Wu You's hair was still caked with muddy water, plastered haphazardly across her face. The moment she saw Ye Chu, she could no longer hold back her tears, and they spilled down in great drops.
"Ye Chu..." Wu You threw her arms around him, her voice hitching with sobs. She had clearly been through an awful ordeal.
Ye Chu didn't care how filthy she was or how much mud covered her. He simply patted her back over and over. "There, there. I'm here. You're safe now. It's all right." His voice was gentle as he soothed her.
After a long while, the body in his arms finally stopped trembling. Ye Chu held her shoulders and stood up, turning to Xiao Chuan beside them. "Sorry, could you let us come inside for a bit?"
Xiao Chuan paused. "Sure."
Wu You's eyes were still red when she sat down on the sofa. Tactfully, Xiao Chuan said he had something to do and went out, leaving the two of them alone in the room.
Once no one else was around, Wu You grabbed Ye Chu's hand. "Ye Chu..." She nearly lost control of her tears again.
"Youyou, what happened to you yesterday?" Ye Chu held a glass of water to her lips with one hand and draped a clean towel over her shoulders with the other.
"Yesterday... I was walking down the street yesterday, and I took a phone out of my pocket. I thought it was how we were supposed to contact each other, but then someone suddenly called me. The phone rang, and all the Person-Eaters on the street turned to look at me and came running."
As Wu You spoke, she began trembling uncontrollably again. It would have been a lie to say the sight hadn't terrified her. Even a crowd of ordinary people suddenly charging at someone would instinctively frighten them, let alone a crowd of people who could eat them.
"So," Ye Chu said, his expression turning serious and his brows knitting, "only Ordinary People use phones?"
"No." Wu You shook her head. "I think only the ringtones on our five phones attract Person-Eaters."
That made sense. Ordinary People had such low status in this world. How could they possibly own something even Person-Eaters didn't have?
These phones were both a means for teammates to contact one another and a ticking time bomb in a crisis.
"Those Person-Eaters chased me and tried to catch me. I wanted to escape, but there were too many of them. I couldn't outrun them. They caught me and threw me into a sack. I didn't know where they were taking me. I struggled as hard as I could and finally managed to roll out of the vehicle."
Wu You might have been strong and fast, but she was still only one person. She couldn't beat an entire crowd intent on eating her.
Wu You trembled with lingering fear. If she hadn't been lucky enough to run into Ye Chu, she truly couldn't imagine what would have happened to her next.
Ye Chu could tell what she was thinking. He gently dried her hair with the towel. "You're safe. It's all right now."
Only after Wu You had calmed down did she realize something. "Does this mean I've been exposed? Will the Person-Eaters recognize me the moment I go outside?"
"It's probably just a specific few Person-Eaters hunting you," Ye Chu said, speculating about the game's rules. "Like that variety show in our world. There's a fixed number of Hunters."
"That's a relief." Wu You relaxed, then turned to look at the stains she had smeared onto Ye Chu's clothes. She stood up apologetically. "I'm sorry, Ye Chu! Your clothes..."
"Oh, it's fine." Ye Chu casually rubbed at them a couple of times, only to spread the stain even farther. "I end up throwing away a piece of clothing after every Instance anyway."
Wu You: "..." Thanks. That actually helped.
"Who was the person who called you?"
Wu You shook her head, took out her phone, and opened the call log. "This number. I don't know who it is. It should be one of 12789, but I'm not sure... Should we call back?"
Ye Chu considered it. If they called now, the person on the other end might end up in the same situation as Wu You. But... if they didn't call, their only lead would be gone.
Ye Chu gritted his teeth and decided to call.
Let's take a gamble. Hopefully there aren't any Person-Eaters near them.
The phone rang, and someone soon picked up. "Hello?"
A familiar, clear voice came through, and Ye Chu couldn't help smiling. "Pei Yanchuan."
The person on the other end recognized Ye Chu's voice too. He froze for two seconds before answering, "Ye Chu, is this your number?"
"No, it's Youyou's. I'll give you mine in a bit," Ye Chu said. "Are there any Person-Eaters near you?"
"No. It's safe here right now. There's no one around, just me."
"Good. Be careful. Phone ringtones attract the Person-Eaters' attention."
"Huh?" Pei Yanchuan froze. Then last night... "Wu You! I'm so sorry!"
Pei Yanchuan's voice came through the phone, thick with remorse. They could practically picture him hanging his head.
Wu You coughed. "I'm not blaming you. Nothing much happened to me. I only got tied up and rolled around in the mud, that's all."
Pei Yanchuan: "..." Great. Now I feel even guiltier.
"Where are you now?" Ye Chu asked. "Once Youyou gets cleaned up, we'll come meet you."
"Where am I?" Pei Yanchuan repeated quietly, looking around. "I'm under a bridge. I don't know where it is, either."
"Are there any landmarks or street signs nearby?"
"Let me look." Pei Yanchuan poked his head out from beneath the bridge, then immediately ducked back when he saw someone passing. "No. All I know is that I'm under a bridge."
Ye Chu: "..."
A classic description from someone with no sense of direction.
"Then how about I come find you?" Pei Yanchuan knew his description was too vague for them to work out his location.
"Wouldn't that make it even easier for you to get lost?" Wu You asked. She let her hair down and dipped it into the hot water Ye Chu had just brought her, washing out the mud. Even then, she didn't forget to tease Pei Yanchuan. "Wouldn't it be even more trouble if we had to go looking for you after you got lost?"
Pei Yanchuan thought about it. "Just because I can't tell where I am doesn't mean I can't find you. Besides, I'm pretty lucky. Maybe I'll stumble into you around a corner and find love by chance."
Ye Chu: "..."
Was this the confidence of someone with good luck?
Unfortunately, this phone couldn't make video calls. Otherwise, Ye Chu could have used one to get the three of them together.
"We're in the outskirts. Head north from the Cannibal Hospital for about five hundred meters, then go left for two hundred meters. You'll see a small alley. Go into it and keep walking..."
"Wait, wait, wait..." Pei Yanchuan hurriedly interrupted him. "Ye Chu, how about you tell me where the Cannibal Hospital is first?"
Ye Chu: "..." He fell silent again. "Well... I'm not too sure either. Why don't you ask someone?"
This time, it was Pei Yanchuan's turn to fall silent. If he went out to ask someone now, wouldn't that be like a chicken drumstick running up to a person and asking whether they wanted to eat it?! What kind of food willingly ran right up to a Hunter?
"Wait..." Wu You suddenly spoke up as she washed her hair. "Pei has pointed canine teeth, right?"
"Right."
"The biggest difference between Person-Eaters and Ordinary People seems to be that Person-Eaters have really sharp teeth!"
Ye Chu recalled what Xiao Chuan had said last night. Person-Eaters could bite through Ordinary People's throats. How could they do that? They had to have sharp teeth. And Pei Yanchuan... happened to have pointed canines. Maybe he could blend in with the Person-Eaters!
Before you continue