The Fatty, who had been terrified just moments ago, became energetic as soon as he heard about the female zombie.
"Brother Fu, was that female zombie pretty?" Fatty asked with a smile.
Fu Honglang replied, "I didn't get a clear look at her appearance at the time, but her figure was good. Curvy in all the right places..."
"What happened when you encountered that female zombie? Did you subdue her?" Fatty inquired.
"Subdue?" Fu Honglang gave a bitter smile. "We were lucky enough not to be subdued by her ourselves... That female zombie was impervious to blades and bullets. Even my second uncle's heirloom black donkey hooves had no effect. We were forced into a corner, hiding in a coffin for two days and two nights until she was gone before we dared to come out."
I couldn't help but interject, "Brother Fu, are there really zombies in this world?"
Fu Honglang said, "Young brother, I know what you're thinking... It's not that I'm trying to scare you, but some things in this world are truly unexplainable. Before my maternal uncle retired, he gave me a piece of advice."
He paused, then looked at me. "He told me that one must always have a heart of reverence."
We had been wandering in the cave for almost an hour. Logically, even if the cave was vast, we shouldn't still be unable to find our way out.
Moreover, we hadn't seen any markers from our path, which meant we hadn't retraced our steps at all.
I simply couldn't imagine how large this cave truly was.
Accompanied by Fatty's off-key singing, we walked for another ten minutes. Suddenly, a dozen small cave entrances appeared before us.
Looking at those small openings, a bad feeling stirred within me.
Fu Honglang signaled to Xiao Liu, who quickly took his flashlight to investigate.
He crawled into one of the caves. A few minutes later, he emerged, "Boss, this place seems to be a dwelling."
Hearing this, everyone grew curious and crowded around.
The cave wasn't large, only about twenty to thirty square meters. Inside, there were many decayed wooden furnishings, including simple tables and beds.
"This must have been left by the bandits who used to live here," Wang Yang said.
I agreed with his assessment.
Next, we inspected several other small caves. They were all similar, and we could reasonably conclude that these were the former residences of bandits.
Two of the small caves even contained pots and pans.
"Brother Xiang..." Fatty sidled up to me and pointed to a stove not far away. "How about we cook something here?"
I retorted, "Are you hungry again?"
"My stamina has been greatly depleted..."
I took out the compressed biscuits from my backpack and offered them to him. He waved them away and, from somewhere, produced a few eggs.
Now I understood his intention. This damned Fatty wanted to boil eggs.
"In this desolate wilderness, we need to supplement our protein intake," Fatty chuckled.
I shook my head helplessly, torn between amusement and exasperation.
"How many do you want?" Fatty asked me.
Looking at the eggs in his hand, I said, "You have them. I'm not very hungry right now."
"Alright, I'll go start a fire."
Fatty excitedly went to find some rotten wood from elsewhere, then went to the stove to prepare to light a fire and boil the eggs.
However, the moment he lifted the lid of the iron pot on the stove, he froze, standing perfectly still.
I found it strange. What was wrong with this damned Fatty?
As I walked over to speak to him, I glanced into the iron pot and saw that it was filled with human bones!
I immediately got goosebumps!
It wasn't that I was afraid of skeletons; it was the thought of human bones being in a cooking pot that made my mind run wild...
Fatty turned to look at me, "Brother Xiang... Did the bandits who lived here... eat this before?"
I took a deep breath. At that moment, Wang Yang walked over, casually glanced into the pot, and said, "What's so surprising about this? During times of war, when there was nothing to eat, eating people wasn't that unusual, was it?"
"Unusual?" Fatty raised his voice. "Even dogs don't eat their own kind..."
"How do you know dogs don't eat their own kind? Lock one up and starve it for a few days, and see if it doesn't," Wang Yang retorted.
Regarding cannibalism, I knew of a few instances, such as the case of Zhang Xun eating people during the Tang Dynasty.
In the second year of the Zhide era, which was 757 AD, An Qingxu dispatched his subordinate Yin Ziqi to attack the Jianghuai region. Zhang Xun defended Suiyang, engaging in over four hundred battles. To await reinforcements, he eventually ran out of supplies.
In order to hold out for the arrival of reinforcements, Zhang Xun killed his concubine and distributed her flesh to the soldiers.
After the concubine was consumed, they began to cook the old, weak, sick, and disabled. Suiyang, which originally had over forty thousand households, was left with only over four hundred people by the time the city was breached.
This event is recorded in both the "Zizhi Tongjian" and the "Old Book of Tang." When I first learned of this, I was profoundly shaken.
However, no matter what, those events occurred in the Tang Dynasty. For such a thing to appear before me now was rather...
"It seems that in order to survive, those bandits must have eaten many people while hiding in this cave..." Wang Yang sighed. "People will do anything to survive."
Fatty abruptly threw the straw pot lid back, shuddering. Judging by his demeanor, his appetite had likely vanished.
Xiao Liu had searched the surroundings thoroughly but found no other paths. We could only rest where we were, planning to retrace our steps and find another way out later.
Perhaps it was due to the thin air in the cave, but as soon as I sat down, I felt extremely tired. Leaning against the cave wall, an overwhelming drowsiness overcame me.
Eventually, I couldn't resist any longer. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
Once asleep, I was plagued by a series of chaotic dreams. One moment I was entangled by ghost vines, the next I was being chased by zombies, and finally, I was scared awake.
When I woke up, I saw Fatty sleeping beside me, snoring loudly.
Wang Yang sat not far away, holding his flashlight and lost in thought.
"Where are they?" I asked.
Wang Yang replied, "They went to find an exit."
I was taken aback. "When did they go?"
"About half an hour ago," Wang Yang said.
"And they haven't returned?"
I asked with some concern.
"What? Are you worried something might have happened to them?" Wang Yang chuckled.
I nodded.
"Don't worry. They have guns and explosives on them. Even if they encounter anything, they won't be the ones at a disadvantage," Wang Yang assured me.
That made sense.
I took a bottle of water from my backpack, took a sip, and ate some compressed biscuits. My spirits recovered considerably; I felt much better than before.
Just as I was about to lean against the cave wall again to rest, the sound of footsteps echoed from the passage. Soon, a dark figure appeared at the entrance of the passage...