ACIFITFDB – Chapter 15

Chapter 15: You Can Kill Them, Are You In?

Huang Quxie grumbled as he carried the little girl away, leaving Qin Xian to hide in the shadows.

Before he left, he had asked the girl about her brother’s appearance. He was in his early twenties, with short black hair, an ear piercing, and a penchant for white T-shirts.

This information was as good as saying nothing; finding ten young people with the same description would likely yield six.

Qin Xian sighed, hoping the other person was alright and that he could directly ask for his name.

He looked up at the row of temporary shacks on the dirt slope. Lights were on in every single one, suggesting live-streaming was likely in progress. Qin Xian pushed off the slope with both hands, easily climbing over.

Several surveillance cameras were installed outside the shacks. Observing their fields of view, Qin Xian noticed one was directly facing a shack window.

Qin Xian lowered his head and picked a small stone from the ground, placing it on the side of his index finger. He pressed hard with his thumb, and the stone shot out like a bullet, hitting the camera lens precisely.

With a crisp “crack,” the camera’s red indicator light flickered defiantly twice before extinguishing.

Now he could investigate more boldly. Qin Xian moved silently up the slope like a cat, first approaching the window of the westernmost room.

Inside the narrow room were many live-streaming stands and props, but what drew Qin Xian’s attention most was the room’s decor.

Yellow earth bricks, commonly used in old houses, were plastered on the walls, and the floor was covered with packed, dark brown soil, closely resembling the interior of an old rural house.

A simple wooden bed was placed on the earthen floor, covered with an old-fashioned red floral quilt. A wrinkled old man, with only two teeth remaining, stared blankly at the ceiling with his mouth agape. His face was severely shrunken, and he mumbled incoherently.

Beside the bed, a young man in worn clothes was facing the camera, attentively helping the old man wash his body. His expression was incredibly patient and gentle, and he spoke to the viewers in the live stream while cleaning. If Qin Xian looked down closely at the old man’s expression, he would notice his hand weakly gripping the young man’s arm, desperately resisting. But this feeble resistance had no effect.

The young man ignored him, rambling on about the hardships of life, touching stories about himself and his parents, and so on. From an angle invisible to the camera, when he touched the old man’s body, his expression flickered with disgust. Clearly, the man on the bed was likely not his father.

Qin Xian narrowed his eyes slightly, seeing a large number of comments and gift effects flying across the live stream.

He frowned and moved to the second window. The scene inside had changed. It was decorated like a rural kitchen, with an old-fashioned stove that looked quite convincing.

A person who appeared to have intellectual disabilities sat on a low stool, drooling, while an old woman, hunched over, spoon-fed him.

The camera only focused on his upper body, but his trouser legs were stained with spoiled and smelly leftovers. Some had been stuck to his pants for who knows how long, turning a dark brown. Even standing by the window, Qin Xian could smell the stench.

The subsequent rooms were equally shocking.

In one, a man faced the camera, talking to what seemed to be an autistic girl. But behind the camera, he held a long needle to the girl’s thigh.

In another room, two people with physical disabilities were kowtowing to the camera. Opposite the camera, however, stood two burly men holding long sticks.

Qin Xian quickly scanned all the rooms. Approximately thirteen rooms were live-streaming, with content primarily focused on exploiting illness, disabilities, and the elderly and weak to gain sympathy. Some directly earned donations, while others also sold products.

These dozen or so live streams were not yet on a massive scale. If the number increased to over twenty, the danger level of this place could rise sharply.

Of course, at this stage, safely escorting one person out was not an easy feat.

Qin Xian acted quickly, circling the building and successfully locating the main power switch. He smashed it directly with a stone, causing it to explode.

With a surge, the entire row of shacks plunged into darkness, startling the people inside.

“Hey? The power’s out! The stream’s interrupted!”

“What’s going on? Why is the power out?”

“The villa is still lit up. The power might be out in this row of houses. Let’s go check it out!”

After smashing the power switch, Qin Xian quickly moved away and crouched under the window of one of the rooms.

He had confirmed it: a person with all four limbs severed lay on the bed. He was in his twenties, with short black hair, very likely the girl’s brother.

Qin Xian climbed onto the window, kicked out the glass with a swing of his leg.

Due to the live-streaming setup, these windows had no iron bars, which gave Qin Xian more convenience. As soon as he climbed in, someone pointed a stick at him and questioned him.

“What th—”

But before he could finish his sentence, Qin Xian kicked his jaw in the darkness, knocking him out without a sound, and he fell straight down.

Qin Xian turned and hoisted the person on the bed onto his shoulder. A sour, pungent odor assaulted him, but he didn’t even flinch. He only felt how incredibly light the person on his shoulder was.

A body without limbs was even lighter than the little girl just now.

Qin Xian carefully grabbed the person and climbed back out the window, rushing into the darkness behind a cowshed.

He placed the person on the ground and took a breath, pressing himself against the wall to check for any movement.

“You… Who are you…”

The man suddenly spoke, his voice extremely weak.

Qin Xian observed and asked, “Are you Lou Xingye?”

The man replied with a whisper, “Yes…”

“I’m someone your sister sent to save you. Don’t talk, conserve your strength. I’ll get you out.”

“…You, you should go. There’s no hope for me. Hurry and leave… There are ghosts here…”

Qin Xian turned his head and asked, “Ghosts? What kind? Can you describe them?”

But Lou Xingye couldn’t hold on and slumped his head, losing consciousness.

Qin Xian quickly leaned down to check. He breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming there was still a faint breath. However, the current situation meant he couldn’t leave him behind. He had originally planned to deal with the anomalies here, but he had to change his plan and get the man out first.

Qin Xian tore his jacket into strips, tied Lou Xingye to his back, and charged out from behind the cowshed.

Outside the cowshed was an open field with little cover. People were already sweeping the area with powerful flashlights, searching for them.

Qin Xian crawled on the ground, moving through the abandoned fields.

The腥-smelling soil was almost at his nose, the weeds scratched his exposed skin, and mosquitoes buzzed around him. But none of this made Qin Xian frown. He moved nimbly even while carrying someone on his back, covering three to four fields in a few minutes.

However, the fields stretched on endlessly, and crawling out of the village like this was unrealistic. Qin Xian chose to crawl to the vicinity of a house and hide in a small alley to recover his strength.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out not far away, startling a group of people who rushed in that direction.

A gun? Although the village was full of criminals, given the strict gun control in the country, these villagers shouldn’t have access to firearms.

The only one who would use a gun was Huang Quxie. Had he not escaped?

Qin Xian found a dry ditch and carefully hid Lou Xingye in it. He then stood up and walked out, naturally blending in with the villagers in the night and heading towards the sound of the gunshot.

He didn’t get too close to the others. It was hard to distinguish in the dark, and no one paid him any attention. After all, no one being pursued would be so relaxed…

The gunshot came from near a two-story villa. Qin Xian observed the surrounding terrain and estimated good hiding spots, choosing to slip into the semi-open kitchen behind the villa.

As soon as he reached the vicinity of the stove, a dark gun barrel was pointed at his face.

Qin Xian immediately ducked and dodged, saying, “It’s me, why didn’t you guys get out?”

Huang Quxie froze for a moment, then immediately lowered his gun and said, “It’s not safe here, we need to find another place.”

Behind him, the little girl poked her head out, nodding timidly.

Qin Xian pointed directly at the ditch behind the kitchen: “There’s no water in here for now. Crawl in and turn right. Your brother is over there too.”

The little girl’s eyes immediately lit up. She didn’t care about the dirt and, without a word, crawled into the ditch.

Of the three, only Huang Quxie felt the most frustrated. Being too tall, he could barely fit into the ditch. Every inch he crawled forward, the rough concrete surface scraped his skin.

But Huang Quxie didn’t utter a sound, staying firmly at the back.

The money earned in this village was substantial, and the drainage ditches were well-built. Perhaps due to their use in irrigation, they were deep and covered. People searching the surface would find it difficult to notice that the ditches at their feet were hiding people.

Qin Xian led the two to Lou Xingye and then crawled out of the ditch to find a small corner to rest and understand the situation.

As soon as the little girl emerged, she hugged her brother tightly, tears silently falling.

Huang Quxie tugged at his collar with concern, but Qin Xian’s expression was calm. He directly asked, “Why didn’t you succeed in escaping? What did you encounter?”

Huang Quxie replied, “It was pitch black outside, we couldn’t get out… We’d rush outside and the next second we’d find ourselves back at the village entrance, like a ghost wall.”

Qin Xian’s expression turned grave: “Then it seems escaping on our own is impossible. A domain has formed here. Without defeating the owner of this place, we cannot leave. Of course, perhaps it’s only like this at night, and it returns to normal during the day, allowing escape.”

“Domain? What do you mean?” Huang Quxie asked, confused.

Qin Xian replied concisely: “You can think of it as a ghost here. This ghost is very powerful, so it has put the entire village in a sealed area, and people inside cannot escape. This domain is probably not that strong; it might dissipate during the day. But Lou Xingye might not last until then. We need to get him to a hospital as soon as possible.”

Huang Quxie asked, “Do you have a way out?”

“Kill the owner of this domain.”

Huang Quxie and the little girl gasped simultaneously.

“Just us?! Against an entire village and a terrifying ghost??”

The little girl lowered her head shyly, as she and her brother would be a burden rather than a fighting force.

But Qin Xian was so calm it made him seem incredibly confident: “You can kill them. Are you in?”

Huang Quxie’s scalp tingled. As a police officer, his rational mind should advise them to hide and wait for sunrise, but at this moment, he inexplicably felt a degree of trust in the person before him.

He gritted his teeth: “Alright, I’m with you! Honestly, who are you…”

Qin Xian ignored his latter question and crouched down in front of the little girl.

“You must be strong from now on. You need to continue hiding here and protect your brother. If a situation arises, use your small size to squeeze into tight corners. We can’t take you with us, do you understand?”

The little girl wiped away her tears and nodded heavily, tightening her grip on her brother’s arm.