Nightmare Shuttle

"Sick?"

The little boy shook his disproportionately large head and nodded eagerly, "Mommy and Daddy said that I'm sick so I have to stay in the forest. " The boy coughed hoarsely, his voice cracking as if this was the first time he had spoken in a long time, "Are you here to stay with me?" 

Chu Yi didn't reply, he walked over and placed one hand on the handle of the blade before yanking it out with a powerful force. The boy fell to his knees and the sound of his bones slamming onto the cold forest floor was particularly harsh, nevertheless, the boy did not let out more than a short yelp.

The moment the blade was pulled out of the tree, he could see in the flickering light of the fire that the bark of the tree that had been torn was slowly leaking out a red substance. He flicked the iron blade and slowly walked back to the other man's side, before speaking slowly, "No we are not here to stay with you." The fire flickered casting cold shadows on his face, "Tell me, how did a completely defenseless child manage to survive in a dangerous and forbidden forest alone?"

The air fell into silence.

The little boy seems to have been stumped by the question and didn't answer.

Chu Yi didn't speak either, he used his knife to slowly whittle a mark into the tree, signaled to the evil spirit beside him, and slowly walked away without a word. Even when they had walked back to the edge of the forest, the little boy did not speak again.

Behind them, the little boy watched their silent back before suddenly darting away into the forest with a quick turn.

The branches rustled with his departure.

From the cold darkness into the extreme sun was an unpleasant feeling. He didn't go back to their place of stay but looked at the children playing wildly in the middle of the village with the familiar smoke drifting through the wind and the smell of peanuts being roasted.

Everything was picturesque, giving the illusion that they weren't in a blood-ridden horror game but taking a peaceful island vacation filled with warmth and abundance, which would make persons unconsciously relax their vigilance.

But under these bright faces, there must be a dirty and disgusting secret. "There are no animals here, there are no trees outside of the forest and the boiling hot temperatures prevent fish from breeding in the coastal waters. There are no signs of cannibalism and the villagers are happy and healthy without the least sign of malnutrition caused by famine."

"Everything is strange but also not strange as if we're looking at everything through a filter and all the dirty things are hidden away from sight."

The dark eyes of the man beside him narrowed slightly, "You wouldn't be saying all this unless you noticed something."

Chu Yi paused and chuckled softly, "Yes, everything is like looking through a filter, bright and dazzling under the sun but do you know? Darkness is when all the evilest things come crawling out to the surface." 

Ruan Quixi raised his head and looked up, the sky was clear, filled with translucent snow-white clouds.

At this moment, over the rocky roads, someone was quickly hobbling towards them on crutches with an anxious expression. The ugly old man has a big square face, but the facial features are all grown together, the drooping triangular eyes, the short nose bridge, the big mouth can see the back molars, and the back is too high.

The children who saw him scattered with a short scream and soon enough only the old man and the two were standing on the clearing.

He has been ugly since he was a child. When he was young, the village called him an ugly boy, but now he is called the ugly old man. The elders would usually say to the children in the family who are disobedient, that they will throw them to the ugly old man's house, and the children will be too scared to make trouble.

The old man was faster than he looked and within a few seconds, he was standing before the two foreign guests of the village. After taking a few seconds to gather his breath, he slowly started his purpose, "Have you guys gone into the forest over there?"

Chu Yi nodded his head.

The old man's face quickly became strange, and his words were felled with a little more anxiousness "Did you see or experience anything in there?" Chu Yi stared into the beady foggy eyes and nodded again.

The old man's eyes immediately turned into dumbbells and he came closer to Chu Yi almost leaning against his body. When the old man's breath came over, Chu Yi smelled the uncanny scent of fertilizer on his body but why would the villagers need fertilizer.

There were no open plots on the land.

A hand came over and suppressed the old man's advance, when he looked up, dark eyes smiled down at him but inexplicably he didn't dare to come closer.

The old man seemed to have been stimulated by something and anxiously waved his hands and whispered in a scratchy and high voice, "What did you see?!"

Chu Yi narrowed his eyes faintly and spoke something that made the old man stop in his track,

"We saw a weird-looking tree."

"It really scared us." Ruan Quixi beside him, shuddered in accordance as if he had really been traumatized by the memory.

"...."

No...This wasn't what he expected–

There was a faint feeling of hitting cotton with his fist.

The old man choked before his face rapidly twisted in anger, making him seem even more ugly and ferocious "No, No you must have seen something else, you just don't want to tell me! You're lying to me!"

"Why are you lying to me!"

In his ears, Chu Yi heard a faint ding in his ears, a system notification, [You have angered the ugly old man, Cheng Yang and the favourability has been deducted by -5. Current favorability is -25.]

The old man reached out as if to grab him and force him to speak but a cold hand suddenly landed on his shoulders and slowly applied force.

Chen Yang struggled and shook his head. Beady eyes bulging with bloodshot veins. The old man stood on one foot, and his body balance was basically supported by crutches. His strength was still so great that Ruan Quixi raised a brow and gradually applied more strength until there was a faint cracking noise under his hands.

Even under the bright sun, his tall figure still seemed to be hidden in the darkness, only one eye and the small half of his face showed a vague outline, and there was a trace of a smile on his face.

"Come on." The man crushed the old man's shoulder with a low voice, blood slowly seeped under his hands and a hint of displeasure rose on Ruan Quixi's face "It's a bit disgusting."

Hu–hu–hu-

Cold sweat dripped from the old man's forehead. He was forced by the young man to have a gray face, and the anger on his face quickly resided to be resolved by fear, he staggered, shaking violently, and threw down the crutches to indicate surrender.

Ruan let go of his shoulders and the old man's hands hung limply by his side.

"Sick, Sick..."

The old man coughed again, faintly mixed with a long and muddy sigh, and repeated those two words in his shriveled mouth, which sounded a little scary. He sighed picked up his crutches with one hand and slowly looked at the two of them with mixed feelings,

"The chief of our village is having a banquet in the evening to welcome all foreign guests. Our village specialty will be served. I'd suggest you go there."

With blood dripping from the old and dry skin, he hobbled away, hunched back seemed to be even heavier than when he left. Chu Yi thought of the favourability of -25 and suspected that they were being pitted. 

Ruan Quixi casually used a handkerchief to wipe the blood with a faint fishy smell from his fingertips and looked at Chu Yi, "Why didn't you tell him? Could have been that boys relatives"

Slanted red eyes glinted sharply, "You say, do his eyes resemble an anxious relative or a hungry beast?"

He didn't wait for a response, lifted his feet, and left, "Let's go back to the pier, I want to check something." 

The man chuckled from behind him and slowly followed, looking at the soft black hair covered by a golden halo, the sun far over the horizon, and the clouds drifting slowly over ahead. It was as if looking at a painting, far away and unreachable. In the next second, the man's head turned back and the red eyes that habitually squinted seemed to be searching for his figure.. At this moment he felt as if his heart had been pierced and with a careless laugh, he sped up and joined his side, the two tall silhouettes disappearing into the distance.