"In that case, we won't go in and disturb you. Please give our regards to Village Chief Ma."
“Alright, it’s best to be careful in your respective villages during this time and try not to take in outsiders.” After saying this, Ma Donglai looked at his uncle.
"Uncle, I won't invite you in to rest this time. Please give my regards to my aunt and sister when you get back. I'll visit them again after things have calmed down for a while."
"Uncle knows, but you must take good care of yourself and your parents here." Yun Mingwei said as he took off the basket from his back. "Your aunt brought you some dried mushrooms and a preserved fish. I'll put it in this corner. Come and collect it in a moment."
"How could we possibly accept your things, Uncle? Please take them back with you."
"Don't talk nonsense, just be careful." Several other villagers who were related to Majia Village also left their belongings at the corner of the wall and left notes on them.
After leaving Majia Village, Sicheng arrived at the old main road and asked everyone, "What do you all think? Should we continue forward or go back?"
Those who were older and wanted to play it safe said they wanted to go back for safety, while the other young people suggested they could take a detour to the side and check out the situation outside.
Si Cheng knew that the virus was not very contagious, and that it was generally safe as long as one did not drink untreated water or come into contact with corpses, but he respected everyone's choice.
"How about this, some of you go back first, and we'll go out and take a look," Yun Jianying suggested.
"No! We all came out together, so we should all go back together." Yun Mingwei and Uncle Bing, who were older, disagreed.
“You should all go back. What if you bring the virus back with you?” Sun Zhilei was most opposed to these people knowing there was a virus outside and still running away.
Si Cheng didn't really agree with going out at this time either. Even if he knew that these viruses weren't very contagious, others might not know that.
So he said, "Everyone should go back first. It's not a good time to go out now; we might come back empty-handed."
"Brother Cheng, we're not afraid. We'll be fine once we get around the county town."
"It's easy to say. Do you know how to get around it? How far is the detour? Do you have enough food?" Yun Dongxing said bluntly. In fact, he wanted to go to the city more than anyone else to see how his wife was doing, but he couldn't neglect his two children at home.
"But we've come this far, it's really not worth it to just leave like this." Young people can always find a point to argue against.
"That's right, if we don't find some fertilizer soon, all the crops at home will be saved."
"Is life more important or crops? If we can get through this now, let's just hold on. It's not too late for everyone to come out after this virus dissipates."
Seeing that everyone was about to start arguing, Si Cheng quickly spoke up: "This time, everyone should go back. Even if we go out, it might not be a solution. I heard from Brother Donglai that many people have run into the city. Soon, someone will discover these cases. Before the results are available, they definitely won't come into contact with outsiders. If we go there now, we won't be able to find anyone to exchange with."
After hearing what Si Cheng said, everyone thought about it carefully and realized it was true. Even they themselves wouldn't easily approach strangers at this time.
If that's the case, then we really have no choice but to go back.
Everyone was dejected and deeply worried along the way, wondering if the virus would spread to Pinghe Village.
Because of the delay in Majia Village, no one reached the previous fixed camp on the first day, and it was too dark to continue traveling. So they could only find a relatively open place along the way to rest for the night.
Looking around at this place surrounded by mountains, Sicheng told everyone not to spread out too much and to take turns keeping watch at night.
“There’s hardly anyone here, so why would we need to keep watch?” Some of the people who were going out for the first time were quite dismissive.
"There's no one here, but there are ghosts." One of the mischievous kids even made a face while holding a flashlight.
"It's always better to be careful when you're out and about." After saying this, Si Cheng ignored them and immediately arranged for them to take turns keeping watch at night.
"Isn't this redundant? Why send so many people to guard the area at once? It would be enough to have two people on duty at a time."
Si Cheng looked at these picky people with great impatience: "Just because there are no people doesn't mean there aren't animals. I saw signs of animals moving around by the lake before. We have a lot of mountains here, so we can't rule out the possibility of large animals. When you're on watch, you should be especially careful on the ground in case any reptiles come over."
Upon hearing this, the people fell silent, having already noticed the presence of ants on the road, indicating that the animals must still be present.
"Brother Cheng, you shouldn't have reminded them. They'll learn their lesson once they've been wronged, and they'll listen to you from now on," Yun Tao said indignantly as he helped Si Cheng build the stove.
"When you're out and about, you should remind people to avoid getting hurt if possible, otherwise it will cause us a lot of trouble." Si Cheng is actually someone who hates trouble.
After dinner, those who needed to rest went to rest, and the first half of the night passed peacefully. Some people, seeing this, relaxed their vigilance, but danger arrived just before dawn.
Yun Sanman was woken up by the urge to pee just before dawn. He then discovered that everyone was asleep, and not a single person had kept their promise.
"These brats are really something else." He muttered to himself as he looked for a place to relieve himself.
"What's that?" He looked ahead and saw what seemed like a flash of light, so he took a few steps forward out of curiosity.
"Ah!" Only then did he realize that the two bright spots in front of him looked like animal eyes, but he didn't know what kind of animal they were.
At this point, he couldn't care less about relieving his physical needs. In order not to disturb the animals on the other side, he slowly backed away, walked to the person closest to him, and gently nudged him, "Shh, quickly wake up everyone around us, something's up."
Fortunately, the people closest to him were his old buddies, who had more life experience and were not alarmed. They quickly grabbed the weapons lying nearby and woke up everyone around them.
Some people who had just been shaken awake were about to curse when the people next to them quickly covered their mouths and gestured for them to look at the light in the distance.
Si Cheng and the others didn't know what kind of animal was on the other side. Someone whispered to the side, "Could it be a wolf? The light looks a bit like the eyes of a wolf in the animal documentary."
Si Cheng looked around, but without a moon, he couldn't see anything at all, and the firewood on the ground had gone out sometime ago. He couldn't help but curse inwardly, "These unreliable guys."
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