"He froze to death."
The team's doctor examined Lü Xing's body and concluded.
"Froze to death? The hole on his back..." Old Du was somewhat curious, "And the wound on his chest."
"Neither of them is lethal, and look at the new granulation tissue around this hole, it's healing rapidly on its own," the doctor picked out the newly grown pink flesh around the edge of the bloody hole with the tip of his dagger, marveling at it.
"Mutation?" Old Du asked in surprise, but then shook his head, "No, it's just the effect of the ghost story."
Mutation?
Yu Liang keenly detected the key element; he hadn't had time to ask Old Du about the mutation. So, mutation could grant some kind of supernatural ability?
"Yes, his body is very cold, much colder than the ambient temperature," Wu Yong continued. "Something sucked out his heat in an instant, so he felt very hot."
Old Du muttered to himself, "Some kind of invisible monster?"
"Yes, let's get out of here first," Wu Yong looked towards the depths of the fog, a certain worry in his eyes. He could feel that the fog was becoming denser, its visibility used to be around five meters, but now it was only two or three meters.
The direct result of such poor visibility was that it was hard for them to notice if a person in the team disappeared quietly. The road ahead might be even harder to navigate.
"I'll be in the middle; you guys follow me and keep close." Wu Yong made a decision without hesitation. He was intelligent and didn't ask Yu Liang and Xiao Zhize to follow him, but instead commanded two people from his team to follow behind him, leaving the man and the woman with no room to choose.
The group began to move again, their pace much quicker than before. The experienced travelers knew well that once there was a death in the ghost story, the pace of the story's effect would intensify.
And now they didn't even know what this peculiarity was, only that it had a big connection to the sudden drop in temperature and the dense forest fog.
"All the ghost stories in this zoo are based on animal fables; do you guys have any ideas?". Old Du's figure vaguely appeared through the fog, and his voice followed," If we could guess the prototype, it might be a bit easier."
"Bird park, cold." Yu Liang quickly said two keywords and then gave his answer, "The story of the cold-calling bird."
"Cold-calling bird? What kind of bird is that?" Old Du didn't seem to have heard of this, and asked.
"It's not a specific bird, but a bird calling out the cold. It's a story from the textbook where the cold-calling bird was lazy in the autumn and didn't want to build a nest, and froze to death in the winter," Xiao Zhize résuméed the entire story succinctly.
"That is to say, it's 'winter' now, and the cold-calling bird is looking for a nest, using the human body as its nest?" Old Du instantly recognized the key point.
Wu Yong nodded, "That seems likely."
Old Du stopped, deep in thought, "In that case, perhaps building a warm nest for it might work."
His eyes fell on the birdcage outside the road railing. At almost the same time, he put down his backpack and took out an extendable pole from it.
Honestly speaking, Yu Liang thought that the prototype of the ghost story was the cold-calling bird, yet he didn't think building it a nest would work."
The purpose of the appearance of the ghost story is not to solve problems but to create eerie and fearful situations.
But when everyone else was at a loss, Old Du had already put it into action.
"Xiao Zhize, you climb over the railing. When I take down the birdcage, give me a hand. Wu Yong, you guys be on guard." Old Du instructed, leaning against the railing trying to hook the birdcage hanging in the air.
"Got it," Wu Yong agreed right away, but he did not look around. He gazed at Old Du for a while. Old Du looked like he was stepping on the railing because the extendable pole was not long enough. He was leaning forward outside the railing but just maintaining his balance on the inside of the railing.
He glanced outside the railing again; it wasn't a cliff but just a small hill. Even if he slipped and fell, he would be fine. Therefore, he shook his head regretfully and turned to be on guard.
"Got it!" Xiao Zhize, who had climbed over the railing, successfully caught the birdcage. He handed it to Old Du and climbed back in.
The outside of the birdcage was wrapped with a layer of thick black insulation cloth, which puzzled Yu Liang as there hadn't been any such heated birdcages in the previous road sections.
Old Du lifted the black cloth, opened the birdcage, and peered inside. There was a nameless all-black bird inside. He stretched out his hand, caught the bird, tossed it away, and then took out a rag and a...
A heat pack?
Yu Liang recognized it. He couldn't help but think Old Du seemed to have prepared a little bit of everything.
Wait, a black bird?
He suddenly realized something and looked down to find the black bird. He caught sight of the black bird falling by the tree. It seemed like it had injured its left wing and could only crawl laboriously supporting itself with its right wing.
Turning back to look at Old Du, Old Du was peeling open the heat pack, sticking it on the rag, then stuffing the bundled rag into the birdcage to make it look like a nest, and a simple nest was completed.
He held it in his hand, felt the weight, and was satisfied.
The same bird?
Yu Liang remembered clearly that the black bird had also injured its left wing that had fallen on Lü Xing's back.
A birdcage covered with insulation cloth, cold fog, injured left-wing black bird being caught, it wasn't odd to be the cold-calling bird.
But it was Old Du who dismantled its birdcage, injured its wing, what was it to do with Lü Xing?
He felt a little strange.
No, that's not right.
Was the reason it didn't attack Old Du, not because it was afraid of Old Du, but because it had to wait until Lü Xing died before it could attack Old Du?
The timelines of the Cold-calling bird and Old Du are interdependent. If Old Du were killed first, there would be no one to remove the birdcage and create the Cold-calling bird, and then the key to breaking the story would not be building a warm nest waiting for the arrival of the Cold-calling bird.
"Xiao Zhize, help me pick another birdcage," Yu Liang quickly picked up the bird on the ground and yelled at Xiao Zhize.
"Ah? Sure." Xiao Zhize immediately agreed. So he climbed over the railing again, and Yu Liang also picked up the telescoping rod and learned from Old Du to hook down the birdcage.
Old Du glanced at him, didn't comment, but just took out a warmer from his backpack and tossed it over.
"No need." Yu Liang took the warmer, shook his head, then tucked it into his pocket.
Well, he just didn't need it temporarily, but it might be useful in the future. Old Du probably thought he was going to make another nest, holding it in his hand to reduce the probability of a Cold-calling bird attack.
Yu Liang put the injured bird in his hand into the newly picked cage and then slightly lifted the black cloth to look inside.
There are now two black birds in the cage, one injured and curled up in the corner; the other spread its wings over it, watching Yu Liang alertly, and issuing two sharp cries.
"What are you doing?" Wu Yong approached, curious about what Yu Liang was doing.
Yu Liang carried the birdcage towards a vending machine not far away. As he went, he casually answered, "I used to keep birds, I can't bear to let it freeze to death."
"Oh really..." Wu Yong nodded. Intuitively, he felt something was off. In theory, anyone who has seen the oddities of the zoo won't have such a saintly compassionate heart, but he couldn't find any flaws in Yu Liang's explanation either.
The vending machine only sells one thing, red animal feed. It costs 20 tourist point per bag, with no distinction between large, medium, or small sizes.
"If you need to feed, please purchase animal feed. One pack of animal feed can satisfy any animal. One pack of feed can satiate any animal, but only one is allowed. Feeding any animal more than once within a short period is prohibited. Violation will have consequences." This was the tourist instruction on the screen.
Getting more and more outrageous. Regardless of diet or appetite, all animals can be satisfied with just one bag of feed?
Is this feed a gadget from Doraemon?
But since the vending machine has said so, Yu Liang have to do accordingly. He purchased two packs of feed, which looked not large, about the same size as a cup of instant noodles. But compared to the small size of the black birds, it was like a person eating a whole cow.
He opened the two bags of feed, inside were red grains the size of rice, soft and tenacious in texture.
Wait a minute.
Suddenly, Yu Liang found that he couldn't take his eyes off the bag of feed. He stared at the red grains inside, saliva pouring out uncontrollably, an unbearable hunger erupting from the depths of his mind.
So hungry.
Starving.
1:32:24 a.m., April 14, 2023. I'm starving.
Unconsciously, he opened his mouth, a puddle of saliva flowed from the corners of his lips, splattering heavily on the ground, wetting a splattered pattern.
No, I can't eat. I'm not an animal.
Can't eat, if I do, I'll die.
The thought of "death" in his mind suddenly magnified, occupying all of Yu Liang's mind and consequently restoring his sanity. He quickly stretched his hand to his mouth and bit down hard on the thick part of his thumb until it bled, quickly stuffing the two open bags of feed into the birdcage and closing the cage door.
A wave of terror surged from his heart. Yu Liang didn't know what would happen if he really ate that feed, but it wouldn't be anything good.
When he faced that red feed, he almost lost all reason, his brain was left with the most primitive instinct to eat.
He bent his head low, looked over at Old Du's direction, the others gathered around Old Du, and did not pay much attention to Yu Liang, a newcomer with an overflow of Mother Teresa tendencies.
So, Yu Liang took a tissue from his pocket to wipe away the trail of saliva around his mouth, then walked towards the crowd to yell at Xiao Zhize, "Xiao Zhize, help me again, hang the birdcage back."
"Okay." Xiao Zhize nodded. He enthusiastically came up to help Yu Liang. "I'll go outside the railing and hold the birdcage. You hang it up with the rod."
Wu Yong watched the two newcomers in Old Du's team with disdain.
Two newcomers, both saints. Without Old Du's protection, they wouldn't survive a single day. What does Old Du expect from them? To be scapegoats when necessary? But with Old Du's strength, he could have any kind of scapegoat he wanted. Why did he have to choose these two?
"All done." After taking care of the two black birds, Yu Liang sighed in relief. According to his expectation, he had already changed the fate of the Cold-calling bird. The Cold-calling bird would not die from freezing, turning into a ghost story, and therefore would not bear a grudge to go back in time to seek revenge.
"Let's go then." Old Du did not stop the actions of Yu Liang and the others just now, but waited for them to finish before picking up the warm birdcage in readiness to leave.
The group gradually drifted away, noises came from the birdcage outside the railing. A black bird easily shattered the buckle on the cage door with its beak, then flipped the door up from bottom to top, sticking its head out of the warm black cloth. Its gaze was so deep it seemed as if it could pierce through the thick fog and land on Yu Liang.
It watched him for a long time until a deathly aura fills its eyes, until its body entirely rigid.
It froze to death.
Then it slid from the door of the cage, its body drifting like a falling leaf, smashing into the slope and shattering into ice crystals.
"Clang." The sound of the cage door falling was crisp and clear. The other black bird inside the cage looked at it and tilted its head.
[Triggered subline ghost tale - I am a collector]
[Badge collection completed: Cold-calling bird (Dead)]
[Note: One of the theme activities of the park, collect any four badges to exchange for rewards at the Sweetheart House.]