After eating their fill, Li Xiaoning wiped her mouth.
"It smells so good," she couldn't help but sigh.
If only she could have saved half for lunch.
Too bad.
The entire dish was finished.
Chen Jinzhao silently tidied up his things and then set off. The wind and snow had already abated considerably, making it perfectly possible to travel against them.
He wanted to get his hands on it before anyone else did.
Seeing this, Li Xiaoning also busied herself packing and hurried to catch up with Chen Jinzhao. Chen Jinzhao stopped and said to the approaching Li Xiaoning, "It's not that you can't follow me, but I won't be able to watch you all the time. If you accidentally fall into the abyss, I won't save you."
In this place, survival was paramount.
Li Xiaoning nodded and said, "You don't need to mind me, I'll just follow you."
"Even if I'm in danger, you don't have to bother."
Chen Jinzhao said no more and continued on his way toward their destination.
Li Xiaoning originally thought she would be able to keep up with Chen Jinzhao's pace, but before they had gone very far, she was already far behind him, almost unable to see his figure. Li Xiaoning could only run with her heavy backpack to catch up.
However, she couldn't run as fast as Chen Jinzhao walked.
Chen Jinzhao quickly disappeared around a bend, leaving Li Xiaoning alone.
Li Xiaoning gritted her teeth and continued to follow the footsteps Chen Jinzhao had left. When she reached the corner, she found that Chen Jinzhao was actually waiting there.
"You..." Li Xiaoning was surprised.
"I was just a little tired and wanted to rest."
Li Xiaoning knew.
People like Chen Jinzhao never tired.
"Let's keep moving, I can still manage," Li Xiaoning said.
Chen Jinzhao grunted and continued on his way, but he deliberately slowed his pace so that Li Xiaoning could keep up.
As they traveled, Li Xiaoning couldn't help but ask, "Since the three locations are all different, it means that these three points are likely all fake. It seems inappropriate to go to any of them now. Could it be that you already know the real destination?"
"No," Chen Jinzhao answered crisply.
"Then how..."
Li Xiaoning stopped herself mid-sentence, realizing she was talking too much, and didn't ask further.
After walking for most of the day, Li Xiaoning was very tired.
She felt as if her legs were filled with lead, and she could only walk by instinct, her whole body numb.
If this continued, she would probably collapse from exhaustion halfway.
Just as Li Xiaoning was in despair, she suddenly saw a wooden cabin on the mountaintop not far away. She said to Chen Jinzhao, "Look, that seems to be a forester's cabin. Why don't we go ask if they know anything about the meteor?"
Chen Jinzhao also saw the wooden cabin. "That's what I was thinking."
Half an hour later.
After a long trek, the two finally arrived at the wooden cabin.
Li Xiaoning, being tactful, stepped forward and knocked on the wooden door, "Hello, is anyone inside? We are tourists passing by and would like to inquire about some information."
There was no response from inside.
Li Xiaoning waited for a moment and asked again, but the only response was the howling cold wind.
"No one?" Li Xiaoning was a bit dejected.
"But it makes sense. The forester might have gone down the mountain to buy supplies, or be out on patrol. They wouldn't be in the cabin all the time."
"Should we wait, or leave directly?"
Chen Jinzhao stood still. Li Xiaoning noticed his solemn expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Do you smell that? There seems to be a smell of blood in the air," Chen Jinzhao suddenly said.
A smell of blood?
Li Xiaoning hadn't noticed before. After Chen Jinzhao mentioned it, she took a few deep breaths. Soon, Li Xiaoning's expression changed slightly. "There really is!"
"It seems..."
"It's coming from this wooden cabin."
This matched Chen Jinzhao's suspicion.
Chen Jinzhao hesitated for a moment and then said, "You wait outside. I'll go in and see what's going on."
Li Xiaoning nodded and obediently waited by the door, taking it as a rest.
Chen Jinzhao pushed the door, but it wouldn't open; it was locked.
To investigate, Chen Jinzhao applied a little force and pushed the wooden door open, then walked directly into the cabin.
Li Xiaoning felt a strong smell of blood wash over her, making her involuntarily crane her neck to look inside the cabin.
Chen Jinzhao didn't come out for a long time. Just as Li Xiaoning was getting impatient, Chen Jinzhao's voice came from inside the cabin.
"Li Xiaoning, come in for a moment."
"Okay!" Li Xiaoning responded and walked into the cabin.
The moment she stepped inside, the strong smell of blood assaulted her nostrils, making her almost vomit.
Chen Jinzhao stood by a wooden bed. Li Xiaoning had already guessed something. Covering her nose, she walked to Chen Jinzhao's side and then her gaze fell on the wooden bed.
Huh?
Li Xiaoning's pupils contracted sharply.
She almost screamed.
The scene before her was too gruesome. Two women lay dead on the bed, their eyes wide open, unable to close.
Their bodies were mangled beyond recognition.
One could imagine that before they died, they must have suffered torment at the hands of others, perhaps more than one.
It took Li Xiaoning a while to calm herself down. She said in a low voice, "Who could have done this? It's utterly inhumane."
Chen Jinzhao remained silent and, one by one, gently closed the eyes of the deceased.
Based on their appearance and age, they were likely mother and daughter. This filled Chen Jinzhao with rage.
It was obvious that the perpetrators were likely foreigners.
Li Xiaoning clenched her fists. "Can we do anything for them? These people are too cruel, they're worse than beasts!"
"No, worse than beasts!"
Chen Jinzhao hadn't expected that such a horrific event would occur in this place. It was that meteor that had brought about their deaths.
"If I encounter the murderers who harmed you, I will avenge you," Chen Jinzhao murmured to himself.
He just wanted to be able to live with himself.
Li Xiaoning's gaze swept around the wooden cabin. Suddenly, she noticed a mobile phone on the simple dining table. She walked over and picked up the phone to examine it. To her surprise, the phone was unlocked. Tapping it opened the photo album, which contained only one video.
"Chen Jinzhao, come and see, there's a video here." Li Xiaoning dared not play it, fearing it was a video left behind by the perpetrators.
Chen Jinzhao walked over, took the phone, and played the video.
At the beginning of the video, a disheveled middle-aged man appeared. The man, with vacant eyes, held the phone and said, "My wife and child are dead. I know who the killers are. They are a group of devils from Japan. While I was down the mountain buying supplies, they killed my wife and daughter, leaving them to die with their eyes open."
"So, I've already picked up my shotgun to avenge them."
"By the time you see this video, I may already be dead."