Silence reigned, and no numbers appeared.
"It seems it won't work."
Disappointment washed over him as he raised his head.
After taking a moment to rest and reflect, he suddenly recalled the two individuals he had just seen.
"Threats may not only come from monsters and eerie shadows, they could also come from people. Therefore, safety must come first."
"My physical condition is lacking. I'm worse off than the stuttering kid, and I still haven't fully adapted to life here. The quickest way to ensure safety for now is to equip myself!"
Unfortunately, there were no weapons nearby.
Was he supposed to just swing an axe at someone?
His gaze fell on the axe, saw, steel nails, hammer, and all sorts of tools scattered around.
Shaking his head inwardly, he found little hope in those objects.
But regardless, he nonetheless approached the tools, picked up the axe, and confirmed the reinforcement had begun by watching the numbers appear on it.
"Well, there's still time. I might as well try reinforcing it."
Once he confirmed the start, he placed the axe in a corner and covered it with something.
He then walked to the door and peered through the small window to look outside.
There was no one around; it was utterly quiet.
The wind rustled the leaves gently, not even a chirp from insects or birds.
Creak.
Yu Hong opened the door, clutching a bag of protein bars, and cautiously glanced around.
After ensuring the steel nail gem stick secured at his waist was in place—something that had helped him considerably last time—he felt a wave of relief.
Encountering a shadowy figure had been a great challenge, but according to the stuttering kid, those shadows couldn’t be permanently killed; they would quickly reappear.
Still, being able to relieve immediate danger was enough.
He shut the wooden door tightly, his brow furrowing slightly.
"There’s nothing to hide the stuff inside; if someone were to discover this place, everything would be gone."
He felt the doorknob, turning it over; it was a standard metal structure, cold and hard.
This wooden door hadn’t been locked initially, and he had no skills in crafting locks.
Yet, after reinforcement, a lock had appeared alongside a few keys.
This aspect of the black seal reinforcement mechanism intrigued Yu Hong greatly.
He stood at the door, gathering branches and vines from his surroundings, and scattered them across the entrance.
From a distance, it wouldn’t be very conspicuous now.
Though it was still unsafe, it was much better than before.
After making hiding arrangements, he quietly headed towards Baiqiu Village.
The protein bars had alleviated the food shortage for the two of them, but the more pressing issue now was the candles.
"We don’t have enough candles!"
If the surge indeed extended to six days, their three candles wouldn’t last at all.
They needed to trade for more.
Following the familiar mountain path, Baiqiu Village came into view after about ten minutes.
Yu Hong was about to approach when suddenly, he halted his steps.
His expression changed slightly as he stared in the direction of Baiqiu Village, quickly ducking behind a tree.
Between his position and the old road leading to Baiqiu Village, a figure lay sprawled on the grass.
A man in camouflage clothing, tall and skinny, with black hair.
The man lay still, a pool of blood spreading beneath him, soaking the grass red.
"Dead?" Yu Hong thought, feeling his heart race as he hid behind the tree.
He remained frozen, closely observing.
He didn’t dare breathe heavily, worried it might alert anyone nearby.
He hid behind the tree for a long time, until he finally guessed that either the man was dead or in a deep coma.
He scanned his surroundings to ensure no one was hiding nearby before slowly stepping out from behind the tree, inching closer to the figure.
Once at the man’s side, he crouched down and gently tapped his shoulder.
"Hey?"
No response.
Yu Hong reached out and touched the side of the man’s neck.
Cold.
His heart skipped a beat; he realized the man really was dead.
A corpse.
A corpse of someone he had just seen moments before.
Thinking of this, Yu Hong's face turned pale.
His abdomen tightened, breath quickened, his pupils dilating, and he felt a wave of nausea rising.
Just the thought of having touched the man made him feel filthy.
Suppressing the urge to vomit, he took a deep breath before firmly gripping the corpse's shoulder and flipping it over.
Thunk.
The black-haired man lay on his back, staring at the sky.
A gaping dark red hole marked his left chest.
His eyes were wide, and his mouth agape as if in a scream.
Yu Hong dared not look anymore and quickly rummaged through the man's pockets.
His search through the upper pockets, pants pockets, and waist pouch yielded nothing edible, no useful tools, only a black radio that was cracked and broken.
Yu Hong snatched up the radio and dashed away without a backward glance.
He wanted nothing more than to leave the corpse behind.
Though he had anticipated he might see such a scene, the reality of a corpse right before his eyes filled him with an unrest he couldn’t suppress.
He ran wildly until he arrived at the stuttering kid’s house.
Bang bang bang.
He knocked urgently on the door.
"Stuttering kid, let me in!" He hurriedly recited a string of jumbled numbers.
That was their agreed-upon code.
Bang bang bang!
The rapid knocking echoed like thunder in the quiet dusk of Baiqiu Village.
Normally, whenever Yu Hong knocked, the stuttering kid would promptly open the door.
But this time, there was silence from within.
"Stuttering kid?" Yu Hong raised his voice instinctively.
His knocks and calls echoed back from the empty, dark houses, causing a growing sense of unease within him.
"Stuttering kid!?" A shiver ran down Yu Hong’s spine.
Was she not home?
He looked around carefully, confirming no shadowy figures were lurking before he paused his knocking.
Where could that kid be? Nightfall was approaching, and without a place to hide soon, it would be too dangerous!
Breathing heavily, one hand held tight to the protein bar bag while the other grasped the steel nail gem stick.
"Come on, let me in!" A familiar voice finally came from inside the room.
It was the stuttering kid!
A wave of relief washed over Yu Hong as he knocked again.
"It’s almost dark; let me in!"
"Okay," the stuttering kid replied from inside.
"I’ll be right there."
Yu Hong breathed a sigh of relief and kept watch to the sides, fearing the strange figure in white might reappear.
This village felt unsettling.
There were far more shadowy figures here than in the caves outside.
This was one of the reasons he was eager to leave.
He waited about ten seconds.
"Are you coming?" Seeing the door still closed, Yu Hong’s brow furrowed slightly.
The night was quickly approaching.
If he didn’t get inside soon, it would become dangerous.
"I'm coming."
The stuttering kid’s voice suddenly rang out from behind the door.
So close, so very near, as if she was right against the door talking.
But Yu Hong hadn’t heard any footsteps inside!
In such an eerily quiet environment, he shouldn't have missed any sounds from within!
Yet the previous replies from the stuttering kid had come with no footsteps mixed in at all.
It was as if…
It was as if she had suddenly appeared at the door's back without any warning.
At that moment, Yu Hong felt a surge of fear again.
Creak.
The door slowly opened a crack.
Bang!!!
Just then, he kicked hard, slamming his foot against the wooden door.
The loud crash exploded in the air; Yu Hong lifted the steel nail stick and smashed it inside!
"Die, die, die, die!!!"
He was flooded with terror, wielding the reinforced gem stick in fierce blows against the inside of the door.
Smash, smash, smash!
Before the pale figure behind the door had a chance to show itself, it was pummeled into fragments by the strikes, dissipating into nothingness.
"Stuttering kid!!” Yu Hong shouted as he charged into the room, his fear driving him to frantically scan the interior, ready to strike at anything.
But the inside was empty.
Only a piece of paper lay on the table, marked with charcoal pencil scribbles.
Yu Hong gasped for breath, then felt a warm, sticky liquid drip from his nostrils.
He wiped at it, finding it was a vivid red—blood.
"What kind of shadow is this? How did it make me bleed without even touching me?" He noticed a throbbing pain in his chest and looked down to find his shirt had been sliced open, revealing a long gash.
Blood slowly seeped from the wound, a clear indication that the shadow had struck him with some unknown method.
Bang.
He closed the door, lit a candle,
Yu Hong sank into a chair, taking deep breaths to calm himself.
"This damn place!"
He lowered his head, cursing.
"This freaking cursed place!!!"
After a moment, he again restrained his voice and cursed quietly.
The light of the candle flickered, casting a long shadow of his figure on the ground, shaking constantly.
Picking up the paper on the table, Yu Hong suppressed the ache in his heart and read:
"I’m going to trade for candles, back tomorrow."
There were no punctuation marks, no spaces, and the handwriting was crooked.
The only fortunate thing was, he could understand it.
Setting the paper down, Yu Hong pinched his nose with one hand, waiting for the blood to cease.
"I must build an absolutely safe place! A place where I won’t fear any danger ever again! I will!"
He had had enough of this cursed land, filled with traps and disguises everywhere!
Holding the candle, he got up and sat beside the bed, his eyes drawn to the cracks in the door and window.
That’s where the black bugs might crawl in.
The invasion of the black bugs didn’t have a fixed timing, coming every three to five days.
According to the stuttering kid, in the early days, there weren’t as many black bugs; it wasn’t so dense.
Now it seemed to multiply greatly, consuming far more candles than before.
After a long while, once the bleeding stopped, Yu Hong finally freed a hand to check his chest wound.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too itchy or painful.
Since there was no clean water, he had to endure; if it got infected, it could become a real problem.
After confirming everything was alright, he sighed with relief, listening to the eerie whistle of the wind outside and sitting alone by the bed, feeling a deep loneliness swell within him.
"Maybe, at this point, Baiqiu Village only has me left?"
The villagers had left, only the stuttering kid remained here alone.
Yu Hong didn’t know how she had survived, but it must have been tough and dangerous.
He sighed deeply and leaned back.
Suddenly, he felt something hard beneath him.
Huh?
He reached down to check and pulled out—
It was the radio.
"Wait a minute, could I reinforce this broken radio?"
Just as he was about to set it aside, a sudden thought flashed in his mind.
With that thought, the surface of the radio lit up to show a number: 5:12.
(End of Chapter)