CH 30.1

A strong bloody smell came from the alley outside the courtyard. Fang Zhi couldn’t help but frown, and his heart tensed up. He followed the others to step forward, and finally saw the scene around the corner. The scene made him stumble, almost falling to the ground, but fortunately, Gu Xizhou was behind him and pulled him up, preventing him from toppling down.

The first thing that caught his eye was the blood that had dripped all over the floor. The blood had splashed on the white wall, resulting in the mottled blood stains on the ceiling, and the whole ground was just a pool of blood.

Looking down at the pool of blood, the first thing that fell into sight was a dead, unblinking head. Then, Gu Xizhou looked farther away. The broken limbs on the ground were scattered randomly, and large pieces of minced meat were randomly discarded.

Seeing this scene, the people around him looked pale, as if they saw their future. Several people couldn’t help retching. Their psychological strength was terrible, and they were so terrified that they sat on the ground. 

Xie Wenhuo saw the corpse in the alleyway, and his face was pale. It was the first time he had seen such a tragic death. The body of the man who left last night was scattered around him, his stomach was torn apart, and his internal organs spilled out on the ground. The bloody smell that pierced his nose wasn’t one that could be easily eradicated for a long time. The only thing that made them sure about the identity of the man was the blue and white school uniform on his body.

In the crowd, a girl in a white coat cried out, seemingly terrified by the scene. She staggered back, leaning against the only other woman, Xue Xiao, seeking comfort. 

Gu Xizhou looked calm. Although the scene before him was terrifying, it wasn’t enough to scare him. 

“The size of the body is wrong,” Si Yu said lightly. “It’s less than normal.”

After hearing this, Gu Xizhou carefully looked over. Although there were many scattered parts of the corpse, when combined, the meat on the ground could not reach the size of an adult’s body. At least one-third of the body was missing. 

Everyone’s eyes fell on Si Yu. Even though Si Yu now looked about 17 or 18 years old, his handsome face was impossible to be hidden. After standing in the crowd and saying this, everyone around him realised the corpse’s strange situation. Just now, because of the miserable scene in front of them, they couldn’t think of such issues.

The girl who had just cried heard this sentence, and started crying even more fiercely. “Xue Jie, will we all be eaten?”

“No, this time there are eleven people in total, including the dead man. There are three new players, so it shouldn’t be too dangerous.” Xue Xiao was still quite calm. Her lips were pale, but her words were still very certain. 

The girl kept crying, until one of the men sneered sarcastically: “Are you able to live from crying alone? Who do you think will pity you?”

The girl heard his words and gradually suppressed her tears. 

“Did you find anything last night?” Xie Wenhuo asked. 

“No.” Gu Xizhou shook his head and said lightly. “Have you found anything?”

Xie Wenhuo shook his head and said in a deep voice: “No, it seems that we still need to collect information in order to know the ultimate purpose of this mission world.”

“En.” Si Yu nodded and said warmly. “Do we act separately or together?” 

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The mother of the student played by Gu Xizhou was still at home. At this time, the woman had just finished washing her clothes, drying the clothes, and was sitting on the stairs of the yard to choose vegetables.

Gu Xizhou rushed over to help. The woman in the canvas shirt was obviously a little happy. “Cub, why are you so obedient today? Didn’t you go out and play?”

Si Yu stood next to him and took the lead in the conversation, saying: “Aunt Wang, Li Ming and Liu Shurong disappeared some time ago. We were also afraid, so we didn’t go out. We just wanted to ask you, have they been found?”

The woman heard this and sighed helplessly: “Of course not. Both Old Second Li and Old Third Liu have been so anxious, hurrying back with wide eyes. but after looking for several days, they still haven’t found anyone.”

“Didn’t you say they were two big fellows? How can they disappear like that?”

“Then, how do you think they disappeared?” Si Yu asked.

“It should probably be abduction, right? Many parents don’t stay here, it’s inevitable that us elderly folk struggle with taking care of you. In the past, some people have suddenly disappeared before and are never found again. In the end, they’re just gone,” The woman sighed as she said faintly, as if this was very normal and commonplace. 

After the woman finished picking her vegetables, she said to the several people before her: “You should stay in the yard. It is safe here.”

After speaking, the woman took her basket and went into the small kitchen opposite the yard, leaving Gu Xizhou and the others. 

“Human trafficking, this is a clue!” One of the men said anxiously.

Gu Xizhou glanced at the man and ignored him, but just said lightly to Xie Wenhuo: “She should not know much, this is definitely not abduction.”

The man who had just spoken was harried and asked, “Why not?”

“Trafficking of people is generally done to young women, or young girls and boys. Once they reach the age of twelve, men are less likely to be abducted. This is because kids after twelve have conscious memory. Furthermore, men and women have different physiological characteristics. A twelve-year-old boy has considerable strength, not to mention the two men who are now missing are young men between seventeen and eighteen.”

“Young men of seventeen or eighteen years are when they are the strongest, and no one will buy a mature boy.” Gu Xizhou explained lightly. These insights had come from the materials that he had read a while ago before he arrived in this world. 

“It makes sense…” Xie Wenhuo said.

They asked around and found that the parents of this yard didn’t seem to know much about this matter, and they all agreed that it was a trafficking incident.

“There are no useful clues from them, we can only go out and see.”

They prepared to go out together. The parents that were at home did not seem to care. Upon seeing the ten of them together, they thought that the traffickers wouldn’t be so daring, so they heard the kids tell them they were going out to play and just waved their hands while reminding them to stay safe. 

The laneway with the corpse was the only way for them to leave the courtyard. Gu Xizhou’s feet stepped in the pool of blood, and his attitude was very cold, an incredible cold calmness as he was the first to walk out. The people behind him had a shadow in their heart because of this laneway, and their faces were pale white, as if they would faint any time the more they looked at the corpse. 

After Gu Xizhou, Si Yu and Fang Zhi walked out, Xie Wenhuo and his wife Xue Xiao followed. The two had a very good relationship. Gu Xizhou saw Xie Wenhuo holding his wife’s hand and leading her across the pool of blood, comforting his wife, but Gu Xizhou could clearly hear Xie Wenhuo’s tense heartbeat, and he could see that the calm on Xie Wenhuo’s face was all pretense, all in order to comfort his wife.

Xie Wenhuo was the core person in the team. After he came out, other people also endured fear and disgust one after another and left the narrow alleyway of the yard.

The town came into sight the moment one walked out of the alley. The town wasn’t very big–on the contrary, it was very small, with only one street. At that moment, the shops on the street were closed and no one was on the road.

Gu Xizhou was a little helpless: “There’s no one at this time.”

“En, we can come out again later,” Si Yu looked up at the sun in the sky and said. “Today the sun is good. We will come out after lunch. There must be someone at that time.”

Xie Wenhuo was a little surprised and asked, “How do you know there will be someone at that time?”

Si Yu pointed to the side of the street and said lightly: “Although this town is close to the scenic area, it is similar to other rural areas. There are more elderly people, and we also have more elderly people in the yard we live in.”

“En.” Xie Wenhuo frowned slightly, but Si Yu’s words were not wrong. Eight of the remaining ten were left-behind children, and only two of them had a parent at home. “But what does this have to do with this?”

Gu Xizhou took the lead and said: “After lunch, they’re very free, and the sun is big. The elderly will come out for a walk. At this time, they’re usually cooking lunch for the children. There are naturally no people on the street.”

“It makes sense.” Xie Wenhuo nodded.

They returned without success. After lunch, the sun was shining warmly on them. The time now was more ideal and very comfortable, so they went out again.

Sure enough, there were a lot of old people on the road at this time, with their hands behind their backs, walking slowly step by step, chatting while walking.

The town was not big, so many people know each other. They had barely walked a few steps into town when people started to call out to them, greeting them. 

Old man: “You mean that Li Ming and Liu Shurong? I heard that their parents had rushed back and were looking for them in town. After they came back, they severely scolded their old parents at home. I don’t think they’re doing the right thing.”

“A child that’s so old, if he gets lost, how can you blame the elderly for that?”

“Do you know where the parents of Li Ming and Liu Shurong are?” Gu Xizhou asked. 

The old man pointed to the mountain next to him and said, “They went to organize people to patrol the mountain!”

Gu Xizhou’s sight shifted to the mountain next to them. The mountain was tall and upright with a steep slope, and the lush trees covered each other. Occasionally, a dog’s barks could be heard from the mountain.

“Woof woof woof!”

The old man shook his head and said, “Have you heard the dog barking? After the two children disappeared, they found some strong young people in the town to take their dogs and help search Muguan Mountain. They’ve searched for so long but there’s still no sight of them. I’m afraid they aren’t even in our town anymore.” 

After they thanked the old men, the group’s eyes fell on the mountain.

“Woof woof woof!”

“Woof woof woof!”

“Woof woof woof!”

The barking noises rang out incessantly. Xue Xiao walked with the timid girl, who held a wooden stick as a cane in her hand, and the girl kept gasping as she climbed the mountain with the rest of the group. They climbed around half of the mountain before they finally met someone. 

The figure was ahead of them. Gu Xizhou stepped forward and shouted, “Wait for us!”

The dark-skinned man in front turned back and saw Gu Xizhou and the others. He frowned and said: “How dare you kids go out? Aren’t you afraid of being abducted?”

Si Yu pointed to the people behind him: “We are here together, the bad guys would not dare to take all of us. We wanted to come over to help as well. Are there clues on how to find Li Ming and Liu Shurong?”

The dark-skinned man shook his head. Obviously he also knew Gu Xizhou and the other children from the town and said, “Sigh, we haven’t found them yet. Both parents are in a hurry.”

“We will help together too!” Si Yu said very enthusiastically. The dark-skinned man sighed helplessly. He saw that they had firm attitudes and agreed to let them help.

They helped to search for a while, but still didn’t find any clues. In the end, they could only find out more about the disappearance process of Liu Shurong and Li Ming from the residents of this town.