The sound came from the mountain road. They looked up at the same time, but saw no one. They looked at the sheep again, and it was closer. Only then did the three of them realize that this dirty goat seemed different from ordinary sheep. Its eyes were dull and even a little shrunken. Long lines of saliva hung from the corners of its mouth, and some foam squirmed around its mouth. Its movements were also limping, and its limbs seemed to have little strength.
The animal suddenly rushed towards the bushes, opened its mouth, and stumbled towards Linghua, as if it wanted to bite her. She was confused now. Who would have thought that a small animal that usually eats mild herbivores would go crazy. Xie Zhe, who was closest to her, grabbed her arm and took it aside. At the same time, a long stick suddenly penetrated the crazy goat. It fell to the ground in front of the three people, crushing the dry bushes in front of it.
Surprisingly, even though the sheep was stabbed to the ground, it was still struggling. Its limbs were still very powerful, and its head was swung around, almost hitting people. It seemed as if it couldn't feel pain. It neither screamed nor lost its ability to move. It just kicked its legs in vain, trying to stand up again. It looks a little silly, because an ordinary healthy sheep must know how to stand up again after falling sideways.
"Are you guys okay?"
Running all the way from above, an older woman came towards me. She looked to be in her thirties, high-spirited, and her clothes were not too thick. The few pieces of maroon fabric looked thin in this winter, but she was very enthusiastic and capable, and the outlines of muscles could be seen on her exposed limbs. One glance at her tells people what a "Lian Jiazi" is in the traditional sense. She looks heroic and looks like a female warrior. Taking another closer look, there was a little girl following behind her, wrapped in a big red cotton-padded jacket with many layers inside, like a fat bamboo shoot, as if she had counted the number of items the woman wore on her head.
She stepped forward, pressed the crazy beast's head under her feet, and pulled out the stick with force. The sticky sound made them all frown. The blood attached to the stick turned out to be black and red, very thick, and exuded a foul odor. She casually pulled off a large piece of dead leaf that had not completely lost its water, pulled it off with force, and threw it aside. Only then did it look barely clean.
How did she... penetrate a sheep with a stick from such a long distance?
"You, your stick skills..."
Han Chang was surprised. Even though he had seen a lot of the world, he was still surprised by this woman's strength and accuracy. While the restless mad sheep was still struggling, the woman suddenly grasped the head of the stick with her backhand and abruptly pulled out a section, revealing the sharp tip of the spear. She pierced the sheep's head with just one swing, and the blackened brain flowed out of the hole, and it was already thin.
As soon as the white light flashed from the gun tip, they realized that it was a metal thorn. When I pulled out the stick, there was no blood on the iron and it was still shining brightly. The woman used her other hand to snap back the small half of the stick. The two parts of the stick fit together so tightly that it was impossible to tell that there was a fatal spear hidden in the stick. It was really wonderful.
"Thank you so much for your help, Heroine."
Xie Zhe bowed, and Ye Lingquan also bowed repeatedly. Han Chang's eyes were still on the stick, looking at the woman from time to time, and then at the little girl behind her, thinking about their relationship in his mind.
"You're welcome. Here is Shen Wenzheng. This is my daughter, Shen Yiran. Come and say hello to your brother and sister."
"Hello, brother and sister..."
The daughter was a little scared at first, but quickly walked around to her mother and waved hello to them. Her voice is waxy and very cute. It can also be seen from the shape of her face that the little guy is not fat at all, but is completely swollen by the clothes. It could be seen from the still timid peripheral vision that she was not afraid of the three of them, but worried about the crazy sheep. Except for Xie Zhe, who was more serious, the other two introduced themselves to her in coaxing tones.
"Mrs. Shen, you look very young." Han Sheng complimented her, and she was telling the truth. "The shopkeeper at the restaurant at the foot of the mountain said that there was a mother and daughter at the table in front of us. I think it must be you. No. I thought it was about the front and rear feet."
"Huh? That's right, my daughter and I did eat two bowls of noodle soup before going up the mountain." The stick on the ground looked like an ordinary hiking pole. She used it and continued, "The three of you are also Jianghu people, right? ? Are you going to the town ahead too?"
"Yes... that's the only way we can pass. But I heard it's not very peaceful." Xie Zhe said frankly.
"Indeed. Look at this crazy sheep. It seems he escaped from the town."
"What? Is there really a plague in that town?"
Xie Zhe began to worry, and Shen Wenzheng patiently explained to them:
"You should also listen to what the shopkeeper of the restaurant said. What he said is true. There is indeed some kind of plague spreading in the towns in this area. What's even more troublesome is that animals can also infect each other. It's unknown who originally contracted the disease. It is a man or a beast. I am afraid that this crazy sheep was also infected with that strange disease. It was facing the path earlier, and I looked wrong and did not disturb it with my daughter. When we were about to rest in front, we heard someone behind us. I was worried that you might get into trouble, so I came to help."
"Thank you so much. It would be terrible if I gave it a bite." Ye Linghua was still frightened. "Speaking of it, you seem to know a lot about this? There is an epidemic ahead, and your daughter..."
Shen Wenzheng sighed: "I have no choice. Who is willing to take risks with his daughter unless he has to? But you don't know, this child's aunt moved here after marriage, and they exchanged letters frequently some time ago. In the letter, she Mentioning the situation here, the situation is becoming increasingly serious. Originally, I was just wandering around the world. When I was going to a place, I would tell her in a letter in advance and ask her to send it there next time. Occasionally, if there was an accident, I would lose contact. Now. I haven’t heard from her for half a month... Because of the special circumstances of the plague, I was worried, so I thought of coming over with my daughter to have a look."
It’s okay to just stand there and chat all the time. While talking, Shen Wenzheng kept walking forward, and the three of them didn't think much. They simply listened to what she said and followed her. Shen Wenzheng was very talkative. In addition to his own affairs, he also explained to them in detail the news he learned in the letter.
Indeed, at first it was just a cold, a typhoid fever, and a fever. Everyone thinks that at this time, just drink more water, move less, put on more layers of quilt, and get a good sleep, and you will be able to work in the fields the next day. But people slowly began to discover that this common sense in solving past problems lost its effect this time. The condition of the patients is becoming increasingly serious, more and more people are infected, and livestock are also infected. The onset time varies depending on people's constitutions, but no one has recovered.
Because the patient “won’t die.”
"My sister felt terrible... I could see that her hand holding the pen was shaking, and the words she wrote were crooked. It is well known in that area that people with this disease will go crazy. Even those who were unconscious, after sleeping for dozens of days long enough to die of hunger and dehydration, sat up and began to attack people and livestock. But their strength was not as good as those of the madmen... Of course , the madman was no longer crazy in the end. Although he still acted aggressively, his movements were slow and his reactions were slow, just like...that sheep."
"..."
They felt like they were hearing a fantasy story, which was both shocking and incredible. The little girl already thought she was familiar with them, jumped up to them and showed them:
"My mother said it's because their bodies are already dead. If they don't eat or drink for too long, they will definitely die. But even though their bodies are dead, their souls are still inside and can make their dead bodies move."
"...Let the dead body move?"
Xie Zhe started to think about it, and Han Chang asked him, "This sounds very mysterious. Maybe you have seen it before."
"You are well-informed, so you should know a few things. What do you think?" Who would have thought that Xie Zhe would kick the ball back.
"Ah, I think this is a zombie, right?" Han Shangshang scratched his head, "Aren't there many kinds of zombies? Look at Ruyue-kun, people like her can't turn into bones. Because the whole body is injected with divine power, they can't rot. Transformation and freedom of movement.”
"But that sheep just now is actually rotten!" Ling Huan felt scared in his heart, but he retorted sharply, "It looked like it had been dead for a long time and was transformed from a corpse."
Shen Wenzheng used a stick to push aside a stone to prevent his daughter from tripping on the narrow road. She turned back and sighed:
"Well, actually, if you think about it, the sheep probably suffered from the plague while he was still alive. The same goes for all people. They become virtuous while they are still alive. The zombies have been dead for too long, and their yin energy is so strong that they turn into monsters. Oh, by the way, around the beginning of winter, I learned something from a letter from my sister: in Linzhen, a smelly beggar wandering on the street bit a passerby. Although a long time passed, but I'm thinking that maybe this seemingly distant and unrelated thing is actually the cause of this plague..."
Xie Zhe frowned: "Smells? I'm afraid it's just... rotten."
"Young Master Xie thinks so too."
"Yes. I have indeed dealt with cases of corpses causing trouble. Once it was someone who was trying to fight for property and scare people, so they made trouble; once it was a zombie who obeyed the command of evil... This kind of zombie who obeys people's orders is usually called a zombie; and another Once, it was a corpse that was brought back to life, and after the ghosts left, the corpse would never move again.”
"Hey, I didn't expect Mr. Xie to have experienced a lot at such a young age."
"You flatter me……"
Han Chang glanced at the bouncing little girl. She seemed to have no fear of the coming danger. The mother has never been shy about these topics. Combined with Shen Wenzheng's previous skills, she must be a powerful enough character to give her children a sense of security. Han Chang couldn't help but sigh:
"I don't know if it's because of martial arts practice or something else. Although Mrs. Shen's daughter is so old, you also look very young."
"Hahahahahaha. I'm getting old, not as good as before!" Shen Wenzheng laughed heartily, "I am over thirty this year, and my daughter has just celebrated her sixth birthday. We, mother and daughter, have no fixed place and are at home all over the world. She is still her aunt I thought the child was young, so I advised us to come and live there, but I knew that her husband’s family conditions were also not good, so it was better not to add to the burden. I had wandered around like this in my early years, and I was used to it. My daughter also followed me, and she couldn’t stay at home. Live. It's good like this now, but today's things are special. We no longer have any reliable relatives, and I can't entrust the child to anyone, I can only keep it with me. "
"With all due respect, your husband..."
Xie Zhe asked carefully.
