Chapter 14
The missing had returned.
In the mall corridor, a pale young man with yellow hair dragged his legs along unsteadily, needing the handrail just to walk.
A middle-aged man followed him, looking even worse than Yellow Hair. His eyes were bloodshot, the dark circles beneath them looked as though they had been painted with ink, and his unsteady steps threatened to send him sprawling at any moment. He stayed close behind the yellow-haired young man.
These were none other than the middle-aged man and the yellow-haired young man who had gone missing yesterday.
"Jiafei, wait for me! Wait for me!" the middle-aged man called weakly.
Huang Jiafei stopped ahead of him and offered some quiet reassurance. "Old Xu, the Camp's just up ahead. We'll be safe soon."
"Yellow Hair!"
At the startled cry, both men looked ahead.
Fatty Lei stared at them with wide eyes, his face filled with shock and disbelief. He had even forgotten to close his mouth.
Everyone in the Camp had already assumed the two of them were dead yesterday. No one had expected them to return at noon today.
"Are you human or ghosts?" Fatty Lei demanded in a trembling voice.
If not for his duty, he would have turned tail and run. Neither of the two men looked as though he could possibly still be alive.
"Of course I'm alive! Give me water! I need water!" Huang Jiafei muttered weakly, his voice hoarse and his lips cracked.
"Wait here. I'll get Sister Jun." Fatty Lei turned and ran as soon as he finished, giving neither of them a chance to speak.
Quite a few survivors had been drawn over by Fatty Lei's startled cry. Several elderly people clutched the hems of their clothes, staring at the two returned men with eyes full of surprise and fear.
"Wasn't Yellow Hair dead? How's he alive again?"
"They don't exactly look alive. Are we seeing ghosts?"
"Maybe they tried going somewhere else, found they couldn't survive there either, and came back?"
"Could this be a Ghost-type magical beast's scheme? What if these two are those ghosts that lure people to their deaths, like in novels?"
The survivors whispered among themselves, none daring to approach.
Huang Jiafei looked miserably at the survivors gathered around him.
"Come on, give us a hand!" Unable to hold out any longer, Huang Jiafei's legs buckled, and he passed out on the spot.
Behind him, Old Xu's mouth twitched hard at the sight. His throat was so dry it felt scorched, and he cried urgently, "Water! Give me water!"
An elderly woman looked at Old Xu, then at the half bottle of water in her hand with a reluctant pang. Finally, she gritted her teeth and tottered over to him.
"Here. Drink slowly. Don't choke," she said softly.
Old Xu no longer had the strength to thank her. At the sight of this lifesaving "medicine," he snatched the water without hesitation and began taking small sips.
As the long-awaited water moistened his throat, Old Xu slumped onto the floor as though all his strength had left him, his back pressed firmly against the safety railing.
"Ah... finally, I feel alive again!" Old Xu sighed in relief.
A short while later, Jun Shutong came hurrying over with Fatty Lei.
Seeing Old Xu sitting on the floor and Huang Jiafei lying beside him, Jun Shutong asked with concern, "Old Xu! Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. I just haven't eaten all day. I'm starving," Old Xu said feebly, clutching his stomach.
Jun Shutong breathed a sigh of relief, then quickly gave orders. "Someone carry Huang Jiafei back. And someone help Old Xu walk."
Two able-bodied young men stepped out of the crowd, carrying a makeshift stretcher, while Fatty Lei helped Old Xu up from the floor.
Lu Li was summoned to the office because the two missing people had returned.
When he arrived at the meeting room, Lu Li saw neither of the missing men. He went straight over and sat beside Jun Shutong.
Since he had decided to stay in this Camp, he naturally needed to raise his standing in subtle ways. The way to do that was to stay as close to Jun Shutong as possible.
Lu Li asked quietly, "I heard Yellow Hair and Old Xu are back?"
Seated to his left, Fatty Lei nodded and lowered his voice to explain. "I was the first to spot them. You have no idea how scary they looked."
"How so?" Lu Li obligingly prompted.
"They looked like they'd been starving for days. I honestly thought I was seeing ghosts."
Lu Li asked thoughtfully, "You mean they'd been starving for several days?"
Fatty Lei nodded. "That's right, several days. You'll hear the details when Sister Jun explains."
Once everyone had arrived, Jun Shutong gave a quiet cough, immediately drawing everyone's attention.
"Old Xu and Huang Jiafei returned just a little while ago."
No one reacted much to this announcement. They already knew.
"According to Old Xu, some unusual magical beast trapped them in a strange space. Inside it, they couldn't move or even close their eyes. They could only watch what was happening outside through a mirror. And..."
Jun Shutong paused, then glanced at Lu Li before continuing. "He also saw Lu Li and me. Apparently, that magical beast attacked them inside the Arcade.
"They saw us searching for them in the Arcade, too, but they couldn't move or speak, so they could only watch helplessly as we left."
A flicker of understanding crossed Lu Li's eyes. He had already more or less guessed the truth and the reason behind it.
But this was not a theory he could share in the meeting room. He decided to discuss it with Jun Shutong after the meeting.
"Fortunately, neither Huang Jiafei nor Old Xu suffered any serious harm. After eating, they went straight to rest."
As Jun Shutong finished speaking, a murmur of discussion rose in the meeting room.
Everyone speculated about what sort of magical beast the two had encountered, but even more people marveled at their luck. They had survived an encounter with a magical beast and had only been held captive for a day.
"Sister Jun, could that magical beast have released them on purpose so it could follow them back to our Camp?" Fatty Lei asked, frowning with worry.
Jun Shutong shook her head and explained, "That's unlikely. The Arcade is less than a hundred meters from here. At that distance, even if the magical beast were blind, it would have found us long ago."
"So... those two were just unlucky, and that magical beast was toying with them?" a middle-aged man remarked dryly.
After all, it had captured them without eating or killing them. No matter how they looked at it, the magical beast seemed to have been teaching the two men a lesson.
"That's possible. Not every magical beast eats people," Jun Shutong agreed with a nod, recalling Lu Li's analysis from yesterday.
"Lu Li, what do you think?" Jun Shutong turned to Lu Li, who had remained silent all this time.
Lu Li answered rather halfheartedly, "At least it's good news. Those two came back safely, which means that magical beast doesn't see us as food."
By now, Jun Shutong understood Lu Li well enough to know that he was holding something back, or that there were things he could not say in the meeting room.
With that thought, Jun Shutong made up her mind.