Signs Of Human Habitation

The girl screamed loudly. Her voice sounded particularly shrill in the current environment. Song Qingxiao felt a constant ringing in her ear. 

The middle-aged man was already in a bad mood because they could not find the way out despite searching for a long time. In addition to that, he was tired and hungry. Not to mention that he had slipped and fallen, nearly scaring the life out of him. 

The girl's scream was the final straw; the spark that caused his emotions to blow up. As soon as he came back to his senses, he raised his arm without any hesitation to aim a heavy blow towards the girl's face!

Smack!

A loud sound rang out. The blow caused the girl's head to swing to one side. He had used so much force that Song Qingxiao was thrown back to the ground after she had just managed to get up with much difficulty!

After all, the girl was still holding on to her hand tightly.

"If you f*cking dare to scream one more time, I will kill you!"

The girl stopped screaming. Once everything calmed down, it became apparent that an eerie stillness seemed to pervade their surroundings. It was as if they were in a dead city, and there was no one around except for the three of them. 

The middle-aged man was on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Since he threw a blow, it was like he had found an outlet for all his emotions, such as fear, unrest, and tiredness. 

His eyes were bloodshot, and he wore a ferocious expression. It seemed like hitting the girl once was not enough to quell the rage he felt. He raised his fist once more and aimed it towards the girl.

The girl was stunned by the beating. She let go of Song Qingxiao's hand subconsciously to shield her face and began to sob pitifully. The previous blow had caused the girl's lip to split open, and some blood trickled down her lip. The second punch from the middle-aged man landed on her head and made her vision go white.

If it continued, Song Qingxiao feared that her life might be in danger, so she moved to block him without thinking. She had grown up in the West District of Imperial City, where violent things happened frequently. That area was where the slums were, and it was also called the 'rough street'. She had grown up watching many fights, and she was familiar with the feeling of being scared. 

Song Qingxiao understood the girl's fear. In that environment, even the movement of the grass caused by a gentle breeze would be enough to make them jump. She did her best to keep a lid over her own fears. She was worried about what dangers she would attract.

However, the girl was easily frightened and timid. She was terrified when the middle-aged man dragged her down as he fell. After that fright, the man had hit her because she screamed. If the middle-aged man lost all sense of rationality and continued to beat her up, there was a chance that he could severely harm her.

It was hard enough for them to travel together with the three of them. If anything happened to the girl, they would be left with the two of them having to drag her with them. It would be hard to drag her while finding the other six people in the group, let alone carrying her to find a way out of the space!

Of course, the most important reason was not because Song Qingxiao felt sorry for the girl, but because she was worried. She was worried that if the middle-aged man injured the girl badly, he would destroy the balance of the team.

There would only be two people left in the three-person team. If she was left alone with the middle-aged man, it would increase the threat of danger to her. He had a history of violence, so it was highly possible that he might act up again on their journey to get out of the space. When that happened, she would be in a very unfavorable position!

When she thought about it, Song Qingxiao used her hand to stroke the dagger hidden in her sleeve if he caused any sudden trouble. At the same time, she used all the strength in her body to crash into the middle-aged man with her shoulder while she screamed.

"Stop hitting her!"

When she said that, her voice sounded a little hoarse. All Song Qingxiao could hear was the sound of her blood rushing through her veins and her heart thumping rapidly. Thankfully the man was short and fat, and he was not as strong as he looked. Perhaps he had lost his nerves over the course of the journey, including being tired and hungry.

As soon as Song Qingxiao crashed into him, the middle-aged man let go of the girl and fell to the ground. 

In his rage, he was about to get up and continue to beat her up. Song Qingxiao endured the bitter pain and numb sensation in her shoulder as she used the rest of her strength to drag the limp and unmoving body of the girl on the ground away. She tried to put some distance between them and the middle-aged man. At the same time, she shouted angrily, "Are you trying to beat her to death!?"

She had intervened promptly and had managed to stop the man's actions. Even though the space seemed separate from reality, obeying the law was still a deeply-rooted principle for many of the Empire's citizens. It appeared that his morality was not wholly corrupt. Song Qingxiao's intervention seemed to have caused the middle-aged man to calm down. He relaxed his tightly-clenched fists.

The girl's body shook like a leaf. Red, swollen finger marks quickly appeared on her cheeks. She was so afraid of the middle-aged man, and she was so frail that even after she was beaten, she did not dare to scream nor cry. She curled up into a ball and hid behind Song Qingxiao.

Song Qingxiao thought about what she wanted to say. She was afraid that she might provoke the middle-aged man again and cause another episode. She grasped her arm tightly and pressed against the hilt of the dagger in her sleeve with the palm of her hand.

"Even though we have no idea how to escape from this place, it's a hard enough task for three people. If anything happened to one of us, that would mean that we've lost a portion of our strength. This is not beneficial to us at all."

Song Qingxiao was not a talkative person, but once she spoke, she made an impact. The middle-aged man seemed to calm down, and his features began to relax. Song Qingxiao let out a sigh of relief.

"We've still not found Zhou Jing and the others, but when we do, we'll be able to find our way out of here," she continued, "When we meet up with the others, and they find out that you've hurt someone, there might be trouble."

She brought up that point because she thought it would give the middle-aged man a little hope and that it might be a warning to him to watch his behavior. Her words seemed to have their intended effect. The middle-aged man seemed to be trying to control his rage. He dusted the grass off him and got up with a grunt.

He was the person who had fallen first. Since he was also much larger than the girls, he took a harsher fall. When he got up, he let out a gasp and found that his right leg seemed to be injured. He hobbled as he walked and found that walking was much more difficult than before.

Once things had calmed down, Song Qingxiao assessed the place around them. It was a little lower than the place that they had fallen from. From the feeling she got when she trod on the ground, some steps were beneath their feet. It seemed like over a long period of time, the weeds had overgrown and completely covered the steps. In addition, the visibility in the environment was terrible, so it was easy for one to miss the steps and slip.

After they had figured it out, the three of them continued down the steps carefully as they began to explore the new area. They had no idea how long they had walked for when the dark shadow that had been hidden in the thick fog began to draw close to them. It turned out to be a building—possibly a factory shed. The three people let out a sigh of relief. However, a moment later, they all frowned.

It was strange that there was a building in that odd place. They walked in cautiously as they could not tell if there was danger ahead. It was much darker inside, and it seemed like it was an abandoned factory. The factory was shockingly huge inside. However, there was nothing else there apart from several dozen large water tanks.

The tanks were sealed with heavy lids, and they could not tell what was inside them. They did not dare to open the lids because they were completely unsure about the situation. Besides that, they were also weak from tiredness and hunger. After a brief discussion, they decided to explore the area before they attempted anything.

After all, they were in a building. Perhaps there was another exit. If they found the exit and managed to leave that darn place, it would be a huge relief.

The middle-aged man seemed to struggle as they walked around the factory. Song Qingxiao silently made a note of the places that she had walked past. After an unknown period of time, the three of them were exhausted and completely out of energy. 

The excitement in the middle-aged man's eyes when they first discovered the factory had slowly disappeared. His expression became more somber as time went on. He did not speak, and the aura he gave off seemed to become more and more dangerous.

After a while, all their stomachs began to grumble, and they found that they could no longer take another step. Hence they all found a place to stop and sit.

"Have you got anything to eat?"

The middle-aged man looked at Song Qingxiao as he stretched out his hand towards her. Song Qingxiao did not have a good impression of him by this point. Her hand was gripped tightly by the girl the entire time, while her other hand was dragged by the middle-aged man. 

After the middle-aged man had beat her, the girl did not dare to be anywhere close to him. The girl seemed to treat Song Qingxiao like her savior and clung to Song Qingxiao tightly, refusing to let go of her. It stopped Song Qingxiao from reaching for her dagger as she pleased, causing her to feel a little anxious. 

"No, I don't."

She let go of the middle-aged man's hand and pretended to massage her arms when she actually reached to grip the handle of her dagger. The middle-aged man noticed her action. Since she had done it quite a few times on the road and now, everyone was on edge, he asked her in a dark tone, "Why do you keep touching your arms?"

He had put his guard up. Song Qingxiao forced out a smile and put on a calm tone.

"When we fell earlier, I hurt my arm. I think I grazed myself there, and it bled a little." 

The middle-aged man stopped being suspicious of her after she said that. When they fell down the steps earlier, the man got pretty injured as well. His right leg still ached at that point.

His gaze moved from Song Qingxiao to the girl. The girl was trying her best to stay as far away from him as she could. His eyes darkened and flashed with anger.

"Have you got anything to eat?"

As soon as he spoke, the girl started to tremble. When he had asked his question, the girl quickly shook her head and said, "No."

She was worried that the middle-aged man would not believe her, so she even turned out her pockets and took off her jacket to show him that she was not lying.

Song Qingxiao studied the cards in her mind intently. After a long time had passed, the cards had not changed one bit. However, as soon as the girl took off her jacket, alarm bells started to ring in Song Qingxiao's mind!

In that situation, the girl's action was extremely dangerous! It was unfortunate that she did not realize the danger of it. Perhaps, she was too young.

There was a glint in the middle-aged man's eyes. There seemed to be a change in his breathing. Song Qingxiao tugged her hand out of the girl's grip and lowered her voice to reprimand her.

"Everyone can see that you don't have any food!"

Song Qingxiao gave the girl a little shove and sneakily pulled her clothes tighter around her as she spoke.

The middle-aged man smiled as he said, "Number one. Come over here."

He beckoned for the girl to come closer as he licked his lips.