The Disappearing Corpse

One hour before Zhang Chen woke up on the second day of the trip.

Er Wa was eating a bowl of clear noodle soup with only a few vegetable leaves in it, his face full of helplessness.

"Damn, this won't do. How can anyone live without meat? I've decided—after breakfast, I'm going into the woods to look for some livestock. Maybe we'll find something unexpected."

Er Wa reluctantly swallowed the noodles in his bowl, set down his chopsticks, and headed straight for the second floor. Before long, he appeared in the first-floor hall with a military knife at his waist, camouflage clothes on his body, and hiking boots on his feet.

"Anyone want to go hunting?" Er Wa suddenly shouted at everyone in the hall.

The girls from No. 1 High School burst out laughing at the sight of him dressed like that. He had thought no one would respond, especially since even Tan Fei had kept far away.

"Second Brother, let's go. I'll come with you. The two of us can help improve everyone's meals." The speaker was surprisingly Hong Yi, the lean man from No. 1 High School.

The two of them had only gotten acquainted over drinks last night, along with the tall Gong Yuanwu.

"Brother Yi, I knew you were loyal. Come on, the two of us should be enough." Er Wa was overjoyed that someone had answered him.

"Wait a second. I'll ask Brother Wu if he wants to come. Brother Wu got into a top high school through sports." With that, the lean man walked toward Gong Yuanwu, who was sitting farthest inside on the sofa.

"Brother Wu, let's go hunting. Eating nothing but vegetables every day is killing me. Even catching a few rabbits would be great."

"No. I don't want to go." Gong Yuanwu's answer was low and subdued.

"Brother Wu, what's wrong with you today? You used to be the first one to jump in whenever something like this happened." Hong Yi asked in confusion.

But this time, Gong Yuanwu did not respond at all. Seeing this, Hong Yi could only wave at Er Wa with a helpless expression.

"It's fine. The two of us will go. We'll show them what we can do when we get back." Er Wa rubbed his hands together eagerly and pulled Hong Yi out of the villa.

After entering the woods, Hong Yi looked at the Swiss Army knife at Er Wa's waist and suddenly said,

"Second Brother, you're the only one with a weapon, and it's a short one. Hunting like this will be inefficient. How about I modify something? My family has been carpenters for three generations."

"Oh? You're that good? Then go ahead." Er Wa trusted this new friend greatly and directly handed him the Swiss Army knife.

After taking it, Hong Yi immediately climbed a thick tree beside them. With a crack, a long, thin branch fell from above Er Wa's head.

Before long, another branch about the same length fell down. Hong Yi slowly climbed down from the tree, picked up one of the branches, and began whittling it with the Swiss Army knife.

"Second Brother, where did you buy this knife? The quality is really good." Hong Yi worked the branch with practiced ease, first removing the smaller offshoots, then shaving the main branch into a cylinder and sharpening its tip to a fine point.

"Catch." Hong Yi grabbed the finished wooden spear and threw it directly to Er Wa.

"Holy shit, your craftsmanship is incredible!" Er Wa gripped the wooden spear. Its entire body was flawless, and there were even several grooves carved into the grip to increase friction so it would not slip from his hand.

"Why is this wood kind of red?" Er Wa looked at the inside of the wooden spear, where there seemed to be a reddish tint.

Before long, the second wooden spear was finished, and Hong Yi returned the knife to Er Wa.

"When I climbed up to cut the branches, the sap that came out was green with a bit of red too. I don't know. Maybe some kind of mutated chlorophyll?" Hong Yi did not seem too concerned.

"Your knife is good. Otherwise, I couldn't have made them this well."

"I just bought it online. It was heavily discounted, and I didn't expect it to be genuine." Er Wa had bought it cheaply during an online sale. He had not expected it to be such a good knife, and he soon forgot about the red branches.

"Let's go. With this, our chances of success will be much higher," Hong Yi said.

Er Wa nodded, and the two headed deeper into the woods. Er Wa still carved marks into a tree every few steps, but they did not know that there was nothing in this forest.

After walking for nearly half an hour without encountering anything, they gradually became irritated.

"Brother Yi, isn't there something wrong with this forest? How can there not be a single animal? We haven't even heard one bird along the way."

"Now that you mention it, you're right. There really isn't even one bird. Didn't Brother Xin get scratched by a bear last time?"

Rustle, rustle... Just as the two were hesitating over whether to continue, the sound of leaves stirring came from their right.

"Haha, there's prey." The two were still somewhat nervous. If it was a bear, they would be in trouble.

They slowly approached the source of the sound and gradually made out what had caused it...

After Zhang Chen finished his noodles, he walked out of the hall and first looked around for Wang Yizhi. After all, the house was unsafe. Since they had killed the mirror ghost yesterday, the only relatively safe place on the first floor had been the dance room, but in everyone's eyes, that room now seemed like the most dangerous place.

When Zhang Chen had gone to the kitchen to look for Wang Yizhi earlier, he had also been extremely nervous. Fortunately, after entering the kitchen, he had not discovered anything.

"Have you seen where the two girls from our class went?" Zhang Chen asked Jia Xin, who was sitting on the sofa.

"Probably fishing. Keep an eye on them. Don't let them go swimming."

Zhang Chen tilted his head and looked toward the backyard. Sure enough, the two girls were fishing there, and Tan Fei was with them as well.

With a thought, the two Blood Beetles that had been staying in Wang Yizhi's bedroom flew out through the second-floor window, circled around the house, and hid in the grass beside Wang Yizhi and the others.

"That guy from your class, Gong Yuanwu, right? I remember he wasn't this withdrawn."

"Yeah. We should still be careful. If anything seems off, I'll act immediately." Jia Xin seemed to have noticed long ago that something was wrong with Gong Yuanwu, who was sitting in the corner.

"What do you think about Er Wa from our class going hunting with Hong Yi from yours?"

"It's not a problem. We'll just wait for them to return."

"What about the others in your class? It would be bad if they went into those rooms and ended up like Shen Qiutian."

"Don't worry. The three girls are in the dance room. Qiutian is teaching the other two how to dance."

Zhang Chen immediately sensed that Jia Xin's status in his class far exceeded what he had imagined. It was as though the entire class listened to him alone.

"They're back." At that moment, Jia Xin pointed outside.

Zhang Chen rushed out at once. If something had happened to Er Wa, he would be in serious trouble. After all, he was the one who had brought Er Wa here.

Zhang Chen ran out through the front door and saw Er Wa holding a wooden spear covered in blood, with quite a bit of blood splattered over his body as well. Behind Er Wa, Hong Yi from No. 1 High School walked out with blood all over his hands.

Both of them had vacant eyes, as though something terrible had happened.

Zhang Chen first swept their bodies with Telekinesis. He found a bloody bite mark on Er Wa's left arm and another on Hong Yi's right foot, but nothing else serious. At the same time, he sensed no unusual aura, so he strode over and asked Er Wa,

"Er Wa, didn't you go hunting? What happened?" Zhang Chen had long known there was nothing in the woods, but why were these two covered in blood and bitten?

Er Wa continued staring blankly ahead as he walked step by step, as though he could neither see Zhang Chen nor hear him speak.

Jia Xin walked over and pressed two fingers directly against Hong Yi's left shoulder blade. The vacant Hong Yi immediately snapped awake, stared at Jia Xin, and revealed a terrified expression. Jia Xin then pressed a finger against Er Wa's shoulder blade as well, but Er Wa only stopped walking and showed no other reaction.

"Brother Xin, what do we do? We killed someone. We killed someone." Hong Yi grabbed Jia Xin's arm as he spoke.

"Come inside first. Sit down and explain everything clearly." Jia Xin helped the two of them into the villa.

To keep the others from finding out, Zhang Chen and the other three went to the dining room and shut the door.

"Tell us what happened. Don't be afraid."

"We went hunting today..." Er Wa, who had been silent until now, began speaking. He first recounted what had happened that morning and how they had found nothing after entering the forest.

"Then, when we saw there was nothing and were about to head back, we heard leaves rustling nearby. We thought it was prey, but we were also afraid it might be a bear, so we approached slowly."

"After reaching the source of the sound, we found an old woman with white hair kneeling in front of a tree, seemingly searching for something beneath its roots. Hong Yi and I thought she was lost, so we wanted to go ask her."

At this point, Er Wa's eyes filled with regret and fear.

"Then I slowly walked over and placed my hand on the old woman's shoulder, wanting to ask her what was wrong. I didn't expect her to turn around all at once. Her mouth was full of blood and raw flesh, and on the ground she had been digging through was a child with only half a body left."

"Before I could react, that old woman pounced on me and bit down on my left arm. If I hadn't blocked her with this wooden spear, she probably would have bitten off a chunk of flesh."

"I kicked the old woman in the stomach and sent her flying. But she kept coming at the two of us, and she couldn't hear anything we said."

"We had no choice. While resisting her, we accidentally stabbed the wooden spears into her body. She fell to the ground and bled heavily. We thought she was dead, so the two of us panicked and turned to leave. But Hong Yi, who was walking behind me, was suddenly grabbed by the old woman lying on the ground. She bit his right foot."

"Because of the pain, Hong Yi stabbed the wooden spear into the old woman's body again, but she still refused to let go. So the two of us kept stabbing the wooden spears into her body until she could no longer move."

By the time Er Wa finished speaking, he seemed to have suffered a tremendous shock. He stopped talking and lowered his head.

After listening, Zhang Chen frowned and slowly said,

"Er Wa, it's fine. You were acting in self-defense. Nothing will happen later." In truth, Zhang Chen knew their actions had clearly gone beyond self-defense.

"How about this? Take us to where the old woman's body is. We'll deal with it a little. This forest is huge, and we're on the border of the province. As long as we bury her, it shouldn't be a big problem."

That was the only solution Zhang Chen could think of.

"Is Jia Xin coming too?"

"Of course."

The four of them then left the room. Before going out, however, Gong Yuanwu, who was sitting against the wall in the corner, gave everyone a faint smile, making Zhang Chen's scalp prickle.

He did not think much of it, since two Blood Beetles were still beside Wang Yizhi.

Following the marks Er Wa had carved into the trees, the group of four walked through the woods for nearly twenty minutes before finally reaching the site of the incident.

"It's under the third tree ahead." Er Wa pointed forward.

Zhang Chen and Jia Xin walked over step by step, but before them, aside from a patch of disturbed leaves, the corpse Er Wa had described was nowhere to be found.

Er Wa and Hong Yi also walked over. When they saw the scene before them, they immediately dropped to their knees.

"I remember it clearly. It was definitely here. It's impossible... impossible." Er Wa frantically overturned the fallen leaves with his hands.

Suddenly, Zhang Chen recalled Gong Yuanwu's smile when they had left the villa. His expression changed sharply, and he shouted,

"Jia Xin, stay here. I'm going back to the villa first."

"Don't let this be a trick to lure us away!" Zhang Chen rapidly headed toward the villa...

P.S. Everyone, feel free to leave more comments in the discussion section. You can point out any flaws in this story, and A Fei will work hard to improve them.