Ren Ye turned at the shout and saw Xiao Yuan hurrying after him.
He looked him over. "Need something?"
Xiao Yuan ran up beside him and said eagerly, "Brother, how about we travel together? I can help you out...!"
"Maybe not. I'd like to go alone on the first day," Ren Ye declined tactfully. "If we get a chance later, we can travel together."
Xiao Yuan wasn't angry at being refused. He merely smiled and nodded. "Heh, this shithole looks dangerous. We do need to build some trust first. I understand...!"
"All right, I'll get going."
"Then let's head out first. Once we're outside, I have something to tell you, and then we can split up," Xiao Yuan said mysteriously.
"Oh, okay."
Ren Ye didn't even ask what he wanted to say. He simply answered and headed outside the villa.
The two walked side by side, carefully studying their surroundings as they went.
This was an abandoned villa at the foot of a mountain. Its grounds were large, roughly the size of two soccer fields from front to back, but weeds and vines grew everywhere. The tallest patches were over a meter high, their tips reaching an adult's waist.
High walls enclosed the grounds. Looking around, many places seemed dark and sinister. In short, it looked like a mansion that had stood abandoned for a long time.
Whoosh!
As they walked forward, they saw a black stray dog leap nimbly onto the courtyard wall, race several meters along its top, then jump outside and disappear.
Ren Ye looked toward where the black dog had appeared, only to see the grass there shaking wildly, as though some living creature was moving through it.
He paused briefly to watch.
Soon, the grass stopped shaking, and a very small chimpanzee darted out, baring