Chapter 53 Nightmare
Du Huaizhi swallowed the remaining sweet taste in his mouth and said, "I'm fine."
"You even vomited blood! How come you're okay?!" Han Qingli was so excited that she couldn't control her voice. Her voice came out from the cave entrance and echoed in the valley.
"Cough... cough cough..." Du Huaizhi coughed a few times, pulling her back from her excitement.
Looking at the blood clots she coughed up, Han Qingli's hands were shaking as she supported her. "What should I do? What can I do to save you?"
Her voice rang in his ears, but Du Huaizhi no longer had the strength to respond. He slowly closed his heavy eyelids and completely lost consciousness amid Han Qingli's screams.
After a period of dizziness and floating up and down, Du Huaizhi faintly heard another voice. The voice was vague at first, but then became clearer and clearer.
"Steamed bun."
"Don't sleep, Mantou."
"Steamed bun?"
Du Huaizhi heard a childish yet familiar voice. His eyelashes trembled and he opened his eyes with difficulty. What he saw was a mottled thatched roof.
A little beggar stood beside her, his messy hair covered with grass debris, and a big "six" written on his rag-like clothes. He was holding a warm steamed bun in his hand and poking her cheek with his fingers stained with mud.
"How can you sleep so well? If you don't wake up, I will eat all the steamed buns." As she said that, she cut the steamed bun into two and handed the larger piece to Du Huaizhi.
The steamed bun was broken and not clean, but at least it was still warm. The little beggar ate it happily, mumbling incoherently: "It's been a long time since I had steamed buns. Steamed buns are so delicious. I wish I could have steamed buns every day."
Du Huaizhi looked at her blankly and spoke slowly: "Er...ya..." The voice that came out was surprisingly hoarse, as if she had not drunk water for more than ten days, and her throat was dry and rubbing against each other, making a sound.
Erya stuffed the steamed bun into her mouth, and her originally fleshless cheeks were puffed up. Her clear eyes sparkled. She smiled and patted Du Huaizhi's head as if rewarding him, "You finally remember my name."
At this time, Du Huaizhi was already in a trance.
Just then, the sound of gongs rang out, and children of similar age around them walked out one after another, and Erya also pulled her out.
"Mantou, don't just stand there. They might be giving us food again. If you go too late, there won't be any left."
The two of them stumbled out, dragging each other along. Outside the house, children were crowding around a high platform, and several strong men were standing on the platform. The one beating the gong was one of them.
The burly man in the lead looked around and saw that everyone was almost too lazy. He raised his hand to signal the gong gong to stop, stepped forward, and shouted, "How do the steamed buns taste today?"
Heads and eyes stared at him, but no one responded.
"Do you want to eat good food every day?" the strong man asked again.
"I want to!" This time someone finally responded. It was a half-grown boy. As soon as he spoke, many children followed suit, and the voices created wave after wave.
"Then let's play a game together." Seeing that his goal had been achieved, the burly man showed a ferocious smile on his face and raised his hand to show a silver plate. "Good things are precious and limited. There is only one. As for who it will be given to, it depends on your performance."
The children in the audience looked at each other in confusion, not understanding what the strong man meant by playing games and watching the performance.
However, Du Huaizhi noticed something. Not only Erya's clothes, but other children's clothes also had different numbers written on them. She lowered her head and looked at the number "fifteen" on her clothes, and was horrified.
The next moment, the strong man said what she was thinking, "It means that only one of you can survive and get the sign. In the future, you will not only have steamed buns to eat, but also endless meat and endless money."
"We'll give you one day. We won't restrict you during this time, and no matter what method you use, whoever survives before sunset will get the sign."
The children around began to whisper to each other, and the boy who led the shouting gradually became fierce in his eyes, staring at the little girl closest to him.
"Then—" The strong man picked up the hammer and hit the gongs and drums. The moment the gongs and drums fell, he shouted: "Begin!"
"Run!" Du Huaizhi suddenly grabbed Erya's wrist and ran to a secluded place with few people. The two of them shuttled between the ruins, and screams and cries came from behind them.
There was bloodthirsty anticipation in the eyes of those strong men. This was not a "game" at all, but a carefully designed killing field.
Those strong men didn't treat them as human beings at all. They put them together just to let them kill each other, leaving only one bloodthirsty killer behind.
Du Huaizhi pushed her into the narrow wall and blocked the entrance himself. "Listen, no matter what happens later, don't come out." As he said that, he picked up a piece of sharp-edged gravel from the ground and held it tightly in his hand.
There was a sound of breaking wood in the distance, followed by the child's shrill plea for mercy which came to an abrupt end.
Du Huaizhi stared at the corner, leaned forward slightly, and was ready to strike.
Footsteps approached from afar, mixed with heavy breathing. Du Huaizhi dug his nails deep into his palms, and sweat trickled down his forehead.
When a boy covered in blood stepped into her sight, she suddenly leaped up and smashed the gravel into his temples.
The boy was much bigger than her, and he was already blood-thirsty. He roared in pain and punched Du Huaizhi to the ground.
The moment her back hit the broken wall, she heard the slight crack of her ribs. When the fist came again, she rolled to the side, picked up half a brick, and smashed it hard into the boy's knee.
"ah--"
The boy screamed and knelt on one knee. His bloody fist brushed past Du Huaizhi's ear and slammed into the mud. The splashing gravel scratched her cheek.
Du Huaizhi seized the opportunity and repeatedly hit him on the back of the neck with a brick, but he grabbed her hair and threw her away. She crashed into the broken wall, a fishy-sweet taste surging in her throat, and her vision went black.
"Want to steal the sign from me?!" The boy stood up shakily. "Everyone deserves death!" He held the stone in his hand and approached step by step.
At the critical moment, Erya's thin figure squeezed out, holding a sharp tile high in her hand: "Don't touch my buns!"
She pounced on the boy like a small animal protecting its cub, and the tiles slashed his arm fiercely. The boy turned around in pain, but the sharp gravel had already hit Erya's throat.
Du Huaizhi pounced over almost instantly, but was still a step too late. The sharp point pierced Erya's neck and was then pulled out in an instant. Blood splattered, staining Du Huaizhi's eyes red.
The small body collapsed to the ground, with his hands covering his neck, but he couldn't stop the blood from flowing out.
The boy's laughter mixed with heavy breathing echoed in the ruins: "Go to hell!" He raised the blood-stained rubble high, but suddenly froze in the shadows.
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