Chapter 26: A Brief Moment of Peace

  They found a restaurant that looked okay and walked in, sitting down at a table placed in the corner of the wall, where they could see the entire restaurant. They each ordered a bowl of rice with toppings and slowly sipped the tea brought over by the owner.

  "Business seems pretty good here!" Lin Yuan took a sip of tea and glanced around the restaurant.

  "Hmm!" Su Jiner replied absent-mindedly, she was still thinking about Du Xiaonan's words, and didn't know where the forest she mentioned was.

  "Alright, let your brain rest for a while! When the boss comes later, we'll ask him and then we'll know where the forest is."

  "Hehe! How did you know what I was thinking?"

  "Ah! You think I don't know about that little trick you've got up your sleeve?"

  At this time, a very fat middle-aged woman brought over the cooked rice.

  "Boss, do you know where there is a forest near here?" Lin Yuan asked with a smile.

  The boss looked at them and said, "You two are students of Yijiang Medical College, right?"

  "Yes."

  "I heard that there have been many deaths at your school recently! Is that true?" Jin'er looked at her helplessly, this woman should be the boss's wife and also a very gossipy one.

  Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Does Auntie want to know very much?"

  "With such a big case happening, the whole town is in an uproar and people are panicking. Families with children studying there are scared to death." The boss's wife said with a frown.

  "Don't worry! The police will definitely find the murderer." Su Jiner said with a piece of tofu in her mouth.

  "Police?" The landlady sat down beside them and said in a low voice, "Let me tell you secretly! Those things were not done by humans, but by those things. It's not something that can be stopped by human power."

  When Lin Yuan heard the boss's words, she was choked and coughed non-stop. Su Jin'er gently patted her back and said, "How do you know it wasn't done on purpose?"

  "You weren't just asking if there's a forest nearby? There is, but nobody dares to go to that forest now. At midnight, the sound of a woman's mournful cry echoes from there, it's really scary, who would dare to go? I advise you not to go." The old school nurse said mysteriously.

  "A woman's cry? What happened there?" Su Jiner put down her chopsticks and listened seriously to every word she said.

  "Four years ago, a very handsome young man suddenly appeared in our town. He was about twenty years old and was quite strange. He didn't live in the town but insisted on living alone in the forest. Originally, our town was very peaceful and had never had any murder cases, but after he arrived, things started to happen."

  "What's going on?"

  "Some people were killed and died miserably, I remember the first girl who died was named Liu Xiaofang, that girl looked delicate and very beautiful, but was killed by someone."

  "Was she killed by that young man?" Lin Yuan asked excitedly.

  The boss's wife shook her head and said, "I don't know, the police didn't find out anything. It's just a pity for that poor girl, she died without being able to clear her name."

  "You mean that girl was raped and murdered?"

  "Oh dear! How pitiful!"

  "Where was the body found?"

  "It was in that strange house in the woods! Afterwards, a mournful cry began to spread through the woods."

  Su Jin'er wanted to ask more questions, but just then some customers came in. The landlady smiled and told them to take their time eating, then went to attend to the customers.

  "I think we've found a clue." Su Jin'er said with a smile after the boss's wife left.

  "What about that forest and the strange house? Maybe these have nothing to do with our investigation!" Lin Yuan shrugged his shoulders, helplessly looking at the cold food in front of him.

  "Why don't we get the boss's wife to warm us up?" Su Jiner said with a raised eyebrow and a smile.

  "Alright!"

  They had finished lunch at two o'clock. The boss's wife was afraid that they would encounter danger in the woods, so she refused to tell them the specific location of the woods. Originally, the boss's wife knew that after they asked about the woods, thinking that telling them might scare them away, so they wouldn't go. Unexpectedly, it had the opposite effect, and now her intestines were regretting turning green.

  The landlady was standing in the kitchen talking to her husband: "Do you think they will get into trouble? They look so pretty."

  Her husband patted her bulging belly and said, "We've done what we should do. If anything happens, it's just their bad luck!"

  Su Jiner and Lin Yuan walked on the street, with various vendors setting up stalls on both sides of the street, their hawkings filling the air above the town.

  "You said, how come those police can't find any evidence? Investigating the scene and searching for fingerprints should be done! How come they seem to know nothing?" Lin Yuan suddenly thought of this question.

  Su Jiner had thought about it, but the probability of such a homicide occurring in this small town was too low. Those police officers were just there to put on a show and intimidate ordinary people.

  Since the murder case occurred, the police only went to the scene and took away the body. They didn't even conduct the most basic investigation before leaving, and they never came back again.

  Suddenly, a loud noise came from the street not far away from them, and it sounded like someone was fighting.

  "Let's go and take a look." Lin Yuan excitedly pulled Su Jiner's hand and ran off to watch.

  "Xiao Yuan, we still have things to do!"

  They squeezed into the crowd and saw a fierce-looking man in the middle of the crowd beating an old, frail man. As he beat him, he was also cursing with foul language.

  "How can you hit an old man?" Su Jiner said angrily.

  "Why didn't anyone come out to stop them?! Are these people just here to watch the excitement?"

  "Is this person sick?" Su Jiner said in a gloomy tone, turning her head to look for a stick or stone.

  "Little girl, it's better not to interfere in other people's business. This man is a notorious hooligan in our town and no one dares to provoke him." said an old man beside her.

  "Where are the police? Are all the police dead?" Lin Yuan angrily cursed.

  "Alas..." The old man sighed helplessly.

  Su Jiner saw a stick that wasn't very thick next to her, ran over to pick it up, and then walked towards the man.

  Lin Yuan grabbed her and said, "Jin'er, be angry if you must, but you can't beat him."

  "I hate this kind of person the most, can't beat him but still want to fight." She was very angry, knowing that if she hit him in the past, he would pinch her to death like an ant, but she still wanted to go.

  Seeing Su Jin'er's determined expression, Lin Yuan picked up a stone from the ground and held it in his hand, he couldn't beat him but he wanted to hurt him.

  "Little girl, don't go, it's dangerous!" The old man tried to persuade them.

  "It's all right, sir!" Su Jin'er said with a smile.

  That man is still beating the old man, he seems to be hitting him with even more force now, earlier he was just using his hands, but now he's started kicking him with his feet, the old man's pitiful cries are unbearable to watch.

  Su Jiner and Lin Yuan approached him from both sides, one on the left and one on the right, slowly closing in on him. It seemed that someone in the crowd had caught wind of their intentions, and they gradually narrowed the circle to conceal their actions. Just as they were two meters away from the big man, they suddenly rushed forward, using the "weapons" in their hands to violently strike his head.

  "Ah yo!"

  "Run quickly!"

  Su Jiner pulled Lin Yuan to run outside the crowd, the big man scolded loudly and kicked the old man's body with one foot, covering his bleeding head and starting to chase Su Jiner.

  The people around them made a big fuss and blocked the Great Han from chasing after them.

  The big fellow was squeezed in the crowd, muttering and cursing: "You damned lasses, just wait till I catch you, I'll skin you alive."

  Su Jiner pulled Lin Yuan all the way out of town. They were panting and bent down, suddenly bursting into loud laughter.

  "I didn't expect our Su Da beauty to do something like this, today was really an eye-opener." Lin Yuan laughed until he was out of breath, holding his stomach and laughing nonstop.

  "Who made that person so hateful! And the people in that town are really annoying, they just stood by and watched." Su Jiner angrily put her hands on her hips.

  Seeing her posture, Lin Yuan couldn't help but laugh so hard he almost rolled on the ground.

  Su Jiner smiled slightly, she did it on purpose, she felt very sorry for Lin Yuan, letting her fall into such fear.

  She looked around and found that everything was unfamiliar, in the panic they didn't even know where they had run to.

  "Lin Yuan, we... seem to be lost." She said with some tension.

  At this moment, they can no longer see the town from where they are standing. Su Jin'er glanced at her watch and it was already half past three. The sky is very gloomy, looking like it's going to snow again.

  All they could see was a vast expanse of whiteness, the snow on the ground still thick and clean, except for their two sets of footprints.

  "What are we going to do now?" Lin Yuan slowly approached Jin'er, who was nervously looking around, staring at every rustle of the wind.

  This is not a plain, the medical college is at the foot of the mountain, but its geographical location is still higher than that of the small town. However, the small town which was just behind me has disappeared as if it never existed.

  "Jin'er, I feel like we've jumped into a trap that someone else has already set for us. It's deep and terrifying."

  Su Jiner nodded, she thought that this person behind her must be coming for herself, but why didn't he directly attack herself?

  "How silly we are! The snow is so thick, there must be footprints left by us when we came up. As long as we follow the footprints down, won't we get back to town?" Jin'er looked at Lin Yuan with a hint of amusement.

  "Oh yeah! We're really stupid."

  But when they cast their eyes on the ground, they found that the terrifying thing was more than just a little bit!

  The messy footprints they left on the snowy ground just now have all disappeared.

  It's gone! Nothing is left at all.

  "Who's playing tricks here? Get out here! If I catch you, I'll chop you into pieces!" Lin Yuan shouted at the empty air.

  Something even stranger happened, Lin Yuan's voice was like it was spreading in a closed room, lingering for a long time.

  "How is this possible?" Her voice was trembling. How could there be an echo in such a vast and empty place? Even if she were facing the mountain, it wouldn't produce such a clear reverberation!

  "Jin'er, we have to leave here immediately, let's go!" Lin Yuan said with a pale face.

  Snowflakes began to fall from the sky, and the temperature around also started to drop.

  "It's all empty here, which direction should we run to?" Xiao Suzhen has always been a navigation idiot and can't even tell the difference between east, south, west, and north. Now standing in this snowy place that was nothing but snow, she couldn't think of anything for a moment.

  It's really strange, it happens every year, but this year is especially frequent!

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