A secret room in an underground cave that is located at a higher altitude and can only be reached through several narrow paths.
This is the girl’s home.
The bonfire made of wood was burning, making sounds like joints cracking, and some wood even squirmed in the flames, like the limbs of a living person.
As for the source of wood, one only needs to walk along the stone corridor outside the secret room for more than 300 meters to reach the woodland outside the village.
The light from the bonfire tried its best to illuminate the entire cave chamber.
Water seeping from the carbonate layer drips along stalactites of varying lengths and is collected in a handmade wooden basin for drinking and washing.
Yi Chen and the girl sat opposite each other in front of the campfire, and the pig head mask that was cut by the claws was temporarily put aside.
"Besides drinking water, what do you usually eat?"
“I eat this most of the time…”
The girl reached her arm directly into the fire, took out a burning piece of wood, shook it quickly to extinguish the flame, and then put it directly into her mouth and started chewing.
What's more, although there was some distance between them, Yi Chen could smell the aroma of meat from the roasted branches.
The girl asked with a smile, "You think I'm going to eat the 'refugees' in the cave, right?"
Yi Chen did not respond but took the opportunity to ask: "Refugees? Do they mean the villagers who were thrown down there because they had no use value?"
"I don't really understand their value. Occasionally I would hear people outside the well saying something like 'refugees' and then throw them down.
They were almost exhausted and almost dead. They either chose to float in the lake or use up their last bit of strength to climb to the shore and wait for death.
I won’t eat them. After all, they used to be from the village and knew my parents.
Although these branches are unpalatable, they keep me alive.
Sometimes if you’re lucky, you can catch a chicken in the woods… it smells so good!”
The girl drooled at this point, as it seemed she hadn't caught a chicken for a long time.
"How did you get down there?"
"I don't remember it very clearly. It seems that I have been down there since I can remember. Maybe my parents sent me down there to protect me from the bad guys."
"Your parents didn't come down?"
"No, I'm alone all the time..."
Yi Chen's eyes suddenly changed as he caught a very obvious contradiction.
"Wait! You said before that your mother told you that the 'gentlemen' who helped the village were all good people.
Since you have been down there since you can remember and have never seen your parents, why do you remember this sentence? And you seem to remember a lot of information about your parents and even the village?"
When Yi Chen asked this question, the girl looked confused. She bent her right leg and scratched her head with her big toe.
Then he looked at Yi Chen with a serious expression:
“You’re right~ I feel very strange too. I’ve been down there the whole time, but my brain still has memories of my parents and the village. I even remember some of the things my mother said to me very clearly.
I don’t know if my brain is broken.”
"It may be related to your long stay down here... It may be caused by the overlap and loss of memories."
"Oh~" The girl Lai Ni looked as if she understood something, then she pulled out two burning sticks, ate one herself, and handed the other to Yi Chen, "Big brother, do you want to eat some?"
Yi Chen wanted to refuse, but he was indeed a little hungry. Besides, roasted plants like this no longer had a fishy smell, so he could barely accept it.
After a short period of contact and conversation,
Yi Chen has determined that although the girl in front of him is a patient, she is completely harmless... She even has mature and correct values, a firm stance and independent thinking, and is more inclined to be Patient Zero than Granny Ji.
And she is obviously different from Granny Chicken.
Granny Chicken lives for "revenge", but the girl Lai Ni just lives here simply without any extra thoughts, like a blank sheet of paper that has never been stained by the colors of the world.
"Big brother, the cure you mentioned should mean killing all the bad guys up there, right?"
"That's right... This village is seriously ill. There is only one way to eliminate it."
The girl just nodded slightly, without any change in expression.
"As much as I want to help you, I'm very scared to go up there... My body resists the thought of the village, especially the bad guys in weird costumes."
Yi Chen suddenly lowered his voice and asked, "You want to help me?"
The girl nodded seriously, "Well... As long as I don't go to the village and don't come into contact with those guys in weird clothes, I'm willing to help."
"If I lure the village chief down here, will you help me kill him?"
"Village Chief..."
The girl scratched her head with her toes again.
"As long as you can lure the village chief down here without attracting too many other things, I can indeed help you. Besides, there is a place down here that is just big enough to trap a big guy like the village chief."
"Then let's put it this way. I will be responsible for leading the village chief down."
"Okay, when?"
"Now."
Jin's situation was unknown and Yi Chen had no time to waste.
The reason for spending time interacting with the girl Lai Ni also has a purpose.
Because Lai Ni has shown extremely high fighting ability and is very familiar with the underground caves under the village, as long as her position and character can be determined, we can try to cooperate with her.
It is too risky to try to deal with the village chief directly when there is nothing.
Not to mention whether the weapons and clothes can be recovered,
Once the alarm in the village is triggered, various butchers, scavengers and other special villagers will attack together.
If you want to kill the village chief, you must use all means and existing relationships, even if it requires taking risks.
"This is where I usually chop firewood. It's far from the village, so generally no one comes here."
"Just wait for me near the well. I will lead the village chief down as soon as possible."
"Big brother, be careful!"
After saying goodbye to Lai Ni, Yi Chen decided to go see Grandma Ji again.
Since Lai Ni said before that she had caught a chicken, it means that the chicken lady’s residence should not be far away.
He put on the pig mask again (the incision had been sutured with plants), bypassed the villagers patrolling in the woods, and reached Grandma Chicken's residence as quickly as possible.
He went into the slide inside the tree and landed in front of Grandma Chicken.
Yi Chen immediately gave a detailed plan to disrupt the village and lure out the village chief.
However,
Granny Chicken just looked at him without commenting on the plan.
Stroking my granddaughter's head and her golden hair that had turned into chicken feathers,
Dozens of chicken eyes slowly opened on Grandma Chicken's forehead, and a look of disdain and even contempt slowly revealed itself in her eyes.
He was filled with disgust at the young man in front of him, who was wearing a pig-head mask and tattered shorts.
"Your operation has already failed once. Why should I risk the lives of my children to help you? A companion who is more powerful than you has been captured, and you alone want to kill the village chief
Hahaha! Trash should have the awareness of being trash. "
The rooster's laughter echoed in the chicken coop area.
Perhaps she had never taken a fancy to Yi Chen, but just wanted to use Yi Chen as the 'axis' to coordinate the powerful combat force like Jin and complete her revenge plan.
The previous conversation was indeed a true outpouring of emotion.
But it was limited to her longing for her granddaughter and her hatred for the village chief, and she used this true love to cover up her hypocrisy.
Now, Jin is missing.
Yi Chen, who returned to the chicken coop alone and lost his equipment, was nothing in her eyes. He was no different from the human teams that had gone to the forest to seek their own death.
"For the sake of our friendly exchanges, I'll give you one minute to leave my chicken coop... Otherwise, I don't mind turning you into feed for the chicks."
Hearing this, Yi Chen nodded his head meaningfully without replying.
Granny Chicken's change in attitude reminded him of the type of people he hated and was most disgusted with.
Suddenly, he raised the butcher knife in his hand high and swung it down... Swish!
Blood splatter
The knife was not aimed at Grandma Ji, but at Yi Chen himself.
The blade cut into the right side of the chest, tearing off a whole piece of flesh and exposing the ribs.
Granny Chicken, who was sitting opposite, was also very confused by the situation. She had no idea what the young man wanted to do and even suspected that he had gone crazy.
Just then... Plop!
Grandma Chicken heard a strong heartbeat.
She stared with all her eyes wide open at Yi Chen's self-injured chest.
Through the gaps between the ribs that were covered with blood, I actually saw a strange heart covered with black hair that was beating.
"What's this?"
When she was confused,
A mouth slowly opened on the surface of the dark heart, and an eyeball rolled out from the throat!
Look at each other.
A powerful mental force passed through all of Grandma Ji's eyes and bombarded her brain.
When she came to her senses,
Yi Chen was already standing next to the chair, holding a bloody butcher knife in one hand and the chicken embryo-shaped tumor that had just been removed from her body in the other.
Just as Granny Chicken's attitude changed,
The young man in front of her, who used to be a gentleman and talked to her in a friendly manner as a junior, also changed his attitude and turned into a pure butcher to end her life in advance.
Before she died, Granny Chicken continued to stare at the black heart between her ribs.
Two black strips that looked like arms were swaying, looking very happy.
The mouth on the surface of the heart was drooling and uttering the last words that Grandma Ji heard in her life.
“I can finally eat chicken-flavored grape skewers in advance… I’m so happy!”