Chu Yu calculated the time and distance. They were still ninety kilometers from the exit of Heishuigou Road, and it was currently one-thirty in the afternoon. She said, "Ding Shi and I will scout the village. Mumu and Brother Kai, guard the car."
Their original purpose in taking the non-signal zone was twofold: first, to take a shortcut, and second, to gather resources.
Signal zones were orderly regions where it was practically impossible to obtain weapons, money, or other valuable items for free.
The village was called Baishuigou Village. Its layout resembled a leaf—one main road with numerous branches diverging from it. Most of the structures were built of wood and tile, alongside a few two-story Western-style houses.
Baton in hand, Chu Yu kicked open the door to the village chief's house, with Ding Shi following close behind, gun drawn. The moment she stepped inside, she took a psychological hit: right there in the living room sat two coffins. She turned on her heel to leave, but because she was blocking the way, Ding Shi gave her a shove and pushed her right in.
Ding Shi was quite intrigued by the coffins. Hadn't they said there were no ghosts or deities? He looked around and found a rusty claw hammer nearby. Chu Yu squatted off to the side, resting her chin in her hands as she watched him work. She now fully believed his tale about encountering ghosts in Taoyuan Village. Any normal person seeing coffins would either avoid them or ignore them, searching the rest of the house first. Ding Shi, on the other hand, immediately looked for a way to pry them open.
Why was there conveniently a claw hammer here? Because one of the coffins had coffin nails driven into it, while the other did not.
Ding Shi said, "The person in Coffin B sealed Coffin A, then climbed into their own coffin to wait for death."
Ding Shi pried open a crack in Coffin A and peered inside. Excellent—just white bones, no San Niang.
Chu Yu fetched a stool, stood on it to look inside, and said, "It's a woman."
Ding Shi gave it a casual glance. Seeing no obvious loot, he opened Coffin B. Chu Yu said, "It's a man. There's a piece of paper."
Ding Shi reached in and picked up the paper, which was covered in writing. After reading it through, Ding Shi said, "He was the village chief. It says that a month ago, several airplanes circled the skies nearby, and soon after, villagers began falling ill. The roads leading out of the village were blocked by several large trucks. There weren't many people in the village to begin with, mostly elderly folks with weak immune systems, and within a few days, everyone was gone."
Ding Shi added, "The chief used to be a doctor in Nanyue County in his younger years. He concocted an herbal medicine that relieved the symptoms, but it only treated the surface without curing the root. In the end, he was the only one left in the entire village. After laying his wife to rest, he climbed into his own coffin to await the arrival of death."
Chu Yu took the letter and read through it; there was no information about supplies. However, Ding Shi discovered a ring of keys in the coffin. With these keys, they unlocked all the rooms in the chief's house and found 120 instance coins in an iron box.
Standing by the second-floor window, Chu Yu looked outside and said, "Ding Shi, the fog is getting thicker."
Ding Shi walked over to the window. "Either we hurry and get off Heishuigou Road before sunset, or we rest here for the night."
Chu Yu asked, "Do you think Fei Lang the Axe Thrower will attack us again?"
Ding Shi said, "Not only will he attack us, but I have a constant feeling he's lurking nearby, ready to deliver a fatal strike at any moment."
Chu Yu asked, "What's his mode of transportation?"
Ding Shi said, "I don't know, but I'd guess a motorcycle. Do you remember the dwarf siblings? They survived by mutating from the X virus. Fei Lang survived too—could he also possess some special ability?"
Chu Yu nodded. "We need to get out of here."
Ding Shi asked, "Not searching the other houses?"
Chu Yu replied, "No more searching. We need to leave as soon as possible."
***
At two in the afternoon, Team Yuyu set off once more. They passed three villages along the way without stopping. According to the road signs, they were forty kilometers from the end of Heishuigou Road and ten kilometers from Heishuigou Village.
Because Ding Shi was universally recognized by the team as a dangerous figure, his capabilities were naturally acknowledged, so he served as the driver for this stretch. Mumu sat in the front passenger seat, handgun in hand, keeping a vigilant watch on their surroundings.
Heishuigou Village was built alongside Heishuigou Road, lined with numerous brick buildings that had once been restaurants, auto repair shops, fruit stands, and the like. Viewed as a whole, the village spread out like a pair of wings.
At the entrance to the village, three black sedans were neatly parked side by side across the road, blocking it entirely.
Ding Shi pulled over and got out. Chu Yu accompanied him as his partner, while Mumu and Brother Kai were responsible for guarding their car. Chu Yu partnered with Ding Shi primarily because everyone was still wary of him.
All the windows of the three cars were boarded up from the inside, preventing anyone from seeing what was inside. Ding Shi stretched out an index finger and touched the hood of the first car: slightly warm, with only a thin layer of dust. That meant someone was maintaining the car, and someone had driven it to the village entrance to block the road within the past two hours.
Chu Yu called, "Ding Shi."
Ding Shi looked over. Chu Yu had her hand on the rear door handle. The door was unlocked, and she was able to pull it open with a light tug.
Ding Shi said sharply, "Don't touch anything!"
The three cars were clearly placed there intentionally, almost certainly rigged as a trap. The problem was not knowing where the trap lay. Was Fei Lang hiding inside one of the roadside houses, waiting to ambush them? Was he concealed inside the cars, preparing a lethal strike? Was he lying in the ditch right beside them? Or could this be a diversion, with him preparing to ambush Brother Kai and Mumu?
Chu Yu said, "We have to open it and look sometime."
As she spoke, she very carefully pulled the car door open and shone her flashlight inside with her right hand.
Suddenly, a venomous snake shot out along the door and sank its fangs into Chu Yu's forearm. Ding Shi kicked the car door shut, grabbed the snake right behind its head with his left hand, ripped it off her arm, and flung it aside. Holstering his gun, he drew his dagger. Seizing Chu Yu's forearm with his left hand and clamping her arm firmly under his right, he used the dagger to carve out the bitten piece of flesh.
Throughout the ordeal, Chu Yu was struck voiceless by the agony. When he finally let go, she collapsed to the ground, tears cascading like waterfalls as her bloodcurdling screams shattered the village's silence.
Ding Shi shouted, "Medical pack!"
Brother Kai drove the car over to meet up with them alongside Mumu. Mumu got out and took a look at Chu Yu's arm: a chunk had been gouged out of her forearm near the elbow joint, where the forearm had the most flesh.
Brother Kai and Mumu had been fifty meters away and hadn't seen clearly what had happened. Handing Chu Yu over to Mumu, Ding Shi explained in a timely manner, "There are venomous snakes in the cars. This Fei Lang won't be easy to deal with."
Now it was blatantly obvious there were venomous snakes in the three cars—how were they supposed to handle it? To move the vehicles, someone had to get inside, or at least release the handbrakes. And there were countless places inside a car where a snake could hide. Even if they managed to clear one car and push it aside, wouldn't there still be two more? While focusing on dealing with snakes and vehicles, they would also have to watch out for Fei Lang lurking nearby, ready to hurl a flying axe at any second.
Brother Kai stood on a large boulder to survey the terrain. "Can we go around?" Adversity brought unity.
Ding Shi said, "No. The only way now is to find a sturdy rope and use our car to tow the blocking cars out of the way."
Brother Kai said, "Which means..."
Ding Shi said, "We have to go into the village to find rope."
Brother Kai said, "This is that lunatic's home turf. Now there are only three of us left who can fight; we have to leave at least one person to protect Chu Yu and Ritian."
Chu Yu said, "I can still manage."
Without any formal training, Mumu stitched Chu Yu's wound with five sutures. Though her technique was crude, leaving wide gaps between stitches, it was sewn shut at least. After applying antiseptic ointment and wrapping it in gauze, the job was done.
Ding Shi rather admired Chu Yu. For one, the girl had genuine courage. For another, her eye for people was quite good; every member of this team performed above the level of ordinary people.
Ding Shi said, "This village is likely the biggest obstacle to getting off Heishuigou Road. Fei Lang chose his most familiar home turf to force us into the village. It's practically certain he plans to ambush us inside, or target the car."
Ding Shi added, "We have to resolve this before nightfall, or we'll suffer more casualties."
Chapter 53