"Gurgle, gurgle..."
A large pot on the stove steamed away. Chunks of meat bobbed endlessly in the rolling broth, which was milky white like mutton fat.
An unusual aroma filled the air. Beside the pot sat a bowl containing prepared seasonings and chopped scallions, waiting for the broth to be poured in. Just thinking about the taste was unbearable.
Yet Chen Jing, Qi Liang, and Zhao Ke had no appetite at all. Qi Liang and Chen Jing sat on the floor with hemp ropes binding their bodies, cloth tied over their mouths so they could not make a sound.
A gash on Qi Liang's thigh was deep enough to expose the bone. As he sat there, bead after bead of cold sweat streamed down his forehead, and his face was frighteningly pale.
As for Zhao Ke, he lay facedown on the floor with his hands tied firmly behind his back with hemp rope. His back was drenched in blood, a mangled mess of flesh, and the blood had soaked through his shirt.
"Mmph, mmph..."
Chen Jing nudged Zhao Ke with her foot. Her large eyes blinked repeatedly at him, seemingly asking how much longer they had to wait.
Then she looked at the wound on Qi Liang's leg. Although Zhao Ke had assured her it was not fatal, the sight of all that blood still made her worry for Qi Liang.
Zhao Ke understood what Chen Jing meant. He shook his head and closed his eyes. He knew best how he had struck. He did not even need to look; just from the sensation of the blade piercing flesh, he knew what kind of wound it was. He had avoided the vital points and the bone. A wound like that would heal after a little treatment. There was no need to worry.
"Bang!"
Zhao Ke suddenly opened his eyes and said in a low voice, "He's here!"
The footsteps outside drew closer and closer. Every step was especially heavy, as though stones had been stuffed beneath the man's feet.
"Buzz..."
The door was pushed open. Because of his angle, Zhao Ke could only see one foot step inside first. It was bare, its sole smeared with a layer of crimson mud. Even from there, Zhao Ke could smell the thick stench of blood.
At the same time, he quickly swept his gaze over the foot. Its joints were thick and sturdy, and it looked at least a size 47—far larger than an ordinary adult's foot.
"Mmph! Mmph! Mmph..."
At that moment, no one knew what Qi Liang and Chen Jing had seen, but both their expressions changed. Qi Liang's eyes widened, terror filling them.
The huge feet strode toward Zhao Ke. Then, with a clang, something was heavily tossed onto the table.
Zhao Ke remained motionless on the floor. Before long, he felt something cool dripping from above onto his head, then sliding down onto his neck. It was sticky and nauseating, carrying a strong smell of blood.
Zhao Ke tilted his neck and glanced sideways. Two severed hands had been thrown onto the table, blood dripping steadily from their stumps.
It's her!
Zhao Ke's heart jolted. He could tell from the hand that it belonged to a woman. It was none other than the female office worker whose body he had thrown into the bushes. Zhao Ke remembered that her nails had been painted pink and decorated with rhinestones. There was no way he could be mistaken.
Looking again, he saw another severed hand nearby. But its bones were thick and coarse, unlike the office worker's hand. It looked more like a man's.
The burly man narrowed his eyes and examined Zhao Ke and the other two on the floor. Confusion and irritation showed on his rough face. After his triangular eyes carefully inspected the three of them, he tossed the axe from his waist onto the table with suspicion still in his gaze. Then he looked at the Great Iron Pot beside him.
His gaze swept over the pot on the stove. The boiling broth inside gave off a rich fragrance that had drawn him in even before he entered the room.
The burly man walked over to the pot. After looking at the seasonings in the bowl beside it, he frowned.
He picked up a ladle and scooped out several chunks of meat, then poured a spoonful of broth over them. The distinct red-and-white meat floated in the scallion-sprinkled soup, making the burly man swallow hard. He hugged the bowl and began wolfing it down impatiently.
"Slurp, slurp..."
In the spacious room, only the sound of the burly man eating could be heard. The three on the floor could not see the table, but from the sounds alone, they knew this man seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the meat soup Zhao Ke had hurriedly prepared.
After finishing one bowl of soup and meat, he still seemed unsatisfied. The burly man stood up, intending to serve himself another bowl.
Seeing this, Qi Liang could not help secretly nudging Zhao Ke's foot and repeatedly winking at him, asking why it had not taken effect yet.
Zhao Ke shook his head, signaling Qi Liang not to rush.
He did not know what medicine the old woman had put into the kettle, but when he had smelled it, even he had felt slightly dizzy. Zhao Ke judged that it had to be potent.
Li Hongbing must have drunk the water the old woman had drugged earlier and passed out. That was why she had been able to slaughter him without any resistance.
Zhao Ke had poured the entire kettle into the pot. The effect could not possibly be weak.
"Clang!"
Just as Zhao Ke wondered why the burly man had not collapsed yet, the bowl in the man's hand suddenly slipped and smashed heavily onto the floor. He staggered forward two steps, then fell face-first onto the ground with a thud.
"It worked!"
Zhao Ke and the others were delighted. Chen Jing and Qi Liang both tensed their bodies and quickly broke free from their hemp ropes. The ropes had only been loosely tied, and a slight struggle was enough to escape them.
Zhao Ke climbed up from the floor as well, casually picked up a fruit knife, and walked over to the middle-aged burly man. The man lay on the floor, sleeping soundly and snoring away. The old woman's medicine really was incredibly powerful. Li Hongbing had not died unjustly.
"That easy?"
Qi Liang could hardly believe it. Based on their earlier deductions, this Xiong Er was likely the bear that had chased them before. He had not expected such a simple trick to succeed.
Thinking of that, Qi Liang could not help saying indignantly, "Fuck, if it was this easy, why did you have to stab me?" The more he thought about it, the more it felt like a waste.
Zhao Ke did not bother explaining Qi Liang's accusation in detail, but Chen Jing understood clearly. From every step the other party had taken upon entering the room, he had already stepped into Zhao Ke's carefully arranged trap.
Wounded prey tied up before him, the scent wafting from the large pot, the boiling meat broth, even the carefully measured seasonings in the bowl—everything seemed to be waiting for its master's return, full of suggestion.
When a hungry master returned and saw that scene, he would relax psychologically. Most people would choose to eat their fill before dealing with the prey in front of them. Of course, Zhao Ke had another reason for daring to do this.
Freshness! This place relied on a single oil lamp even for lighting. There were no electric lights, let alone refrigerators, so food preservation was a serious issue. Before the food in the pot was finished, Zhao Ke had concluded that they would subconsciously choose to keep their prey alive. They could not run away anyway, so it was better to keep them until it was time to eat.
Of course, there was still a risk. If they encountered a lunatic who did not intend to eat first but wanted to kill them first, Zhao Ke could only consider himself unlucky. Following the principle of sacrificing others to save himself, he would immediately get up and flee for his life.
That was why he had stabbed Qi Liang in the thigh instead of simply killing him with one thrust.
Looking at the burly man on the floor, Qi Liang and Chen Jing both felt a surge of relief. The man was built like a bull and stood half a head taller than Qi Liang.
His arms were nearly as thick as Chen Jing's thighs. If they had truly fought, then even if he could not turn into a bear, the three of them would not have been enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.
Zhao Ke raised the fruit knife and walked coldly up to the burly man. He aimed the blade at the man's throat and swiftly slashed!
"Pfft..."
Blood spurted from the man's throat. His body jerked as though he had regained a trace of consciousness. His eyes opened to look at Zhao Ke and the other two, his expression complicated, as if he wanted to say something. But the light in his eyes quickly faded.
"YSI! The mission is complete! We can go back now, right?"
For some reason, seeing blood spray from the burly man's throat did not make Chen Jing feel cruel as it had before. Instead, she felt a wave of relief, even liberation.
It was not just her. Qi Liang also felt himself relax. Only one day and one night had passed, but it felt as if he had experienced an inescapable nightmare. Now he only wanted to wake up as quickly as possible.
"No!"
Before the tension in their hearts could fully settle, a cold shout shattered their thoughts.
Qi Liang looked up. The instant he saw Zhao Ke's grim expression, his heart lurched. Zhao Ke stared at the burly man's corpse, his face so sinister it was frightening.
"What is it??"
"He... isn't Xiong Er!"
Zhao Ke pointed at the corpse and continued, "If he were Xiong Er, then the body should have turned into a bear like the old woman's. Besides, we haven't received any notification that the mission was completed."
Chen Jing and Qi Liang froze, staring blankly at the corpse on the floor. A shudder ran through their bodies as a chill crawled up their spines, freezing them from head to toe.
"Damn it, how could he not be Xiong Er? Then wasn't all that effort for nothing?"
Qi Liang could not accept it. After going through so much trouble, they had killed someone who was not Xiong Er. Then where was the real Xiong Er?
Zhao Ke crouched and began searching the burly man's body. From inside the man's clothes, he pulled out a crumpled map. Examining it carefully by the oil lamp, he saw that it was hand-drawn and clear, seemingly depicting this area. One corner had been circled in red.
He continued searching and found a dagger, some rations, and a bottle.
When he opened the bottle, a peculiar smell seeped out. Looking closely, he found it contained a strangely colored powder.
Zhao Ke held it beneath his nose and sniffed lightly a few times. It smelled like some sort of pollen—not pungent, but unpleasant nonetheless. Other than that, he noticed nothing unusual.
"Did you find anything?"
Chen Jing stepped forward, wanting to see what Zhao Ke had found. Zhao Ke was straightforward and placed everything on the table. "That's all."
As he spoke, Zhao Ke handed his fruit knife to Chen Jing and took the heavy black dagger for himself.
His fingers pinched the dagger's blade. The dark, glossy edge reflected an unusual cold gleam beneath the oil lamp. A dark groove ran along the spine, and within it glowed an eerie red light.
"Two feet long, three fingers wide, eight taels and three qian heavy. A fine blade!"
As the saying went, an expert only needed one move to reveal his skill. Having handled blades for years, Zhao Ke was more familiar with them than anyone. The entirely black dagger before him looked unremarkable, but it was undoubtedly a deadly weapon.
However, what dissatisfied Zhao Ke was that the dagger's previous owner apparently did not like cleaning it. The blood in its groove had completely congealed, leaving the dagger with a pungent stench of blood that anyone with a decent nose could smell.
"What a waste of such a fine thing." Zhao Ke glanced sideways at the corpse on the floor, curled his lip, and silently lamented the dagger's fate.
"What do we do now?"
Qi Liang looked at the burly man's body and could not help feeling frustrated. He muttered, "Since this guy isn't Xiong Er, why didn't he untie us first? And what was with those two severed hands on the table? Really..."
Qi Liang trailed off halfway through his sentence. He instinctively looked toward the window behind him, and his voice abruptly stopped. Outside the window, a pair of scarlet eyes stared at him coldly!
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