Dead silence surrounded the bus.
Everyone was listening.
Everyone had heard.
Then a chill rose, like cold water seeping out of the ground.
It crept up from the soles of everyone's feet, climbed their spines vertebra by vertebra, and finally exploded at the backs of their heads.
At that moment, they remembered those women on horseback.
When those women had appeared back then.
If the Survival Convoy hadn't exposed their true nature the very next day, these people...
Every single person present...
Had considered trading with them.
On this grassland where supplies were scarce, a pound of grain could buy a pound of meat.
The temptation had been too great.
Great enough to make a rational person drop most of their guard.
When they had seen what happened to Lao Zhang and those fourteen others, they had thought it horrific, but they hadn't experienced it themselves. There had been a layer of distance; they hadn't felt the pain firsthand.
But now.
Someone had told them from personal experience.
Wu Lijian's voice, his expression, his eyes.
And every detail of blood and death in his account.
They were like cold needles piercing the heart of everyone present.
For the first time, they realized with such clarity that they had been only one step away from that abyss.
All it would have taken was reaching out once.
Making a single trade.
They would have become another Wu Lijian, another rat man.
Thump, thump, thump...
Hearts pounded all around.
Some secretly clenched their fists.
Some unconsciously took half a step back.
Some discreetly felt every pocket on their bodies.
As if checking that they weren't carrying anything they shouldn't have.
Fear was contagious.
And at that moment, that fear spread silently through the convoy like a plague.
Every one of them secretly felt