CH 12

After everyone gathered in the living room, the team led by Yuan XueMing set out again to look for more matryoshkas. There was no snow that day but the sky was gray and it was possible that there might be a sudden snowfall later.

Everyone leaned in close to each other and followed Yuan XueMing without saying a word. The atmosphere was a little depressing. They were like a group of penguins who needed to snuggle together to resist the cold. But as soon as they encounter something, they would immediately transform into wolves baring their teeth, questioning and condemning their companions, even killing them.

Xu RenDong walked at the end of the team. He whispered into Lian Qiao’s ear: “Don’t tell anyone about the conditions of death.”

Lian Qiao said, “I understand. If this is the condition of death then the most dangerous thing is not rabbits but human beings.”

Xu RenDong was taken aback. He didn’t expect that Lian Qiao, who was younger than him and looked like a frivolous person, actually understood people’s hearts better than him. In that case, he didn’t need to say any more and felt inexplicably at ease.

Yuan XueMing held the compass and walked with everyone in a fixed direction for a long time but they still didn’t see any buildings. The surrounding trees were getting sparser and it seems that they have reached the edge of the forest.

Everyone was a little tired so they proposed to stop and rest. They took out the dry bread and milk they brought with them but it was cold and snowy and the milk was also cold. It felt really uncomfortable to drink it.

Xu RenDong touched the cold milk bottle and hesitated. His stomach was not good, and drinking ice milk made him prone to diarrhea. But due to the intensity of the trek, if he didn’t eat or drink, his body may not be able to take it. Just as he was about to bite the bullet and take a couple of sips, Lian Qiao suddenly handed him a glass bottle of milk.

“Brother RenDong, you can drink this, it’s warm.”

Xu RenDong was taken aback. He remembered that the kitchen was filled with milk in cartons but he didn’t see any in glass bottles. Lian Qiao guessed what he was thinking and explained: “I filled it in the glass bottle I found at the church… I washed this bottle carefully and even blanched it with boiling water so it’s not dirty.” He put the milk bottle into Xu RenDong’s hand and said, “This way you won’t have diarrhea after drinking it.”

Xu RenDong found that there was still a little bit of temperature on the glass bottle. Only then did he understand that Lian Qiao hid the bottle of milk next to his skin, and warmed the milk with his body temperature along the walk, before taking it out to give to him.

Xu RenDong’s heart warmed but he was a little puzzled: “How do you know I can’t drink ice milk?”

Lian Qiao said, “Didn’t you tell me?”

Xu RenDong was stunned again. He thought about it carefully and ascertained that he has never mentioned any problems with his stomach since the first time he saw Lian Qiao. So he said very firmly: “I haven’t said it. You must have confused me with someone else.”

Lian Qiao looked blank: “Impossible, I only know you here… and only for two or three days. How could I have gotten it wrong?” He was a little unconvinced, racking his brains and thinking, “When did you tell me…I feel like you told me personally.”

Xu RenDong thought this was very strange. But because he couldn’t figure it out for a while. Lian Qiao quickly gave up and said aggrieved: “Well, don’t worry about it. Anyway, your stomach is really bad… I finally got it warm…”

Xu RenDong touched the warm glass bottle and his heart also became very warm. He decided to stop worrying about these small things. He opened the bottle cap, raised his head and took a few big mouthfuls.

Lian Qiao looked at the slightly moving Adam’s apple on his snow-white neck. He suddenly thought that Xu RenDong was swallowing a milky white liquid with his own body temperature into his throat. He suddenly uttered a very embarrassed “Ah!” and then buried his face in his hands.

Xu RenDong: “?”

Lian Qiao: “It’s nothing! You drink slowly, don’t choke.”

He couldn’t help but imagine Xu RenDong choking. Tears would overflow from the corners of the slightly flushed eyes and his soft lips were stained with milky white liquid. His body was trembling slightly from choking. That scene…Lian Qiao felt he was about to get a hard-on and was so scared that he quickly took a gulp of ice milk to calm himself down.

A small man stood up suddenly and asked stridently: “Is anyone going to pee?”

Xu Hong mocked him mercilessly: “Are you a female student? Do you need someone to go with you when you go to the bathroom?”

The man said angrily: “What’s wrong with being careful? Aren’t you afraid of death?”

Xu Hong snorted coldly, “Then you go a little further, needles make me faint.”

Everyone was confused about the relationship between peeing and fainting but the man realized first and went red. {As in, she’s saying his junk looks like a needle lol.} The man had already seen her horrible temper and didn’t want to bother with her anymore. He gritted his teeth and turned his head away. A couple of other men in the team followed him silently and entered the woods.

The women looked at the men who were leaving. They probably also wanted to pee but they were too embarrassed to do it around a bunch of strange men or in the wild.

Lian Qiao was weak and raised his hand: “I want to go too.” He found that Xu RenDong was watching him and emphasized with a guilty heart: “I’m really going to pee!”

Xu RenDong: “Go on, I’m not going to stop you.”

Lian Qiao glanced at him with a weird expression and ran away quickly.

Xu RenDong: “…” Sometimes he felt that Lian Qiao was really suspicious.　　

At this time, Yuan XueMing and Xu RenDong were the only two men left. Yuan XueMing walked up to Xu RenDong and said with a smile: “Why don’t you accompany your little buddy?”

Xu RenDong was confused: “Why do I need to go with him? He is not a kid anymore.”

Yuan XueMing looked at him meaningfully. “You are protecting him like this so I thought you would treat him like a child.”

Xu RenDong felt that these words were thoughtless so he didn’t answer and just  silently stuffed the dry bread into his mouth, trying to regain his strength.

After a while, he suddenly felt something was wrong. Why was Lian Qiao and the others gone for so long? Just when he was starting to worry, he saw some men running out of the woods yelling. Naturally, Lian Qiao was running the fastest. After all, he had the longest legs and his one step was equivalent to two steps from others. Previously, the other men were already jealous of his good looking face and body but now they found out that his physical fitness was also great. No matter how hard they ran, they couldn’t keep up with him and couldn’t help but feel a bit resentful.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” Lian Qiao rushed to Xu RenDong, grabbed his hand and ran off again.

Xu RenDong has become accustomed to the mode of being dragged while running so he immediately fully coordinated and even remembered to grab Lian Qiao’s sack with his other hand.

Although not everyone was sure what was happening, seeing this group of men panicking so hard, they didn’t question it and knew they just had to run now. So the group didn’t care about packing up their things, they just started fleeing for their lives. Everyone still had lingering fears about the dead body from the morning and now they all ran like crazy. No one dared to look back to see if there was an invisible monster chasing behind him.

It was unknown how many kilometres they ran. The girls were the first to be unable to hold on and their speed gradually slowed down. Jiang Li plopped and fell directly to the ground. She clutched her ankle with a painful expression and it seemed that she really did sprain it this time.

Xu RenDong noticed a big rock hidden in the snow beside her feet and thought in silence: Ha, this is karma.

Without hesitation, Wang Yuan turned his head and ran back to Jiang Li’s side. Xu RenDong felt that Lian Qiao also slowed down and turned around frequently, as if he was wondering whether to stop and wait for them. Others ignored the couple and continued to run wildly.

Everyone ran further. Then the girls really couldn’t hold on anymore, one by one they knelt down in the snow, clutching their chests and gasping for breath. The expression on their faces was desperate.

Yuan XueMing first stopped and guarded the girls. Somehow a wooden log appeared in his hand and he was staring at the rear warily. Seeing this, the other men also walked back. A little man asked in shock, “It, it didn’t catch up?”

Xu Hong gasped, and sneered: “Even if, it … did catch up… hu, hu …there is that pair of little lovers back there… what are you afraid of? ” She had obviously run out of breath but was still able to dole out ridicule, which really showed how proficient she was in this area.

The small man was furious: “You just glared at me, right?”

Xu Hong snorted from her nose, turned her head, and seemed too disdainful to look at him again. The man stepped forward two steps and was about to hit her when Yuan XueMing grabbed him and said in a deep voice: “What are you fighting about at a time like this… aren’t you scared of dying?”

The man glared at Xu Hong fiercely then turned his head and walked away. Yuan XueMing glanced at the men who had gone into the woods and asked, “What did you see?”

A man said: “We found a matryoshka but…” He was embarrassed, as if he didn’t know how to describe the scene he saw.

Lian Qiao said, “What came out of the matryoshka was a cloud of black mist. The person holding the matryoshka had no time to hide and was drawn into the black mist and was twisted into shreds.”

Although his description was brief, it was extremely vivid. The bloody scene immediately appeared before everyone’s eyes and their faces became ugly. At this time, Wang Yuan supported Jiang Li and limped to keep up with the large group of people. Seeing everyone’s expressions, Wang Yuan asked, “What’s wrong? Why did you all stop?”

No one answered him. After a while, Yuan XueMing groaned: “Since that thing isn’t chasing us anymore, I want to go back and see if I can pick up the matryoshka. The women can rest here.” He looked at the men present, “Which of you wants to go with me and show me the place where the accident happened?” 

The men didn’t speak. Lian Qiao glanced at Xu RenDong. Xu RenDong asked: “Do you want to go?”

Lian Qiao nodded and pursed his lips a little nervously and said, “I want to go, but I’m a bit…”

Xu RenDong said: “I’ll come with you.”

Lian Qiao was moved to tears: “Brother RenDong, why are you so good to me?”

Xu RenDong: “Because in this world, you are the first small…”

Lian Qiao’s expression was instant sorrowful: “I’m not small, I’m really not small… Shall I take off my pants tonight to show you?”

Xu RenDong was silent for a moment, then changed his words: “Well, you are the first big bird I have encountered in this world.”

Lian Qiao: “…” Why on earth are you so obsessed with birds?

As a result, Xu RenDong and Lian Qiao were the only ones willing to go with Yuan XueMing to reclaim the matryoshka. They followed the footprints they left when they ran away. They walked for a long time before returning to the place where the accident happened.

Xu RenDong saw the corpse of the victim at a glance. As Lian Qiao said, the corpse was twisted into shreds. And it happened to be done in a 360 circle. The head and feet were still on the same surface but the body now formed a complete twisted spiral. The man died in a terrible state. The entire spinal column was broken and the dislocation of broken bones pierced through the skin, revealing a section of white bones. The blood soaked his clothes and dyed the snow into a huge red flower. The scene was extremely horrible.

Looking at the scene, Xu RenDong couldn’t help but remember Lian Qiao being smashed to death in the head by Brother Sledgehammer the first two times he’d come out of the elevator. He couldn’t help but turn his head, glancing at Lian Qiao. But what he saw suddenly made him want to laugh. He saw Lian Qiao covering his mouth and twitching his shoulders, not crying, but hiccupping.

He couldn’t stop his hiccups and his face was very aggrieved. He looked at Xu RenDong as if begging for help but Xu RenDong spread his hands, indicating that he didn’t know how to stop the hiccups. Just accept it ba.

Yuan XueMing picked up the unscrewed doll from the foot of the corpse. At this time, the doll was empty and the black mist was missing. Lian Qiao suddenly showed a very subtle expression when he saw him holding the matryoshka in his hand. He was about to talk but he choked again and it turned into a big hiccup.

Xu RenDong: “…” Hold it back, don’t laugh, there is still a tragic dead body here.

As soon as Yuan XueMing put the doll in his pocket, Lian Qiao managed to get out, “Brother Yuan, you’d better wipe it with snow first…hic, this doll has just been peed on.” 

Yuan XueMing’s face twisted. Lian Qiao explained: “When we peed, the urine poured into the snow and that’s when we saw the matryoshka. So…”

Xu RenDong noticed that Lian Qiao suddenly stopped hiccuping, showing that the fear in his heart had been replaced by other emotions. Xu RenDong wanted to laugh a little  but he felt that it was very impolite to laugh now so he held back and cast an upright and sympathetic look at Yuan XueMing.

Yuan XueMing’s mouth twitched for a while and he said painfully: “Forget it, I’ve already put it in my pocket. Just, just leave it for now.”

Lian Qiao sincerely suggested, “Then don’t forget to wash your hands when you go back and before you eat any bread.”

Yuan XueMing and Xu RenDong had a tasteful picture in their minds at the same time.

Yuan XueMing: “…”

Xu RenDong couldn’t hold back anymore and laughed. Yuan XueMing gave them a complex expression and said: “Come on, let’s go back and gather with the others.”

Lian Qiao asked: “Shall we still continue going east?”

Yuan XueMing: “That’s my intention, why?”

Lian Qiao glanced at the corpse on the ground and sighed: “Now there are dolls hidden in the snow. Do you know what that means?”

Yuan XueMing narrowed his eyes: “What does it mean?”

Lian Qiao said, “It means that this instance is actually very difficult. We may all die here.”