Only four people went to investigate Li Zuoquan's original camp: Zhang Dabiao, Fang Huixin, the paper effigy maker, and myself.
I was somewhat surprised that Fang Huixin decided to go personally. After all, she was a woman, and although she possessed some abilities, I believed that dangerous tasks should be left to men.
"Boss Fang, this deep mountain forest is fraught with peril. After hiking for half the day, I think it would be best for you to rest here. A few of us can go. If you're not at ease, you could send one of your trusted subordinates to check."
I tried to phrase my words delicately, fearing she might detect my underlying thoughts. However, I forgot that Fang Huixin was no ordinary woman. To be able to manage such a large enterprise in the cutthroat business world meant she could easily discern my intentions.
"If you don't want me to go, just say so. Why beat around the bush..." She trailed off, her brow furrowing. "Why do I feel like you have a prejudice against women!"
Seeing her about to fly into a rage, I quickly denied it. "I didn't mean anything like that. I was just worried about the danger you might encounter."
"Hmph, you should worry about yourself! Don't end up being a burden to others." With that, she turned and headed towards the cave, the paper effigy maker following closely behind, leaving me stunned.
"Damn it, why is my good intention being taken as a donkey's liver and lungs?"
In response to my grumbling, Zhang Dabiao patted my shoulder kindly. "I think she's right. You should focus on yourself first." He then followed suit and continued on the path.
I was left alone in the wind, feeling utterly disoriented.
"..."
Two kilometers. Not far, yet not close. On flat ground, it would have taken only ten minutes, but in this deep mountain, it took considerably longer.
As we neared the location of the cave, a faint, elusive odor drifted towards us. It smelled like boiled eggs left out for over ten days until they had maggots – so pungent that it almost made me vomit what I had eaten earlier.
"Wait a moment."
I called out to Fang Huixin, who was leading the way. She stopped and looked at me with a puzzled expression.
Suppressing the discomfort in my stomach, I said in a low voice, "Do you smell that foul odor? It's similar to the smell of rotten eggs."
Zhang Dabiao glanced at me, not understanding my meaning. He took a deep breath and replied, "I don't smell anything."
The paper effigy maker remained silent but shook his head, indicating he hadn't smelled it either.
Fang Huixin's expression darkened, and she looked at me with displeasure. "Song Qingyun, what exactly are you up to?"
My intention was simple: I wanted to stop everyone from proceeding. While I hadn't encountered that smell often, I had smelled it once or twice before. It wasn't the stench of any other decaying corpse, but the odor emanating from a human body's decomposition.
Only when a human body decays does this particular smell arise. The thought of dozens of bodies lying sprawled on the ground sent my stomach into a churning tempest, like Nezha wreaking havoc in the East Sea.
Seeing my pale face, Zhang Dabiao asked with concern, "Qingyun, are you alright? Did you discover something?"
Before I could elaborate on what might have happened ahead, Fang Huixin's venomous voice reached my ears.
"Kid, don't try to play coy with me. I'm not some seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl you can scare with a few words. You should learn more from your elder brother." Without giving me a chance to speak, she strode forward.
The paper effigy maker gave me a thoughtful glance before following Fang Huixin's footsteps.
"That wicked woman, her words are still so venomous..." Zhang Dabiao said, sounding somewhat indignant on my behalf.
I stopped Zhang Dabiao from continuing. If she overheard, it would only cause more trouble.
"Brother Zhang, I think those people are all dead. The smell I caught earlier was likely the scent of decaying corpses. The scene inside, I reckon, would make even you want to vomit."
"You don't say?"
Just as I finished speaking, a piercing scream echoed from ahead.
"Ah..."
The sound was so high-pitched that it even dislodged a few leaves from the trees. Zhang Dabiao looked at me in surprise. "You were right, weren't you?"
When we arrived, we saw Fang Huixin squatting under a tree, vomiting. The paper effigy maker looked at her with a complex expression, patting her back with one hand while offering her water with the other.
As we approached the campsite, the pungent odor intensified. The tent closest to us had been torn in half by something. A tattered half of a corpse was covered by a tarp, but the exposed portion was teeming with maggots. Tiny white maggots crawled all over it, enjoying their feast.
Seeing us approach, the paper effigy maker looked at me with a displeased expression, but he remained silent. He simply nudged Fang Huixin gently and then pointed behind her.
Fang Huixin turned and saw me. Her face flushed with embarrassment, and she threw her water bottle at me, which I easily dodged.
"Song Qingyun, you did that on purpose, didn't you? You wanted to see me make a fool of myself!"
I felt incredibly wronged, as if I were more unjustly accused than Dou E. I understood that Fang Huixin was using me as a scapegoat to cover her own embarrassment.
However, I refused to be her excuse. I had warned her earlier, but she hadn't listened, insisting on investigating. Now that she had ended up like this, it had nothing to do with me.
"Boss Fang, that's unreasonable. I did give you a slight warning, mentioning I smelled a foul odor. You dismissed it, thinking I was trying some trickery! Now that you know the outcome, you can't blame me for this mess!"
"You... you... you're making me so angry."
My words caused her face to turn red and then white. She wanted to argue but couldn't find any flaws in my logic, so she could only furiously kick the tree, seemingly taking her anger out on it as if it were me. Southern Sudan Novel Network.
Zhang Dabiao subtly gave me a thumbs-up and whispered, "My friend, you're truly something. You dare to offend her, aren't you afraid she'll hold a grudge against you later?"
"What's there to be afraid of? She asked us to come; we didn't seek her out. Besides, this is her own doing, and she has no one to blame but herself."
Zhang Dabiao shook his head helplessly and turned to Fang Huixin. "Boss Fang, let's go and inspect first."
Fang Huixin waved her hand impatiently, signaling us to hurry along.
We first approached the tent closest to us. Zhang Dabiao picked up a branch from the ground and lifted the tarp covering the corpse. The scene beneath made me nearly gag again.
The corpse's abdomen had been cut open by something, and its internal organs were gone. Only clusters of white maggots wriggled inside, a truly disgusting sight.
"Was it the mountain spirits that did this?" Zhang Dabiao asked, frowning as he covered the tarp again.
"It's highly possible. The most ferocious creatures in these mountains are the mountain spirits. But there's another possibility."
Zhang Dabiao looked at me curiously. "What do you mean?"
"The Mountain God!"