Disappearance

Xu Xiaoyou watched the girl walk away, thinking that the girl's expression just now seemed as if she had something she wanted to say to them.

After shaking her head, she and Tang Xin caught up with the others. Before long, they arrived at the village chief's home. It was a stilt house built along a slope, with no walls underneath, making the entire structure appear suspended. Wooden piles were driven deep into the slope, and despite the varying levels of the incline, the wooden stakes still managed to support the entire house quite well. Aside from maintaining ventilation and dryness, this type of construction on the snow-fields was mostly intended to reduce intrusion from wild beasts and crawling insects.

The slope was hidden among the trees, with dense shadows cast everywhere. Looking down, the vegetation at the bottom of the slope was relatively lush, with verdant and slightly yellowed weeds bent under a layer of thin snow.

The biting wind entered the house along with everyone, whistling down their collars. The main hall was well-ventilated with windows on all four sides, but an indescribable sense of oppression hung in the air. Xu Xiaoyou noticed a shrine placed high up in a corner, about two people tall. Inside the red wooden shrine, the idol was entirely gilded, and from this angle, its half-closed eyes seemed to look down upon the entire hall.

Following the old man deeper into the stilt house, they passed through the main hall and into a short corridor. Branches grew inward from outside the gallery, casting shadows that enveloped the group.

The corridor wasn't particularly deep, spanning about a dozen meters between ends. The gallery itself had no walls. The entire stilt building was quite old; the wooden floorboards were riddled with irregular cracks, and the creaking sound of footsteps echoed through the corridor.

Soon, the group passed through the corridor, took turns washing off the blood and filth in the washroom, changed their clothes, and arrived in the living room.

This was the place for receiving guests and where the old man's family took their daily meals.

The food on the table was somewhat simple, but for refugees, it was already quite a feast. There was steamed tofu skin, pickled vegetables, blanched greens, and tea rice. The only meat dish was steamed braised pork belly, sliced as thin as cicada wings and spread across the bowl, the marbled patterns of the white meat clearly visible.

All matters large and small within the settlement were handled by the old man. He was the village chief here, respected by many, so his standard of living was naturally higher than that of most refugees.

A woman had been waiting by the table for a long time, kneeling on a bamboo mat. The partition reflected the woman's calm, somewhat numb face. She held a nursing infant in her arms, presumably the old man's late-born son.

Compared to the old man, the woman wasn't that old, perhaps in her early forties, but compared to other refugees in the settlement, her age already marked her as an elder.

Only after the old man arrived did the woman pick up her chopsticks and clasp her hands in front of her. Noticing the guests following behind the elder, the woman adjusted her clothes, stood up, and walked away with a composed, neither humble nor arrogant demeanor.

"Sit," the old man said.

Everyone sat around the dining table. The woman returned from a side room, placing bowls of fine white rice in front of them, pouring steaming tea, and setting out several small plates of pickles and steamed tofu skin.

"I'm starving. I haven't eaten for over a day," Lin Xing clearly didn't care much for table manners.

After tapping his chopsticks on the table a few times, he began eating on his own. For someone living the life of a shadow, such a meal was a delicacy compared to the rotting rodent carcasses or insects found in the wild.

After a few low-voiced, fruitless reminders to Lin Xing, Lin Sheng didn't know what else to say to his brother. He simply looked at the elder with a slightly apologetic expression. The elder didn't mind, shaking his head with a light chuckle.

"You are honored guests. There is no need to worry about such things."

Tang Xin was also quite hungry now. She gently picked up the bowl of tea rice and ate small bites accompanied by the pickles, behaving very quietly. If one didn't pay attention, it was easy to overlook the girl's presence.

Xu Xiaoyou observed the elder at the table. His eyes, like a flickering candle, were cloudy with grey lines, giving her a heavy sense of impending death.

She didn't speak either, quietly scanning the surroundings. The old-fashioned lightbulb overhead flickered slightly. The living room had almost no furniture; only the round table in the center and the worn bamboo mats on the floor made it feel empty, as a desolate and bleak atmosphere permeated the space.

Suddenly, she noticed the woman standing in the corner, silent. The woman opened her eyes, and her dead, hollow pupils reflected Xu Xiaoyou's figure. A heavy aura of death was emanating from the woman's body at that moment.

Xu Xiaoyou shook her head. After a blink, she saw the woman had changed her expression again. She wore a smile and spoke in a gentle voice: "If there isn't enough rice, tell me, and I'll get more."

Xu Xiaoyou shifted her gaze without a word. She clasped her hands together before eating the tea rice with two pieces of steamed tofu skin.

"This braised pork is steamed pretty well. It tastes better than what I've had in the city—very fresh," Lin Xing said, using his chopsticks to pick up a slice of white meat and rolling it slightly. "It's just a pity there's no sauce to dip it in."

Lin Xing broke the silence at the table. The elder chuckled and looked at Chen San.

"You all always arrive so suddenly. I have nothing much to host you with."

Chen San waved his hand. For these snow-field refugees, the flow of information was blocked. In the past, they communicated through comrades at the outposts. The outposts provided the settlement with living supplies, and in exchange, the refugees shared information about the snow-fields and provided what help they could to specialists on commissions when necessary.

These outposts and settlements were the eyes and ears placed by the Dawn Agency near the badlands outskirts and wilderness areas,

having great strategic significance.

Thinking of the outposts reminded him of the scene from the afternoon. Generally speaking, outposts were permanently manned, with two people assigned per station on rotating shifts. It was rare for both to be absent at the same time.

Chen San thought for a moment and didn't mention the matter directly. Instead, he asked, "How has the village been lately?"

The old man seemed to think for a while before slowly speaking:

"Regarding those juniors, I hope you won't take it to heart. For the past half month, I don't know why, but families in the village have been disappearing from time to time. Strange things keep happening, making everyone very nervous. Plus, those young lads just arrived here not long ago and don't understand your business, which is why they offended you."

"Disappearing?" Chen San caught the keyword.

Xu Xiaoyou also looked up. Both she and Chen San saw a hint of suspicion in each other's eyes.

According to the intel, the last place Yorick was seen was only a few kilometers from here a few days ago. The timing matched perfectly. It was hard not to suspect this was related to the puppeteer.

Chen San suppressed his thoughts and asked, "Are the ones disappearing children?"

Wolf packs and other predators on the snow-fields had the habit of attacking the young of other species, including humans.

The old man thought again and shook his head.

"They were all strong young men, the labor force of the village."

"It's pitiful. Some children haven't even been weaned, yet their parents have vanished. No household has enough spare grain to feed another mouth..."