Eavesdropping behind the house

  No time for me to think, they kept pulling me in, it was too dangerous to stay at the entrance. After going in more than ten meters, the light was relatively dim, even if someone stood at the entrance, they wouldn't be able to see that there were people hiding inside unless they looked carefully.

  The house frame, except for the black tile roof, has walls made of bamboo strips tied together, so there are always gaps. Every time we pass through a room, we look for gaps to peek inside and find that the first few rooms are large dormitories with women's supplies, which should be the resting place for those working women. The environment later on is relatively better, but after passing through several houses, they are all uninhabited.

  Until almost the sixth room, Lu Xun found a gap in the bamboo raft and then he seemed to freeze. I searched around but couldn't find anything, this part of the bamboo raft was tied particularly tightly. I couldn't help but lean in close to him and ask softly: "What did you see?" He stiffly turned his gaze, our faces were close together, his breath was on my face. "Xiao Jiu, be prepared mentally, if there's someone inside who is your friend..." He didn't continue speaking, but I felt a chill in my heart, and also smelled a bloody smell from the tip of my nose.

  After he retreated, I approached the gap and squinted to see what was inside. I gasped in shock. Could those things still be called human? They were all mangled and unrecognizable, their faces distorted beyond recognition. Their clothes were stained with blood, making it impossible to tell where they were injured. Some were missing arms, others legs, and they were piled up haphazardly inside.

  At first, I thought the ground was covered with a black carpet. It wasn't until I saw that some places were black and others were red that I realized it had been dyed red by the blood of those people. How much blood does it take to dye a carpet black? I'm afraid this room has held more than just them.

  It was impossible to tell if they were still alive, and their faces were covered in blood, so I could only judge from their outlines and figures. Peng Ye was not among them, nor was Liang Ge, who was supposed to be found next, and Lao Tie was also not there. Because these people generally looked small and thin, with an estimated height of just over 1.6 meters, I suspected they were minors.

  Peng Ye is slender, but he is about 1.75 meters tall, while Liang Ge and Lao Tie are both tall and strong men.

  Back away from the bamboo seam, leaning against the mountain wall behind him, he couldn't help but feel his heart racing wildly. The smell of blood wafted up again, and he felt a faint sense of nausea.

  He glanced at me, lowering his voice: "It's better if there isn't. Don't think too much about it. If not, you can wait here for me, I'll search the back." My face looked ugly as I shook my head. We had come all this way only to hesitate now, and our previous efforts climbing mountains and crossing rivers would be in vain. But my heart felt exceptionally heavy, things were far more complicated than I had imagined, and this scene meant something, it wasn't just a trivial matter. Apart from the danger ahead, I was even more worried about Peng Ye and the others' situation. The broken limbs of those people seemed to have been torn off by something, rather than being cut off with a sharp object.

  At this time, there were noisy voices coming from the front of the house, and the two of us immediately fell silent. But then we heard the door being pushed open, it seemed to be not this room, but the adjacent one. Immediately after, someone muttered a lot of things that we couldn't understand, which should be the local language. After a while, the door was closed again. I thought it would return to calmness, but suddenly there were voices coming again, very unexpectedly, speaking in Chinese.

  "Another one can't make it, looks like we need to notify the higher-ups to come and collect the goods."

  "Wait a bit longer, gather more than ten, and don't kill the one in the next room, it's worthless if it dies."

  "Hey, who says the dead are worthless? They're perfect for feeding those things. Otherwise, how would they do things for us? They've been starving for a long time."

  Two sly laughs followed, and then a third person's voice appeared: "Do you still have the heart to laugh? Previously on the mountain path, one ran away, and another entered here and escaped into the sea of flowers. The people sent to find them haven't returned yet."

  I and Lu Xun furrowed our brows at the same time, this voice...