Chapter Eight: Silent Mourning

"Hmph, perhaps! But if you listen to me, I can tell you why I am so certain!" I don't know why, but seeing the hint of fear in her expression, I suddenly felt a touch of amusement and even gave her a playful wink.

She was clearly not in the mood for it and glared at me, though to my slight surprise, she didn't say anything.

I walked a few more steps forward, having no intention of dragging out the suspense. Pointing to the exposed tree roots jutting out of the water on the bank ahead, and the rocks of various sizes in the stream, I said, "The dried blood on the stone must have been sprayed there, indicating that this person suffered a serious injury by accident at the time!"

This is common sense; after all, one can tell by the position of the blood that it wouldn't have been sprayed so evenly without significant force. Even though the color had changed, looking at the texture, the blood in the crevices of the rock hadn't yet completely dried into crusts. I felt a chill, dimly realizing that if this was indeed him, he must have met with a tragic fate.

Seeing that Lan Fang had no intention of interrupting, I continued, "Look at the roots and the state of the stone; a vital artery must have been severed! If he couldn't save himself or find someone to help, the blood would have kept spurting out. With the current so swift, if he couldn't stop the bleeding in time, being in the water would have clearly accelerated his death."

My expression turned solemn. I looked at the tree roots and pointed to the hand submerged in the water, continuing to mutter, "The current is so strong, yet this hand hasn't moved, which means it must be wedged somewhere in the roots. Looking at the color of the hand soaking in the water, it has been there for quite some time."

If I wasn't mistaken, the pool formed by that waterfall was just upstream, where the water was cold enough to freeze someone to death. Even flowing down to this point, the temperature must be extremely low. A normal person's skin would turn pale after soaking in water for so long.

"Could it be Peng Qian and the others? Did someone get hurt?" Unexpectedly, Lan Fang expressed a concern that caught me off guard. I wondered if she was thinking of the chubby guy, Han Yu, who had seemed injured.

Hearing Lan Fang's words, I was almost infuriated by her mindset. Though I had no other intentions, I retorted with a cold sneer, "Are you losing your mind? Even if it were them, so what? They didn't care whether you lived or died and took all the supplies. For people like that, trouble was only a matter of time!"

Especially thinking of the earthworms I had eaten over the past two days to stave off hunger, even though I wasn't usually that callous, hearing Lan Fang say that stirred up some inexplicable feelings inside me.

Lan Fang and Qu Xiang could tell I was speaking out of anger. Perhaps realizing I wasn't truly a bad person, they exchanged a sigh. They didn't continue, and I didn't want to provoke them further, so I just stared at the river, wondering how to get into the water.

"This should be the first one we've found!" After walking a bit further and standing on the bank, I finally saw the person. His head was submerged, and his body was half-wedged under some thick tree roots, which was why he hadn't been washed away by the river.

I felt a pang of reluctance. Perhaps because his face was turned downward, I wasn't as terrified as I might have been. Instinctively, I changed my left-hand gesture, pressing my thumb into my palm to calm my nerves.

I could see he was a young man. The river water made me even more alert. Leaning against the roots, I waded further into the stream. Although I didn't turn his body over, I saw he was wearing a brand-name tracksuit. He must have been one of the people from the initial group who got separated from us. I didn't know why he ended up like this.

I gripped the roots and moved closer, using my trekking pole to nudge his clothing. I saw that the left side of his neck appeared to have been slit. Although it wasn't the carotid artery, the wound, soaked in water, looked quite long, suggesting he had bled to death.

"I never expected he was actually murdered. Who could have done this? They were truly ruthless. I wonder if it was one person or several acting together?" Even looking at his back, I had a vague impression of this young man. Since we had traveled together, I had observed everyone, and I vaguely remembered him.

I thought that he might have been a survivor of the initial flight, only to be killed here for some reason. If he had been killed not long ago, it meant that for the two or three days that Qu Xiang, Lan Fang, and I had been wandering, we had been in constant, grave danger!

At that thought, I instinctively shuddered. It wasn't the coldness of the river; I suddenly realized how close the danger really was!

Who could have been driven to kill him?

Having lived in a peaceful society for so long, death felt like a distant concept. Suddenly witnessing this, even with my relatively strong psychological fortitude, I couldn't remain calm.

Who exactly was it, and why kill him?

I suddenly felt a chill all over and couldn't help but look around. It wasn't fear of the dead man in the water, but the feeling that in every direction, in the places I couldn't see, someone might spring out at any moment.

After calming down for a while, I moved closer and continued to probe with my trekking pole, discovering he had nothing of value on him, and certainly no food.

I guessed that perhaps he had something initially, but it had been stolen by someone driven by greed. I didn't know if he had fought for survival or was killed for his belongings. Watching his body sway slightly in the water, I couldn't help but sigh.

I wanted to turn and leave, as I couldn't clean him up or bury him; there was nothing here, and I had no way to dig. But then I noticed something on the wrist of his other hand, which was submerged in the water.

As it swayed with the current, I saw it clearly. My heart began to pound. Though I wasn't sure if it was what I thought, my heart raced again. Glancing back to see that Qu Xiang and Lan Fang weren't looking, I couldn't help but pull up his sleeve to check.

It was exactly what I had expected. I checked my surroundings vigilantly once more, and having confirmed no one was there, I nervously took his wrist. It felt ice-cold. Despite my trepidation, I unfastened the object.

After confirming it was what I had hoped for, I washed it in the water and fastened it onto my own left wrist.

"It's terrifying. I don't know the reason, but this place is truly deadly..."