We've done everything we could; now all we can do is wait for the results.

I don't know how much time has passed, but the blizzard outside has gradually subsided, the sky is beginning to brighten, and a few rays of sunlight are shining through the animal hides into the room.

Half-asleep, Todd smelled a pungent odor.

He slowly raised his head and opened his eyes, and a familiar chemical term appeared in his mind.

Sulfur dioxide.

The boy, who had been suddenly awakened, shook his groggy head and quickly stood on the wooden table. He opened the small covered window and took deep breaths of fresh air.

That was close!

I accidentally fell asleep because I was so tired and sleepy.

Carbon monoxide produced from burning coal, once ingested, combines with hemoglobin in the blood to form carboxyhemoglobin. This prevents hemoglobin from binding with oxygen, causing tissue hypoxia and leading to asphyxiation and death. Because it is colorless and odorless, this type of poisoning is completely undetectable. Fortunately, the coal used as fuel is not pure coal; it contains sulfides that, when burned, produce irritating sulfur dioxide gas. Combined with his prior experience with various chemical gases in the laboratory, this quickly snapped him out of his daze.

Looking out the small window, the sun had already climbed halfway up the mountain, reflecting a dazzling golden light onto the snow-covered landscape. Within sight, one could see tree trunks peeking through the snow, and a frozen stream. Further on, mountains were shrouded in mist.

If you're on vacation, this must be a place with absolutely stunning scenery.

But now, Todd is more concerned about what's going on in the next room.

Silence.

I remember those two saying they would come in at dawn to deal with the 'corpse'.

For safety's sake, it's best to wait a while longer.

The sun was high in the sky, and the white light reflected off the snow was so bright that it was hard to open one's eyes.

Judging by the time, it should be around eight or nine o'clock now, right?

With a gamble in mind, Todd opened the cover of the roof chimney, and the exhaust fumes accumulated in the chimney and stove rose into the sky through the passage.

After waiting a while longer, there was still no movement outside. The boy held his breath, climbed down from the wooden table, and tentatively knocked twice on the wooden door with the iron crowbar.

There was no response.

With increased force, Todd knocked open a small door in the wooden plank, allowing a single person to crawl through. He carefully knelt down and passed through.

The first thing that catches the eye is two gruesome corpses.

The hunchbacked man lay amidst a pile of animal pelts, vomit dripping from his mouth. His skin was flushed, but he showed no signs of pain; he had died in his sleep.

The man with the leopard eyes wasn't so lucky. It seems he was awakened by the smell of sulfur dioxide in the middle of the night, but due to confusion and cardiopulmonary failure, he crawled a few meters toward the door before completely losing his ability to move. In the end, he died painfully from hemiplegia, lack of oxygen, and palpitations.

Pressing his hand firmly against his violently pounding heart, Todd forced himself to look away from the corpse. While he still had a breath left, he ran to the far end of the room, opened the door that was covered by thick fur, and let the fresh air from outside flow back into the cabin.

He collapsed onto the snow outside, ignoring the freezing environment. Todd wiped his head, face, and neck with snow water to help his blood circulate faster, while breathing heavily to accelerate the gas exchange in his lungs.

After a while, the boy finally came to his senses, tightened his clothes, glanced back at the hut, and then stood up to look into the distance.

The hut where Todd was located was situated on a desolate hill. Judging from the dried meat and furs drying on the porch, it was indeed a hunter's hut. At the foot of the hill, a cluster of low buildings with wisps of smoke rising from their chimneys could be vaguely seen. The distinctive gabled roofs and stone walls of the medieval dwellings further solidified his belief that he had traveled through time.

Standing in the snow, the boy's limbs were numb from the cold wind. He wanted to go back inside to warm up, but he was also hesitant.

Finally, Todd mustered his courage, climbed the steps again, and entered the hunter's hut.

The air inside was still a bit stuffy, and the smell of sulfur hadn't completely dissipated, but it was much better than before.

Deliberately focusing his attention elsewhere and forcing himself not to look at the body, the boy picked up a fur coat from the ground and put it on, finally preserving the warmth that was constantly slipping from his body.

As Todd turned to leave, the light streaming through the door caught his eye, and he noticed a narrow crack where the fur coat had been. He knelt down, moved aside the surrounding clutter, and revealed a hidden door and an iron ring handle.

A sentence immediately popped into the boy's mind.

"There's nothing we can do about it; he saw something he shouldn't have."