Chapter 7 : Decision (1)

Baiqiu Village is surrounded by dark green mountains and forests, and is like a piece of dark chocolate in a dark green cake, abrupt and eye-catching.

The entire Baiqiu Village is located on the top of the hill.

There are more than thirty tiled houses scattered throughout the village.

At this time, on the outskirts of the village to the west, there was a pale man walking slowly, looking around from time to time with a nervous look.

The man was wearing a grey T-shirt and casual pants, which were dirty and wrinkled, and obviously had not been washed for a long time. His hair was also condensed into a 'Mohawk hairstyle' due to sweat.

He was wearing a pair of grey sneakers whose original colour couldn't be seen. He stepped up and down on the muddy ground, and it seemed that he was not used to the roads here.

There were no insects chirping of birds singing around Baiqiu Village. there was only the sound of the man walking slowly.

' It's been fifteen minutes.'

Yu Hong took out the mobile phone from his trouser pocket, opened it and took a look. 

He did not want to replace the old-fashioned mobile phone in his original world because of nostalgia, but he did not expect that it would become a key auxiliary tool here.

He had been lying in bed for several days. If it was a smart phone, it would have run out of battery long ago. But this old-fashioned phone has a small screen and a long battery, so it can last for more than a week. 

It is hard and quite durable and It even has water resistance. At this critical moment, it gave him great psychological comfort.

The time is clearly displayed on the mobile phone interface: March 5, 2024, 15:32.

"Alas," Yu Hong sighed softly. This was the time before he came here.

But now it's meaningless.

Looking at the empty signal box in the upper right corner of the phone interface, he realised that he was probably not in his original world.

Whether it was the previous newspaper reports, or the common things that Little Stutter and Dr. Xu talked about, as well as the messy and weird situations he encountered, all showed that this was not his world.

He looked up at the bright sunshine.

Yu Hong lowered his head and made a mark on the mud at his feet, then piled up a few stones to form a small triangular structure.

This is a mark to prevent him from getting lost.

Fifteen minutes had passed since Dr. Xu and Little Stutter left. During these fifteen minutes, he walked around the village for a while.

But to his disappointment, there seemed to be no living people in this place except the three of them.

' It's possible that all the living people are hiding. After all, even in the daytime, there could be great danger. '

Yu Hong sighed in his heart, holding the strengthened white stone tightly in one hand all the time.

The previous experience made him deeply understand that in this place, White stone's effect was the only guarantee of his safety.

As Dr. Xu said before he left, there will be no black bugs when there is sunlight during the day, and at most you will occasionally encounter a few strange shadows.

As long as he has the white stone, they will not be very dangerous during the day.

Because the shadow seems to be very weak during the day.

Yu Hong believed this, otherwise Little Stutterer and Dr. Xu would not be so careless as to keep going out.

His mind was firm, he looked back at the marks he had made along the way, made sure they were still there, and continued walking forward.

Quiet--

Dead silence--

squished~

There was no other sound around except the crisp sound of the weeds he stepped on.

Even the wind was barely audible.

More than ten minutes passed.

Yu Hong finally walked around the entire village, taking one step at a time.

He stood at the initial gravel intersection. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and kept memorising in his mind some of the important places he had just discovered.

The most important of these is the well.

Just now he saw from afar that a well had been dug in a family's courtyard.

There were many footprints coming and going beside the stone well, which obviously showed that this was a rare source of drinking water for living people.

But from a distance, more than ten metres away, he could feel a biting chill radiating from the well.

Even the sunlight couldn't suppress it. He felt something was wrong, so he didn't get close and just remembered its location.

"It's very strange. A small village located on a hill actually dug a well at a high place." Yu Hong was puzzled. Generally, wells are dug in low-lying areas. After all, water flows in low places.

But this place is different from other places.

Standing on the gravel road, he looked up and looked around again.

The village is surrounded by endless dark green forests.

The mountains and forests are connected into a large area, like a sea of trees.

There were no birds singing, no living creatures in sight, and even the dark green trees and grass gave people an uncomfortable feeling.

Yu Hong had a blank expression on his face, staring at the only old road leading to the outside world for a long time before he turned around and returned to the village.

The journey was uneventful until we returned to Little Stutter's home.

He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he closed the wooden door completely.

' This place is so weird ' When he thought about how long he would have to live here and there was no hope of returning, he felt a deep despair in his heart.

' I checked it when I was walking around just now. There is no car but there are wheel marks on the ground. This shows that there used to be a car here, but it was driven away later. '

Yu Hong found a piece of charcoal from the miscellaneous corner and drew a map of Baiqiu Village on the wall.

The map is very simple, just some simple lines and small squares representing houses.

He marked the well, the old road they had left, and the little stutterer home where he is living.

The three places form a triangular structure.

"What should I do now?" Yu Hong looked at the map, quickly suppressed the despair in his heart, and thought about his future path.

"I can't always rely on the little stutterer. I must first learn to deal with these dangers by myself, and also learn to find food and shelter by myself."

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he wrote and drew on the wall with a charcoal pencil in his hand.

Then he raised his hand and stared at the black mark on the back of his hand.

' And Due to this mark, if I don't want to be discovered, I must choose to live alone. Otherwise, in this extremely dangerous environment, it would be very dangerous for others to know my ability! '

Although it is not clear whether other people have similar abilities, Yu Hong is sure that Little Stutterer and Dr. Xu definitely do not have this ability.

This can also be seen from some subtle details.

' First learn how to find food and drink, and then move out! ' Yu Hong quickly decided on his plan.

After making the decision, he stood up and went back to the bed, intending to rest for a while and wait for the little stutterer to come back.

Knock ! Knock ! Knock !.

Suddenly.

The door was knocked.

One sound after another, it was very rhythmic.

Yu Hong was feeling very tense, and he looked towards the wooden door but He said nothing.

There's something wrong with this knock on the door.

But he ignored the other party, tightly grasped the strengthened white stone, took a deep breath, lay down quietly, and prepared to rest.

Knock ! knock ! knock !

The knocking sound is still Coming.

One time after another.

But Yu Hong remained silent, pretending not to hear.

He lay on his side on the bed, his eyes fixed on the door, the reinforced white stone in his hand. his body was tense. He was ready to react at any time.

Fortunately, the knocking sound lasted for seven times and then stopped.

Instead, it seemed like someone was peeking at me through the window.

Looking inside through the gap in the seal.

Yu Hong felt a chill in his heart. He turned his head and stared at the window, lowering his voice and breathing deeply.

The strong sense of crisis constantly stimulated his adrenaline secretion, the blood in his body flowed rapidly, the circulation accelerated, and his face turned red.

He doesn't know how much time has passed.

The figure outside the window seemed to lose patience and left quietly.

The light from the window was no longer blocked and everything returned to normal.

Yu Hong held the strengthened white stone tightly, feeling that the stone and his palms were all sweaty.

He lowered his head, took a deep breath, and adjusted his body. He stood up and picked up another piece of white stone, this time it was an unused piece of white stone.

Then he looked at the number displayed on the stone: 2 days.

"It only takes two days to strengthen an unused one?" He breathed a sigh of relief.

Hearing the question ringing in his ear, he silently gave a definite and strengthened answer.

Soon, the numbers on the surface of the white stone disappeared instantly, and the entire stone seemed to be covered in a layer of slippery grease, and the black mark began to intensify.

Yu Hong put it into his other trouser pocket without even looking at it.

Then he lay down. He set an alarm on his mobile phone, and fell into a deep sleep.

This time he didn't sleep for long, nor did he sleep soundly, and he woke up quickly.

"Little Stutterer isn't coming back tonight, which means I'll be the only one staying in this room tonight." Yu Hong looked at the dim sunlight outside the window gap, feeling a little depressed.

He stood up and went to the storage corner, where he took out a large candle and something similar to matches that the stutterer had given him before he left.

He prepared everything and just placed them next to his bed to reach them easily at any time. Then, Yu Hong just lay there on the bed, waiting for the night to fall.

Time passed little by little, and soon, the sky outside became darker and darker, gradually plunging into darkness.

This time it was very quiet, there were no black bugs like last time, and no strange shadows.

It seemed as if everything had forgotten him and everything was peaceful.

The night passed quickly in the haggard waiting and alertness.

It was not until dawn that Yu Hong saw the bright sunlight shining through the window and he breathed a sigh of relief.

But even though it was dawn and nothing happened all night, the long period of vigilance, tension and torment had left him extremely exhausted both mentally and physically.

This also made him want to find a truly absolutely safe resting place even more.

He is not like Little stutterer. If he continues like this without a good rest, he will die.

Yu Hong got up and filtered some water in the house and drank it. His stomach started growling again.

Although he had eaten all of the stored food of Little Stutterer yesterday, so much time had passed that his stomach had already digested it all.

He got up and went out, taking advantage of the bright sunlight, he wandered around at the gravel intersection.

This time, he walked a little further down the old road, trying to find any edible plants and fruits.

But unfortunately, he found nothing on the road. He didn't see any fruits and he didn't recognize any plants at all.

None of the plants here were what he had seen before. Even the most common wild chrysanthemums and dandelions were nowhere to be seen.

Fortunately, finally, Little Stutterer came back.

*Huff*

Inside the room, the little stammerer struggled to put the large package on her back onto the ground. Then she unties the knot of the package.

Inside are packages of dried meat, dried mushrooms, and dried insects.

Yu Hong came forward to help and found that the jerky was mainly some black meat particles, and he didn't know what animal it came from.

The dried mushrooms were also broken into pieces and it was hard to tell what variety they were.

And the dried insect.

"This is... a cockroach??!" Yu Hong's expression changed a little.

"It's delicious." The little stutterer shook her head and corrected himself. Then he picked up a thumb-sized dried cockroach and put it into her mouth.

"Delicious!" She gave a thumbs up and chewed quickly, making a crunching sound. Her eyes were wide open, full of joy.

"..."  Yu Hong was speechless.