Chapter 19: Murder and Silencing

  The rugged mountain road of Wushan is littered with fallen and rotten tree trunks, as well as countless stones. Various small animals dart back and forth, and even through the dense forest, it's hard to tell what kind of animal they are, let alone see their appearance clearly. As we climb higher, the trees become taller and more majestic, casting a gloomy shadow that blocks out most of the sunlight. At this point, our group is exhausted, with sweat dripping down like rain, so we sit down to rest for a while. I glance at my watch, it's exactly 12 o'clock.

  Just then a flock of small birds flew over our heads with a loud rustling sound, dropping many leaves and branches, the birds' cries sounded very frightening.

  "Someone, everyone be careful!" Wu Shi Rong hastily pressed himself onto the ground.

  "It might be some wild animal, let's hide quickly, if it's a bear or wolf we're done for." Zhao Yuer said and hastily followed Wu Shirong to crouch down.

  We four were quietly squatting, not moving at all. At this time, through the dense thicket, I saw a shadow of a person. It seemed that there was another man around 40 years old next to him. There were two people in total, both with their backs to us, urinating. The two middle-aged men finished urinating, pulled up their pants and turned around, without noticing us. However, these two people didn't look like ordinary people at all. Their clothes looked very clean, like some kind of uniform, but there were many mud stains on the clothes, as if they had been scratched somewhere.

  "Nie Yu, shall we go and take a look at what kind of people they are?" Wu Shi Rong leaned in close to me.

  "Alright, since we're here, let's go take a look. Who knows what treasure they might be after? Maybe there's some ice jade or something." I said, shouldering my backpack and following Wu Shi Rong with a bent back.

  "Zhao Yuer, xue jie you are here don't move, if there is any accident just run to Luo Hao's car, we two can run fast!"

  "Alright, let's wait here first. If there's a problem, hurry up and give us a call." Zhao Yu'er and Zhao Li-li hid behind a big tree.

  Far behind the two men in front, I gently parted the grass beside me, making almost no sound. Wu Shi Rong and I followed stealthily in the footprints of those in front. This was a slope of shrubs leading downwards, with tall trees all around. The two people walked down for just a few minutes before disappearing from view. Wu Shi Rong and I hastily followed after them, but the field of vision before our eyes grew wider and wider.

  "There really is treasure!" Following Wu Shi Rong's voice, a vast open area similar to a grassland appeared, and in the center of this land stood a middle-aged man motionless. Before long, someone walked out from inside pushing a small cart, which was filled with broken stones, and every now and then came the low hum of a drill, as if they were mining something.

  The phone suddenly rang at this time……

  "Hey, Nie Yu, something's wrong! Zhao Yuer was scared by a snake and she fainted. The snake is non-venomous, but her courage is too small. You guys come back quickly!" It was Zhao Lili's phone call, fortunately the mobile phone was set to vibrate mode and didn't make any sound.

  As soon as I heard that Zhao Yu'er had an accident, my heart panicked and I accidentally pressed the redial button again. The ringing sound of Zhao Lili's phone came from the phone. This kind of sound wouldn't be loud in a bustling city, but in this quiet forest, it was like a loudspeaker, piercing my ears. I quickly pressed the exit key, but unfortunately, it was too late.

  "Hurry, there's someone upstairs!" With a loud shout, several young men came out of the pit, put down their hand trucks and electric tools, and ran towards us directly. They were all wearing the same uniform and black masks, making it impossible to see who was who. Wu Shi Rong and I were scared and quickly ran up the mountain.

  We ran too fast, the branches of the trees on both sides kept slapping our faces, and each slap was particularly painful. In a short while, we ran to the edge of the original path, but at this time something unexpected happened. When Wu Shi Rong went uphill, he wanted to grab a small grass, but unexpectedly, that small grass broke off, and he rolled down, just falling on the place where the two people urinated before, with his face facing down and hitting it...

  I rushed over to pull his hand, but at this time a man had already caught up with us. He saw that we wanted to run and quickly grabbed Wu Shi Rong's foot. I pulled Wu Shi Rong's arm with force, while the man pulled his foot with equal strength. I felt that Wu Shi Rong's body length seemed to have increased significantly as he lay on the ground, and his joints made a series of crisp cracking sounds. At this time, Wu Shi Rong seemed to be enraged. He wiped his face with one hand and kicked the man's face with the other foot. The man rolled down the hill, knocking over all the people who were about to catch up. My friend and I quickly ran away, escaping to the top of the hill.

  "Nie Yu, Wu Shi Rong, are you guys okay?" Zhao Yun'er had already woken up and was staring blankly at Wu Shi Rong's face covered in wet mud, hurriedly covering her nose.

  "We're fine, let's hurry and run! Mr. Tang's people are here, it seems like they're excavating something, and the people behind us are chasing us, let's hurry up and escape!" After finishing speaking, I held Zhao Yuer's hand, Wu Shirong held Zhao Lili's, and the four of us ran down the mountain like a family in mourning. We ran for over 20 minutes, and finally shook off the group of people behind us, and saw Luo Hao's pickup truck.

  Luo Hao was sitting in the car, leaning on the steering wheel, motionless, as if he had fallen asleep. I pulled his arm, and to my surprise, his head suddenly fell onto the passenger seat. I quickly pulled him up and took a look, and was immediately stunned. Luo Hao's face had turned black, as if it were swollen, and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth. His eyes, nose, ears, and mouth were all bleeding, and the blood was black and emitted a foul odor.

  I looked back at the past, and the wooden sign that Luo Hao and I had set up on the way here was gone. The tree stump lying across the road was also gone. Luo Hao was killed by someone.

  "It's terrible, Luo Hao has been killed. Let's hurry and leave! Look at all the footprints on the ground leading upwards, they must be coming for us. Let's go!" Wu Shi Rong looked at me in terror, I glanced at his face and quickly covered my nose. Zhao Yun'er and Zhao Li Li looked at Luo Hao's face and let out shrill cries, I hastily pulled them away.

  Now Mr. Tang's men have found us, we can't go down the mountain by the original route anymore. I quickly took out Second Uncle's yellow cloth bag and took out the compass, chose a best feng shui route and ran down the mountain. The four of us kept walking and running, after about four hours, we finally arrived at Zhao Lili's doorstep.

  "Zhao Lili, thank you so much for helping us out with this big trouble, but it's gotten you into quite a mess. Why don't you head home first today and we'll discuss our next move early tomorrow?" Looking at Zhao Lili's mud-stained clothes, he felt really bad inside.

  "It's okay, Nie Yu, you guys go back and rest well. We didn't take the original route back, so Tang's people probably won't be able to find us. We're still safe. You guys wait for my news at the inn, get some rest early!" After finishing speaking, Zhao Lili returned home. Our group of people also didn't have the face to go to her house as guests and gloomily returned to our own inn.

  It was already past six in the evening. We took a bath separately in the bathroom of our room, and after changing into new clothes, we sat on the sofa eating the leftover snacks from this morning.

  "Zhao Yuer, beautiful girl, are you so afraid of snakes today? If it weren't for the snake scaring you into a faint, Zhao Lili wouldn't have called me, and I wouldn't have misdialed and called back. We wouldn't be like this now, and Luo Hao would still be alive." I was so angry that I blurted out everything I wanted to say.

  "Nie Yu, are you saying I killed Luo Hao? Who knows when he died? Maybe he was already dead when we went up the mountain. If it's because of me that he died, we would have met Tang Laoban's people on the way down in the car. But today is really my fault, I shouldn't have shouted and screamed, and I got scared by a little snake, I'm just too timid..." Zhao Yuner said, her eyes welling up with tears that were about to fall."

  "It's okay, Nie Yu. Today, the four of us were trying to figure out what Boss Tang is up to. Zhao Yuer wasn't being intentional, Luo Hao had already been controlled by Boss Tang's gu, and today he brought the four of us, maybe he had already discovered us, so he triggered the poisonous gu and killed Luo Hao." Wu Shirong hastily handed a pack of tissues to Zhao Yuer, who took them. Wu Shirong then patted my shoulder, signaling me to calm down.

  "Alright, maybe I was too impatient, but today I almost saw it, ah!" I'm really frustrated, clearly today we could have gotten the answer, didn't expect Luo Hao to be dead too. Now where are we going to find Boss Tang?

  Luo Hao's death was a huge shock to me. He was also in his early twenties, but lost his life because he found a poisonous job at a company. His parents must be heartbroken, especially if he was their only son. Thinking about this makes my heart even more painful. And when will the curse of little sister be lifted? This night my mind is particularly messy, I couldn't sleep, tossing and turning.

  The next morning, Zhao Lili arrived at our hostel.

  "Nie Yu, I have some good news for you. I've already found out where that Tang boss is!" Zhao Lili came especially early today, wearing a green casual outfit and carrying a small basket.

  "What? How did you find out about him? Are you kidding us?" I looked at Zhao Lili, who was smiling, and really wondered if she was telling the truth.

  "What am I deceiving you for? You'll know when you come to my house later, this is the rice cake I brought for you, it's fragrant and sweet and especially delicious. After you finish eating, hurry up and follow me!" As I said that, I took over the basket from her hand, and the basket was filled with piece after piece of rice cake emitting a strong fragrance.

  "Alright, sis, we believe you'll definitely have a way, hehe, thanks for the trouble." We sat down and started eating.

  The three of us finished eating the fragrant and sweet rice cakes, and followed Zhao Lili to their two-story wooden attic. Their parents warmly came out to greet us several people. However, there was one person who sat there looking at us with a smile, sizing us up from head to toe...