Before everything goes out

"Does it hurt?"

"A little..."

After dinner.

Li Fei sat at the table, his body taut with pain.

Lin Wen stood behind him, holding a sterilized strip of cloth in one hand and a herbal ointment specially made by Wang Guodong in the other.

There was no anesthetic.

Even though she was very gentle when changing the dressing, Li Fei still gasped in pain several times.

"Okay, let me tell you a story to distract you. It's one I often tell the children."

"good..."

Li Fei gritted his teeth, trying his best to ignore the back of his head.

"Once upon a time, there was a mountain, and on the mountain was a temple. In the temple lived an old monk and a young monk. One day, the young monk couldn't sleep, so the old monk told him a story..."

Lin Wen paused for a moment, then answered her own question.

"What story is it? It's about a mountain, and on that mountain lived a temple..."

"Is there an old monk and a young monk in the temple?"

Li Fei's lips twitched as he answered so quickly.

This isn't a story; it's a riddle, the kind even elementary school students have heard.

"Hehe, so you've heard of it. The medicine has been changed."

Lin Wen put away her tools and neatly stacked them aside.

In her spare time, she would go to Wang Guodong's house to help out, so she also knows some medical care.

"Get some rest."

So as not to disturb Li Fei's rest, she then called the children into the room, a little earlier than yesterday.

"See you tomorrow."

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

They said they'd see you tomorrow.

In Li Fei's heart, this was already a farewell.

At 8:30, before it was completely dark, he lay down on the bed in the living room and waited quietly.

Everything is ready, only the right opportunity is needed.

The plan was to escape the village under the cover of night and then decide on the next step after daybreak.

Whether it's reuniting with potentially surviving teammates or finding a base to wait for rescue, it's better than staying in this village and being at the mercy of others.

Looking out the window.

As the sun set, the sky grew increasingly dark.

Waiting, waiting.

When the last ray of light disappeared, when the clock on the wall pointed to four in the morning.

Li Fei opened his eyes and got out of bed.

The timing was perfect; he wouldn't need to stay in the dark for too long. After walking a few kilometers in the mountains, it would be almost dawn, making his movements safe and convenient.

"Luckily, Bai Xiaowu wasn't watching over me today."

Li Fei glanced at the door.

Both bedroom doors were tightly closed, and through the doors he could hear the even breathing sounds inside.

He tiptoed to the stove and filled a snakeskin bag with the necessities...

A few steamed buns, a few sweet potatoes, a bottle of water, a spare torch, and a wood-chopping knife for self-defense.

In the dim firelight, Li Fei checked everything to make sure nothing was missed, and finally lit the oil lamp in the room.

Two light sources, double protection.

With everything prepared, Li Fei arrived at the gate.

Peeking out through a crack in the door, darkness blocked the entrance, as thick as ink.

"As long as there is light, there will be no problem."

Li Fei tentatively extended the oil lamp outside the door.

really.

The darkness, like mist and water, was dissolved and melted by the light, quickly retreating several meters away.

Visibility wasn't much better, but at least it allowed him to move around normally.

Just as he was about to leave, he glanced at the door and saw a stack of black items by the door.

"this..."

It was his tattered combat uniform that he had changed out of.

Black, made of nylon, is the uniform of the rings.

He knew that Bai Xiaowu had been sewing this a couple of days ago, but he hadn't noticed when it was placed here, as if it had been prepared specifically for him.

"Does this child know I'm leaving?"

Li Fei frowned slightly.

I turned around to check again, and there was no sound from the bedroom.

"No, it must be just a coincidence. This garment has been here ever since it was sewn up; I just didn't notice it."

Li Fei thought to himself.

After all, if Bai Xiaowu really knew he was leaving, he had no reason to let him go.

After hesitating for a moment, he changed into his black combat uniform and put his original cotton-padded jacket over it. It was cold outside in the middle of the night, so this was just right.

Go out.

We left Lin Wen's farmhouse courtyard.

With a snakeskin bag in his left hand and an oil lamp in his right, Li Fei walked in the darkness toward the direction he remembered.

The bustling country lanes during the day become deathly silent in the dead of night.

The silence around him made him uneasy.

Looking further ahead, you can't see the mountains and forests, only the eaves of the village houses lined up in a row, like silent mountains.

Darkness, thick and vibrant, enveloped in a misty haze.

No.

The fog here is not a metaphor, but a real physical phenomenon.

With each step Li Fei took forward, the darkness behind him closed in, enveloping him and suffocating him.

Although he had prepared himself mentally, it was even more terrifying than he had imagined.

I passed by Wang Guodong's house.

I passed by the home of the Niu brothers, Wenbing and Niu Wenbing.

At the three-way intersection on the north side of the village, before leaving the village, Li Fei looked back one last time, gazing towards Lin Wen's house...

I couldn't see anything, only layers upon layers of darkness blocking my view.

"etc."

"If I just leave like this, the village chief will definitely cause trouble for Lin Wen."

"After all, those Niu brothers did some work before, and it was all used to feed the dogs. Now they're letting me escape right under their noses. The consequences will only be more serious."

"Lin Wen is a good person, and good people should be rewarded."

Li Fei slowed his pace until he came to a complete stop.

In the darkness, the human face chewed up by a dog gradually overlapped with Lin Wen's smiling face.

"I can't just leave like this."

I changed my mind.

He turned around and walked back to Lin Wen's house.

next second.

In the shifting field of vision, something that looked somewhat like a human flashed by.

In the darkness not far behind him, he darted from the roadside to the back of the earthen house.

"What is that?!"

Li Fei's pupils contracted sharply, and the hairs on his body stood on end.

That thing looked a bit like a person, but it was definitely not a person.

He couldn't see it clearly in his daze, but if he had to describe it, it looked like a big dog tiptoeing, trying to walk like a human.

"Be quiet, come with me."

A familiar voice came from the side.

Turning his head, Li Fei saw that Bai Xiaowu was standing next to him at some point.

In the firelight, the two looked at each other, and Bai Xiaowu grabbed him and started running.