl of food in Qin Su's hand.

"This is what we got from the cave."

Qin Su opened the simple map Zhou Shouren had given her and examined it carefully.

"There are no caves, and we haven't found any caves on the mountain."

Zhou Shouren was overjoyed upon hearing this, and his aged face showed a hint of excitement.

"Great, maybe they hid the grain in the cave."

Since Shen Zhaoning didn't know the way, the task of leading the way fell to Xiaoman.

Xiaoman led the way with high spirits, while Shen Zhaoning followed behind, but she always felt that the road in front of her was becoming a little strange.

But she couldn't quite put her finger on what exactly was strange about it.

She just felt so tired, like the road would never end.

Shen Yu raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop.

"Something's not right; we've been going in circles."

Qin Su thought for a moment, tore off a strip of cloth from her clothes and tied it to a tree branch. The group continued forward, and soon they saw the cloth strip on the tree.

Zhou Shouren couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"We've actually been going in circles!"

Qin Su frowned.

"The fog is too thick to search at night, so let's all go down the mountain first and come back to look for food tomorrow."

Shen Yu was somewhat unwilling.

Having come this far, it would be too disappointing to leave empty-handed.

But seeing everyone's tired figures, and her younger siblings following her around, Shen Yu decided to play it safe.

"Okay, let's go down the mountain first."

However, when they turned around, they found that the road behind them had disappeared.

"What... what's going on?"

Everyone swallowed hard.

"Could this be... the legendary 'being trapped in a maze'?"

Looking at the strips of cloth on the tree, Zhou Shouren's back bent even more.

"I thought that killing the bandits would allow me to get back the grain and live a good life, but it seems I was being naive."

A timid tribesman swallowed hard.

"Those bandits kept begging for mercy, hoping we wouldn't kill them, but we didn't listen... Could it be that their resentment was too strong and they turned into vengeful ghosts, wanting to drag us down with them?"

The tribesman had barely finished speaking when someone knocked him on the head.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Young Master Shen is still here. What demon or monster would dare to cause trouble?"

"That's right, that young master Shen is someone who has divine assistance!"

"If I had known this would happen, I should have told that divine beast to slow down and lead the way for us."

Qin Su bent down and began to examine it carefully.

She looked at the arrangement of the trees around her and frowned.

"This isn't some kind of ghost or spirit trick; it's a Qimen formation."

"If you have this skill and join the army, you will definitely receive preferential treatment."

"It's really strange that I came to this small mountain stronghold to become a bandit."

Qin Su slowly stood up.

"These bandits might not be simple. When I fought with them just now, I could tell that their leader was quite skilled and a trained fighter."

Cheng Hu nodded as well.

"Some of them were using military tactics. I suspect they are either deserters or private soldiers kept here by someone."

Upon hearing Cheng Hu's words, Zhou Shouren's face turned pale instantly.

If they are deserters, that's fine, but if they are private soldiers kept by someone, that's a disaster.

So many of them went up the mountain in a grand procession, making quite a commotion.

If the owner of the private soldiers discovers that these men are dead, he will certainly take the initiative to investigate.

Young Master Shen and his companions were already exiled criminals. By the time their private army owner found out, they would probably already be in the northern frontier.

What can the Zhou clan do?

Zhou Shouren had originally wanted to go with Shen Yu and the others, and now he was even more determined to do so.

Even if Young Master Shen doesn't want them, they can shamelessly follow him.

As long as they don't explicitly say they want to follow Shen Yu, what can anyone do to them?

Shen Zhaoning asked, her face pale.

"Acupuncture technique? What kind of acupuncture technique? Will we get hurt?"

Qin Su shook her head and said in a deep voice.

"This formation is extremely sophisticated; it cannot be broken without the intervention of a master."

"unless……"

Shen Zhaoning asked, "Unless what?"

"Set the mountain on fire..."

Qin Su frowned deeply.