It had been a long time since he had seen children like this. It seemed that since the Lin's workshop in Huangmoguan opened, the bean dregs that cost five cents each had been used to feed too many disaster victims. Those skinny children and adults finally gained some weight. With the establishment of relief food and hot pot factories, the situation had improved a lot.

Even though the people in Huangmo Pass were very thin, none of them were as thin as this child, who was completely unbearable to look at.

Seeing the child crying so sadly, Lin Rui left and it was neither right nor wrong to stay.

I don’t know which wicked person would leave the skeleton here, blocking the only path he could find.

But since he could see the children here, it seemed that this place was not deserted anymore. He coughed lightly twice.

The child screamed in fear and hugged the skeleton in his arms: "Mom, mom, there is a ghost!"

This scene left Lin Rui speechless. You are not even afraid of this bloody skeleton, so how can you be afraid of him, a living person?

"Little friend...boy, why are you here!" Lin Rui slowed down his voice and his expression became kind.

How could he, a normal living person, be considered a ghost?

The boy, who was so thin that only his big head was left, looked at Lin Rui cautiously: "You, you are really not a ghost?"

"Of course, you see, I am warm." Lin Rui stretched out his hand towards him.

The little boy was a little scared when he saw Lin Rui's hand raised in the air, and still buried his head in the skeleton. Later, when he saw that Lin Rui had not moved, he looked at Lin Rui again. Lin Rui raised his hand towards him again, indicating that he should touch it.

The boy then carefully put down the skeleton in his arms, stumbled to his feet, and walked towards Lin Rui.

When she approached Lin Rui, she touched his hand cautiously and then stepped back. Seeing this, Lin Rui couldn't help but laugh and said, "Can you get it out with just a touch like that? It's so cold outside, my hand is still cold now. You need to hold it for a while longer before you can feel it."

After hearing this, the child walked over cautiously, half believing and half doubting. This time he was a little braver and held Lin Rui's dry hand for a while. This time his face looked even more terrified and he ran farther away.

Just now, I could still see his retreating figure, but now he has disappeared without a trace. He took a few steps back and disappeared into the woods.

What's going on? He doesn't look like he wants to eat people.

After thinking about it, he followed the direction the child escaped. At this time, the fresh-looking skeleton lying on the side of the road was not so scary.

"Ah!" Another scream made Lin Rui stop in his pursuit.

After carefully identifying the voice, he found it was indeed very similar to that of the child just now. He quickened his pace and carefully approached the source of the sound.

Behind a tall bush, I saw the child being hung up by a rope net. At this moment, he was like a weak kitten, struggling to escape from the rope net, but the more he struggled, the tighter the rope bound him.

Lin Rui didn't understand why there were traps in this place. Maybe they were used to catch large wild animals?

When he was about to go forward to help the child untie the rope, two more men came over from the side. They were well-built, and their fat bodies formed a sharp contrast with the child who was as thin as a skeleton.

But their eyes were as red as rabbits, and one of them was chewing on dried meat in his hand.

Lin Rui's heart sank when he saw this. What else could he say about such a person with distinctive characteristics? He had seen many such people while fleeing from famine. This was the aftereffect of cannibalism!

So if this child is caught by them, there is no way he will survive. Most of the time he will become like dried meat in the hands of that person, bled and slaughtered, and then skinned and flesh cut off like an animal to satisfy his appetite.

The two walked under the child caught in the net and looked at him with disapproval: "So skinny!"

"There are no fat people in this world these days. We should just take the pie that falls from the sky. We can give it to the owner of the butcher shop as a gift and do him a favor. By the way, the owner's dried meat is really delicious. I'll ask him for some tomorrow."

"Take it off! You're so unlucky! We've caught all the kids hiding in this woods. Let's go somewhere else tomorrow. I see Butcher Wang and his men often dump the carcasses here after they've been sliced. Who would dare hide here for long?"

"I think it's okay."

As they talked, they lowered the rope net. The child struggled hard. His hungry body had only a little flesh left, so his instinct for life was particularly strong. He kicked and hit one of them.

"Damn it!" The man took out a dagger and was about to kill the child.

His companion stopped him and said, "What are you doing? You were just kicked. Why are you so angry? I see you can't fight back in front of the butcher shop owner and the meat market manager."

"How can it be the same? I was being humble to them so I could eat more meat to fill my stomach. This bastard has become my commodity and yet he dares to act so arrogantly. Does he think I, Ah Si, am easy to bully?"

"Alright, alright, why bother with that? Let's just take them to Boss Zhu first. Living people are more valuable than dead ones, and the price is even higher. Any more we can exchange for is good. Yishu Pass has been freezing cold lately, so I have to buy some cotton anyway."

"Okay, okay." The accomplice holding the dagger inserted the dagger into the soil next to the child's ear. The dagger almost passed by his ear, and the cold touch made the child tremble with fear.

Lin Rui was anxious and wanted to save the child. Although he knew some martial arts, there were two young and strong men on the other side. Just by looking at the beautiful sword flowers made by the man holding the dagger, it can be seen that the other party is also a martial artist.

In this situation, it is better to stay safe. It is better to be safe than sorry.

After tying the child's hands and feet, the two men carried him on their backs like cargo and continued to wander in the woods. Thanks to them, Lin Rui saw the situation that Pingshan least wanted to see.

The two men carried the boy to a depression, where skeletons with flesh and blood removed were densely packed. Some of them were faded, as if they had been dead for a long time, but the skeletons casually discarded on the upper layer were bright red, as if they had just been processed.

These are clearly human skeletons. This place looks like a mass grave, with skeletons piled up and no flesh visible. They have been shaved clean by professional techniques.

Even if Lin Rui didn't want to admit it, he had to face the facts. The people in the place where he fell survived by eating the flesh of their own kind.

Human skeletons were not only found in the depression, but also scattered all over the surrounding roadsides. It seemed as if the people who dealt with the skeletons were too lazy to go into such a deep jungle and just dumped them here.

The scene before him was like the eighteen levels of hell in the underworld, with piles of dead bones. Sunlight shone through the leaves onto the skeletons. Some of the skeletons were polished to a shine by the wind and rain, while some of the newly-thrown skeletons still had blood dripping down along the texture of the bones.

It is nothing more than this to say that hell on earth is like this!