Before everything goes out

Run all the way.

As Li Fei ran, pulled along by Bai Xiaowu, he kept looking back at his back.

At the corner of the earthen house, the firelight was blocked by the corner of the wall, casting a thick shadow. The thing that was neither human nor dog was hidden in the shadow. Fortunately, the other party did not chase after him, otherwise he would have had to free up another hand to hold the knife.

The wind whistled past his ears, and at the same time, his mind was in complete turmoil.

"What exactly is that thing?"

"Is that the village chief's dog? Why is it mimicking human actions?"

"So it followed me after I went out?"

"Bai Xiaowu also followed me as soon as I stepped out?"

"And why is this girl running so fast?"

In the flickering firelight caused by his running, Li Fei watched Bai Xiaowu's retreating figure.

My back was soaked with cold sweat, and my legs quickly became weak and sore.

He hadn't fully recovered yet, and running was quite difficult for him. Fortunately, Bai Xiaowu didn't run far; after circling the village, he returned to Lin Wen's house.

"call..."

The two entered, locked the door, and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

"What...what exactly is that thing?"

Li Fei rubbed his throbbing, aching head and asked Bai Xiaowu.

"The dog, the village chief's dog."

Bai Xiaowu recovered faster.

After a few breaths, although she still looked terrified, she got up and went to the door, pressing her ear against it to listen carefully to the sounds outside.

"Do dogs...do dogs walk on tiptoe?"

"It's not like that during the day, it's just like that at night."

Li Fei was taken aback when he saw Bai Xiaowu's matter-of-fact expression.

correct.

This little girl was born after the cataclysm, and may never have even seen a real dog.

"That's not right, normal dogs don't act like that. You probably haven't seen a real dog before..."

Li Fei's explanation was interrupted by Bai Xiaowu.

"I know that only the village dogs are like that. When someone is watching them, they walk on all fours. When no one is watching them, they walk like humans."

"So this isn't a dog at all, it's a monster like the village chief..."

"No, the village chief isn't a monster."

Bai Xiaowu shook his head.

Seeing her resolute expression, Li Fei realized that the description "monster" was not quite appropriate.

After all, for the people in this village, the village chief is one of their own, while Huanzi is the outsider.

"So what exactly is that dog?"

"As I just said, it's the village chief's dog."

"I mean, what is it? Is it a dog, a person, or a monster kept by the village chief?"

"I have no idea."

Bai Xiaowu paused for a moment, then added his explanation.

"All I know is that every night after the villagers are asleep, those dogs will come out and run around the village."

"Those dogs? Not just the one from before?"

"Yes, not just Ertong and Qiwan, I've seen all the dogs in the village at midnight."

"this..."

Li Fei swallowed.

Besides the big black dog "Ertong" and the big yellow dog "Qiwan", he had seen quite a few other dogs in the village during his daytime wanderings.

Big and small, yellow and white.

Even if we take a conservative estimate, there must be at least twenty or thirty.

He wondered at the time, how could such a small village have as many dogs as people?

Judging from Bai Xiaowu's description, these dogs are wandering around aimlessly in the middle of the night, as if they are on patrol?

No wonder.

He had thought it was strange before.

He's a phallus user; regardless of whether he has amnesia or not, the village chief actually entrusted him to Lin Wen without any concern that he might run away in the middle of the night like tonight...

It turns out they had dogs acting as informants, so they weren't afraid he'd run away.

"By the way, what are you doing running around the village in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"

"Mind your own business! Didn't you try to run away just now?"

"I..."

Li Fei choked for a moment.

I almost forgot, he was caught red-handed while trying to escape, so I quickly changed the subject.

"Does Teacher Lin know about the dog?"

"have no idea."

Why didn't you tell her?

Bai Xiaowu glanced at the tightly closed bedroom door and answered in a serious tone.

"Telling her won't do any good; it's kind of scary."

This is Bai Xiaowu.

He's practically a little adult, even more mature than many adults.

"But I heard Aunt Niu say that the village chief's dog might have been a human in disguise."

After thinking of something, Bai Xiaowu added this.

"Oh? Tell me more."

Li Fei raised an eyebrow.

If that's the case, it explains why those dogs behaved strangely, like humans.

Have you noticed that there are many houses in the village, but very few people?

"Found it."

Li Fei nodded.

He discovered this on the very first day.

Judging from the scale of the buildings, the village can probably accommodate hundreds, or even 200 people.

After visiting the village for the past two days, he estimated that there were at most 70 people in the village now. At the time, he thought it was because the living conditions were harsh after the disaster, and many people had died or been injured.

Now it seems there might be other explanations.

"I don't remember much about my childhood, but Aunt Niu said that there used to be a lot of people in the village, but now there are fewer and fewer people because the village chief turned them all into dogs..."

Why turn a perfectly healthy person into a dog?

Li Fei frowned slightly.

Putting aside how he turned people into dogs, Liu Yongxiao himself didn't seem like a madman.

It's easy to see that in this isolated mountain village, population is a resource, and as the village chief, he has no reason to waste his own resources.

"They don't listen to the village chief and always want to go out and see the outside world."

"The outside world?"

"Yeah, it's because they don't believe that humans are almost extinct, so they always want to leave the village to see for themselves."

"and then?"

"Then, the village chief wouldn't let them go out, but they insisted on going out. There were too many of them for the village chief to stop, so he could only turn them all into dogs."

"this..."

Li Fei choked for a moment.

After a moment of silence, he asked again.

"Isn't this tantamount to murder? And none of you resisted?"

"No, no, no, that's just what Aunt Niu says. Teacher Lin said that all the missing people in the village secretly ran out of the village in the middle of the night and went to the outside world."

Have those people ever come back?

"No..."

"So, do you believe Aunt Niu or Teacher Lin?"

"I trust Teacher Lin, but Aunt Niu and her family have a good relationship with the village chief, so she probably knows more."

It turned out to be the case.

After recovering, Li Fei slowly organized his thoughts.

Aunt Niu is the mother of the Niu brothers.

The Niu brothers were also close confidants of village chief Liu Yongxiao.

In other words, what Aunt Niu said might be closer to the truth.

The most crucial point is...

Those who left the village never returned.

This point is enough to illustrate the issue.

Let alone the villagers who left out of "curiosity," even he, who left because his life was in danger, had thought that if he couldn't make it outside, he could always go back to the village.

Of those dozens or hundreds of people, not a single one returned.

There is definitely a big problem here.

Those who opposed Liu Yongxiao, whether they wanted to leave the village or were disobedient, would be turned into dogs by him through some means and then controlled.

This also explains why dogs sometimes mimic human actions.

It wasn't imitation, but rather an irresistible urge.

"Liu Yongxiao is too dangerous. I must stay away from him."

Li Fei secretly made up his mind.

After waiting a few more minutes and making sure the dog wasn't chasing him, he changed his clothes back and obediently lay back down on the bed.

"You're not running away anymore?"

Bai Xiaowu squatted down beside him and tucked the blanket in for him.

"I'm not running anymore."

Li Fei gave a wry smile.

Because he was afraid of implicating Lin Wen and all the children in the house, he really didn't want to run away anymore.

The key point is that even if he really wanted to run away, Liu Yongxiao wouldn't allow it.

Turning into a big mongrel or something, just thinking about it feels more terrifying than death.

"By the way, you knew I was going to run away, so why didn't you stop me?"

"You won't give up until I make you do it yourself."

Bai Xiaowu spoke in a serious tone, paused, and then added.

"Also, because this matter has nothing to do with you anymore."

"Is it okay?"

"Well, Teacher Lin said that you are no longer the same Huanzi as before, you just look very similar, so there is no need for us to hate you anymore."

"Teacher Lin is absolutely right."

Li Fei nodded seriously.

If everyone else in the village thought the same way, that would be great.

He wouldn't need to go through all the trouble of running away; he could simply stay in the village and wait for the rescue team inside the wall to come and pick him up.

"Besides, the village chief and the others saw your map at lunchtime, so you don't need to find it."

Bai Xiaowu added.

"That's not necessarily true."

Li Fei raised the bracelet and handed it to her.

"This map is constantly changing; without me following them, they might not be able to find it."

Under Bai Xiaowu's astonished gaze, Li Fei used his finger to zoom in and out on the map, demonstrating the function.

"Want to give it a try?"

"Um!"

A child is still a child.

Upon seeing this amazing toy he had never seen before, Bai Xiaowu couldn't hide his excitement. He stretched out two slender fingers and tapped on the map.

As the light spot continued to grow larger and smaller, she finally smiled happily.

"This is so much fun!"

To be honest, this was the first time Li Fei had ever seen her smile.

As the oldest child in the house, in order to help Lin Wen share the burden, she always suppressed her childlike innocence and tried her best to play the role of a little adult.

This moment.

Bai Xiaowu briefly returned to being himself.

ten minutes.

A full ten minutes.

Li Fei was somewhat surprised that such a simple touchscreen function could keep Bai Xiaowu engrossed in playing for a full 10 minutes.

When the clock on the wall struck 4:30 a.m., she finally got up with reluctance.

"Go to sleep early, or Teacher Lin will be getting up soon."

"Um."

A moment of silence.

Bai Xiaowu stood up and walked towards the bedroom.

"etc."

Just a second before she opened the bedroom door, Li Fei called out to her.

"Thanks for tonight, you saved me, I owe you one."

Bai Xiaowu shook his head, indicating that it was nothing to worry about.

"Teacher Lin said that God gave me the opportunity to do good deeds to test my heart. As long as my heart is sincere, I can find my mother."

With that, Bai Xiaowu turned around and pushed the door open to enter.

Just a second before the door closed completely, she heard Li Fei's not-so-loud promise.

"I will help you find your mother."

I will try my best.