Chapter 62: Northern Plateau
An hour later, Shu Fu and Chen Yuezhen, led by Chen Fa, quietly left the small building where they lived and stepped into the heavy rain in the night.
Before leaving, Shu Fu noticed that Chen Fa deliberately changed the direction of the wooden slats nailed on the window frames of the two windows in the living room to reinforce the glass. Chen Fa did not hide it from Shu Fu and directly told her that this was an agreement between her and several individuals in the team. It did not contain any content and did not bear any responsibility. It was purely a reminder.
You have to decide for yourself what exactly happened and what to do next, whether to investigate, ignore or avoid it.
Chen Fa fulfilled her promise, but the three of them were still in a heavy mood at the moment, not only because of everything they saw tonight, but also because of the situation that forced them to leave their sheltered residence.
For Chen Fa, a sense of security has always been a luxury since the extreme natural disaster.
Everything she saw in Tang Ping's small building made her feel horrified and sick, but also angry at the same time. The world is already so difficult, but those of them who are struggling in troubled times not only have to deal with various natural disasters, but also have to guard against "man-made disasters" like Tang Ping!
Whenever she thought about the fact that Tang Ping had also thought about bringing her grandmother into that small building and doing various experiments on her, she could not stop her anger. She and Shu Fu returned to their small building together, and the two of them braved the rain to bring Tang Ping back to the basement of his small building and locked him in the dissection room.
Chen Fa mainly wanted to force him to tell what was behind the password door, what was going on with that scary eye that looked like a giant, what did he do to these patients to cause a normal human being to become like this, or would all patients eventually become like that?
But Tang Ping still just smiled, the kind of condescending smile, and asked Chen Fa if she wanted to beg him. If she knelt down and begged him, he might consider telling her. Before that, he would not say a word, including the password of the electronic lock.
He seemed to think that Chen Fa would compromise for her grandmother. After all, her grandmother was also sick and she urgently needed more information.
But Chen Fa just looked at him coldly and said, "If you don't want to say it, then don't say it forever."
Chen Fa stuffed the cloth and tape back into his mouth, tied the ropes on his hands and feet, and fixed him to the dissection table. He then blindfolded him with cloth to ensure that he could not move, leave, or see. Then he took a hammer from the side and smashed all ten of his fingers, and then smashed the kneecap of one of his legs.
Tang Ping's screams were blocked in his throat by cloth and tape.
Chen Fa's hits were particularly severe, and all of his ten fingers were shattered from the fingertips to the bases, as was his kneecap. The severe pain made him bounce on the ground like a fish.
But his mouth was sealed tightly, and he could only make dull and suppressed sounds like the patients on the second floor. His hands and feet were also tied up like those patients, so no matter how hard he struggled, it was in vain.
He couldn't see Chen Fa's movements, and couldn't guess where she would hit him next. The difference between being able to see and not being able to see was too great, and darkness would infinitely magnify a person's fear.
After doing all this, Chen Fa knocked him unconscious again, then turned off the lights inside, walked out of the dissection room again, and locked the door outside. In this way, even if Zhou Feng found out the next day that he had not delivered the medicine and sent someone to look for him, it would take some time for someone to find the basement of this small building and find a way to break open the door.
And once they break into the door and find him, the facts about his experiments and dissections can no longer be hidden - no matter how many people will know about this in the end, or whether Zhou Feng knows everything, she has to try, as every team member has the right to know.
In short, the more people who know about this matter, the more chaotic the situation in the team will become, and the more chaotic the situation is now, the better it is for her.
"Do you think I'm cruel and ruthless?" Before leaving, Chen Fa asked Shu Fu who had been waiting on the side.
"I thought you would just kill him directly." Shu Fu said with a faint expression.
Chen Fa shook his head, but his expression relaxed a little: "I don't want to dirty my hands, and that would be too easy for him. For a person like that, death is too easy. Letting him live but taking away the thing he is most proud of is what will make him suffer the most."
She crushed all ten of his fingers and his kneecap. With current medical conditions, he would never be able to do experiments with his hands again, let alone use a knife to do experiments on others. This was a fatal blow to him.
"Aren't you afraid that if you don't cut the roots, he might find you later and leave you a scourge?"
"That would require him to have the ability to find me and subdue me first. If that day really comes, it means I am inferior to him and I admit defeat." The world is in turmoil now. No matter how much Chen Fa wants to live and how much she wants her grandmother to be alive, when fate comes, she cannot avoid it no matter how much she wants to.
On the contrary, if fate favors her, she can survive even when she is facing a desperate situation.
**
Chen Fa was very familiar with the street layout of the entire town, and knew where the lights were on on each street and the darkest areas. The three of them were all wrapped in dark two-piece raincoats and wearing large black masks distributed by Shu Fu. They carried the backpacks they could carry on their backs and held the ones they couldn't carry in their hands. They lowered their heads and walked quickly and silently.
Before leaving, Shu Fu was told by Chen Fal that during this night journey, no matter what sound he heard on the way, he should not stop or look back, but just continue to follow her.
"Why?"
"You don't want to know, or rather, I can't answer you."
Shu Fu had not been so nervous when she followed her to investigate Tang Ping's small building before, but now after hearing Chen Fa's words, she became inexplicably nervous.
The town streets were deserted at night, the doors and windows of all the houses were closed, there was no moon in the sky, dark clouds covered the entire night sky, it was pitch black everywhere, the only sounds in their ears were the sound of heavy rain and their deliberately light footsteps.
The roads in the town were fairly flat, and they walked for more than 20 minutes after leaving the gate of the B&B, and everything went smoothly. Of course, it could also be because Chen Fa knew the place well enough, and took them on relatively flat roads.
After turning another fork in the road, Chen Fa, who was walking in front, quickly made a gesture to the two people behind him.
This was the gesture they had agreed upon before they set out. When they were halfway through the journey, she would remind them so that they would have some idea in their minds, at least knowing how far they had come and how much distance was left before they could leave the town.
This is the northern district of the town. There are few residents in the town nowadays, and most of them are concentrated in the middle of the town. Most of the houses here are empty, and there are occasionally small pieces of land between the houses, but they have been abandoned now, and rain has turned them into ponds of various sizes.
Behind the fork in the road they turned was a long path. Since it was not a main road, there was only a dim street lamp standing at the entrance.
Chen Fa led the two of them and carefully bypassed the area covered by the street lights along the corner of the wall, still moving forward quickly along the shadow area.
But this time, Shu Fu heard a strange sound not long after the three of them walked away.
The sound was very subtle, mixed in with the sound of heavy rain, and if you didn't listen carefully, you wouldn't be able to detect it at all. But at this moment, the three people walking at night were concentrating and alert to their surroundings, so how could they not hear it?
Almost at the same time, the three of them slowed down their pace.
"Pah-pat-pat-pat-pat..." In the dark rainy night, it seemed like there was the sound of another person's footsteps.
Chen Fa clenched the baton in her hand. She had repeatedly warned Shu Fu not to go out after dark, and before leaving, she also told the two of them not to stay if they heard any noise. But in fact, she didn't believe that they would really hear any movement.
When she first came to this town, she had also gone out quietly at night to leave a way out for herself and her grandmother. At that time, she walked alone twice at night, and nothing happened from beginning to end, and she didn't hear any strange noises.
The series of statements that the town is not safe at night, do not go out after dark, and people walking at night will hear strange noises were only made later.
At first, it was a few local residents in the area covered by the Malaysian team who made such a statement, but the residents of the block where Yang Can's team belonged did not believe it at that time, especially the people in Yang Can's team, who even suspected that this was a trick deliberately created by the Malaysian team.
But later, people from both blocks reported hearing strange noises when they went out at night.
The noise was very strange, like the sound of someone walking next to you, but when that person stopped and looked back to listen carefully, the subtle strange noise disappeared.
When the man started walking again, the sound reappeared a moment later, strange and creepy, as if a ghost was following them...
The public facilities in the town are not in good condition. Earlier, only a few streets were equipped with cameras, but most of them were damaged in several hailstorms, and the street lights were the same. After the power outage, no one cared about the street lights. The street lights that can be used now were repaired and reinforced by Chen Fa and his team after they came to the town.
However, it is easy to find a light bulb, but not so easy to find a camera. Therefore, there is no such thing as being able to find the truth by replaying surveillance footage.
There are people in Malaysia who don't believe in superstitions, so they formed a team and patrolled the streets with flashlights at night. But that night, the patrolmen found nothing.
At that time, not only did people in Yang Can's team start to fall ill frequently, but people in the town also fell ill. Many people spread the word that it was "possessed by a ghost." However, this saying was only spread among the elderly aboriginal residents in the town, and no one else believed it.
Until one night, someone went out at night and never came back.
The missing people were from Malaysia, and the other side began to claim that it was the work of Yang Can's team. There was a slight conflict between the two sides, but because the two sides had already started exchanging supplies at that time, the conflict did not become a big deal.
As a result, the next night, someone from Yang Can's team went out at night and never returned.
Two people have gone missing. If someone was hiding from a night raid, people nearby should have heard some noise, right? There should have been cries for help, sounds of fighting, etc.
But these two people disappeared silently.
After that, the town was placed under curfew to prevent any further incidents.
Chen Fa didn't believe in the "ghost" story from the bottom of her heart, but she was not an impulsive person. When everyone was under curfew at night, she had to rush out to find the truth.
So she, like everyone else in town, followed the rules for the time being.
It was because she didn't believe it that she dared to leave at night with her grandmother and Shu Fu.
"Don't look back, don't stop, keep going." Chen Fa lowered his voice and gave a reminder.
Chen Yuezhen nodded and followed closely behind her with the weapon in his hand. Shu Fu had activated the portable protective shield the moment she heard the "click" sound, then took out the nail gun from the waterproof backpack on her back and held it tightly in her hand. Even if she couldn't protect two people, she could still keep an eye on the two people in front of her while ensuring her own safety.
As they walked faster, the "click" sound that followed them also began to speed up. It was still subtle. Shu Fu listened carefully and inexplicably felt that the sound was a little familiar.
Just when she was distracted, Chen Fa, who was walking in the front, suddenly stopped, staggered, and almost fell.
Chen Yuezhen, who was following behind her, supported her in time. Shu Fu held the nail gun in her hand, stretched out her hand to block the two of them, used her body as a shield, and looked vigilantly into the darkness on both sides of the alley.
There was nothing. She could see nothing except a dim yellow street lamp at the entrance of the street and the pouring rain.
Shu Fu quickly opened the nail gun and put on the flashlight, and began to look around, but the street was very narrow and this section of the road happened to be surrounded by walls on both sides, so there was no place for people to hide.
"Fa Fa!" Chen Yuezhen's worried voice came from behind Shu Fu. She turned around quickly and found that Chen Fa, who was supported by Chen Yuezhen, was half leaning against the wall, his steps were a little unsteady.
"What's going on?" Shu Fu didn't believe in the ghost talk. All the weirdness was due to the lack of information. She believed that something must have attacked Chen Fa, but she didn't know what it was yet.
Chen Fa opened and closed his mouth under the mask, bit his lower lip fiercely, and after tasting the blood, he felt a little more sober, and uttered a few words: "Go... Go quickly..."
She was the only one who knew the way to the warehouse in the valley, and it was extremely hidden. If she lost consciousness before reaching there, they would not be able to find the exact direction by themselves, and it would be even more dangerous to be stranded in the wild at night.
Chen Yuezhen understood immediately, held her hand, turned around, and carried her on her back. Shu Fu picked up the large travel bag that Chen Fa dropped, and quickly followed the two of them. Chen Yuezhen had taken medicine and rested for so long, her body had almost recovered. Chen Fa weighed about 100 pounds, so it was not difficult for her to carry her on her back.
Chen Fa leaned on his grandmother's shoulder and pointed the way for them.
Shu Fu did not turn off the flashlight and illuminated the road ahead for Chen Yuezhen. After all, this was already the north of the town and there were few residents. Even if there were really people living nearby, they were now fully armed and others could not see their appearance and gender clearly. The most they knew was that someone was passing by.
When Shu Fu safely walked out of the dark street, he turned off the protective shield in time.
When the three of them walked out of the town, Chen Fa signaled Shu Fu to use the electric baton on her to keep her awake.
Shu Fu didn't hesitate, and directly took out the electric baton, turned down the power, and hit Chen Fa's exposed back of the hand. The thick raincoat had a certain insulating effect, and this amount of power could not affect Chen Yuezhen who was carrying her, but it could make Chen Fa feel pain, making her wake up instantly and not lose consciousness for the time being.
But Chen Fa was still anxious, as she was very clear about her situation.
I don’t know if it’s because she was wearing rain boots instead of boots, but at that moment, her calf near the ankle seemed to be stabbed by something. She instantly felt half of her body numb and it was even difficult for her to speak.
At this moment, the numbness invaded her entire body and continued to invade her brain.
She could hardly hold on any longer, and the last remaining uphill section was the most difficult to walk on, and she was afraid that her grandmother could not hold on any longer.
Chen Fa bit his lips hard again and spoke in a mosquito-like voice: "...Xiao Fu, you have a boat...put me down, take the supplies...take my grandma...go..."
In fact, they didn't need to go to the mountain at all. They were now out of the town and not far from the water. Shu Fu could have left here safely.
The light was darker on the mountain, and no one knew whether the thing that attacked her before would appear again.
But this time, neither of them paid any attention to her.
Soon, Chen Fa felt her feet touching the ground. Not long after, someone picked her up and carried her forward.
Chen Fa opened her eyes. Her grandmother was walking beside her, carrying two large bags in one hand and holding a flashlight and a stun baton in the other, as if she was ready to hit her at any time. The person carrying her was obviously much thinner and weaker.
It's Shu Fu.
She remembered that Shu Fu was only 160cm tall and weighed less than 90kg, which was no match for her grandmother who was 170cm tall and weighed 130kg. How could she hold on on this last muddy stretch of mountain road...
She didn't know what had just stabbed her in the darkness. Her brain was becoming more and more out of her control. At this moment, many fragmented images suddenly appeared in front of her eyes.
She thought of those extremely precious boxes of medicine, and also of the rainy day when the first thunderstorm occurred in Suicheng a long time ago.
If Shu Fu hadn't sent them home because of Zhang Tian's ex-boyfriend, she and Wu Shaoshan would have died on the Line 14 subway...
Before she and Wu Shaoshan separated, the apocalyptic video had already spread on the Internet. At that time, both of them actually had a little subtle feeling in their hearts, but no one spoke up.
Until Wu Shaoshan was about to go to Xiangzhou Province and she was about to go to Lankou Province, before the two of them separated, Wu Shaoshan suddenly said to her: "What do you think is the probability that Xiao Fu is a reborn person?"
She was stunned and speechless at the time.
It’s not that she hadn’t thought about this possibility, but she didn’t expect Wu Shaoshan to suddenly ask this question.
After the other party finished speaking, he left quickly, as if he didn't want an answer. Perhaps in Wu Shaoshan's heart, she actually hoped that Shu Fu was also a person who was reborn.
Because only in this way, as a reborn being, she, who initially guided them to move to Sand City, could become a clear direction, a hope, a beacon that illuminates their dark road ahead in the midst of these desperate dark disasters...
Because of this, when Shu Fu insisted on staying in the villa, she did not stop him or ask any questions.
If it were really possible, she needed such an aura.
But it was not until this moment, when she leaned on Shu Fu's thin shoulders and listened to her deliberately adjusted and even breathing, that she understood.
She doesn't need the halo of a reborn person. A good friend who will not abandon her in a desperate situation full of danger and is willing to take risks to carry her forward is actually a lamp that can illuminate her way forward in this dark and disastrous year.
One - hope.
**
Shu, who regularly practices on the rowing machine, has amazing arm strength and is not weak. Fu relies on the little light from the flashlight to walk steadily and firmly step by step.
She heard Chen Fa's weak breathing on her shoulder, and he seemed to cry a little when he spoke: "Xiao Fu..."
"Well, stay awake... and show me the way!" Shu Fu adjusted her breathing and gait, and was ready for a long battle.
"Um..." Chen Fa responded and signaled his grandmother to help him again.
Chen Yuezhen was equally ruthless. He turned down the battery and shocked the back of her hand.
Shu Fu didn't say anything else. She wanted to focus all her attention on the mountain road below her feet, while maintaining her current breathing state, treating this as an extreme physical training.
There were few trees on this stretch of mountain road in Hexi Town. Those trees had been destroyed by some rainstorm and hailstorm long ago. The mountain road was narrow and not very obvious, and it was all slippery mud. Fortunately, the waterproof boots Shu Fu was wearing were non-slip. They seemed extremely expensive when she bought them, but now she realized that there was a reason for their high price.
After more than half an hour, she finally followed Chen Fa's instructions and saw a cave covered with vines. The cave was very hidden and ordinary people would not notice it. The interior of the cave was very short and semi-open, and it felt more like a rock passage, but after passing through it, there was a different world.
A valley appeared in front of her. The valley was not big, semicircular in shape, and opened to the north. It was located on a steep cliff in the middle of the hillside, and was somewhat similar to the cave restaurant where Shu Fu had stayed before.
The only difference is that the restaurant has a roof, while here it is an open small valley. Near the inner wall of the mountain, there are two gray houses built together.
The house was square and looked like it had no windows. Shu Fu was already on the verge of his physical limit, and it was too dark to see clearly, so he didn't study the house for the time being. He gritted his teeth again, quickened his pace, and walked over with Chen Fa on his back.
Chen Yuezhen had already found the location of the gate, opened the door with the key given to her by Chen Fa, and then turned back to support the staggering Shu Fu.
Chen Fa had already lost consciousness on Shu Fu's back. The two men didn't even have time to catch their breath. They dragged Chen Fa and supported each other, and finally fell into the safe house.
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