Something's wrong with how I'm watching anime.

Kazama quickly discovered the clue.

A broken, dry branch, and a faint shoe print.

The footprints are very fresh, indicating that they were made not long ago, which means that humans were active here not long ago.

The footprints are narrow and short, with even foot placement and uniform pressure marks, suggesting they were likely left by a woman.

Based on the size of the shoe print, the owner of the footprint should be around 1.7 meters tall.

'Interesting...' Kazama thought to himself.

The disappearance of the parasites could be attributed to human intervention, but Kazama felt that this possibility was relatively small.

After all, people usually wouldn't come to this kind of suburban woodland.

unless....

Kazama looked thoughtfully at the location of the factory he had come from.

.............

A young couple walks through the woods.

The woman walked in front, holding her phone, while the man followed about five or six steps behind her.

"Hey sis, could you slow down a bit...?"

"Slow? My speed isn't even that fast."

"Su Xiaolu, you should exercise more often. You're as skinny as a monkey."

The two were the siblings Su Yun and Su Xiaolu that Kazama had met at the casino before.

Su Yun, one of them, was someone Kazama had run into a few nights ago, so they had met twice.

As for why the two of them ended up here, we have to go back to half an hour ago.

Unbeknownst to her, Su Yun was brought to the casino by her younger brother Su Xiaolu and his group of cronies.

Once inside the casino, Su Yun was naturally very reluctant and asked Su Xiaolu to go back with her.

For Su Xiaolu, although her older sister was usually easy to talk to, she was very firm on certain issues.

In addition, Su Xiaolu had some reservations about bringing her older sister along. So in the end, she agreed to Su Yun's request, pretended to have an urgent matter to attend to, said goodbye to her friend, and left the casino.

According to normal procedure, the casino has someone specifically assigned to take them back to the location where they were previously parked and dropped off.

But after getting into the car, Su Xiaolu suddenly felt abdominal discomfort and asked the driver to stop before the car even left the factory area.

The driver seemed to have seen Su Xiaolu a few times before and didn't suspect anything. Plus, Su Xiaolu thoughtfully offered him a cigarette, so he stopped by the roadside and said he would wait for him there.

Su Yun was supposed to wait for Su Xiaolu in the car, but since it was her first time in such a place and the driver was a stranger, she chose to get out of the car and go with Su Xiaolu.

Su Xiaolu finally found a public restroom and used it.

After coming out, he kept complaining to Su Yun, who was waiting outside, that there was something wrong with the breakfast.

But Su Yun, who ate the same breakfast as him, didn't get any, so Su Xiaolu changed her tune and said she was just unlucky.

Muttering unlucky words, as they returned the way they came, Su Xiaolu and Su Yun saw that the car that had picked them up had been stopped by someone.

One of the men pulled out something that looked like identification from his pocket, and the driver's face instantly turned deathly pale.

At this point, the two naturally sensed something was wrong, and their first thought was that the police were raiding the casino. Their immediate reaction was to run.

The two ran along the factory grounds, focusing on the side paths. During this time, Su Xiaolu didn't forget to call her brothers who were still there, urging them to leave as well.

But before the call could be made, a police siren wailed in his ear.

The police have surrounded the factory area.

Silently praying for her friends, Su Xiaolu led Su Yun and ran even faster.

Following the general direction and navigating the complex paths, the two actually left the factory area and instead ventured into a grove of trees.

Although it was in the suburbs, the GPS signal on their phones was still very strong. When they opened the map, they found that as long as they went through the woods, the national highway would be right below.

At this point, Su Xiaolu stopped saying she was unlucky and started to marvel at her good fortune.

Back in the present, when faced with her older sister's doubts about her poor health, Su Xiaolu immediately objected.

"I was still holding something in my arms!"

Su Xiaolu was holding a brown dachshund in her arms.

The dachshund had droopy ears and a droopy head, and seemed to be in a bad state, but its black eyes kept moving around, as if it was observing something.

His right hind foot was wrapped in a simple white cloth strip, which was half-stained with blood.

"Let's just leave this thing here..."

When asked about the origin of the dog in her arms, Su Xiaolu was speechless.

The two had just escaped into the woods when they suddenly heard the mournful cry of some kind of creature.

At first, he was worried that it might be some kind of wild beast in the forest and was prepared to take a detour.

But Su Yun rejected him.

"The factory area is right next door; what wild animals could possibly come from this little grove?"

The sound came from very close to the two of them. Su Yun pushed aside a bush and found the creature that made the sound.

It was the dog in Su Xiaolu's arms.

A dog doesn't just appear here for no reason.

But both of them knew that there was a dog farm behind the casino.

After learning the truth about the so-called 'program' from Su Xiaolu, Su Yun naturally assumed that the dog had escaped from the dog farm over there.

The dog's hind leg was also injured; the wound looked like a gunshot wound.

However, neither of them had ever seen what a real gunshot wound looked like, so they didn't dwell on it.

Having learned about emergency bandaging, Su Yun immediately had Su Xiaolu, whose keys were adorned with a Swiss Army knife, cut a piece of fabric from her short-sleeved shirt to bandage the dachshund's hind leg.

"Why leave it here..."

Su Yun, who was walking ahead of Su Xiaolu, stopped and glared at her younger brother.

"I was just planning to get a pet, and since I've come across this one, I might as well take it home and keep it."

"Okay, okay..." Su Xiaolu nodded repeatedly with a wry smile.

But while the two were talking, the dog in Su Xiaolu's arms suddenly perked up its ears.

Then he suddenly jumped down from Su Xiaolu's arms and darted into the woods nearby.

This movement didn't look like a hind leg injury at all, and even Su Xiaolu didn't react for a moment.

"Oh, this..."

Su Xiaolu looked at her empty hands, then stared blankly at Su Yun.

Su Yun was also stunned.

However, at that moment, a rustling sound came from the woods not far from them, along with the crisp sound of branches being broken underfoot.

The sudden sound interrupted their staring contest.

Su Xiaolu and Su Yun immediately looked toward the source of the sound.

A person stepped out under the wary gazes of the two.

A middle-aged, overweight man wearing a plaid shirt and carrying a black shoulder bag.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Beware of Snakes

At a special time and in a special place, a stranger appeared.

The atmosphere in the woods suddenly became somewhat strange.

Su Yun took a small step back, while Su Xiaolu took a few steps to the side, subtly shielding Su Yun behind her.

This strange atmosphere was broken only when the fat man spoke:

"You're... here for a spring outing?" the fat man asked.

God the hell would come here for a spring outing? Who would come to a place like this for a spring outing?

This statement is utterly absurd.

But sometimes it's okay to say something absurd, as long as it can be used as an excuse.

"That's right..."

Su Xiaolu realized what was happening and nodded.

"My brother and I drove here and felt a bit tired, so we thought we'd come here to get some fresh air."

Clearly, Su Xiaolu was also taking advantage of the situation. Although her explanation was not convincing at all, it did fit the logic of the fat man's words.

The awkward atmosphere was instantly relieved.

"What about you, brother?" Su Xiaolu asked in return.

"I'm here to find my dog..." the fat man said with a smile.

Although he was trying his best to express his friendliness, he looked greasy and sleazy.

"I accidentally let my dog ​​run away while I was walking it. Have any of you guys seen it around here...?"

"That was a dark brown dachshund."

Upon hearing the fat man's words, Su Yun's expression changed.

Su Xiaolu immediately followed up on the fat man's question:

"That's your dog... I did see a dog just now, and it looked like it had an injured leg."

"It ran that way," Su Xiaolu pointed in a direction.

Following the direction Su Xiaolu pointed, the fat man looked towards the lush forest and then nodded.

"I see, I understand."