Chapter 54: Yellow Waste

He Ze glared at Shen Rangchen. How could he have thought this person was good-looking just a moment ago? Hmph.

“Alright, stop messing around. Let’s figure out what to do next,” Lin Mu intervened.

Everyone turned to look at Fu Jingmo. It seemed that whenever it was time to make a decision, they instinctively left the matter to him, trusting him to plan.

This was an unspoken understanding among the three of them, and it reflected the trust Lin Mu and He Ze had in him.

Fu Jingmo’s expression became serious. The pigpen was surrounded by tightly secured wooden planks, and the door was locked. The villagers, thinking everyone was bound and couldn’t escape, hadn’t left anyone to guard them.

“Hey, your paper figures can scout the situation, right? Go find out where the zombies in this village are kept.”

Fu Jingmo nodded his chin towards Shen Rangchen.

“They just want to lure passing people to feed their zombies. Foolish.”

“Heh, impressive. While others keep cats and dogs, they keep zombies. So trendy,” He Ze said, giving a thumbs-up.

Fu Jingmo shot him a glance, and he quickly shrank back, closing his mouth.

The smell in the pigpen was truly unpleasant. Fortunately, they were on the open ground outside the pen, where the pig droppings inside were clumped and black.

It seemed that many pigs had been kept here before, likely all fed to the zombies. That’s why the villagers needed to find live humans to sustain their zombies.

The group found a clean spot to sit. Fu Jingmo glanced at the unconscious people on the ground, all ordinary individuals who wouldn’t wake up until at least daylight.

Shen Rangchen nodded, understanding his role. He began to prepare his paper figures to scout the village.

Lin Mu placed Xiao Yu beside her mother and then sat down next to Fu Jingmo.

Shen Rangchen originally had two paper figures, but one had been damaged by Fu Jingmo, leaving him with only one.

He pressed his two fingers together and chanted, “By the power of the command.”

From his collar emerged a small paper figure identical to the one that had been broken. It had a round head with no facial features or clothes, just a simple shape.

The little paper figure poked its head out. Despite having no eyes, it seemed to look around the area. Shen Rangchen softly commanded, “Go.”

The paper figure swiftly emerged from his collar, floating lightly and moving quickly, hugging the wall as it slipped out through the gap in the wooden door.

“Heh, that’s pretty interesting,” He Ze said, eyes wide. It seemed like everyone else’s abilities were more impressive than his!

After the paper figure went out, Shen Rangchen closed his eyes, sharing its vision.

Before Lin Mu and the others arrived, Shen Rangchen had sent the paper figure out to find the zombies’ location. When he saw the villagers bringing them in, he hid on the roof to observe.

In the middle of the night, the moonlight was clear in this area far from the city. The paper figure moved slowly, hugging the edge of the stones.

During the day, Shen Rangchen had noticed that the topmost wooden house was guarded, preventing anyone from entering. Even when the children kicked a ball up there, they were sent back home.

The paper figure slowly approached the house at the top. As expected, there were two guards at the entrance, the two power mutants he had identified.

Knowing that mutants have heightened senses, Shen Rangchen carefully controlled the paper figure, ensuring it remained undetected.

He was only a level one mutant, and prolonged control was draining his energy. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his delicate brows furrowed slightly.

He Ze watched him intently, unable to help but wonder if this ability could be used for spying… seeing everything. He turned his head and buried it in Lin Mu’s shoulder, giggling.

Lin Mu shook his head and tapped He Ze on the forehead. “Be serious.”

Their years of friendship meant Lin Mu could easily tell what He Ze was thinking about.

…

“Big brother, hey, do you think our mom and the others can really turn back into humans?”

“Who knows? Whether they’re human or ghost, we don’t know. Anyway, the village chief said to feed them, so we feed them.”

“Hey, but I feel uneasy about it. I can’t sleep at night, feeding live people to them.”

“Stop talking about it…”

Late at night, discussing such matters with a group of living dead behind them made both men feel jittery. If it weren’t for the fact that the zombies inside were their relatives, they wouldn’t dare to stay there.

Their heavy sighs in the night added an inexplicable sense of pity.

Taking advantage of the conversation’s distraction, the paper figure slipped through the cracks in the stones and into the wooden house.

Back in the pigpen, Shen Rangchen shuddered as the sudden change in the paper figure’s perspective caught him off guard. He quickly refocused, using more energy to stabilize the figure.

Though he knew they were keeping zombies, the sight before him still shocked him.

Inside the wooden house, the floor had been completely dug out along the perimeter, creating a pit over three meters deep. The entire house was like a wooden lid covering this massive hole, causing the paper figure to nearly fall in as it passed through the door.

Below, the pit was densely packed with decaying, rotten zombies, their gray-white eyes wide open, mouths agape, and making ghastly groaning sounds as they tilted their heads upwards.

They pushed and shoved each other, crowding towards the door where the scent of the two mutants at the entrance attracted them.

On the other side of the pit, a small, surviving area remained, illuminated by candlelight and filled with ancestral tablets. This was the village’s ancestral hall.

Shen Rangchen frowned, realizing that only such a backward village would still believe that the people below were alive.

Or perhaps, they were simply deluding themselves.