Chapter 2: An Exotic Fragrance In The Midst Of A Famine
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Among the disaster victims, a diminutive figure stood out.
In this world, the number of orphans who could survive was extremely little.
With a famine added on to their circumstances, the difficulty level would be substantially compounded!
In the crowd, Su Mu was the only child who had no family or friends to call his own.
Only a miracle could explain his survival until now.
Even so, he was already close to his limit!
It had been four days since Su Mu last ate.
Some others had been starving for a longer time than him, but he was still a child, after all.
After not eating a single grain of rice for four days, Su Mu was lethargic, and his limbs were listless.
At most, he could only last another day without food.
Death was silently approaching!
“Did I reincarnate here to starve to death on the streets?”
Su Mu was indignant about the whole thing, but he was powerless.
He was just a withered, rolled-up leaf in this famine, waiting to be swallowed by the waves at any time.
…
The night began to fall.
Su Mu slumped weakly beside a tree stump, his consciousness starting to blur.
He could not tell if he was falling asleep, or if he was blacking out.
While he remained in a daze, a figure sneakily walked towards him.
“Little Su, little Su, wake up!”
The man was starving like he was, but his skeletal frame still stood head and shoulders above others.
The frame of this man reflected this man’s past strength.
“Who is it? Uncle Li? What’s the matter?”
Su Mu looked at the person and immediately recognized him.
Li Tiezhu, a blacksmith from the same village as Su Mu.
His son, Li Lei, was the same age as Su Mu, and they were rather close friends.
Most importantly, over the three years after his parents’ deaths, half of Su Mu’s food was provided by Li Tiezhu.
Su Mu had grown to regard this man highly.
Li Tiezhu looked around vigilantly. After making sure no one was paying attention to them, he whispered to Su Mu, “Little Su, I have food here. Come with me. Don’t make a sound!”
Su Mu’s eyes lit up.
With what little strength he had left, he got up and followed Li Tiezhu.
…
Under the cover of the night, the two of them walked out of the crowd and walked into the distance through a forest of dead trees.
“Uncle Li, what did you find?”
When he heard that there was food, Su Mu, who was extremely hungry, thought little about it.
Now that he had calmed down, he vaguely felt that something was wrong.
“It’s a deer. I caught a deer. ”
Li Tiezhu breezed over his words, stealing glances at Su Mu, as if afraid that he would fall behind.
“Deer? Uncle Li, you know how to hunt? But how did you manage to hunt a deer without a bow or a trap?”
Su Mu’s breath caught in his throat. Something was wrong!
After the famine, animals that were easy to hunt and catch had long been caught.
The rest of the animals were either predators or illusive.
Li Tiezhu, a blacksmith, caught a wild deer with his bare hands?
What kind of joke was this?
“Hehe, I just got lucky.”
When Li Tiezhu quickly fell silent after the weak excuse, Su Mu’s heart sank to the bottom.
He raised his head and glanced at Li Tiezhu.
The man’s cheeks and eye sockets were deeply sunken, and a pair of green eyes were staring at him.
He looked like a fierce ghost!
What was even more terrifying were those strange, brutal, and crazy eyes, which didn’t seem to belong to a human.
At that point, Li Tiezhu no longer intended to hide his true nature.
…
Su Mu knew that he was in trouble.
He took a few deep breaths and suddenly had an idea.
Su Mu acted as if nothing had happened and asked Li Tiezhu,
“By the way, Uncle Li, why don’t I see Rock?”
Rock was Li Lei’s nickname.
“Rock, eating, eating.”
“Do you see that broken down temple in front? He’s waiting for you inside.”
Li Tiezhu pointed at a dilapidated temple two to three hundred meters ahead, his voice turning gloomy.
He was no longer keeping it together!
Su Mu pretended not to notice it. He lowered his head and sighed, saying, “If only Juan Zi was still here. With this deer, she wouldn’t have starved to death.”
Li Tiezhu’s wife had left the last bit of food for her husband and son, and her health had always been poor.
Not long after she fled, she died of hunger and cold.
Li Tiezhu’s eyes narrowed, and his sinister and strange expression revealed a hint of guilt and pain.
However, before he could think further, Su Mu suddenly pointed to his side and shouted in horror, “Monster! Watch out!”
“What?”
Su Mu’s shout startled Li Tiezhu.
His expression changed drastically, and he quickly turned his head to look.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Su Mu sprinted madly and plunged into the dead forest.
There’s something wrong with this Li Tiezhu. If he went along with his plans, it would be dangerous!
“You brat, you dare to trick me!”
Li Tiezhu, who saw nothing, immediately reacted.
He cursed and hurriedly chased after him.
Relying on his small size, Su Mu zipped through the forest, trying to shake off Li Tiezhu.
However, he was only eight years old, after all, and he had been starving for three to four days. How could he outrun a man?
Although he had tried his best, Su Mu was still caught by Li Tiezhu after running for a quarter of an hour.
“Brat, let’s see where you’re going to run to this time!”
Li Tiezhu’s rough hands were like iron pincers.
One of them grabbed Su Mu’s neck, while the other pinned his hands behind his back.
Su Mu was unable to move in the slightest. Like a little chick, he was carried by Li Tiezhu to the ruined temple not far away.
Along the way, no matter what Su Mu said, Li Tiezhu ignored him.
Su Mu was starting to feel desperate.
…
As he neared the ruined temple, Su Mu smelled a faint fragrance of meat.
He almost started drooling, and his hunger attacked relentlessly.
But Su Mu had already guessed what kind of meat it was.
A wave of disgust spread through his entire body!
The nausea made him want to throw up, but there was nothing in his stomach, so he could only dry heave.
Li Tiezhu paid no notice and walked briskly into the ruined temple with him.
The temple was very small. There was only an earthen statue that was half the height of a person sitting in the middle. It flickered in the moonlight.
The statue was severely damaged, and it was impossible to see which deity it represented.
Four men loitered in the small space.
There was a big pot in the middle with a fire under it, and soup was boiling inside.
As the soup boiled, bones could be seen floating up and down.
The flesh and blood on it had been gnawed clean, but they still could not bear to discard the bones.
They could probably break the bones and eat the bone marrow.
It would be a short, few blissful moments.
But Su Mu knew all too well that they were not beast bones!
They were Rock’s bones…
