Chapter 44
Setting foot on this barren land again, I was filled with fear and worry about the unknown.
It is so desolate here. The roads don't look like roads, and the streets and alleys are empty. The city nights are more lively than here. It is no exaggeration to say that if you whisper here, people ten meters away can hear it clearly.
It's so deserted here, everything seems unimaginably quiet and lonely.
But I know that what is missing here is not only the sound, but also the human touch.
It hadn't been long since I'd last been here; I could still smell a faint familiar scent in the air. We didn't take a car; that would have been too obvious. I remembered the man's claim that he had a monopoly on the rentals near the factory. If he'd discovered I was back, it would have caused unnecessary misunderstandings, which would have been difficult to resolve.
So in order to save trouble and be on the safe side, Li Ying'an and I discussed walking.
Humans aren't as nimble as cats, and they don't walk very fast. A distance that seemed short ended up taking about three hours because of all the stops and starts. Fortunately, hard work pays off, and my memory is pretty good. I didn't lead Li Ying'an to any remote places, even though that wasn't a good place to go.
I pointed to the maple forest: It's here, are you familiar with it?
Li Ying'an was certainly familiar with this place; having lived there for nearly twenty years, he couldn't forget it. As we approached, I could tell his pace was slowing down. He wasn't familiar with the road I was taking. He said that if people from that village wanted to leave, they wouldn't go through this route. Those who did were usually those trying to escape secretly.
Now, the imagined scene became the reality before his eyes. Li Ying'an seemed to be deaf and could not hear what I said. He was just immersed in it, with a look of sadness on his face.
He said he was familiar with this place, and he could infer from the maple forest that the village was on the other side of the hill, but he also said he was not familiar with this place. This time, the here referred to the maple forest, because he had only been to this place once since he was a child until he left, and that time was the most unforgettable and most hated experience in his life.
"On my eighteenth birthday, to celebrate my coming of age, my family bought me my first cake. My mom was even released from prison, just to celebrate my birthday. We were probably so happy, we drank a lot that day. I still remember the mess, people stumbling around, things smashed to pieces. It was like a burglar breaking into our house, even worse. It was around that time that my usually silent, sometimes mad mom came to me and numbly said she was leaving."
Li Ying'an closed his eyes. I don't know if he was recalling the details of the past or swallowing the pain that was coming again.
He opened his eyes after calming down for a while. There was a light in his gray eyes, which was tears greeting him.
He coughed lightly, his voice still hoarse. "I know she meant leaving this stinking place. She'd rather return to that shabby little dark room, but isn't this entire village also a place of filthy water? She wanted to leave not just this room, but this stinking muddy place that imprisoned her youth. I was also obsessed at the time. I knew the time was not right, and my teacher repeatedly told me not to be impulsive, but I still led her out of here."
He turned around on the spot, his level gaze forming a circle around the place, and finally he faced the direction he came from. His clear eyes became deep, and his tears were evaporated by anger.
I saw him raise his hand, pointing to a small hillock protruding over there, and whispered to me, "Can you imagine there are people over there? I've lived here for all these years and never noticed there were people there. I certainly didn't imagine they were so united, turning into mad dogs when they heard someone was being asked for help."
He didn't say anything else. Even without him saying it, I could imagine what the consequences would be for the two people who were caught, especially Li Rui. She would definitely be tortured again and be in excruciating pain.
When I think of this, my eyes become empty. Outsiders have a strong sense of empathy. Why are some people not human?
I hate the way human hearts turn black for profit.
The purpose of our visit this time is to confirm whether the people in this village are still the ones who disregarded the law and committed all kinds of evil. If so, why didn't the police discover the problem here at the time? Was it a deliberate cover-up or was there something else hidden? The exact situation needs to be confirmed.
Therefore, Li Ying'an must not take the risk to enter. If those people are still in the village, they will know each other after a few years. Let's not talk about whether Li Ying'an can find the answer to the question by then. Whether he can escape from this cannibalistic place is a mystery to the world.
In this case, I can only use the method I used that night to transform myself into an inconspicuous cat and observe the current situation in the village for my friend.
Before leaving, Li Ying'an told me that he wanted me to go to a big banyan tree on the east side and find a one-eyed old man who was hunchbacked, had a gloomy face, didn't like to talk to people, and kept people at a distance.
This man was his teacher's nominal husband. If he was found, he would see a woman with a burnt face, who was his teacher. If these two were still alive, the village would likely be filled with the same people as before.
I remembered his words clearly and turned into a kitten in front of him without any hesitation, lifting my hooves and running up the hillside.
This section of the hillside is not as steep as the Ten Thousand Mountains. It is just a miniature of them. With my agile body, climbing the small hill is a piece of cake. I can reach the top of the mountain effortlessly like that night, and then overlook the scattered villages opposite, and then lock onto the banyan tree that Li Ying'an mentioned.
I looked carefully and found it without any effort!
When I was about to rush to my destination, I noticed a hunched figure nearby. I didn't know whether he had discovered that I was trying to catch me or if he was just like that. This made me alert and I instantly lowered my body and hid in a relatively dense patch of grass.
Next, I saw the man's face clearly. He was probably in his seventies or eighties, with a hunched back and carrying a bamboo basket on his back. If there was something in the basket, he would have come to nothing.
He didn't notice my presence and walked straight in the direction I came from.
This made me unable to sit still instantly, because Li Ying'an was still waiting for me in the maple forest!
Of course Li Ying'an could run, and so could the old man, but I didn't forget that Li Ying'an told me that there was also a man-eating creature on the other side just like this one. The old man naturally couldn't catch up with a young and strong man like Li Ying'an, but he could shout, and then the people inside and outside would surround Li Ying'an.
Thinking back to that night, I wonder how desperate and painful Li Ying'an must have felt. I don't want him to experience that scene again.
I decisively ran down the hillside.
"Hey, why did you come back so soon?" Li Ying'an looked up when he heard a voice, and was confused when he saw it was me.
Without saying a word, I turned back into a human in front of him and said quickly and breathlessly: I saw someone coming here.
Li Ying'an's face suddenly showed shock. He subconsciously took my hand and looked towards the sloping hillside. At this moment, any disturbance could make both of us nervous.
There was no time left, so he had to take me back the way I came.
But in the next second, the old man appeared.
Coincidentally, before turning around, Li Ying'an unconsciously glanced over there again, and he immediately stopped. I was about to pull him forward, but the person next to me couldn't stop, and he dragged me back.
I didn't fall down, luckily I just stumbled.
I tried to interrupt his daze, but unexpectedly, a vicissitudes of life voice from a distance spread faster than my actions.
"Are you back?"
In the end, it was discovered.
This was my first thought after hearing this, but then I realized something was wrong. If it were someone else, Li Ying'an would have dragged me away and disappeared without a trace. How could he stand here in a daze? Li Ying'an is not the kind of person who doesn't know what is important and what is not. He must have met someone he is more familiar with.
I suddenly thought of the old man's appearance. He was very similar to the one Li Ying'an had told me. Now it seems that they are the same person. The old man is Teacher Li Ying'an's husband.
While I was thinking about it, the person was already standing in front of us.
This time, I observed the old man face to face and carefully. Indeed, as Li Ying'an had said, he was one-eyed, and his other eye was also on the verge of going blind. The white of his right eye occupied two-thirds of the eyeball, and the eyeball seemed to be hanging from his upper eyelashes. The harder he looked at people, the more his eyelashes blinked, and occasionally his eyeball would burrow into his upper eyelid, making the entire eye appear eerily white.
"It's me." Li Ying'an's tone of voice sounded indifferent. He didn't have much affection for this man.
The old man didn't care: "Why did you come back after going out?"
Li Ying'an stammered and thought for a while, and finally decided to use the teacher as a shield: "I came to see someone."
"Who are you looking at?" the old man chuckled. "Xiao Song?"
Li Ying'an had never heard of this title before, and he was stunned for a moment, but soon realized that it was his teacher's name. Li Ying'an never knew his teacher's name, and the woman had never told him her name.
Li Ying'an nodded gently: "Yeah."
"Don't look anymore," the old man said, "He's dead."
Li Ying'an suddenly raised his head, which had been lowered because of lying, and his eyes widened. At least in my impression, I have never seen him so shocked. Even when I found their village, he didn't look like he was struck by lightning.
He seemed to find it hard to accept such news. Although his feet were as deep as tree roots in the soil and he could stand firm even in the strong wind, if you tried to touch his hand, you would find that he was shaking tensely.
I held his hand and stood with him in the wind and rain.
"...Who, who died, and how did they die?" His tone rose and fell, like a dry leaf swaying on a tree, trembling in the wind, but refusing to fall.
The old man didn't answer him, but asked him, who are you looking at?
Li Ying'an didn't say anything else and gave the standard answer in silence.
"Dead," the old man emphasized the fact again, his tone as calm as always, like eating and drinking water. "After you and your mother ran away secretly, she disappeared. It was a week later when we found her again. I don't know how she ran to a woods in the west. There were so many weeds there that we couldn't see the road. She fell into a pit. When we found her, her clothes were all torn off, and her body was covered with wounds. Her face also had new wounds. I didn't think it was her when I went to recognize her, but there was a mole behind her ear, that's for sure."
Hearing about this cruel and undignified way of dying, Li Ying'an staggered back a few steps. If I hadn't been holding his hand tightly, he would have sat on the ground and never gotten up again.
"It was her...she ran away on her own," Li Ying'an said, tears streaming down his face. "Or you forced her to do it."
To be honest, I don't quite believe this statement. If she wanted to run away, why didn't she say she didn't want to be with Li Ying'an? It sounds like she was willing to run away to the mountains and die.
Still without a direct reply, the old man attacked Li Ying'an: "Do you think she can survive if you run away?"
I couldn't help but look over. Li Ying'an was looking at him with tears in his eyes: "What do you mean she can't live anymore?"
The old man took down the sad bamboo basket and muttered to himself, "Since ancient times, there has been no way to have the best of both worlds. The most common thing is to keep one and give up the other."
Since ancient times, this kind of filthy and foul place is the most likely to corrupt and produce all kinds of mental illnesses. I looked at him. Although the old man is old, he is also a native mental patient.
Regardless of the facts, this is all attributed to mental illness.
Li Ying'an was in a state of extreme repressed anger and unresolved sadness. He asked again, "So why?"
"Why?"
This time the old man took over his words and moved closer to him. After they looked at each other silently for a few seconds, the old man suddenly raised his fist and attacked him, slapping him hard in the face. I was so scared that I let go of his hand and stared at the old man who looked like he was dead in panic, afraid that he would slap me in the face the next second.
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