Before everything goes out

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

By the time the group finished cleaning up the mess, it was already 2 PM.

The sound of running water could be heard coming from the toilet on the first floor of the villa.

"Wash yourself clean and leave. You might not find such good conditions again."

Leaning against the door, Li Fei called out to those inside.

Soon, the little mute boy's "ah-uh-uh" response came from inside.

Now he understood why She Qingqing could understand Ertong's babbling...

Although they had only known each other for a short while, thanks to a strange connection in their brain circuits, he felt the same way about the little mute boy. If the meaning was not complicated, he could guess at most the general idea by a combination of guessing and speculation.

"Li Fei, are we really going to take this child away?"

next to.

Niu San squeezed in from outside the door and said in a low voice.

"We're going there for revenge. We won't even be able to take care of ourselves, let alone him."

"Yes, you're right, it is indeed a bit troublesome..."

Li Fei frowned slightly.

Actually.

The three of them had a brief discussion a few minutes earlier at the door.

He suggested taking the little mute boy on the road, but She Qingqing said she didn't care, while Niu San clearly opposed it.

After being persuaded by him with a few words outside the door, Niu San was still unwilling to give up and came to try again while the little mute was taking a bath.

Looking at his scrunched-up face, Li Fei understood his worries.

This little mute is young, physically weak, and even has difficulty communicating. Taking him on the road would simply be a nuisance.

but.

After careful consideration, Li Fei decided to bring him along.

"I understand your concerns, but we can't just leave him here in the middle of nowhere to die. We can take him to Changjiang City and find a safer place to put him down."

Zhang Cheng said that the place is very big, and there are actually quite a few places to stay.

Think about it, if your older brothers were here, they would probably do the same thing.

Li Fei's words silenced Niu San.

After pacing back and forth a couple of times at the toilet door, he finally nodded with difficulty.

Actually, he wasn't worried about the little mute being a burden; he was mainly worried that if a situation like today happened again, they wouldn't even be able to take care of themselves, let alone have the energy to look after a child like that.

But Li Fei is right.

If it were his deceased elder brother, Niu Wenbing, he would definitely have taken the child with him too.

"By the way, how's She Qingqing doing?"

"Without any clues, she took Ertong by the hand and sniffed the entire area around the villa, but still couldn't find Snake Uncle's scent."

"Hmm, then the scent we smelled this morning must have come from one of the tree-men."

Li Fei gave his conclusion.

At this point, the trail of Snake Seven was completely cut off.

In fact, he didn't have high hopes to begin with.

He estimated that this place was more than 10 kilometers away from where Snake Seven disappeared, and he didn't think that Snake Seven could have crossed such a distance under such treacherous conditions.

However, although I don't have high hopes...

"Then tell her that before dark she can wander around a larger area nearby, just to try her luck."

Considering She Qingqing's feelings, Li Fei still said this to Niu San.

It's 2 PM now. According to the information Zhang Cheng provided, this villa is about 70 or 80 kilometers away from Changjiang city.

If you take the highway, it will take at least two days.

So, all things considered, it wouldn't make much difference if he left in a little while. After thinking it over, he decided to stay in the villa for the night and set off again the next morning.

"Yeah, I'll go shopping with her so we can look out for each other."

Niu San nodded and went out the door.

after that.

It didn't take long for the little mute to clean himself up.

When he came out of the toilet and took off the tattered cloth, Li Fei realized that he was even thinner than he had imagined.

"Skin and bones".

He immediately thought of this idiom.

In reality, this was the first time he had ever seen someone so thin.

There was only a thin layer of skin on his chest, clinging to the two rows of ribs, each one clearly visible.

At the same time, he also took this opportunity to confirm that nothing unusual had grown on his body. After all, the basement was not very bright, and staying there for a long time could cause problems.

"Here, wear this."

He brought out clothes he had taken from the closet beforehand and had the little mute boy change into them.

A printed long-sleeved shirt, a hooded jacket, cargo pants, and sneakers.

Judging from the size, these two items should be Qianmei's clothes without any doubt. Even though they are women's sizes, they are still too big on the little mute girl.

However, there's no other way; given the limited resources, this is the only option for now.

Fortunately, the shoes fit fairly well; otherwise, it would have been troublesome to continue the journey.

"Come on, let me give you a haircut, but my skills are limited, so please don't be picky."

As Li Fei spoke, he led him to the living room.

Fortunately.

Although Zhang Cheng and his gang ate human flesh, apart from the basement and kitchen, there were no other horrific traces to be seen. At least the living room looked normal.

"Please sit down."

Li Fei settled him on the sofa.

He took out a medical kit he had prepared in advance and selected a pair of stainless steel scissors from it.

"Ugh..."

As the scissors slid past his eyes, the little mute boy became visibly nervous, and his smile stiffened.

"You've never had a haircut before?"

The little mute boy shook his head.

Li Fei didn't know if this meant she had never cut her hair before, or that she had never had it cut formally like this before.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt you. Just don't move."

As Li Fei spoke, he stood behind her and lifted her curtain-like hair.

It wasn't washed very clean, so the odor wasn't too strong, but some of the hair was still stuck together.

This is natural.

Without shampoo, relying only on a few bars of soap in the villa, it's already quite good that it turned out like this.

But that doesn't matter, since everything will be shaved anyway.

Click, click.

Thick, long hair was quickly cut off by the scissors.

Li Fei didn't know how to cut hair; he simply imitated the way hairdressers looked in his memory, cutting off clumps of hair.

of course.

This imitation also includes "casual conversation".

However, it wasn't to get close to the customer and get them to sign up for a membership card; it was just to distract the young customer so that he wouldn't be too nervous.

How old are you?

The little mute boy shook his head.

Judging from the blank expression on his face, he probably didn't know how old he was.

"Where did it come from?"

The little mute boy gestured a couple of times, but Li Fei still couldn't understand him at all.

"How long have you been held captive by them?"

The little mute boy shook his head.

It's normal for someone who's been locked up in the basement all day to have a blurred sense of time and not be able to remember the time.

However, Li Fei guessed that he probably hadn't been detained for too long, maybe two or three years, or even less.

The reason for this is that although it cannot speak, it can understand what he means, which shows that it has received basic language education.

otherwise.

If they were found in their early years, they probably wouldn't understand what we're saying.

"Oh, right..."

Li Fei threw away a large clump of hair that had been cut off, and then asked something after thinking about it.

"Since you were born around the time of the cataclysm, are you from Changjiang City like these people? After all, that should be the most densely populated area around here..."

"Uh-huh!"

He hadn't finished speaking.

Upon hearing the words "Changjiang City," the little mute boy disregarded his command to "keep the pose," turned his head with shining eyes, and nodded repeatedly.

"So you really are from Changjiang City. Are your parents still alive?"

Li Fei was also pleasantly surprised; he hadn't expected to guess correctly.

After seeing the little mute boy nod excitedly again, he quickly made up his mind.

"Perfect timing! We'll take you back this time and send you home, provided conditions allow."

The scissors in Li Fei's hand danced.

While we were talking, the haircut was finally finished.

Her long hair was all cut off and replaced with a neat chestnut-shaped haircut. Then, a pretty, girlish face was revealed. After being washed clean, she looked much better than in the basement.

"She's quite pretty."

Li Fei put down the scissors.

Using the sunlight streaming through the window, he examined his work and was quite satisfied with it.

"From now on, you'll be in charge of your hair. Alright, there's nothing to do until tonight. You can take a walk around the villa, just come back before dark, and we'll have dinner together then."

Li Fei said this.

He had actually given the little mute boy food before he took a bath.

However, considering that he had been hungry for a long time and could not eat too much immediately, he only gave him half a bag of fruit syrup.

"Ugh!"

Upon hearing this, the little mute shook his head repeatedly.

"What? The basement's been locked up for so long, don't you want to go for a look around?"

Li Fei frowned slightly.

"Ugh."

Seeing Li Fei's questioning gaze, the little mute began a new round of gestures.

He first pointed to himself, then grabbed something in the air with his hand and fed it to himself, then pointed to himself again.

"Uh, you're hungry and want to eat something now?"

The little mute boy shook his head again.

After a moment of silence, he raised both hands, his left palm facing up and his right palm facing down, and kept turning and rubbing them on his left palm.

"Oh? I think I understand now, you mean..."

Li Fei's brows relaxed.

After understanding its meaning, a look of surprise gradually appeared on his face.

"Can you cook?"