The prison walls rose high again, the prison was by their own...

Ye Jiang paused slightly in her treatment, wondering, "Is it worth it?"

She began to think about the question seriously.

Hua Ling: "..."

"The Healer..."

"It's worth it," Ye Jiang interrupted, her face serious.

Hua Ling was stunned, while Ye Jiang, who had finished thinking and reached a conclusion, lowered her eyelids listlessly and said casually, "If you die, who will pay me after I complete my mission?"

She watched as the torn flesh of the person she was treating rapidly healed, watched as the twisted and bent legs straightened... She felt the person she was treating looking at her, raised her eyes, and met their shocked expression.

"You... you know?" Hua Ling stammered.

"You know you're resident A?" Ye Jiang asked. "Yes, I know."

When she first arrived in Shuiling Town, she followed the woman to Hua Ling's courtyard and heard the people there say that they were waiting for someone, a cat-man who would help them find the missing girl Mei Ti.

They were waiting for Ye Jiang.

Chapter 99 The cage walls were erected high again, and the cage was...

Where is Mei Ti?

Ye Jiang asked, having finally broken through the barrier, she could finally ask directly.

She asked, "Was she hunted?"

Hua Ling suddenly stopped.

Ye Jiang looked at her, waiting for her answer.

She searched the entire town but couldn't find a girl named Mei Ti. Before coming to the gathering, she guessed that her target was a member of the hunting party who had disappeared during the hunt. But after arriving at the gathering, she had a more plausible guess: Mei Ti had indeed disappeared during the hunt, but...

She was the one being hunted.

As if a sharp blade had pierced her vital point, and even though her bones had shattered, she hadn't shown much pain, Hua Ling was now curled up in agony, a cold sweat pouring down her face. She hugged herself, her tall body shrinking into a small ball, like a child forcibly dragged into a cruel reality and looking helpless.

Mei Ti...

Was that child hunted?

The girl, with her bottom sticking out, scribbled and drew all over her yard. When she was discovered, she would dart behind the wall like a monkey, peeking out and calling out "Sister Hua Ling" over and over again, a call that softened everyone's heart.

But in the blink of an eye, that scene vanished, and the girl became a stranger, her body mangled and torn apart by a group of people.

Hua Ling suddenly opened her eyes wide, tears of blood silently streaming from the corners of her eyes.

"... yes."

It felt like a nightmare flashback.

"She was hunted," Hua Ling rasped, "... by me, by us."

More than a month ago, Pollution suddenly appeared in Shuiling Town. At first, the townspeople thought that the Guard was making Pollution props, which was a signal that the hunting activity was coming soon. The townspeople were angry but dared not speak out.

But that doesn't seem to be the case. The Guard is also searching for the source of the Pollution to prove that it was indeed Pollution emitted by the Polluted.

The Pollution appeared suddenly and then lingered in the town, yet its source remained elusive, making it a highly elusive Polluted.

The Guard had organized the townspeople to search for them, but each time they caught up, the other person would escape first, slipperier than a fish in the water.

Surprisingly, this Polluted never once harmed anyone.

Because it didn't harm anyone, and because it was impossible to catch, the Guard gave up on driving it away and let it roam the town. Soon, the Polluted had been wandering around the town for half a month, and the townspeople had gotten used to it staying there.

Two weeks later, the Polluted appeared for the first time at night in the factory, which was closed. It didn't cause any major trouble at the factory; it seemed to be merely expanding its territory.

This somewhat strange Polluted seemed to have a particular fondness for the factory, going there every night thereafter. Sometimes the sound of machines starting up could be heard from the factory, but when they went to investigate, the machines were all in good working order, and the Polluted wasn't causing any damage.

So it was tolerated.

That's how it looks.

Another half month passed, Guard suddenly appointed a hunting team. The Guard did not condone the Polluted; instead, Guard simply allowed the Polluted to establish a fixed spawn point for the factory, and then hunted it.

Hua Ling was chosen for the hunting party, which consisted of eight people. Her neighbor was there, as was Yuan De.

Of the two thousand townspeople in Shuiling Town, any one of them could be selected for a hunting party; no one could escape, and Hua Ling and her group were no exception. But they were slightly luckier than those on the other hunting party lists in that this time they were the true Polluted of the hunt.

So they did not resist, and one night they hunted down the Polluted in the factory.

They saw the Polluted for the first time.

It was a Polluted with seven tentacles, its body mutated to an extremely high degree; only the ring of eyes on the top of its head retained a human appearance.

The Polluted were quickly defeated.

The Polluted behavior is somewhat eccentric, is only good at hiding. When it makes the factory its fixed location, it closes off its own escape route.

As the Polluted struggled in agony on its deathbed, Hua Ling, a member of the hunting party, inadvertently met Polluted eyes. Feeling a pang of pity, she sighed and delivered the final blow, ending its suffering.

That was the most regrettable thing Hua Ling ever did in her life; every time she thought about it, she felt like she had walked through hell.

The air exploded, Polluted finally died. In the instant of its death, a tentacle that Hua Ling had never seen before drooped down. This Polluted didn't have seven tentacles, but eight!

The Polluted always hides a tentacle.

It was a tentacle with a pink base and black stripes.

The moment the tentacle fell, the hearts of the entire hunting party stopped.

The black lines are a unique symbol of the residents of Shuiling Town. No matter what changes occur, these lines will never disappear, as if they were proof of their guilt.

Hua Ling's eyes reddened, and she rushed forward like a madwoman. A pile of white boxes suddenly fell out from the corpses of the Polluted, forming a small mountain that blocked Hua Ling's path. Hua Ling accidentally kicked one of the boxes, revealing the label on it.

The label had words written on it--

"Hua Ling".

It says Hua Ling's name on it.

The handwriting is familiar.

Upon closer inspection, each box was labeled with a name—the name of a resident of Shuiling Town—and inside the boxes were...

medicine.

It's a medicine for treating Pollution.

The "Polluted" appears in the factory every night; she's making pharmaceuticals.

The "Polluted" is making medicine for the townspeople.

No, there are no Polluted at all; the one they're hunting is...

"Mei Ti." Hua Ling's tears had dried, and she seemed to have lost her soul. She said, "It's that child. I recognize her handwriting."

Hua Ling said, "A month before the hunting incident, Mei Ti left us a letter saying she was going to leave town. That child had always wanted to go out and see the world; she had been talking about it since she was little. We thought she had finally been able to resist this time."

"We weren't too worried." Hua Ling shook herself for a moment before continuing, "Many townspeople had the same thought and even acted on it, but... in the end, they all quietly returned."

Just like Yuan De.

Hua Ling said, "I thought she would come back too."

However, something went wrong at some point. Even though the Guard didn't seem to know anything about it, the child ended up looking like that and became the target of the hunt.

The hunting of fellow citizens has been going on in Shuiling Town for fifteen years. The first time was an accident, but the townspeople all knew about it afterward, but they all pretended not to know, assuming that the hunters were indeed Polluted. Because only by pretending not to know could they avoid losing sleep over it.

Covering their ears, closing their eyes, and shutting their mouths—this is the way of life for the people of Shuiling Town. They tell themselves that hunting activities are infrequent, sometimes only once every few years.

The gravedigger was right; it was just that the guillotine hadn't fallen on their heads yet.

The gravedigger's wife was chosen as the "Polluted," and he went mad, calling for the overthrow of the Guard, but no one listened to him because the guillotine did not fall on their heads.

The town is inhabited by a group of reclusive and eccentric townspeople who were once members of a hunting party.

After the hunting expedition, the members of the hunting party all gradually changed. Some became withdrawn and eccentric, while others joined the Guard. The former were plagued by nightmares and could not find freedom, while the latter could not bear the inner torment and simply fell into depravity.

Hua Ling didn't understand until she discovered that she had killed the child with her own hands.

She, Yuan De, and their team are also being consumed by a nightmare.

Because she didn't want to believe reality, she posted a missing person task on the Part-Time Cat, hoping people would help her find the child.

They are only fooling themselves.

Hua Ling gently pushed Ye Jiang's hand away, refusing her treatment, and said, "It's not worth it."

How could someone like her deserve to be saved?

What happened to Mei Ti seemed like an accident, but it wasn't really. As long as she kept watching, similar things would inevitably happen to her. This was God's punishment for her as a bystander.

The town enclosed by high walls is a cage, imprisoning the guilty and depriving them of their freedom. Initially, they were innocent, but in silence, they slowly became criminals, and the cage became a real cage.

The black stripes are probably a manifestation of their sinful genes, which is why they are so despicable.

Hua Ling hugged herself, her head resting on her knees, and murmured, "Sorry, we tricked the Healer."

She said, "The mission ends here, Healer. Your mission is complete."

He said, "I've left 100 boxes of medicine in my house, in the storage room on the first floor. Go get them, and then... leave."

As she said this, she slightly raised her eyes and looked at the person in front of her.

She took one last look, wanting to preserve the beautiful memory.