The setting sun was serene. At the other end of the village, a distress signal had gone up.
Jiang Yan crossed the boundary ditch and gathered up the strange objects.
He took Ou Yanling back, then hurried to the scene.
As he passed the square, he glanced over and saw that neither Tang Long nor Fei Shan was there.
They've probably already gone over, he thought.
By the time Jiang Yan arrived, several patrol teams had surrounded the orchard.
He pushed through the crowd and saw Tang Long and Ren Yuan there, but Fei Shan was nowhere to be seen.
After a brief moment's thought, he figured Fei Shan was on night duty today and should be resting during the day. But it was already close to evening, so he had probably rested enough.
He'd surely get the news soon and hurry over.
With those thoughts in mind, he kept walking and quickly reached Ren Yuan's side.
He clasped his hands in greeting. "Chief."
After greeting him, he nodded to Tang Long as well.
At the scene, four dried skeletons lay scattered beneath a large pear tree, not a scrap of flesh left on them.
Judging from their clothes and other belongings, they appeared to have been a small patrol team.
"This was Ding Yi's team," Tang Long said. "We don't know what killed them yet. A farmer from this orchard found them. He comes by every afternoon to pick up fallen pears and take them home for his children. He never expected to find four skeletons."
Jiang Yan stepped closer to examine them. There really wasn't a trace of flesh left on the four skeletons.
"Was it an anomaly?"
He asked casually, then sensed the temperature of his left hand. It had grown somewhat cold.
"There's an anomaly here,