The convoy didn't stop running until dusk came around again.
By then, Jun Di had taken over driving.
At first, I still had the energy to chat with him for a bit, but before long, my head tilted to the side and I dozed off.
Anyone who's ever taken a long trip knows—after sitting in a car for hours, that faint, constant vibration can make you unbearably sleepy.
This time, the car stopped in front of a tunnel, probably located somewhere within the belly of a mountain.
Half-asleep, I got out and immediately saw a dark gray, two-story building not far from the road.
Its roof wasn't flat like modern houses, but instead had upturned eaves at the corners.
The little building stood on the mountainside, surrounded by overgrown weeds, giving off an inexplicable feeling of desolation.
"We'll spend the night here. Search the area first," the middle-aged man ordered.
Before he even finished, Suo Tian had already crossed the roadside barrier and was making his way through the weeds toward the building.
Seeing that, I turned back and told everyone to stay nearby and not wander off, then followed over the guardrail after Suo Tian.
As we got closer, the shape of the building became clearer.
Facing the road was a thick wooden door that must have been painted once, but after who knows how many years of wind and rain, almost all the paint had peeled away.
Following Suo Tian as he circled the building, I realized that it had no windows at all.
Finding that strange, I voiced my confusion.
Suo Tian stared thoughtfully at the main door for a moment, then said, "This isn't something from modern times. It's probably a house left over from before the Republic of China."
That surprised me a little—before the Republic meant the Qing dynasty...
In my mind, anything before the Republic counted as ancient.
I stared at the weathered old building for a long moment, unable to help but marvel inwardly.
It had stood for so long—through World War II, through eight years of resistance—and had somehow escaped all those falling bombs.
Suo Tian stepped up to the heavy door and grasped the rusted padlock.
After inspecting it for a bit, he flicked his wrist, and a throwing knife appeared in his hand.
A few deft motions at the keyhole later, there came a rough click, and the lock fell away from the copper ring on the door.
Before pushing the door open, Suo Tian glanced back at me once, said nothing, then turned and pushed.
In an instant, a rush of dusty, moldy air hit us square in the face, making me cough several times before I could steady myself and follow him inside.
The interior was dark.
Aside from the main entrance, the entire building was completely sealed off.
In one corner stood a wooden staircase leading up to the second floor, which also seemed to be made entirely of wood.
Neither Suo Tian nor I had a flashlight, so we could only rely on the faint light from the lighter in his hand to roughly examine the room's layout.
The place was thick with dust, filled with broken, unrecognizable things that had long lost their original shape.
After circling around, we didn't find anything of note.
Before long, Big beard and the others came in as well.
"Boss, we've checked the outside—seems fine around here," he reported.
Suo Tian nodded slightly, signaling for them to tidy up the place a bit and set up camp for the night.
Then he tugged on my arm and led me back outside.
When we got back to the cars, Suo Tian released me and walked toward the vehicle where Dr. Yang was locked up.
Meanwhile, Xu Shu and the others pulled me aside, pointing at the building.
"That's a shrine, right? The kind that worships the local earth god and goddess?" one of them asked.
I was momentarily stunned, then laughed and replied, "No, it's empty inside—aside from a few pillars, there's nothing there at all."
"That doesn't make sense…" Han Xue cut in, "In TV shows, buildings like that are always dedicated to something."
At that, Taozi curled her lips and said sarcastically to Han Xue, "Hmph, only someone like you would believe what TV dramas say. They also say people can travel back in time—why don't you go ahead and show us how it's done?"
Han Xue glared daggers at Taozi, clearly brewing a sharp retort, but before she could let loose, Yangyang, Jun Di, and the others quickly jumped in to steer the conversation elsewhere.
Before long, the black-clad men had done a rough cleanup of the small building.
We hadn't had time to bring much when we set out, so all we had were some leftover supplies from what we'd left in the vehicles.
Fortunately, it wasn't too cold anymore.
We took down the only blanket from the car, spreading half on the ground and covering the other half—just enough for the three kids to share.
While it was still light out, I dug a shallow pit by the building, gathered dry branches from around the area, and lit a fire.
Then I set up a pot we'd swiped from a restaurant earlier and started preparing to cook some instant noodles and wheat noodles.
While I was waiting for the water to boil, Big beard happened to come out of the building.
Seeing me, he patted his belly with a laugh and said to the guy beside him, "Ever since this girl Chen joined us, we finally don't have to live off crackers and bottled water every meal."
Then he turned toward me and called out, "Hey, Miss Chen! I guess all of us are benefiting from having the boss around, huh?"
Hearing that, I turned around and pretended to glare at the Big beard.
"Oh, give me a break. When have you ever seen him eat anything besides biscuits all these days?"
"True enough." Big beard scratched his head, then glanced over at Suo Tian, who was standing by the car not far away, and said, "I don't even know if our boss's body is made of flesh. He's like a cactus—can survive just by drinking water."
After dinner, night had completely fallen.
Suo Tian divided the group into two shifts—one to guard during the first half of the night, and the other during the second half.
Shen Feng and Suo Tian's team took the first shift, while I, Xu Shu, Zhou Wen, and several others in black-clad men took the second.
No one used flashlights inside the building, afraid that the light might attract the walkers roaming in the mountains.
Uncle Gazi and I originally wanted to lull the three kids to sleep, but that proved impossible—they'd already napped the entire afternoon and were now full of energy, not even a bit drowsy.
With no other choice, I got up and, along with Uncle Gazi and Han Xue, took the three kids outside.
The others black-clad men had been on their feet all day and needed rest, after all.
Without skyscrapers and neon lights, the moon appeared especially bright.
Although it wasn't as clear as daytime, we could still see our surroundings fairly well.
We took Tingyun, Xiao Hu, and Rongrong to the road.
After playing several rounds of Tag with them, we adults were completely exhausted.
So we simply sat down in a circle on the ground and began telling stories one by one.
The people on night watch gradually drifted over too, joining in to tell and listen to stories.
Rongrong insisted on sitting in Suo Tian's lap, so the poor man—who'd been trying to rest in the car—had no choice but to join our little storytelling circle.
It suddenly reminded me of when I'd first met Suo Tian.
Back then, he used to tell Rongrong stories—stories about murder and dismemberment.
I'd honestly thought he was a police officer at the time.
Looking back now, those "cases" he described never actually involved the police—just gruesome, bloody scenes.
And silly little Rongrong had listened with wide eyes, half understanding, half laughing along.
One story led to another, and soon not only the three kids but even Yangyang and the others were excitedly asking the black-clad men to tell them about their previous missions—strange, unbelievable encounters they'd had and how they'd handled them.
One of them, a sharp-featured man named Han Lu, looked serious and stiff but told his stories with such vivid detail that both the young and old among us were completely absorbed, their eyes fixed on him in fascination.
Eventually, nature called—I'd drunk too much water during dinner and couldn't hold it any longer.
I handed little Xiaohu over to Xu Shu, got up, climbed over the guardrail, and hurried toward the back of the building.
As I was passing the front door of the building, I accidentally ran straight into Zhang Hongsheng, who apparently had just finished his own bathroom trip.
"Sorry, sorry!" I blurted out quickly.
The collision only made my urgency worse.
Without waiting for his reply, I darted past him and ran toward the back of the building.
Behind the building was the foot of a slope—tilting upward, covered entirely with trees.
It lacked the openness of the clearing we'd been in earlier, and squatting there behind the building to relieve myself gave me an eerie, hair-raising feeling.
I kept my eyes fixed on the slanted treeline ahead, but my mind couldn't help wandering to all the horror movies and ghost stories I'd seen before.
The more I looked, the more those trees seemed to twist and shift—almost like the contorted bodies of lurking monsters…
I finished as quickly as I could.
There was no way I was staying back here another second.
Next time I needed to go to the bathroom, I was definitely dragging Xu Shu and Han Xue along with me.
Just as I was thinking that and about to turn and leave, my gaze swept forward—and I froze.
Not far away, near a person-tall thicket at the far end behind the house, there seemed to be someone standing there.
I squinted to make sure I wasn't imagining things—and my heart lurched violently.
What the hell! How had I not noticed someone there before?
When did they appear? Had they seen me just now…?
I stared at the figure's back for a long moment, trying to make out who it was, but the moonlight was blocked by the canopy overhead—it was far too dark to see clearly.
With no other choice, I let out a quiet sigh and turned to leave.
Next time, I really need to check my surroundings before squatting down…
But the instant I turned around, a sudden realization hit me—I froze on the spot.
Wait… that's a woman!
In our group, there were only four women: Han Xue, Xu Shu, Rongrong, and Tingyun—and maybe Taozi, if you stretched the definition a bit.
But the figure I'd just seen was small and thin, wearing a long dress that reached her ankles—clearly not any of us.
Heart pounding, I quickly turned back and squinted toward the thicket again.
Just then, the figure—who had been standing with her back to me—seemed to notice my gaze.
Her body twisted in a strange, unnatural way… and then she slowly turned around.
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