"Black Gold, come back, it's getting dark!"
Song Liyun was extremely anxious. Although she wasn't worried about spending the night alone on the mountain, her family would be worried sick if she didn't come home all night.
Seeing that Black Gold was disobedient, she simply ignored it and turned to walk down the mountain.
She walked quickly, having covered two hills; if she didn't hurry, it would be dark by the time she reached the river.
Just then, Black Gold, which had already disappeared into the woods, suddenly let out a shrill "waaaaa!"
Song Liyun paused. She had lived with Hei Jin for more than half a year. Although they couldn't communicate verbally, she could still understand some basic emotional changes.
This is what Black Gold discovered—something unusual that terrified it.
Song Liyun stopped running and began to run up the mountain, calling out, "Hei Jin, Hei Jin! What happened?"
She was shouting, and Black Gold was responding.
As if hearing Song Liyun's voice, the fear in Heijin's cries lessened, and it quickly came over to join them.
As soon as the two met, Hei Jin grabbed Song Liyun's clothes and led her into the woods.
"Don't rush, take your time!"
While comforting the trembling Hei Jin, Song Liyun had already drawn her knife and was walking towards the direction Hei Jin had come from.
A hundred meters away from where the two separated, a person was lying prone.
The man had a leather rope around his neck, and there were bloody scratches and stomp marks all around.
Beside him, a bag of dried mushrooms was scattered everywhere.
Where did these mountain gatherers come from? Why are they lying there? Are they dead or alive?
Just as Song Liyun was about to go forward to check, she noticed a flash of light in the distance out of the corner of her eye.
As the sun set, its rays shone from behind her, and the point of light was clearly visible: a curved knife lying in the grass.
At this moment, Black Gold had completely lost its former ferocity as a beast, and was like a child hiding behind Song Liyun, trembling with fear.
Black Gold wasn't unfamiliar with people, much more so with dead people; what it feared was that knife.
It was that curved sword.
Song Liyun did not go forward, but took out a long wooden stick and poked the corpse a few times. Seeing that it did not move, she then approached.
The person is indeed dead; it appears he tripped and fell into a snare set by the hunter.
The man tried to cut the rope with a knife, but he couldn't untie the knot and eventually strangled himself to death.
The fact that the body was preserved intact in this desolate wilderness suggests that the person had not been dead for long.
Song Liyun didn't rush to rummage through her clothes. Instead, she said to the terrified Hei Jin, "Hei Jin, climb the tree. If you see anything coming near, call the police!"
Black Gold seemed to realize at this moment that it could climb trees. It quickly scrambled to the top of the tree and looked down at the surrounding commotion.
With Black Gold acting as a high-altitude sentinel, Song Liyun finally approached and used a wooden stick to pick up the bag from the man's waist.
Seeing the uniquely shaped scimitar, she was already convinced that this man was no ordinary hunter, but in the bag, besides a few pieces of silver and a dozen copper coins, there were only some tobacco leaves.
She shook the bag upside down, finding nothing else inside. Song Liyun frowned: Something's not right. No matter when, a flint and water bag are always essential items when going out.
The fact that the person who had the accident doesn't have either of those things can only mean one thing: his place of residence is not far from here.
Thinking of this, Song Liyun quickly got up and searched for traces in the surrounding area.
Sure enough, about seven or eight meters away from the body, there was a secluded path that no one had ever seen.
The path was hidden in the lush weeds, and Song Liyun would not have noticed the trampled stems and leaves if someone hadn't just walked by.
As you follow the path deeper into the area, you see more and more traces of human activity, including some fresh stubble left from felled trees.
The sun had already set, and a cool mountain breeze was blowing, but Song Liyun was sweating.
She retreated to the path where the body was found, waved to Black Gold above her head, and whispered to it to come down: "Black Gold, go home and call someone, I'll wait here."
She vaguely felt that these people hiding next to Broken Gold Town were related to the missing Hong Jingtian.
It's already dark, so those who were picking mushrooms should go home. If those people come out to search and find the body, they might move it away.
This means losing an opportunity to eliminate the hidden danger, and I must stay here and wait for Hong Jingtian to appear.
However, Song Liyun wasn't sure if there were only two or three people on the other side. If there were many, it would be too risky for her given her skills.
We can't arrest them all; alerting them would only create more trouble. So, we'll have to find help.
Black Gold is fast and won't attract attention, so let it go.
Having received its orders, Black Gold, unsure whether Song Liyun was in danger being left alone, quickly leaped and bounded among the tree branches.
Song Liyun didn't dare stay near the corpse either.
He found a lush bush, took out a moisture-proof cloth from his spatial storage, and wrapped himself up tightly, not even letting a single hair show.
She lay down behind the rock, so that she would only be exposed if someone stepped on her.
Meanwhile, Black Gold swung along the tree branch all the way to the river. It was in a hurry, and even though it was a creature that had been climbing trees for many years, it still lost its grip and fell off the tree several times.
Fortunately, they were still a hill away from the river when Hei Jin saw figures moving about and heard shouts: "Miss Song!" "Sister Song!"
"Song Liyun!"
Black Gold immediately perked up and followed the sound.
The visitors were Han Ming, Zhao Tingduo, and Abu.
It is currently the winter wheat harvest season, but the Song family did not arrive in Suijin Town until winter and therefore did not plant wheat.
Han Ming left home in the morning and helped others harvest wheat with Song Zhenping until he returned in the afternoon, only to find that Song Liyun was not at home.
Zhao Tingduo and the others didn't get up until the afternoon, and they didn't see Song Liyun at Baolin Residence.
By evening, Song Zhenping had already returned home, but Song Liyun still hadn't come back.
Everyone became anxious and went around the town to inquire, but no one had seen anyone enter the town.
The news of the Song family searching for Song Liyun quickly spread throughout the town, and Luo Baihu also came to inquire about it in person.
Xiao An said that Hei Jin hadn't gone home either, so everyone wondered if he was still on the mountain.
Just to be on the safe side, Xue Zhuang led a search party to look for ditches and side roads around the town, both within the town and near the garrison.
Han Ming, Zhao Tingduo, and Abu braved the darkness to go up the mountain.
On the riverbank, they saw the strips of cloth tied to tree branches and realized that Song Liyun had been there.
However, Song Liyun had also come by that morning, so the three of them weren't sure when the knot had been tied.
But with mountains all around here, we can't just run around like headless flies.
As the three were discussing which way to go, they saw Black Gold stumble and run out of the woods.
Han Ming was overjoyed when he saw Hei Jin: "Great Immortal Hei, do you know where the young lady is?"
Black Gold was in a sorry state, howling and jumping up and down as it pointed towards the mountain.
Zhao Tingduo's eyes lit up: "You mean the person is in the mountains?"
Black Gold nodded and quickly ran to the side of the mountain. The three of them quickly followed.
Although Song Liyun had already experienced life and death, she lay quietly in the seemingly silent, yet actually bustling, mountains and forests.
And there was a corpse next to me, which made me feel very uneasy.
It was pure torture.
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