"If you don't go down, there won't be any food... Aifu." Jenny whispered, frowning as she persuaded. "I'll go down, you just support me from above, okay?"
"Alright... then mom, be careful," Aifu responded in a low voice. As soon as she heard she didn't have to go down, she immediately stopped objecting.
"Enough talk, let's start," Dr. Xu said irritably, shooting Aifu a glare.
She stretched out her hand toward Yu Hong.
"Give me the items, I'll open the door."
"Better I do it," Yu Hong shook his head, carrying the Stone Carving Set, and walked to the door of the post office's stone building.
"First this door, then where is the entrance to the basement?"
"It's inside the house, so we have to open two doors," Dr. Xu replied.
Without saying another word, Yu Hong took out a hammer and chisel, aiming at the door lock, and started pounding.
Thud after thud echoed continuously.
After dozens of hits, finally, the stone building's door lock was smashed into pieces, sawdust scattered around, and a fist-sized hole was made where the lock was.
The wooden door loosened up.
Yu Hong drew back the hammer, took a step back, and kicked forward.
Bang.
The wooden door remained still.
"Wait!" Dr. Xu, at a loss for words, reached out and grabbed the doorknob, pulling it outward.
With a creak, the door gently opened, revealing the dim interior.
"Okay then..." Yu Hong muttered, putting away his tools.
The group stood at the doorway, their first sight being a mesh bag lying on the ground.
Inside the red mesh bag were chunks of gray-white luminous stones.
But at this moment, all these luminous stones had turned pale white. It was clear they had all been consumed.
Seeing the consumed bag of luminous stones, the group exchanged glances, their expressions growing solemn.
"All the luminous stones are used up... clearly, a shadow has been down here, everyone be careful. In this dark environment, shadows like to hide," Jenny was the first to speak; in fact, her skills were the best among the group.
"I'll go in first." After thinking, Jenny pulled out a round Large Pyroxene Stone from her waist bag. This stone was made of the same material as the one Yu Hong had enhanced, but the patterns on it were completely different, still the old simplified version.
"Is that luminous stone marrow!?" Dr. Xu exclaimed in surprise. "This is no ordinary item, one can be worth ten regular luminous stones, and the price is extremely expensive, you actually have one?"
"My husband left it to me," Jenny replied coldly. If it weren't for the extremely dangerous feeling this time, she wouldn't have wanted to use it. It was originally an emergency lifesaver.
"Has it been many years? I heard there have been new changes to the rune on it recently, a complex version with better effects came out. Your version is outdated, why didn't you go wash it off and repaint?" Dr. Xu asked curiously.
"It can't be washed off, and there's no point in washing, these runes function as guides and aligners, they take effect the instant they are painted, even if wiped off afterwards, it has no impact," Jenny explained.
As she spoke, she hung the Large Pyroxene Stone around her neck, pulled out a machete from the outside of her thigh, and held a Red Value detector in her hand, carefully walking into the door.
She went in first, Dr. Xu was in the middle, and Yu Hong brought up the rear. As for Aifu, who didn't want to go down, she stayed at the entrance to the stone building to keep watch.
The three of them lined up and walked in, quickly arriving in the stone building's main hall.
On the floor of the main hall was an open basement door, leading to a dark and gloomy entrance.
Bursts of cold air flowed from the entrance, spreading out and making the whole stone building seem exceptionally cold.
The three exchanged glances, Jenny took out an atomic lamp flashlight, aimed at the entrance, and slid open the flashlight cover, instantly casting greenish fluorescent light inside, illuminating some rusty silver metallic ladders.
"I'll go down first, don't rush in after me, wait until I call you," she took a deep breath and instructed the others.
"Okay!" Dr. Xu responded, and Yu Hong nodded in agreement.
Once she was sure they were alright, Jenny flipped her body and gently clung to the metallic ladder, climbing down like a monkey.
In a short while, she reached the large hall of the basement, about ten meters deep.
While Jenny was down, Dr. Xu took out a hand-drawn map, unfolding it for Yu Hong to see.
"The main structure below is a series of corridors, and we're going down into the intersection area of all the corridors, with this place at the center, linking three corridors around it, each with many rooms and storage areas. This place was initially built as a refuge, intended to protect against massive casualty weapons in war," Dr. Xu sighed, "I just didn't think it would be used now."
"Are the corridors very narrow?" Yu Hong looked down, frowning.
"A bit, I've been down a few times before to bandage postmen. The corridors down there are at most a meter wide, also to save materials and space, and aren't very tall either," Dr. Xu nodded.
Yu Hong said nothing further, standing at the side of the basement, his hand unconsciously stroking the handle of the luminous stone Wolf Fang Club, his expression more serious than usual.
Time slowly passed by.
About five minutes later, Jenny's voice came from below.
"It's safe, come down, there's nothing inside," her voice carried a hint of fatigue, accompanied by the faint green light from the atomic lamp shining up.
Yu Hong and Dr. Xu glanced at their luminous stones, ensuring there were no signs of consumption, then slowly climbed down the metallic ladder.
Both reached the central hall of the basement, stepping onto the ground, surveying the surroundings.
Under the green light, three corridor entrances were spread around the walls of the hall, like three dark, terrifying caves, constantly blowing out cold winds.
"I've found the room where Yu Hong used to stay. Come with me...." Jenny said, holding a flashlight, her tone somewhat low.
"Did you find him?" Doctor Xu asked in a hurry, her expression tightening. It wasn't that she cared about Yu Hong, but without him, their future food supply would be much more troublesome.
"I don't know." Jenny shook her head and turned to lead the way down one of the corridors.
The two followed her, moving through the dark hallway towards one of the rooms on the side.
"Why doesn't Yu Hong have more atomic lamps to light this place up? Isn't he afraid with it being so dark?" Doctor Xu couldn't help but ask.
"He used to say that the radiation from the atomic lamps was too strong and he was afraid of getting cancer. Now it seems...." Jenny didn't continue. Among the three present, she had spent the most time with Yu Hong.
Doctor Xu and Yu Hong were actually outsiders who were saved by Stutterer later on.
So, Jenny knew Yu Hong the best.
"He's a coward, stingy, and lecherous... He even pursued me once...." She spoke and then sighed again.
The other two were at a loss for words. Although Jenny was older, it was clear that she had a good figure, was fit and strong, and her face had hardly any wrinkles with well-maintained skin. Also, during this time, everyone's skin had paled due to lack of light exposure, making her have an air of a Western vampire beauty Yu Hong had once seen.
So it was quite possible that Yu Hong had pursued her in the past.
"This is the place, be careful." Jenny held the Large Pyroxene Stone in one hand and looked at the slightly ajar iron door, her expression growing more serious.
She used the tip of a mountain knife to gently tap forward, pushing the door open with the force from the knife tip.
Creeeeak.
The iron door slowly swung open, revealing a dimly lit bedroom inside.
The room was empty. The bed in the corner was in disarray, as if someone had recently been there. The other furniture like desks and chairs were all normal, without any strange marks.
Jenny was about to walk inside.
Suddenly, she stepped back quickly, her breathing becoming rapid.
"Careful!!"
She spread her arms, blocking the two behind her.
"Look at the floor!" she quickly said.
Yu Hong and Doctor Xu looked down at the same time.
Scattered on the dark bedroom floor was a set of grey men's work clothes.
The work clothes were long-sleeved and long-pants, with a dirty, yellowed white shirt inside, and a pair of long rubber boots under the pant legs, shining a dim green light under the atomic lamp.
"It's Yu Hong's clothes and shoes..." Jenny said in a low, complicated voice.
"There's probably no one left..." Doctor Xu said, looking at the remaining clothes, her mood also dampening. The community, already sparse in numbers, now had one less person, and crucially, the person who managed their food production had died. This was a significant blow to them.
She crouched down and reached out to pick up Yu Hong's clothes.
Suddenly, her pupils shrank, and she quickly stood up and stepped back.
"Wait! Everyone back off! Don't touch these clothes!!"
Upon hearing her words, Jenny and Yu Hong didn't hesitate, quickly backpedaling.
"What's going on!?" Yu Hong also grew anxious, gripping his club tightly and looking around.
"Look at the back of the clothes!" Doctor Xu said through clenched teeth, her voice trembling.
Yu Hong quickly looked over using the light from the atomic lamp.
He saw that Yu Hong's clothing, just flipped by Doctor Xu, had a clear black handprint on its back sleeve!
"A black handprint!!?" His heart sank. He had just heard about the features of the Withered Woman, and now he had seen this peculiar black handprint.
"We need to get out of here!! This place isn't safe!!" Jenny made a decisive decision and turned to leave.
The other two felt a chill in their hearts and quickly followed.
The three of them didn't dare touch anything and quickly returned to the hall, climbing up the ladder back to the stone house.
Thump.
Jenny stomped the basement entrance shut with a metal lid.
"We can't go in there anymore!" she declared firmly.
"Yu Hong didn't escape on his own! Now thinking about it, he must have contracted the black handprint long ago, so he was driven out and couldn't be relocated with us!" Doctor Xu's face turned pale, "This old guy actually hid this from us! I was in contact with him, I hope I haven't been infected too?"
"Let's check each other carefully. I heard that as long as there was no direct contact, it usually doesn't spread. The black handprint can seep through the clothes," Jenny gasped, her scalp tingling with anger. After all, Yu Hong's secrecy might bring disaster to everyone here.
"Let's check each other out," Yu Hong finally spoke after a long silence.
All three went quiet for a moment.
Then, they slowly stepped back, each checking the others for any black handprints on their bodies.
A few minutes later, fortunately, none of them had been infected, relieving them significantly.
"We can't stay here, let's get out first," Jenny said gravely.
"What about the food?" Yu Hong asked. "Without Yu Hong, we'll have to figure out our own food supply. Just wild vegetables won't be enough."
"I roughly know some of Yu Hong's farming processes, let's try to figure it out, and if it doesn't work, we can go down and look again," Jenny replied.