Ye Lingyu thought he woke up very early because it was not yet bright outside. But Shen Wenzheng was gone. She and her daughter's quilts were folded neatly and placed at the foot of the bed. She must have been careful, for fear of waking herself up. Ling Huan simply tidied up and went to knock on Xie Zhe's door. Han Chang opened the door. He was not in a good state of mind. Xie Zhe in the room was also a little sleepy. He didn't know when they would go to sleep.
"Mrs. Shen left," she said, "she probably left with Yi Yi when it was still dark."
Han Chang yawned: "It's time for us to leave. Unfortunately, we haven't said goodbye to her yet."
"The world is like this, people come and go." Xie Zhe said from behind.
They packed their luggage and walked on the street, finding that there were still some people in the town after dawn. But the number of people was far from being considered lively, and the street didn't seem to be built for this kind of crowd. People looked around, each and every one of them with a stern look on their face. When buying food, they would throw broken silver and copper plates directly onto the stall, and the stall owner would pick them up. They were all afraid that someone would turn against them first and charge towards them with fangs exposed. The morning fog had not yet cleared, and the three of them passed by a breakfast shop and wanted to eat something before leaving. Other nearby shops were not open, so the queue at this store seemed extra long, but the main reason was that there was a long distance between people. It seems that many people have witnessed the horrific scene of zombies attacking people in the town, so they pay such unified attention to their actions.
The two people lined up in front of them seemed to be friends, but they were quite close to each other. They whispered:
"Have you heard? Last night, a group of living corpses appeared at the same time on East Second Street... I saw it with my own eyes! I also heard the clear sound of the piano. It was like a ghost. It was so scary."
"Really or not? Don't they all act alone? Don't scare people. No one can stand being scared now."
"What's the point of lying to you? I saw it when I got up at night. At a rough glance, there were four or five of them. One of the corpses was not rotten. Looking at the clothes, it was the young lady who was buried three days ago. I was so scared at the time. I almost peed my pants!”
"Didn't they say that if they die, they will be burned immediately? Why do they dare to bury them in the ground?"
"Tch, just give me enough money. Think about it, even though the person is dead, it would be too miserable to burn him with fire. Which family member can bear it? Especially her grandma is old and despises this the most. It costs a lot of money. The price suppressed the news. I thought someone would tell me today that the coffin was rotten somewhere... Alas, they didn't know whether it was nailed or not."
"Who knows if he is dead? Why did I hear that people can still move when the coffin is being loaded..."
"Who says it's not? He should be dead. But if we can't protect him, who's enemy...isn't he? He managed to burn him down while he was still alive and kicking. How can he reason with him?"
"Forget it. If you contract this plague, you will definitely not be saved. Sooner or later, you will have to... Well, it seems that the corpses are now centralized for processing by the government, right?"
"That's right. I heard that the family on West Street had a dead son, and they were reluctant to hand it over, so they chopped the body into several pieces to prevent it from coming back to life and harming others. I still handed it over two days ago because the eyes kept moving. , the old couple can’t stand it!”
"I'll go... No wonder I heard people say that sometimes people can be seen walking on the street! I didn't believe it at the time, I thought they were scared and talking nonsense..."
In the quiet morning, the three of them heard this conversation clearly, and they couldn't help but feel terrified. The morning mist was a little thinner, and there was a coolness in the haze, which made no one of them want to speak first. The three of them just looked at each other, feeling extremely cautious.
It's better to leave this place of right and wrong as soon as possible.
When they came to the queue, Ling Huan originally wanted to drink a bowl of hot white porridge, but this shop did not allow people to eat inside, so he could only buy some hard goods such as steamed buns and pancakes and leave. The fog has cleared, but there are still a few people on the street. It's not too cold in this town, but people are hunching their necks, almost hiding their heads between hats and raised collars, and carefully looking around through the gaps. The patrolling detectives were tall and straight, but their expressions were as nervous as everyone else's.
"Where are we going now?" Ling Huan asked Xie Zhe while eating pickled steamed buns.
"We entered the town from the south yesterday. The west is the barren grass beach, the east is bordered by a place called Jiangyuan Town, and the north-east is a large city. Since Jiangyuan Town was bordered by this place in the early days, it is said that there were also many infected people. People. I don’t know about the north, but since it is a big city, protective measures should be better."
"It's also stricter." Han Chang added, "Go directly to the west and try to avoid contact with people."
"But a controlled city is safer," Xie Zhe disagreed. "We can apply for passage."
Han Chang frowned. He didn't seem to agree with Xie Ze, so he retorted: "Don't you know how ridiculous the efficiency of these small places is? There are only three days until the new year, and you are the one who approves documents and you don't have a holiday?"
Xie Zhe has always been considered a person who abides by the rules, but when Han Shang said this, he couldn't refute it. Ling Huan laughed along:
"Then it looks like we're going to spend the New Year in the wilderness."
Han Chang paused for a moment, his face looking rather sad. He also tried to force out a smile and said apologetically:
"I owe you a New Year."
"Okay, it's all your choice, don't be polite. Let's go to the west first."
At noon, they passed a special street. This street is the only one where business is booming, and every store is open. But the passers-by were all sullen, and the guests coming in and out were even more sad. It turns out that this is the "funeral street" in the town, selling white candles, paper, gold ingots and other things. Xie Zhe glanced at the coffin shop. There were many boxes smaller than the coffins displayed inside. According to what I heard during the day, most of them are used to pretend to be burned dead people. Maybe the price will be cheaper, after all, it is difficult to make money in all walks of life recently. There was also a pair of paper figurines of a boy and a girl placed at the entrance of a shop, which made Ling Huan feel very excited when he passed by. They knew that she must have thought of her unlucky situation with Miss Tao Zhu, and they quickened their pace. Speaking of which, I don’t know what Magistrate Fei and Tao Zhu are doing...
Unexpectedly, before leaving this street, they saw an old friend.
Shen Wenzheng's clothes were mainly maroon, but now she was wearing a black cloak, and her daughter also wore a black blouse. Both of their eyes were filled with sadness, and their eyes were still red and swollen. It looked like they had cried. Ling Huan was the first to run forward and asked worriedly:
"Mrs. Shen! How could you...difficult, could it be——"
Shen Wenzheng nodded and smiled politely with difficulty. Shen Yiran was still crying and burping, which made people feel distressed just looking at him. Han Chang knelt down and coaxed her a few words, then picked her up and patted her back. Shen Wenzheng said with dull eyes:
"It's too late. Her aunt and her whole family are crazy about the baby... Neighbors said she was still pregnant. My brother-in-law was the first to be infected. He went crazy and bit her, biting off three fingers on her right hand. She never died after that. She wrote to me. She was still holding on and wanted to give birth to the child, but she had a miscarriage the next day. The neighbor tied her husband up at home. And she had just had a miscarriage and was lying in bed with a high fever... After that ——”
She glanced at Han Chang, who understood what she meant and held the child farther away. Still staring blankly at the glittering paper ingots on the street, still sobbing. Shen Wenzheng turned his back and spoke in a low voice to Xie Zhe and Ling Huan. Han Sheng also pricked up his ears to listen.
"When I went there in the morning, I saw my brother-in-law trapped on a pillar. His body was broken...but he was still struggling feebly. My daughter was frightened, and I quickly took her away. When the neighbor heard the child crying, he She walked out and explained to me. While her children were playing with Yi Yi, she told me that my sister was still a boy after seven months of pregnancy. Although the baby had a miscarriage... it did not die."
"!"
Xie Zhe was fine, but Ye Lingyu felt that his heart had stopped. Even though she had seen and heard many incredible things, she still felt unspeakable fear after something so close to her happened.
"You mean he can still..."
"Able to move, cry, and crawl... That night, my sister fainted from the pain. Neighbors said they saw a small bloody ball crawling onto the street - I couldn't believe it. Where did the baby, the fetus, get its strength? How did it move? It must not be something humans can do, and it was just one night. Later, my sister had a high fever, and there were still people willing to take care of her at that time. The neighbor's The child let her know that her child was not dead. Within two days, she also disappeared. No one in the town saw her again, dead or alive. But I think she must be in danger..."
"I know you are not one to joke, especially when it involves the life and death of your loved ones. But this, this is simply too bizarre."
Xie Zhe broke into a cold sweat after hearing this. He had never dealt with such a weird thing. Therefore, Shen Wenzheng came here at noon, planning to buy some things and give his sister's family a decent funeral. After saying that, Han Chang hugged Yi Yi again, and she immediately held her mother's hand again. So the three of them also helped, and they knew what their priorities were without saying anything.
Because they had to move the body, they asked Ling Huan to take the children to stay away and wait alone outside the hospital. They heard a strange neighing sound, which sounded like a scream but not quite like it. It was probably because the throat of the person involved was rotten. Soon, two girls, one old and one young, could see from the street a column of black smoke rising from the courtyard, so thick that even the breeze could not disperse it. After a while, they smelled a strong stench, with the smell of burnt rot. Because it was winter, the previous smell was not too strong. Moreover, since people were tied up in the yard, the smell dissipated quickly. At first, no one except Han Zhang could smell it. After that, there will be some salvation rituals, which will also take a while. Still asking her mother and two brothers what they were doing, Ling Huan thought for a while and explained to her:
"Well...you saw a scary guy this morning, right? He is...he, he has died of illness, you know that. People who die of this kind of illness can only be burned with fire. Hanshang will A very powerful spell that can turn a corpse into ashes in an instant. My brother named Xie has practiced with a monk and can recite scriptures to save the soul..."
“Where will the transcended soul go?”
"Go somewhere... where there is no disease."
Ling Huan put his hand on Yi Yiran's shoulder and sighed softly. At this time, she heard the clear ringing behind her and turned around.
A strange woman looked here curiously, holding an instrument in her hand that she had never seen before.
