The alley was pitch-black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The silence was almost frightening.
"Creak—creak—"
The weight of two people was almost too much for the bicycle. Its rusty chain strained against the gears as they rattled onward.
To take a shortcut, Lin Mo kept veering farther off course, but he clearly knew the area extremely well. Even with visibility so poor, he didn't slow down at all.
The gloomy surroundings made Ning An nervous. Her hand on the hem of Lin Mo's clothes tightened involuntarily.
Boom!
A loud crash shattered the silence around them.
Lin Mo's expression changed. He clamped down on the brakes, and the bicycle skidded sideways, its tremendous momentum nearly throwing Ning An off.
"What was that?"
Lin Mo didn't answer. He got off the bike and headed straight toward the sound.
Ning An followed behind him, approaching slowly. A huge, twisted dumpster blocked the middle of the alley, cutting off their path.
The light around them was very dim. Lin Mo examined it closely for a while before he noticed a person, their features impossible to make out, embedded in the center of the dumpster. They were covered in blood and lay motionless.
Tap, tap...
Soft footsteps came from the mouth of the alley. Three figures approached, silhouetted against the dim yellow light behind them.
"Huh? There are ordinary people here, too."
The three came closer, and only then could Lin Mo and Ning An make out their faces.
They were three men. The one in front looked younger, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight. The other two were both over forty. One was burly, while the other was rather slight. Their clothes were strange, too: in the height of summer, they wore long black shirts and trousers that looked