After listening to Sister Hua's explanation, I thought for a moment and said, "Xu Le said before that you set up a lot of things here to distract the Huang family in order to lure them into a trap. Is it possible that the incident in Chanan Village was also a smokescreen put up by the Huang family?"

"I think the truth of this matter is probably 50/50, but we came here specifically to break the deadlock. Even if there's only a 10/10 chance that this is true, we still have to get through it."

Sister Hua did not refute my statement: "Although the zombies are fierce, they are not very intelligent and only act on instinct. Compared to them, the Huang family is much more terrifying. We must be extremely careful when dealing with them."

The village of Chanan, which Hua Jie was navigating to, is the northernmost natural village in the forest area. By the end, the map only showed the three characters "Chanan Village," and even the road was no longer displayed.

There is only one dirt road leading to Chanan Village, and the road conditions are extremely poor. In many places, it is necessary to drive off the road or even detour.

Fortunately, both of Xu Le's Wranglers had been modified with raised chassis; otherwise, this road would have been impassable.

After our two cars met, we bumped along the way and arrived at the village entrance.

Chatai Village is a small village built on a hillside. At the entrance of the village, there are many houses built with tree trunks, which have a special old forest area feel.

Before I even got out of the car, I saw a large police pickup truck parked at the village entrance. I frowned and said, "It looks like the police haven't left yet after the villagers called the police. Should we wait before going into the village?"

"No need, our friends here have already taken care of it. We'll enter the village under the pretense of buying mountain goods, find a man named Lao Xiong, and stay at his house. He's a hunter."

Sister Hua opened the armrest box and handed me a walkie-talkie: "There's no signal in this mountainous area. Take good care of this walkie-talkie. Channel 1 is locked, and channel 2 is all channels."

I took the walkie-talkie, opened the door, stood under the car, and looked at the pitch-black village, saying, "What era is this? There are still hunters in the village?"

"The villagers in this village are divided into two groups. The first group consists of the old workers who used to work as loggers in the forest area. They have grown attached to the place and don't want to move away. The second group consists of Oroqen people who have hunting rifles and are issued gun licenses by the state."

Xu Le explained to me for a moment, then walked over and said, "Leave a few people here to guard the supplies, and the rest of you go into the village to find out what's going on. If necessary, we might have to go into the mountains tonight to check things out."

I turned to look at the monkey: "You take two members of the Wei family and stay here to watch the car. I'll take Song Laosan and Manjing to take a look."

The monkey was a carefree person, and when he heard that I asked him to stay, he was actually a little disappointed: "Young Master Duan, can I come with you? I've never seen a zombie before!"

“You’re quick-witted, and I feel at ease if you stay here. These two cars are very important to us. If we lose them, we won’t be able to get out.”

I smiled at the monkey: "Song Laosan has seen a lot. Let him come into the mountains with me. We can look out for each other."

The monkey sighed, "Fine, since you've put it that way, what else can I say?"

We quickly divided into groups. To avoid the hassle of going back and forth when entering the mountains, Song Laosan and Manjing each carried a travel bag containing equipment such as rope guns.

As I walked towards the village, I took out my satellite phone and checked the signal. I called Wei Shengnan and said, "We've arrived at Chanan Village, north of the national park. It's a pretty remote place, but you can find it on the map."

Wei Shengnan was speechless: "I haven't even reached the national park yet, how come you've all gone into the mountains?"

“There’s been a bit of an unexpected situation. There are signs of people getting lost in Chanan Village. We need to verify whether it’s true or not.”

I paused for a moment: "Let's go verify the information now. If the traces really were left by the zombies, then we'll meet in Chanan Village! By the way, remember to bring an off-road vehicle; the road conditions here are terrible."

Wei Shengnan readily agreed: "Qu Ruilin just called me. He's almost at Amur and should be able to reach the national park within two hours. If we wait until he arrives and there's still no news from you, we'll go directly to Chanan Village."

After I finished my phone call with Wei Shengnan, we had already reached the center of the village.

I looked around and found that there wasn't even a telephone pole in the village. I scratched my head and said, "This village doesn't even have electricity. It's so primitive. If I hadn't been able to find it on the map, I would have thought I had returned to Ping'an Village!"

Xu Le had done his homework beforehand and explained, "This is an old village left over from the forest area. Its significance lies not only in housing the old employees of the forest area, but also in preventing illegal logging. More than 80% of the villagers here are forest rangers."

Before I could continue speaking, I saw the beam of a flashlight ahead, and then four forest police officers, accompanied by several villagers, walked toward us.

The middle-aged policeman in the lead shone his flashlight on us and asked warily, "You guys look unfamiliar. You're not from Chanan Village, are you?"

Old Song took out his cigarette case, smiled, and walked over to offer cigarettes: "We're from out of town, we've come here to buy mountain products."

The policeman looked at Song Laosan warily and did not take his cigarette: "Who introduced you here?"

Song Laosan replied casually, "Old Xiong, we've been friends for many years. He used to collect the mountain products and send them to us. Now that our factory has expanded, we thought we'd come and take a look, and talk about deeper cooperation."

The policeman's expression softened slightly when he heard Lao Xiong's name, but then he looked at Man Jing's striking physique and then at me: "Aren't there a lot of you here to buy mountain goods? You can't be here for the timber and wild animals, can you?"

“The older man is my dad, the woman next to him is my wife, and those two are my daughter and son! We usually live in big cities, so it’s rare for us to come to the forest area. I’m treating this as a tour for them. After leaving Chanan Village, our next stop is the forest park.”

After finishing speaking, Song Laosan pointed at Xu Le and the others, then pointed at me and Manjing: "These two are my driver and bodyguard. I inevitably have to go into the mountains to collect mountain goods, and I feel uneasy if I don't have two people with me!"

"Buying mountain products is fine, but don't cross the line. If you illegally log or poach here, don't blame me for dealing with you if you get caught."

Song Laosan laughed heartily: "You're really joking! Look at our group, there are old people and young children. If we really went into the mountains, even if we felled a tree, we wouldn't be able to carry it out! If we really went poaching, we'd just end up as bear food!"

The police also felt that Song Laosan's words made sense, so they didn't say anything more: "If you're going to buy mountain goods, then just stay in the village and don't go into the mountains for now, there are bats infesting the mountains here."