Légende du village de Baima

Chapitre 18

This person... he is not Qin Fangcheng at all!

The man was wearing canvas overalls, riddled with holes and filthy dust. He wore a hard hat, which was twisted and warped, as if struck by something. His face was filthy, as if he hadn't washed it for days; the grime had scabbed over, obscuring his features, and his cheeks were covered in numerous scars. His body was also strangely contorted, like a deflated balloon, its joints twisted in bizarre ways. When the car headlights flashed past, he recoiled in fear, lowering his head, as if instinctively terrified of the bright light.

Overwhelmed with extreme shock, Lin Hong covered her mouth with her hand. Who was this person? Where did he come from? Where was Zhao Zhuo? Where was Qin Fangcheng? Had they all fallen? But why hadn't she heard them scream when they fell?

Countless unanswered questions flashed through Lin Hong's mind one after another. Her heart was pounding wildly, the vibrations making her eardrums ring. For a moment, she thought she would faint from fright at this bizarre event, but strangely, her mind was very clear, her consciousness was clearer than ever before, and she was clearly aware of the terrifying situation she was facing.

She found herself in a long-collapsed ruin, filled with a hallucinatory feeling and a confused consciousness. The man, the strange figure who had appeared out of nowhere, was right in front of her, straining and doing something. He was so close that Lin Hong could hear his heavy breathing and the cracking of his knuckles as he exerted himself. He seemed completely focused on what he was doing and paid no attention to Lin Hong.

A long time passed, and seeing that this terrifying strange man seemed to have no ill intentions towards her, Lin Hong's heart slowly calmed down. She slowly exhaled and mechanically asked, "Who... are you?"

"Me?" The man paused, seemingly dismissive of Lin Hong's question: "Who else could it be? He Dazhuang, of course."

"He Dazhuang?" Lin Hong blinked in surprise. She vaguely felt that the name sounded familiar, but strangely, she couldn't remember where she had heard it before. She stood there for a while, and seeing that the other person still didn't seem to care about her, she asked again, "It's so dark, what are you doing?"

"What are we doing?" He Dazhuang seemed somewhat puzzled by the question. "What else can people like us do? We do hard labor, grouting, casting, sealing the gaps between the slabs with cement concrete so that the floors can be sturdy. Let me tell you, don't underestimate this kind of manual labor; it requires skill. The ratio of sand, water, and cement must be 1:6:1. If you get that wrong, this building, you just wait, it will collapse with a bang." The man spoke with a strong suburban accent, but his voice was filled with an uncontrollable grief and indignation that made one's heart race.

Lin Hong sensed something was amiss. In the dead of night, this strange man was diligently working on a construction project in a ruin. It sounded a bit... She shook her head, and hearing the clattering noises coming from the corridor she had rushed through earlier, she felt a little scared and asked He Dazhuang, "Over there... who's over there?"

He Dazhuang stiffened his neck. Lin Hong couldn't see his movements clearly in the darkness, but she could sense them precisely. She could even imagine the comical appearance of this construction worker covered in mud and with cement spots on his eyebrows: "These are the brothers I brought," He Dazhuang chuckled and replied, "What can we do? We're country folk, we can only make a living by hard work."

10)

He Dazhuang had quite a few workers under his command, numbering in the dozens. They appeared and disappeared in the darkness, filling the building with a bustling scene. However, this chaotic activity in the dark was somewhat puzzling. But for Lin Hong, with so many people here, the monster chasing them might not dare to emerge from the ground.

Lin Hong reached out and touched a vertical concrete slab, then leaned against it to catch her breath. The frantic escape had exhausted her. "Are you here to clear this rubble?" she asked casually.

"Ruins?" He Dazhuang's voice revealed a hint of surprise: "Where are the ruins? We are building a skyscraper. Just you wait and see. Once this building is completed, many people will move in, and they will be just like us, never wanting to leave this place again."

Lin Hong shook her head. She didn't quite understand what the other person was saying, but her mind wasn't on that. "Did you see two men?" she asked He Dazhuang. "One of them was a beggar. He always covered his head with his hands when he walked."

"Oh, you mean that beggar?" He Dazhuang's voice came from the darkness, light and without any texture: "I've been seeing him a lot lately, running around in this area, with a big turtle chasing after him."

"A turtle?" Lin Hong was somewhat surprised. "Could that thing be a turtle?" She shook her head, sensing something was off, but she couldn't find a reason to refute it. Perhaps such a turtle really existed in this world, crawling swiftly through the city's underground water pipes, its enormous head covered in thick scales, its ugly lips adorned with long, tentacle-like appendages, or like an octopus's tentacles, with terrifying suckers at the ends. Or perhaps what made this turtle even more terrifying was its shell, so hard that it could easily break through even metal drainage pipes. The force with which it arched out of the ground was astonishing, and when it opened its greedy mouth to chase its prey, its heavy plastron dragged on the ground, sounding like countless fleshy feet rushing about.

Imagining the turtle's terrifying form, Lin Hong couldn't help but shudder: "Did you see clearly? Was that thing chasing the beggar really a turtle?" she asked.

"That was the most terrifying red-scaled tortoise." He Dazhuang's voice swayed, shifting from left to right, and his figure inexplicably became blurred. "This tortoise lives in secluded places deep in the mountains, and it loves to eat a plant called Jade Beauty Fragrance. It's a root so beautiful it's almost ethereal, its texture as white and alluring as the skin of an unmarried maiden. When the red-scaled tortoise eats this plant, it becomes incredibly ferocious, attacking animals even more ferocious than itself. Its hard shell and flexible barbels become its most terrifying weapons. In the mountains, it's common to encounter..." For the mountain people pursued by the red-scaled tortoises, once entangled by these terrifying creatures, the prey has nowhere to run or hide. This is because the red-scaled tortoises have an extremely sensitive sense of smell, and after ingesting the Jade Flower Fragrance, their shells undergo a mysterious chemical change, becoming even harder than steel. They will relentlessly pursue their prey until, after a long and hopeless escape, the tortoises pounce fiercely, easily corroding the prey's hard skull with their tongues secreting corrosive venom, and then relishfully sucking out the prey's brain matter.

Suddenly, He Dazhuang's voice, almost a whisper, was close to Lin Hong's ear. Lin Hong was startled and instinctively tried to pull away from this strange man, but for some reason, her body was weak and her muscles were stiff, making her unable to move. She could only hear He Dazhuang continuing to speak in a wicked tone, his voice pressed close to her ear:

"Beware, for beside you lurks a terrifying red-scaled creature. Its eyes, filled with evil and indifference, glow with a chilling emerald light, carrying a sinister chill and exuding the eeriness unique to the underworld, coldly glaring at you. Its head is frighteningly large, its neck extremely short, unable to retract into its shell due to its enormous size. The turtle's head is covered with large horny scutes, its jaws thick and prominently hooked like an eagle's beak. The carapace is oblong, concave in the middle of the anterior edge, flattened at the ridge, with a longitudinal ridge like a sharp blade imprinted on the turtle's back. The nuchal scute is extremely short and wide, and the plastron is nearly rectangular, with a flat anterior edge and a concave posterior edge." Enter. Or perhaps you think the color of this red scale is a sinister red; if you really think so, you're wrong. In fact, this evil creature has webbed fingers and toes, and claws. Blue-green, cone-shaped scales grow on its thighs and anus. Its terrifyingly long tail is covered with rectangular scales arranged in a ring. The turtle's back is brownish-black, dotted with striking orange-yellow spots, with several radiating black stripes on the vertebral scute, and a small black spot on each costal scute. Most astonishingly, the turtle's color is quite unusual: the plastron is olive green, the carapace is reddish-brown, and the underside is a strange orange-red.

Under the pressure of He Dazhuang's voice, Lin Hong felt her body tremble hopelessly. The voice was like a highly corrosive venom, seeping into her heart and causing her to groan in despair.

He Dazhuang seemed very satisfied with the effect. Suddenly his voice drifted back: "It's time, it's time. In many situations, we need to comfort ourselves because this cold and evil world is willing to give us too little happiness. We can only comfort ourselves in this way, just as we have always been doing."

He Dazhuang's voice gradually faded away, and slowly, he began to hum a simple nursery rhyme:

The tortoise is thin and doesn't gain weight.

Skin covering hard bones

Four paws and one head

Three years to reach my doorstep

The simple nursery rhyme, like drops of clear spring water, seeped into Lin Hong's heart. Slowly, her consciousness calmed down, and her mind became clear. Suddenly, a muffled shout came from the night wind. It was Qin Fangcheng calling her name. Lin Hong snapped awake and hurriedly leaned over the cross-section of the floor to look down.

There was indeed a person below, his face and features obscured by darkness, but Lin Hong heard his voice perfectly clearly—it was Qin Fangcheng. Lin Hong quickly replied, "Hey, Lao Qin, I'm here."

"My God," Qin Fangcheng's voice was filled with surprise, "How did you get to such a high place? It's so dangerous! Come down quickly and be careful."

Lin Hong agreed and turned to look back at the road she had come from. All she could see was darkness. The strange-looking He Dazhuang and his workers had all disappeared in the blink of an eye. Lin Hong didn't dare to walk alone, so she turned to Qin Fangcheng and called out, "Come on up. It's too dark. I'm afraid to go over there. There are still a lot of people up there."

"There are still many people?" Qin Fangcheng was clearly surprised: "Alright, stay there and don't move, I'll be right there."

After saying that, Qin Fangcheng disappeared into the darkness. A long time passed before his voice came from another direction: "Lin Hong, are you over there?" Lin Hong answered, and the two called each other's names repeatedly, groping their way towards each other in the dark. Finally, a warm hand grasped Lin Hong's cold little hand: "Lin Hong, why are you alone? Where is Zhao Zhuo?"

“Zhao Zhuo…” Lin Hong recalled the scene of them running frantically in the dark just now, and couldn’t help but cry out in fear: “Zhao Zhuo may have fallen just now. He was running in the lead. There was a fault line there, and it was so dark that you couldn’t see anything.”

"He fell?" Qin Fangcheng's voice revealed extreme fear: "How could this happen? Falling from such a height, he will most likely..."

He stopped mid-sentence as a tremendous roar echoed from the darkness ahead. They could hear it clearly: a massive, armored monster was crawling rapidly toward them.

Chapter Seven: Hypnosis

1)

Hearing the rapid crawling of the monster, Qin Fangcheng suddenly grabbed Lin Hong's hand: "This way!" Terrified, Lin Hong followed closely behind him, bending over and struggling to navigate through the jagged concrete pillars and slabs. A loud bang came from behind, the vibrations disrupting the balance of the entire ruin. Instantly, earth-shattering sounds followed one after another, and the entire ruin began to shake incessantly, seemingly in danger of collapsing at any moment.

Qin Fangcheng, who was running ahead, suddenly stopped. Lin Hong grabbed his hand tightly, feeling the sweat and tears streaming down her face. Her vision blurred with stars. The intense run had pushed her will to its limit, and she was on the verge of fainting.

"Look ahead." Qin Fangcheng patted her back to help her catch her breath. "There's a muddy pond ahead. It's formed by the people living in the shantytown dumping their swill here every day. The soil is very soft, so you won't fall in. Wait for me to count to three. When I count to three, we'll jump in together."

Lin Hong looked closely and realized they had ended up at a fault line in the building. She wasn't sure if this was the place she had just been. Looking down, she could see a glaring white expanse on the ground, and a foul, putrid smell wafted up from it. Being a woman by nature cleansed, she hesitated for a moment and took a step back.

"Don't hesitate, my dear, it's too late!" Sensing her troubled expression, Qin Fangcheng cried out urgently, "This building is about to collapse completely. That giant worm is just too heavy." He was absolutely right. At this moment, the thin layer of cement slab beneath their feet was already shaking incessantly, teetering on the verge of collapse, and could fall at any moment.

"No, that's not a worm, it's a crow..." Although she knew the situation was critical, Lin Hong still inexplicably wanted to correct Qin Fangcheng's mistake. Qin Fangcheng had already pulled her sharply and shouted, "One, two, three! Jump!" He then jumped down with Lin Hong.

With two "splashes," Qin Fangcheng was in front, and Lin Hong was behind. Before she landed, she was splashed all over her head and face by the dirty water Qin Fangcheng had kicked up. The dirty water hit her eyes, and just as she was about to cry out in pain, her body slammed heavily onto the ground. The feeling was like when you make a mistake while high diving and your belly hits the water first, which is extremely distressing and leaves you with a feeling of wanting to cry but having no tears.

At the same time as they landed, a deafening roar came from the ruins. The original balance of the ruins was disrupted, and the sturdy pillars and slabs quickly collapsed inward, shrinking in the blink of an eye into a small new type of ruin, completely different from its original form, but the sense of desolation it revealed was even stronger.

Large piles and slabs interlocked and maintained a new balance during the collapse, but smaller slabs continued to fall, making a constant rumbling sound, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, until it finally subsided and the night returned to its original tranquility. Only the billowing cement dust continued to rise, enveloping this eerie world.

"How are you? Are you alright?" Qin Fangcheng stared blankly at the ruins for a long time before finally snapping out of it. He hurriedly got up to help Lin Hong, but his foot slipped and he fell on top of Lin Hong with a thud. Lin Hong, who was staring blankly at the ruins, cried out in pain as half of her body sank into the mud.

Lin Hong got angry, thinking Qin Fangcheng was too stupid. She tried to get up, but the ground was covered with too much swill, and the mud had turned into a particularly slippery organic mud. Just as she was about to stand up, she slipped and fell flat on her back. Qin Fangcheng found her appearance amusing and chuckled heartlessly.

Lin Hong was both angry and annoyed. She grabbed Qin Fangcheng and said, "Don't move." Then she put her hand on Qin Fangcheng's body, struggled to get up, looked around, and walked forward step by step, slipping and sliding, until she was out of the sewage area. When she looked back, Qin Fangcheng was also walking towards her step by step, saying, "Give me a hand, Lin Hong, give me a hand."

Lin Hong was angry with him and didn't want to talk to him, but suddenly she heard a loud bang, and countless hardened cement chunks flew up and rained down. Something had suddenly been lifted up from the bottom of the once-silent ruins, and the thing was now sticking out its enormous head, swaying and looking this way.

This is the red-scaled tortoise that had been chasing Zhao Zhuo and his group. It's unbelievable how tenacious this creature is; even the collapse of the ruins couldn't kill it, and it managed to crawl out again.

At this critical moment, Lin Hong could no longer hold back her temper. She hurriedly stretched out a hand and handed it to Qin Fangcheng, pulling him out of the sewage. Then the two of them limped forward and ran hurriedly. Now there were only the two of them left. Zhao Zhuo could never be with them again, and they didn't even bother to look at Zhao Zhuo's current condition.

Ahead lay a cluster of bizarre buildings, mostly constructed from broken cement slabs, tinplate, cardboard, planks, and discarded bricks. These structures were generally low, simple, filthy, and dilapidated. They were inhabited by homeless wanderers, all outcasts rejected by modern civilization, surviving by begging and scavenging. For Lin Hong, this was a place fraught with unpredictable danger, but for Qin Fangcheng, it was a different story. He had once been imprisoned here for a month by that slovenly woman, Fu Xiuying.

The low-ceilinged shacks had simple doors and windows, but the light shining through gave Qin Fangcheng and Lin Hong courage. The light was their hope, and they ran faster and faster. The noise from the monster chasing them gradually subsided. Just as they were about to reach a shack, Qin Fangcheng breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to turn around and say something to Lin Hong when suddenly, a small figure flashed out from the darkness and blocked their way.

It was a child, a little girl no more than six years old. She had a round face, her hair was braided with more than a dozen braids tied with a pretty bow, and her two big eyes were staring unblinkingly at Lin Hong. The hatred hidden in her eyes made Lin Hong suddenly feel frightened.

"San Niu?" Qin Fangcheng exclaimed in surprise. This little girl was Fu Xiuying's third daughter, and also Qin Fangcheng's most beloved child. In order to give this child a warm family, Qin Fangcheng gave up pursuing Fu Xiuying's legal responsibility and even allowed them to live in a building he bought with his money. He never expected that San Niu would come here at this time: "San Niu, what are you doing here?"

The little girl turned to Qin Fangcheng, called out "Daddy" in a clear voice, and ran over to be hugged by him. Qin Fangcheng looked back with trepidation. The monster behind them, which he couldn't tell was either a worm or a giant tortoise, had disappeared. The night was so peaceful; the terrifying chase they had just experienced seemed like a nightmare.

San Niu was the most lovable child. She sensibly hugged Qin Fangcheng's head and gave him a big kiss: "Dad, you smell really bad."

"Ah—ah ah," Qin Fangcheng awkwardly put the child down, raised his sleeve and sniffed. Sure enough, he and Lin Hong had been rolling around in the stinky water, their bodies soaked in sewage. The stench was nauseating. Although he had put San Niu down, she clung to him tightly, refusing to let go: "Daddy, come home with San Niu, okay? San Niu misses Daddy so much."

Qin Fangcheng's eyes welled up with tears. This child was practically his nemesis. No matter how much he hated Fu Xiuying, he couldn't bring himself to be cruel to this obedient child. He sighed deeply, "San Niu, why are you out so late?"

The moment the question left his mouth, Qin Fangcheng regretted it. He was genuinely afraid that Sanniu would tell him, "Daddy, my mom dreamt that Guanyin Bodhisattva appeared to her in a dream and told me to come here to pick you up." If Sanniu said that, he wouldn't be surprised at all. To him, that foolish woman Fu Xiuying was like a witch with evil magic, and he was completely helpless in her presence. Fortunately, Sanniu didn't say that. The obedient little girl said, "Daddy, I came back to get my doll. Daddy, I can't find my doll. Can you buy me a new one?"

“Okay,” Qin Fangcheng squatted down and promised San Niu’s clear eyes, “As long as San Niu baby goes home obediently, Daddy will definitely buy you a new rag doll tomorrow.”

2)

Unsettled, she looked back again, but still couldn't see the monster. That thing—whether it was a tubular worm or a huge red-scaled turtle—seemed to have its own precise target, just as He Dazhuang, who was working diligently in the ruins, had said. It was simply stubbornly pursuing a fixed goal… He Dazhuang? Lin Hong blinked, then suddenly covered her mouth in horror to prevent herself from letting out a terrifying scream.

She finally remembered that He Dazhuang was a relative of He Zhenggang. He and his twenty-six workers were buried under the rubble on the day the International Exhibition Center building collapsed, their bodies turned to dust.

But she clearly saw him in the abandoned building just now, just now.

Holding onto the wall of the shed for support, Lin Hong struggled to maintain her balance. Her mind was a jumbled mess. Was what had just happened a dream? If she had a choice, what was unfolding before her eyes felt more like a nightmare: the relentlessly pursuing evil tortoise, Zhao Zhuo falling without a sound, and Qin Fangcheng. Suddenly, she grabbed Qin Fangcheng and shouted, "What happened? What on earth happened?"

Qin Fangcheng was talking to San Niu when Lin Hong's sudden scream startled him. As if a spring had been pressed under his feet, he quickly picked up San Niu and jumped up with a whoosh: "What happened? That thing... has it caught up with us?"

Qin Fangcheng's current strange demeanor showed he was like a frightened bird, easily alarmed by the slightest disturbance. If a man was like this, Lin Hong's fear was even greater. Trembling, she asked Qin Fangcheng, "Just now... what exactly happened? I remember the three of us fell into a basement, and then escaped to the upper floor... is that right?"

Upon hearing Lin Hong's words, Qin Fangcheng's expression was one of utter bewilderment. He held San Niu in his arms, pondered for a long while, and then answered uncertainly, "We tumbled into a basement together, but that monster was waiting for us down there. Zhao Zhuo pulled you away and we escaped, but I was relentlessly chased by that thing. Several times I almost got caught by it."

Lin Hong let out an "Oh," finally making sense of what had just happened. It was that simple: Zhao Zhuo had been invaded by something unclean, which he believed was the evil desire of the company's chairman, Du Hongyuan. Du Hongyuan had kidnapped and abducted Huang Ping to blackmail Zhao Zhuo, forcing him to become a beggar at the very bottom of society. But Du Hongyuan still wouldn't let him go; that indescribable thing, whether a tube-like worm or a giant tortoise, kept chasing him. Because Zhao Zhuo had begged them for help, they were also dragged into the chase.

That thing… Lin Hong looked at the ruins again with trepidation. The ruins stood silently in the midnight, the wind blowing through the gaps between the pillars and slabs, making strange sounds that sent chills down one's spine. Countless hidden eyes were watching them in the darkness, as if once they left the dimly lit shed area, they would fall back into the most terrible danger.

Qin Fangcheng looked at Lin Hong, squatted down, and asked San Niu, "Sweetie, tell Daddy, did you come here alone?"

Although San Niu was young, she was quite cunning. She nodded vigorously and threw herself into Qin Fangcheng's arms, saying, "Daddy, I'm scared. Please don't leave me alone, okay?" She then clung tightly to Qin Fangcheng's neck with her two slender little arms, refusing to let go. This little thing, though small, was as shrewd as her mother. She remembered her mother telling her that this little vixen was competing with her for her father's affections, so she wanted to take this opportunity to bring her father home.

Qin Fangcheng reluctantly picked up Sanniu, saying, "Be good, don't make trouble. If you don't behave, Daddy won't like you anymore." As he spoke, he held the child in one arm and pulled Lin Hong along with the other, wanting to leave this place as quickly as possible. Seeing Sanniu nestled against Qin Fangcheng, her chin resting on his shoulder, staring intently at her with hateful eyes, Lin Hong subconsciously shook off Qin Fangcheng and created some distance between them. The two quickly crossed the shed area.

3)

There were more than a dozen men chasing and beating Zhao Zhuo. Each of them was strong and burly. Zhao Zhuo was desperately trying to break free from them while shouting to Qin Fangcheng, "Old Qin, save me! Old Qin, come and save me!" As he shouted this, he was grabbed by the hands and feet by the group of burly men, forcibly lifted up, and carried to a van parked nearby.

Qin Fangcheng ran over: "What are you doing? What do you people want to do? He's my friend."

The group of burly men stopped, and a dozen fierce gazes shot towards him. In the darkness, their eyes gleamed with a terrifying green light, making them look sinister and frightening. Suddenly, as if receiving a silent command, except for a few who were still holding onto Zhao Zhuo tightly, the rest of the burly men scattered and approached Qin Fangcheng.

Qin Fangcheng hurriedly took a few steps back: "Don't be violent, let's talk this out. What do you want?" Before he could finish speaking, the burly men rushed towards him like a pack of hungry wolves pouncing on a lamb. Seeing this, Qin Fangcheng didn't bother to reason with them anymore and turned to run away.

The burly men chased after him menacingly. Suddenly, one hand grabbed Qin Fangcheng's collar, but Qin Fangcheng struggled free. With a tearing sound, his shirt was ripped open. Caught off guard, the burly man was thrown backward, knocking his two companions to the ground.

The burly men who had fallen pushed and shoved each other, cursing viciously. The other burly men gleefully bypassed them and continued to relentlessly pursue Qin Fangcheng. Qin Fangcheng instinctively ran towards the direction where Lin Hong and San Niu were standing, but as he ran, he found that the place was empty and no one was in sight. He turned around and rushed into a narrow alley.

This alley was the very one where he had secretly met Lin Hong and Zhao Zhuo that night, eating wontons. Knowing that the monster had suddenly emerged from the ground, creating several large, deep pits in the road, Qin Fangcheng ran to the edge of one of the pits and leaped across. The burly men behind him, unaware of what was happening, shouted and chased after him. Several thuds followed, then a series of cries of pain. The men all tumbled into the pits, their bodies hitting broken pipes and bleeding profusely. For a moment, the men who had fallen into the pits groaned in agony.

The three burly men who had initially fallen were caught up in the chase. Because of their fall, they lagged behind and avoided falling into the pit. Seeing this, they hurriedly and carefully jumped over and continued chasing Qin Fangcheng. Qin Fangcheng had been running for almost a whole night and was already exhausted. He was quickly caught up by the burly men.

Seeing Qin Fangcheng limping slower and slower ahead, the burly men leisurely shouted, "Stop running! You can't escape him even if you run to the ends of the earth! You better behave yourself... Ouch, my god!" One of the men suddenly stopped, covered his face with his hands, and his body involuntarily convulsed. After a while, he slowly removed his hands, revealing a face covered in blood: "What happened? Who was throwing stones around in the middle of the night?"

The other burly man ignored him, leaping forward and tackling Qin Fangcheng to the ground: "Get down on your knees... Ouch, who? Who's so wicked?" He cried out in pain, clutching his face: "If you've got the guts, come out here! What's the point of hiding in the shadows and throwing stones at people?"

The third burly man looked around nervously, when suddenly he spotted a small figure in the corner. He opened his eyes wide to take a closer look and exclaimed, "Hey, whose child is this? So late... Ouch, you really hit me!" A hard stone hit his lips, knocking out his front teeth on the spot.

The small figure hiding in the shadows throwing stones was none other than Qin Fangcheng's most beloved wild child, Sanniu. She cleverly ran over and pulled Qin Fangcheng up, saying, "Daddy, Daddy, let's go quickly." Qin Fangcheng staggered forward a few steps before complaining with lingering fear, "Sanniu, why are you throwing stones again? If you do this again, Daddy won't love you anymore."

“San Niu didn’t throw any stones,” the clever San Niu lied without even blinking. “Dad always wrongs San Niu.”

"Weren't those stones you threw away?" Qin Fangcheng asked, his mind a complete mess.

"It wasn't me who lost it, it was that auntie who lost it just now," San Niu said, her honest eyes wide as she continued to lie.

"Which auntie? Which one..." Qin Fangcheng suddenly snapped out of his daze and hurriedly turned around to walk back: "Where's Lin Hong? Where did she go?"

San Niu clung tightly to Qin Fangcheng's clothes, refusing to let go: "Daddy, that aunt has already left in her car."

"A car?" Qin Fangcheng felt his brain was starting to malfunction. "What car does she have?"

San Niu blinked and said, "I don't know either, anyway, she left in a car."

After a night of confusion, Qin Fangcheng's consciousness was becoming scattered, and his judgment was at its lowest level. He felt that Lin Hong could not have thrown stones at people and driven away in such a short time, but he did not expect that the cute little girl San Niu was lying.

He was still worried, so he dragged San Niu back the way they came. By then, the group of burly men had already helped each other out of the ditch and back onto the road, groaning and moaning as they got into the van and drove off with a roar. Qin Fangcheng and San Niu searched high and low along the road, finding Lin Hong but unable to find her anywhere. Watching Qin Fangcheng walk step by step toward the open sewer opening on the ground, San Niu's eyes lit up, and she burst into tears.